CraveOnline: Did you show up in the Veronica Mars movie?
Ken Marino: I did, I did. I did some days on that. It was fun.
What is Vinnie Van Lowe like nine years later?
He is, uh, nine years older. He’s nine years older and Vinnie Van Lowe I don’t think would ever change who he is. He is true to himself, let’s put it that way.
That exists because of the Kickstarter phenomenon. Could that help a Party Down movie also?
I would think it could. That’s up to those guys to do. I know that they had something going on. I thought there was a possible way that the Party Down movie was going to happen, and I still think that there’s a possibility it’s going to happen but I don’t know. I’ve gotten that question so many times now over the last three or four years that all I could say is everybody involved behind the camera, the creators and the actors all want it to happen because it was a magical, really special experience. So hopefully it’ll happen.
And now there’s more ways fan projects can get made.
I would love if it was like the “Arrested Development” thing where we do a season.
Did you do any research on the actual Houdini for “Drunk History?”
I spent the last three years staying at the Houdini mansion, meeting all the relatives of Houdini. I took an intensive magician course and I also consulted with many doctors to see where the pain would actually come from, what part of the body you would feel if you were hit in the appendix. No, I didn’t do any research whatsoever but I’ll tell you, I was thrilled to be doing a scene with Alfred Molina. As much as I was thrilled to be doing scenes with Peter Stormare, Stephen Root, Toby Huss and Mary Kay Place and Toby Huss and Kumail [Nanjiani] and who else was awesome and cool in this movie? Gillian and everybody.
Do you hear anything on Wet Hot American Summer 2?
I don’t know. I have no idea. You’ve got to ask those guys.
I’m actually a huge fan of The Ten.
Yeah, man! Why don’t you ask about The Ten 2? Because it’ll never happen.
Is there any chance?
I wish.
I’ve introduced people to this movie. I’m trying to do my part.
Do your part. It’s an acquired taste.
I was on board from the first sketch but I’ve learned that for other people, apparently it is an acquired taste.
It is. I think that because it’s an omnibus movie and it’s all basically long sketches that the problem with that is you have to win them over each time, as opposed to pulling them in once and then they’re watching a world for an hour and a half. And we wanted to make each one very different, so just like our sketch shows, sometimes people would respond to certain things and sometimes they wouldn’t. It was always different. Different people like different things.
There’s a certain style to the humor in all those sketches.
But I mean, I think we do the same sort of humor in “Childrens Hospital,” but you take comfort in the world at a certain point and the characters, so then you can deal with the humor. When you’re constantly changing the characters and the world and the tone a little bit, even though the humor is sort of the same, it throws people off.
I wonder if shows like the Adult Swim lineup, “Childrens,” “Tim and Eric,” and others, are making people a little more open to that sort of absurd humor.
It would be nice. I’m proud of it. I love it. I think it’s a ridiculous movie. I wanted it to be a movie that if I was in my 20s and I was like, “I want to just watch something really stupid and smoke a joint and watch a dumb movie that I don’t even have to care if there’s any point to it,” that would be the thing. I would be like, “Oh my God, let’s watch this!”
I didn’t even need any medical assistance. I was sober and I thought it was hilarious.
Well, thank you, thank you. You don’t have to be high to enjoy it.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
