Pages tagged “bob odenkirk”

There's something satisfying about seeing two heavyweights slugging it out, something about the grandiloquence of conflict between two binary opposites writ large. Ali Vs. Frazier. The Celtics Vs. The Lakers. Obama Vs. Clinton. Abbott & Costello Vs. Frankenstein. This world of epic matchups is poised to add another brawl to its ranks: Odenkirk Vs. Rogue Wave. As previously reported, the ex-Mr. Show star and the alt-rock up-and-comers recently had a fake spat over Mr. Odenkirk's artistic vision for their "Chicago X 12" music video. Well, it looks like Rogue Wave has responded with a salvo of their own, leaving little in question about Odenkirk's mental state:

Bob Odenkirk is one of those rare gems in the sea of '90s comedy. Devotees of his and David Cross' Mr. Show fondly remember it as a high water mark for hilarity during its four-season run on HBO, before Mad TV made us regret loving sketch comedy. But that was then and this now. Odenkirk's pissed and he's not gonna take it anymore.

Late Friday evening, Alvin and the Chipmunks star David Cross made a big announcement on the website he shares with his Mr. Show co-creator, Bob Odenkirk—after 10 years apart (artistically speaking), the comedic geniuses will reunite this spring to film a pilot for HBO.

Not that the two men haven't been busy during their alone time. Cross released a couple of comedy albums on Sub Pop, stole innumerable scenes as Tobias Fünke on Fox's similarly cult-worshipped and soon-to-be-feature-filmified Arrested Development and portrayed "Anna Nicole Smith's" "lawyer" on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, while Odenkirk directed a few underappreciated movies and, later, embraced the internet and became a massive draw on comedy video site SuperDeluxe.com.

Last Wednesday, Cross, who's currently shooting a Judd Apatow flick in Louisiana, spoke to the MTV Movies Blog about the pilot (tentatively titled "David's Situation"), relaying that, "It’s a sitcom...It will follow a traditional sitcom feeling, but will also feel like a big sketch, even though the characters will remain the same each week.”

Back in his corner of the blogosphere, Cross served up some additional, tantalizing details for Mr. Show fans to drool over: "We should be shooting in LA in the beginning of MAY. We'll keep you posted on exactly when and where (we'll have room for 150 audiencers). We are both very, very excited about it and feel it's really strong and important to the health of America."

If you're wondering what all this Bob and David hubbub is about, locate your nearest 25-to-35-year-old, (probably) intelligent, (probably) male friend who drinks PBR, listens to metal and quite possibly has a reptile for a pet, then ask if you can borrow his Mr. Show DVDs. If he's a true fan he'll turn 'em right over, and we'll all get well together.

(Or you could just watch this gem from season two of Mr. Show, featuring "worldwide billiards champion" Van Hammersly):

Related links:
Bob Odenkirk interview on The Onion's A.V. Club
Amazon: Mr. Show: What Happened?!
Comedy Central: David Cross vs. J. Mascis Guitar Hero showdown

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The stars of Bob Odenkirk’s Derek & Simon: The Show shorts are just “two guys hitting on girls,” but with Odenkirk behind the wheel you can rest assured that the guys’ feeble attempts will reach levels of hilarity unmatched by everyday passes at love.

In one episode called “Pity Card,” produced in conjunction with HBO and featured on the second issue of McSweeney’s Wholphin DVD quarterly, Simon takes a girl on a date to Washington DC’s Holocaust museum, rattling her sheltered notion of humanity and earning him some awkward sympathy points.

The battle for female affection continues in subsequent episodes of Derek & Simon that Odenkirk has produced for Super Deluxe, Turner’s new online comedy network. He's worked up 14 so far, the first of which debuted on May 16.

And from the computer screen to the big screen, Odenkirk’s second feature film, The Brothers Solomon, is set for release in September 2007. Starring Saturday Night Live’s Will Forte and Kristen Wiig, Arrested Development’s Will Arnett and The Office’s Jenna Fischer, it chronicles the attempts of two single brothers to somehow produce a grandchild for their ailing father.

“I don’t think I’ve figured out movies,” Odenkirk admits. “You have to make so many people happy, so many corporations happy, so it’s not just like what you want to make. Whereas Super Deluxe is, ‘What do I want to make? What do I think is funny?’ and then you just go make it.”

Understandably, Odenkirk says projects like Derek & Simon and his work on Mr. Show in the mid-90s with his good friend and fellow comedian David Cross have been far more personally fulfilling than the full-length motion pictures he’s tackled throughout his career, though he’s hopeful that with time the immense task of producing a cinematic feature may unfold more easily.

“It’s very much more rewarding to work on this kind of thing [Derek & Simon], but it’s all part of learning your way and finding your way through things," he says. "I’m trying to make my way through film so hopefully I will so that I have a better time doing that. But I’m not sure that’s possible. Because it costs so much money to make a movie, and that’s the big difference, obviously, that these things don’t cost as much, so there’s much less pressure for everyone involved. But yeah, I would say that I’m much more fulfilled by Mr. Show or Derek & Simon than some of the features that I’ve worked very, very hard to make.”

Although he is open to pursuing both small and big-screen outlets for his comedy work in the future, for now his sights are fixed on smaller projects such as Derek & Simon and, amongst others, filming companion shorts for the McSweeney’s-published Comedy by the Numbers and working on a few scenes for Super Deluxe that he recently penned with Cross.

But as satisfying as he finds these smaller projects now made increasingly feasible by outlets such as Wholphin and Super Deluxe, Odenkirk says it’s no easier to actually find people to watch his work. “No, not at all. No,” he responds when asked whether certain technology like the Internet and DVD has made it easier for him to find an audience for his comedy. “It’s hard. It’s a very small audience, and it doesn’t seem to grow. But it is a great audience that I really appreciate and that’s all there is to it. I can’t clone people; it is what it is. It kind of seems to stay the same, but that’s fine. I think it’s what is called a ‘cult audience,’ you know,” he adds at the end, sounding very much like he’s come to understand and appreciate the concept—no pity card in sight.

Related links:
Super Deluxe
Bob Odenkirk's Super Deluxe profile
Derek & Simon: The Show - Baby Talk
Bob and David - It's Official!
McSweeney's Internet Tendency

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