Nashville Scene
September 10, 2015
By D. Patrick Rodgers
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim — the mad scientists behind Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and scads of other projects, from film to television, Web series and beyond — are generally seen as the standard-bearers of modern surrealistic comedy. Some of their work is deeply weird, borderline Dadaist even. Some of it is confrontationally bizarre.
So for some, it might have been hard to know just what to make of the announcement that Tim and Eric would be among the celebrity guest artists invited to discuss film at Robert Milazzo’s Film:Masters program at OZ Arts Nashville. Film:Masters is a series in which Milazzo, founder of The Modern School of Film, screens iconic movies and discusses them with celeb cinephiles. This three-night Nashville run will feature Sandra Bernhard discussing Purple Rain on Sept. 10, Tim and Eric talking Waiting for Guffman on Sept. 11, and Black Keys drummer and Nashville resident Patrick Carney chatting about Caddyshack on Sept. 12. Would this be a classic Tim and Eric spoof or goof? Would this be something that resembles the sort of far-out, peculiar live shows they’ve brought to Nashville in the past?
The answer is, of course, no. Heidecker and Wareheim are film buffs, and Christopher Guest’s Guffman was among the first movies the pair bonded over. In advance of Friday’s event, the Scene caught up with the duo via phone, and we discussed Guest, their careers and more. See a full, uncut version of this interview at our arts and culture blog, Country Life.
Can you tell me much about the Film:Masters series and why you’re doing it, and why specifically you’re doing Waiting for Guffman?
Eric: Yeah, we came from film school, and we want to give back. Honor the art. We also love Nashville, and also this movie is one of the — Spinal Tap, and then this movie, I think, were the two films that Tim and I really bonded over when we first met each other 20 years ago. Maybe, actually, Waiting for Guffman came out a little bit after our friendship started, right Tim? And we saw it in the theater?
Tim: … Yeah, we just couldn’t get enough of that movie, and we watched it several times once it came out on video. I think we really identified with some of the really weirder, smaller elements of it. … We’re just in awe of all those guys and girls in that movie. It didn’t occur to us that we could ever do anything like that, but I think it set us on a course for doing the kind of stuff we do now.
Do you feel specifically you have a lot in common with Christopher Guest, or identify with him as far as artists and filmmakers who blur the line between what’s real and what’s sort of an act? Did you get some sort of inspiration from the way he does his mockumentaries?
Eric: Yeah, we got tons of inspiration from the way he played the characters that were not so over-the-top, Hollywood-style comedy. It definitely felt like a more artistic film, because of the documentary style. It’s kind of like what The Office based their whole show on, was this mockumentary kind of vibe, where people could just sit and improvise. You could tell they’re improvising these moments, but they’re such genius improvisers.
Tim: And there was also like a darkness to it, and kind of a sadness. It definitely doesn’t have a happy ending. These are sort of sad characters that you know aren’t going to get what they want ever out of life. A lot of uncomfortableness and cringey — putting people in uncomfortable situations. I mean, the scene where he has to ask for more money from the city council, and his perception of what he needs versus what they have is so [laughs], so opposite from each other. That could be a very dramatic, serious situation. A really uncomfortable situation. And I think a lot of people are turned off by his movies and our work because they do make you feel uncomfortable and unpleasant — they’re unpleasant experiences. For whatever reason, we both think that’s hilarious. It just makes us cry laughing.
Have you found that when you do something like this — say, an interview about a film — that people sort of expect it to be part of some spoof or goof? “Oh, it’s the Spaghett guys, they’re not going to do a straight interview.” Do you find that people have a hard time understanding you outside of that context?
Eric: Well, I think when we’re doing something like this, kind of a straightforward thing about something we respect and love, you’re not going to get a goof. It’s when we’re doing the New Zealand Herald, that’s when 99 percent of that’s going to be a goof.
Tim: Yeah, I think years ago, when we were starting out and coming up and a little younger, we just had so much energy directed at trying to be confusing and funny in every way that we were represented, if it was an interview or something. I think after time, you keep doing that, it gets a little redundant and tiresome, you know? [laughs] And also, like Eric said, it’s the context. We’re here to talk about something that we think is important, that we kind of care about or whatever. It would be a waste of time to try to do a bit with you. But I think when we were out doing theBillion Dollar Movie press, we created this perception that we’re to be feared. People would come to an interview with us like, “Uh, boy I’m a little nervous about this, ’cause I don’t know if you guys are gonna bite my head off or what.” [laughs] But I think we’ve mellowed there a little bit with age.
Were you drawn to film really young, and were there some particular filmmakers — aside from Christopher Guest — who inspired you, individually and both of you?
Eric: Film was, for both of us, the ultimate goal. It was this ultimate, pure art form. It was better than TV, it was better than — I guess we only had TV at that point, because there was no Internet. I was into Stanley Kubrick kind of stuff, some artsy films.
Tim: Yeah, I liked anybody who seemed like they were telling their story and communicating their ideas as directly as possible. Woody Allen, for me, was big as a kid. Because I could see it was just this one guy making these movies, and he’s putting himself in them, and it’s just his view of the world. And Robert Altman and Kubrick and Scorsese. You know, it’s funny, because those sound like such stock answers. But when you’re growing up in the suburbs and you don’t have any Internet, those movies are really important. They’re in the section of Blockbuster that’s like “Staff Picks” or something like that. You didn’t have access to all that stuff like you do now, but they were still really important movies.