Its scary now, thinking about how muchMystery Science Theater 3000I watched growing up.
Kevin Murphy:No, no.
Is there something special about doing these shows in the big cities?
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KM:Well, its funny.
Its great to hear that.
Bill Corbett:To be fair they never said they thought we were cool.
BC:It was written on an old envelope they recycled from something else.
KM:And someone said, Okay, you’re free to come.
BC:Yea, well let you come.
Mike Nelson:Oh, to varying degrees.
Its pretty easy with Tommy Wiseau.
We contacted him a while back and I think he was asleep that day or something.
So we did it again and he was surprisingly open to the idea.
But yea, to varying degrees depending.
It has no correlation to the quality of the film, how hard it is to acquire.
Films that you would think, Didnt you just find it in a dumpster anyway?
Cant we just have it?
are difficult, and some are easier.
Working with Sony was easy when we did the live shows forStarship Troopers.
KM:We do get a critical mass of good films by any standard.
We have a long list right now of stuff to tackle as the year go on.
Where do the choices for the live shows come in?
I mean, youve doneThe Roombefore but it was technically not live.
Are there changes this go around from your last Riff on it?
MN:Oh yea, definitely.
Lots of new material.
Its been a long time since we did it.
And also yea, tailoring it for the live is a different experience.
Its funny talking about you upping your game since youve been doing it for a while.
I mean you guys made an art out of this.
Does it ever still feel like, I cant believe I created this animal, this monster?
MN:No, its fun!
It felt sort of natural as we went along.
Id do it better than you.
On our site we do the iRiffs thing where people can put in their own riffs.
I say the more, the merrier.
So we attempt to work that through the film and work it into running gags and things.
Occasionally they overflow and for our own amusement well write gags that we just put on our site.
Well write sketches or well do a video or do a little mini podcast about it.
Just to sort of clear out those things that we couldnt cover just by doing the Rifftrax.
KM:Or well beat the hell out of the dead horse on Twitter or Facebook.
BC:We still have an outlet for it one way or another and verify we get it covered.
Did you ever want to or still want to produce something completely separate, like a thriller.
Bill, I know you had a big stage background.
Do we have Rifftrax the Musical coming to Broadway anytime soon, or something more off the beaten track?
BC:Im not feeling anything we would do, would be off brand for us.
I mean, we might say, Here, our sense of humor applied to a narrative form.
See what you think.
KM:I think weve had our various outlets over the years with one thing or another.
Writing books, doing some music, now were doing some radio.
Those are some nice little asides that have nothing to do with our business.
And it is nice to do that every now and then, challenge yourself in another way.
MN:Vegas show, thats what Im looking for.
Is it a cardinal sin of Riffing on a comedy?
MN:I dont know that its a cardinal sin; its just harder to do.
Point out the failure of the comedy.Pirates of the Caribbean, we did that early on.
It has its horror moments and its melodrama moments.
It really is funny.
It intended to be funny, and succeeds a lot.
So I think that was a little difficult for us.
MN:Yea, thats trying hard.
Thats maybe all you should probably know.
Norman is a comic foil, like he steps in the toilet and electrocutes himself in his bathroom.
KM:Theres something about those.
Norman is this desperate dope that nobody likes and his life is just a living hell.
Dont step in the toilet?
Is that the lesson?
MN:Its a pointless hollow of despair.
Theres only one out of the four that isnt toilet related in some way.
These are honestly the questions that I hate, but Im actually interested in knowing.
If you could have someone to Riff with, who would be there by your side?
MN:Theyre people I would have wanted anyway.
BC:Pre-Breaking BadOdenkirk.
Theres somebody missing from that.
Maybe one of the Monty Python guys.
Do you see how you kind of bled out into society that way?
BC:I think those kind of things are in the zeitgeist, kind of happen all at once.
I think we get a lot of credit for it in the press whether earned or not.
MN:There are little predecessors to it, too.
And theresBeavis and Butthead, which is slightly after but grew up on another track.
Thats funny, I totally forgotBeavis and Buttheadwas basically the cartoon version ofMST3K.
Roughly the same thing we do.
