Quick Six with The Sklars

Randy and Jason Sklar have a knack for exploring what makes America’s cities unique and wonderful, whether it’s finding out who in San Diego serves the best burritos, why basketball is so popular among those in Bloomington, Indiana, or why the people of one of the Portlands can’t let go of their old airport carpeting.

2017 was a year in which everyone in America retreated to their bubbles – liberal, conservative, and cotton-candy scented. Everyone except Jason and Randy Sklar. They didn’t have a choice; if you’re a comedian, you get a tour date and you go to work. They traveled to red states and blue states, red cities in blue states, and blue cities in red states. What emerged throughout their travels was a real sense of what everyone was going through in a historically insane and twistedly-hilarious year. Audible recorded their experiences, insights, and off-the-cuff jokes along the way, shaping the experience into a long-form audio documentary.

Here’s more on the project, from the Sklar Brothers themselves:

“In our quest to get out of our bubble, travel the country as outsiders, and write local comedy that connects with people in the cities where they live, we pondered the idea of the tech industry pricing gay culture out of San Francisco, building a wall between Missouri and Kansas, and a gluten-free strip club in Portland, OR. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a comedian on the road in America, creating comedy in the moment…Sklars and Stripes is for you. And, come on, it’s not like Anthony Bourdain is going to write 6 minutes of funny material about Casa Bonita, a Mexican restaurant in suburban Denver that has indoor cliff diving.”

Let’s make Sklars and Stripes local, but everywhere

Randy and Jason searched for topics specific to each community they visited – then challenged themselves to see whether they could perform jokes about those topics that locals would find funny. More broadly, they dug into the American psyche and explored its dark and quirky crevices both on stage and off.

Follow their shenanigans in Sklars and Stripes, the comedic documentary which visits 10 different cities, each a new chapter and a new adventure. With an arsenal of jokes and a curious mind (minds?), the Sklars attempt to answer one burning question: as a nation, can Americans still laugh at themselves?

The answer is yes. Americans can still find themselves funny.

Check out Sklars and Stripes here on Audible, and for a taste of what the Sklar brothers found in Denver (my gorgeous place), listen here.

And, and a bonus treat, here’s a Quick Six with the brothers, to let you in on some of their creative processes.

The Sklar Brothers took time out for our Quick Six Interview:

What has inspired you recently?

The Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maizel has been incredibly inspiring to us for a number of reasons. Not only is it a beautiful show, brilliantly written and performed by amazing actors, every time we see her (Midge, portrayed by Rachel Brosnahan) get on stage and work through material we are inspired to get up and perform. We are also inspired by the deserved success of our producer from Sklars and Stripes, Scott Rogowsky, as the host of HQ Trivia. Scott is talented and hilarious and generous and his success is a reminder that funny and good people can break through.

Morning or night person (in spite of your job)?

We are night people, which is great for our job in comedy. But we have small children so we are forced to be awake early to help get them on their way to school, so we are forced to also be morning people, Which doesn’t always work out so well. One look at our kids’ lunches will tell you that. Last week, Jason’s son opened up his lunch box and there was an orange a pair of socks and some cough syrup. (Late night at the Comedy Store the night before).

When was the first time you performed for someone outside your friends or family?

The first time we stood on stage at a comedy club was in 1987. We were 15 and submitting a tape of our comedy for a possible comedy special featuring young, young comedians, under 16. That was terrifying. We were not ready. Needless to say we had an uneven set. We did get a few laughs and I think the fact that it wasn’t a total disaster gave us a glimmer of hope to try again a few years later. And we’ve been at it for decades ever since.

Where is your favourite place to perform?

There are so many amazing places in which to perform – it’s hard to pick just one. So here’s the cop out answer: In Los Angeles, Largo is a very special venue, as is the Comedy Store and the Improv, UCB and the Meltdown -which is sadly closing- are all amazing. In New York, there’s nothing like the Comedy Cellar and The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, and Union Hall and The Bell House. And on the road, we love performing at clubs like Comedy Works in Denver, and Comedy Club on State in Madison, and Helium in Portland, The Comedy Attic in Bloomington, Acme in Minneapolis, Cap City in Austin and the North Bar in Chicago.

What would you do for a living if you weren’t funny?

We’d probably be dumb, boring lawyers. We almost went to law school. We both got accepted (not so humble brag). If you were a Jew and graduating college in the mid 1990s and you didn’t do well in science, you had two choices: go to law school or take over your father-in-law’s business.

If a movie was made about your life, who would be the daring choice to play you?

I think Jason would play Randy, or Randy would play Jason. Or Mark Feuerstein would play both of us. The daring choice of course, would be Denzel. He can do anything — even portraying twin Jewish comedians.

THE QUICK SIX: POP CULTURE BEAST LETS ARTISTS CHOOSE FROM OUR STANDARD TEN QUESTIONS – WE LET THEM TELL US WHAT THEY’D LIKE YOU TO KNOW. (SOMETIMES THEY ANSWER MORE THAN SIX, WHO ARE WE TO SAY NO?)

Tour dates, podcast info and sklarfomation at www.supersklars.com

More PCB Comedy Coverage:

Sarah Naughton is trapped in a different closet to R. Kelly
We said RACES, not racist. Oh, wait, reverse that.
Tim Heidecker conquers London and submits to the Quick Six

(Visited 491 times, 1 visits today)

Robin Lynn

Robin is a semi-coherent, almost sentient being. She has some strange ideas, and some even stranger friends. Disabled, queer, agnostic, accident-prone & other adjectives.

She loves music, and talks about new releases from bands frequently. She also enjoys going to shows to recap them, and listening to albums by bands that "mainstream" music isn't interested in, because they're often the best music out there.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram as @wyrdrobin to see what other things I have to say!