{"id":2177,"date":"2013-07-02T16:01:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-02T16:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theaccent.org\/?p=2177"},"modified":"2013-07-02T16:01:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T16:01:24","slug":"on-the-record-jay-chandrasekhar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/on-the-record-jay-chandrasekhar\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Record: Jay Chandrasekhar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story and interview by Joey Galvan, Entertainment Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Comedian Jay Chandrasekhar performed June 26 to an eager crowd of fans at The Scottish Rite Theater in Austin.<\/p>\n

The comedian and founding member of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe treated his audience to raunchy stories, dirty jokes and even brought four people onstage to compete against him in a beer-slamming contest. His stories revolved around crazy life-experiences and elements of pure stand-up.<\/p>\n

At one point Chandrasekhar mentioned a script for a movie called \u201cMustache Riders\u201d featuring Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey and Owen Wilson. The crowd displayed its disappointment when Chandrasekhar revealed to them that the studios had passed on the project. During a brief question and answer session, fans offered their suggestions on how to save it.<\/p>\n

Chandrasekhar was in top form during the 45-minute set. Though he is a feature-film director, it really showed that he still loves performing. He is an expert storyteller and his comedic timing is impeccable.<\/p>\n

His films which include \u201cSuper Troopers,\u201d \u201cClub Dread\u201d and \u201cBeerfest\u201d are just as hilarious.<\/p>\n

Accent\u2019s Entertainment Reporter Joey Galvan talked with the \u201cSuper Troopers\u201d director on the phone a few days before his set at The Scottish Rite Theatre in Austin. Below is the full transcript of the interview.<\/em><\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: You\u2019ll be in Austin in a few days, have you been here before?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: Yeah, you know, I\u2019ve been to Austin quite a bit. Broken Lizard, we\u2019ve shown every movie we\u2019ve ever made there. We\u2019ve also performed live at the\u2026 what\u2019s that big theater on Congress?<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: The Paramount?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: The Paramount yeah.. we did a live show there. So yeah, we love Austin. I wish the Texas Film Commission had a subsidy that could compete with the rest of the states cause I\u2019d love to shoot a film down there, but it has been tough so far.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: I read you were active in comedy troupes during college, at what age did you first become interested in comedy?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: I had been in a couple plays in high school. I was a big fan of Saturday Night Live and Monty Python. I went to downtown Chicago where I\u2019m from and decided to try and make strangers laugh. So I went up on an open mike just to see if I could make people I didn\u2019t know laugh. If I did maybe I could give it a shot. You know I did ten minutes of material, a lot happened that worked. I was like OK, I\u2019m going to give it a shot. So once I went back to Colgate where I was going to school and decided to start a comedy group and tried to do what Monty Python did.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: So you mention Monty Python and SNL as some of your influences, who were some other comedians that inspired you and maybe inspire your work today?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: Certainly Richard Pryor and Steve Martin. You know more recently I love Louis CK quite a bit. I\u2019m also a big Eddie Murphy fan, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle. You know, I like stories. I like story kind of comics like Pryor and that\u2019s my favorite stuff. I sort of think I am a story stand-up as well. I tend to tell stories.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: I\u2019m looking forward to seeing your stand-up on Wednesday, what can we expect?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: Well you know you have to understand people know me from the movies so I make sure to tell a story from every one of those films I\u2019ve made. Then I tell some other stories from my life, \u00a0there\u2019s a lot of pure stand-up and a lot of smart dirty stories.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: What\u2019s the craziest thing that you have ever experienced doing stand-up?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: You know, our fans they like to drink a lot sometimes, and I feel like they drink so much just to show us that they care and so we\u2019ve had some fairly rowdy audiences. In San Francisco we had a guy fall off his chair, puke, stand up, slip on the puke and fall down.. then try to fight his way to stay in the crowd to stay and watch the show. You know that kinda thing, you just gotta go.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: Have you ever bombed on-stage?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: I used to bomb when I was younger. Part of it has to do with not knowing. I think some of the best stand-ups adopt a little bit of a persona and then you’re sort of watching almost like a character. As you’re finding what that is when you\u2019re younger, you\u2019re more prone to bombing. I haven\u2019t bombed in a while. The trick if you\u2019re starting out in stand-up, you\u2019re going to bomb, it\u2019s like driving a car. You\u2019re going to hit a red light. It\u2019s going to happen. When you bomb you have to sort of find a way to enjoy it. You\u2019re like wow, I have a microphone in my hand. I have another 15 minutes of material to know and they hate my guts. What an interesting moment in life. You have to sort of get a little bit thin about it. If you\u2019re facing events then you\u2019ll figure out what makes you funny and once you figure that out you won\u2019t bomb as much.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: You mentioned Louis CK as a current comedian you\u2019re a fan of, are there any other people in the industry right now you\u2019re a fan of?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: Yeah, I love this guy John Mulaney he\u2019s one of the head writers on Saturday Night Live. There\u2019s a guy named Kumail Nanjiani.. the dude was born in Pakistan and he has a Pakistani accent but came up in Chicago for a little while and he\u2019s one of the hottest comics in town. It\u2019s an amazing thing this country, if you\u2019re funny they\u2019re kind of like OK, sure you\u2019re Pakistani but OK. He\u2019s a great comic, he\u2019s got this thing called Comic Meldown in LA where he hosts sort of the coolest underground comics and they\u2019ve got a show they\u2019re going to do on Comedy Central that\u2019s sort of a new stand-up show. I\u2019d watch out for that. Who else.. there are so many good comics here. I actually saw Aziz for the first time and thought he was terrific. It took a while to see him, I\u2019m glad I saw him. He\u2019s great. I like Kristen Schaal a lot too. Do you know who she is?<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: No I sure don\u2019t, but I did see Louis CK last time he was in town and he blew me away.<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: Oh he\u2019s phenomenal. You know who else is great is Ricky Gervais. His stand-up is just so bright and funny. I also love love love Dennis Miller. I don\u2019t know how much he does now but, the guys got one of the quickest minds you\u2019ll ever see. He\u2019s so bright and fun to watch.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: Probably my favorite comedian is Bill Hicks, are you a fan of his work at all?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: You know, I don\u2019t know Bill Hicks that well. He is somebody I save material on him because I want to watch him but haven\u2019t yet watched it. I know there\u2019s a documentary about him that\u2019s supposed to be cool. I don\u2019t know his stuff.. I know he was big in London and his stuff has become more popular. He\u2019s dead right?<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: Yeah, he died of pancreatic cancer in the \u201890s. I believe he was from Houston and then came to Austin and made it kind of big here. Post-mortem he has become really famous but he was still pretty big for his time and a lot of inspirational stuff is in his work you find relevant today.<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: I will check it out.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: I understand you\u2019re promoting a film called \u201cThe Babymakers,\u201d can you tell me about it?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: It\u2019s a little bit of misinformation because the film I WAS promoting, I think they just got the information wrong. I\u2019m not promoting the film \u201cThe Babymakers,\u201d I made the film and released it last year, so you can get it on Itunes now. It\u2019s me and Olivia Munn, Paul Schneider and Kevin Heffernan. It\u2019s a movie about a guy who can\u2019t get his wife pregnant because he\u2019s had some sort of testicular trauma. You find out that he used to be have good sperm because he used to be a sperm donor. When he goes back to that sperm bank to try and get a sample they only have one and they already sold it to another couple so he and his pals put together a team and stage a sperm bank heist. It\u2019s like Oceans 11 with sperm. But yeah that movie\u2019s been out there and it\u2019s doing well and a lot of people are seeing it. The press releases got mixed up and they think I\u2019m promoting it now.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: Sorry about that man<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: I want people to see it though, believe me it\u2019s a good one.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: The level of depth to the characters in your films is really impressive, how do you go about creating such interesting characters?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: Character stuff in movies is all about arcs. You really got to think about each character and what they\u2019re doing in the movie. For example in the beginning they can be timid and by the end they should be strong or they should be strong in the beginning and timid by the end. There needs to be a movement of character. When you say oh the characters are great in the movie, it\u2019s usually because there\u2019s some transition they had. If you keep that in mind as your working you kind of find little ways to move the character along and I think that ends up working well. I think there is great work in that movie \u201cThe End\u201d have you seen that?<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: No, what\u2019s that?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: Seth Rogan directed a film about the apocalypse. Jonah plays himself and they all play themselves. They did great character work, but each character starts in a place and ends in a place somewhere else. You gotta pay attention to it. You gotta pay attention to the story, you gotta pay attention to the jokes, you gotta pay attention to the characters. Then you gotta hope you picked an idea people are interested in.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: I work in a coffee shop and know a large amount of police officers who all have an unhealthy obsession with \u201cSuper Troopers.\u201d Did you write the script hoping cops would watch it and what overall message do you hope they take away from the film?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: We assumed cops would arrest us and be really unhappy about it. It turns out, it\u2019s been a bit of a get out of jail free card for us. Whenever we get stopped they usually apologize, want to take a picture and say have a good day. It has been pretty amazing. In New Mexico we were really loud and having a party while we were making \u201cBeerfest.\u201d Two cops show up and are like turn this down and then they looked at us and were like oh my god.. can we come in? Within half an hour there were eight cops in our living room. We were hiding the bong. It was like this crazy thing. I think ultimately cops are so serious in movies, they\u2019re either taken really seriously or they\u2019re really loopy and dumb. We tried to make real feeling cops who were just real people and that\u2019s fun. I think they appreciate that.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: Do you foresee a \u201cSuper Troopers 2\u201d in the future any time soon?<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: Yeah, we\u2019re working on a draft 12 right now and we\u2019re talking to Fox. I think if everything goes well, we\u2019ll be lucky to shoot next year.<\/p>\n

Accent<\/strong>: Alright Jay, thanks again, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today and look forward to catching you live on Wednesday at the Scottish Rite Theater.<\/p>\n

Jay<\/strong>: Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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