ROB HUEBEL:Hey, is Paul Scheer on the phone?
Ad content continues below
PAUL SCHEER:Yep, I am.
ROB HUEBEL:Hey Paul, its Rob Huebel.
I didnt know Paul was going to be on this call!
PAUL SCHEER:This is gonna be so fun.
ROB HUEBEL:Ah dude, I have not seen you in so long.
PAUL SCHEER:So good!
ROB HUEBEL:I loved you onThe League.
That was my shit!
PAUL SCHEER:I loved you inI Love You, Man!
ROB HUEBEL:Ah dude, dont get me started on that movie.
DEN OF GEEK: Classics!
ROB HUEBEL:Whats up?
We like to pretend that we dont know each other.
How didDrive Sharecome about, and how did go90 get involved?
Did you guys have the idea?
Did they approach you?
PAUL SCHEER:Rob and I actually had the idea independently of each other!
You should meet up.
And that to us felt really exciting because its a fun way to see this idea play out.
Were not trying to convince anyone to sign up for something.
Like Netflix, Hulu, or SeeSo.
Thats just too much work right now.
DEN OF GEEK: The series feels super natural in how it flows.
Are these episodes actually scripted?
Are you just working off of an outline?
It feels like a lot of improv is going on here.
ROB HUEBEL:Some of them are more scripted than others.
The answer to the question is that it kind of depended on the actor.
A lot of these guys are really good friends of ours.
So its a little bit of both.
We had a crazy camera setup where we had five cameras capturingeverything.
It wasnt like a movie or TV show where sometimes a funny line happens off camera.
Here everything was captured.
So it allowed us to capture these moments that often get lost.
You shot 30 episodes and 120 different stories.
Did you just shoot them all individually and then compile them into episodes after everything was done?
ROB HUEBEL:Yeah.
We did a pilot for this actually, and we did it kind of the hard way.
We actually went out in a processing trailer where youre being towed around the streets of LA.
But then you still need to worry about the sun, matching light, outside noise and honking.
So that made it really easy for us production-wise.
As far as creatively, the shape of every episode came out much later.
We just shot all of these bits.
Its pretty much a sketch comedy show in the back of an Uber.
So we just shot all of these sketches and put them together later.
Its great to get those little glimpses of deconstruction.
This is all fake!
PAUL SCHEER:The truth of the matter is, we were shooting so many of these!
I think we passed over 150 different people and shot over 80 rides over five days!
At a certain point, it was just like, Lets get crazy!
and I think that bred some really funny things that we werent expecting.
We were just always trying to make ourselves laugh.
Do you have a preference between the crazier and more down-to-earth sort of stories?
ROB HUEBEL:I think that also came out of the volume of shooting that we wanted to do.
We wanted to have a mix of both.
Thats a pretty real feeling thing, but then well also do something really broad like aCluemurder mystery thing.
It helps keep people on their toes and makes the show less predictable.
We wanted to do that with the casting, but also some of the plot lines.
Or are those episodes too close?
The virtue of trying to break out of a mold led to us naturally making those decisions.
Or a performance by a certain person that particularly pleased you?
Mike Mitchell fromThe Birthday Boysis having a solo Thanksgiving in the backseat.
He improvised and made someone chew food and spit it into his mouth like a baby bird.
We have this one driver on the show, Heather Campbell, and shes just a really great improviser.
The hard part on this show is to be the driver.
Theyre the straight person.
So Heather is just really good at realistically teasing things out of people and keeping the scene alive.
Theres also this other guy, Londale Theus, who actually cries in an episode.
Londale gets upset and he starts crying, but hesactuallycrying.
Im always impressed when someone can actually cry in the middle of a comedy sketch.
Im always like, Fuck, that is good commitment.
PAUL SCHEER:Zeppelin!
Were doing a Zeppelin next!
ROB HUEBEL:We might do a Zeppelin.
Weve definitely got to branch out.
Were not going to do another car or road thing.
PAUL SCHEER:What if we just did it in the submarine at Walt Disney World?
ROB HUEBEL:Oh yeah?20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?
PAUL SCHEER:We should do it!
DEN OF GEEK: I think you’re gonna wanna!
Youve started this weird trend that needs to keep going.
Do you think thatDrive Shareis finished?
Are 120 stories enough?
Is it the sort of thing that you return to again whenever youre feeling it?
ROB HUEBEL:I just think this sort of thing is really fun to do.
Now, thats probably changed for Paul because Paul is a big Trump supporter and Idontsupport Trump.
Yeah, I see what youre trying to do here.
Youre trying to get these guys to print fake news and cause trouble.
ROB HUEBEL:No, Im not trying to get them to print fake news, man.
Not everything is fake news.
Im going to be workingveryclosely with the Alien Invasion wing.
Its a very new part of the White House.
The CIA is gone and now its all about aliens.
Were going to figure out where they are and get them.
ROB HUEBEL:Youre talking about undocumented workers?
What are you talking about?
PAUL SCHEER:No, no.
Im talking about fromouter space.
ROB HUEBEL:Well good luck, man.
PAUL SCHEER:Were going to get those aliens and find their space stations!
But for us, I do think well end up making more of this show at some point.
I think a lot of this show ended up being inspired by the people that we were writing for.
Just talking to people and being like, Heres what were thinking.
Lets work on all of this.
Thats what makes the show so much fun for me.
Getting each individual person their own sort of story.
DEN OF GEEK: Last question guys, what are your most fucked up Uber stories?
What are your strangest drive share experiences?
ROB HUEBEL:I seem to keep getting guys who just want to be my friend.
Im always like, What are you talking about?
And theyll go, You know, we can hang out whenever you want.
And obviously I have your phone number because you used your phone to book the ride.
So, cool man!
Ill just go, What?
This was just a transaction, but theyll keep trying to insert themselves into my life.
He was literally DJ-ing and scratching records while driving.
I was of course in Miami, but I just appreciated anyone who wanted to keep the party going!
Drive Shareis available to stream for free ongo90.com, with a new episode debuting every day.
The author of this interview also conducts monthly interviews for our comedy television podcast,TV IV.
