Courtesy Scott Aukerman
Scott Aukerman is a quadruple-talent writer-director-actor-podcaster.
“It’s funny to me that sometimes people take things I say on any show seriously,” says writer-director-actor-podcaster Scott Aukerman, host of the Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast.
“I’m just saying it to be funny, you know?”
Comedy Bang! Bang! is a long-running satirical improv comedy podcast that started in 2009. It features interviews with celebrity guests, with additional improviser guests playing outlandish characters “of all stars and stripes,” as Aukerman, as the show’s host, would describe them.
Aukerman knows a thing or two about being funny. He wrote and performed on the legendary sketch comedy show Mr. Show with Bob and David (the “Bob” being Bob Odenkirk of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul); he created Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, and runs two podcasting platforms: Earwolf, and the new Comedy Bang! Bang! World subscription service, which features new content not available anywhere else.
Aukerman and crew are bringing those aforementioned stars and stripes nationwide with a slate of Comedy Bang! Bang! Live shows, including one at The Barrymore on Aug. 2. Paul F. Tompkins is scheduled to be at every stop, playing one of his dozens of characters. There are also secret guests for every show.
Comedy Bang! Bang!’s live shows are truly sights to be heard — the comedy is not visual; there are no props or sets. The focus is on improv, and anything can happen. Here are some choice demonstrations of possibilities from past shows: Neil Campbell's character The Time Keeper’s astoundingly well-”timed” joke, Tom Boreman (played by Tim Baltz) explaining LinkedIn’s search engine and the entire group singing “I Don't Care (I Love It)” by Icona Pop in unison to end some shows. The energy is infectious, spontaneous and ridiculous.
Aukerman does say a lot of ridiculous things while playing the character of “Scott Aukerman” on the podcast. “I think I’m more of a blowhard on the show,” he says in a phone interview with Isthmus. In the freewheeling nature of the show, he goes for “entertaining conversations, not so much salient ones” and says that, Terminator-like, he’s “constantly analyzing avenues” of where the conversation can go, or what he can make fun of.
As the host of Comedy Bang! Bang!, Aukerman is usually the one asking the questions. Being the interviewee (as here) is rare for him, but the podcast host enjoys the role reversal, saying he likes trying to gauge if the interviewer is interested in the more technical side of podcast creation, or if the interviewer just wants to do bits. He says they work really hard on the shows, and, through interviews, it is “always a treat” to be able to give people “a glimpse into the process seriously.”
Comedy Bang! Bang! has been casting for 13 years. Aukerman sometimes wonders if he’ll make it to 20 years, or episode 1,000 (currently at #765, as of this writing), but ultimately he plans to “just keep it going until he’s not having fun.”
Guests who appeared in the early years have become too busy to make return visits. Is there a Comedy Bang! Bang! bump? Aukerman thinks so, and that it’s more than just an individual boost. “I think the community as a whole gets the biggest CBB bump,” he says. The show promotes “the idea of ‘look at how fun it is to be in comedy, and look how fun it is to be a part of this circle of people.’”
The pandemic put a strain on the podcast, as production shifted to Zoom. Remote audio recording is difficult, or at least quality control is. Aukerman was worried fans would “turn against” the show during “The Zoom Era,” but the community was “very forgiving” and “just grateful that people were continuing,” he says. “It was very touching to me that everyone supported the show with the bumps we were going through.”
Those bumps were both awkward and interesting. During “The Backyard Era,” guests would record in Aukerman’s backyard, and production was sometimes interrupted by the whirr of helicopters overhead. While the show is back in-studio, Aukerman says “The Backyard Era” will continue when the weather improves. He says the sun just makes it too hot “with its position in the sky these days,” showing a flash of that wry wit.
The continuous fun of Comedy Bang! Bang! will keep the show alive for a long time. How long, exactly? “Who knows: it could go forever, or it could end tomorrow,” Aukerman says, and then corrects himself: “It won’t end tomorrow, because I’ve already taped next week’s episode.”
