We’re back from our extended Labor Day holiday weekend rested and ready to work (clap) for you! First order of business, reminding you that we’re only a week away from the most-anticipated release of the season! Here to answer a few of our more pressing questions about the release is Scott Aukerman who, along with BJ Porter, produced the album, produces the weekly CDR show at the UCB, and is producing the new Fox sketch show set to air next year, The Right Now Show. My God, that was a complicated sentence.
We were lucky enough to be in attendance during the all-night CDR 4th anniversary show, where this was recorded. Can you give us a preview of what made it onto the album?
Basically we recorded the entire evening and took the cream of the crop. Disc one was recorded up in San Francisco during our Sketchfest shows, but disc two is the entire 12-hour CDR4 show distilled down to 75 minutes. We intentionally didn’t want to just put out “everything.” We wanted this CD to be a true “best of.” There isn’t any fat on the recording. Just the best stuff that you can listen to over and over again. (At one point we thought we might put Fireball Deluxe’s performance on the record, but we couldn’t get the rights to Huey Lewis’s “Power of Love.”)
As we recall, CDR4 was a pretty loose, laid-back night, at least from the audience’s perspective. Any hectic stories from behind-the-scenes?
Those all nighters are always hectic. They’re months and months of work to put on. At around three in the morning we realized we were running two hours behind. At that point all you can do is throw your hands up and hope the audience is in the mood to stay late. The funny part is, they all are! I really stressed out last year about getting the perfect lineups and having the show run smoothly — for nothing. Everyone is just there to celebrate and have fun. If I did it again I would try to find a balance between relaxing more about it while still giving it the attention to detail we try to put into everything we do.
There was talk last year about CDR4 being the last all-night anniversary show. What are the odds of a CDR5?
I can’t even think about it right now due to the CD release, our Fox pilot, and our shows up at the Vancouver Comedy Fest. So it wouldn’t happen on the true anniversary at the end of September. After that we’re going to see how we feel, as well as checking in with the audience to see if they even wanted another one. We have a small window from October and when the Fox show would start up if we got an order where we COULD do one if there was enough demand. Start writing your Congressperson!
Any plans to record future CDRs on a more regular basis?
Comedy Central Records has been amazing with this CD. Their bigger names sort of pay for smaller, “labor of love” type releases like this one. They’ve told us the number of records we have to sell to guarantee a sequel, and I’m positive we can hit it– that is if everyone buys it and doesn’t just burn their friends’ copies! It looks like CC is actually going to tape the Vancouver shows just in case we can do a follow up.
With this release and the impending taping of The Right Now Show (featuring many CDR regulars), what does the future of CDR hold? Where do you go from here?
This year has actually been the easiest for us in terms of booking the show — I don’t have to chase down people to do the show like I have previously. If the TV show gets going, it’s very important to us (and to Fox) to keep the live show going. That’s where it all started. Plus it’s a great way to try out stuff that we want to put on the TV show. So we’re trying to figure out a schedule where BJ and I can have Tuesday nights off to still do the show. As long as the booking keeps being as un-difficult as it has been, we should be able to keep going through 2008!
Does the release of this album mean even more hipsters vying for the few, precious weekly CDR reservations now?
Oh, hipsters… where would we be without them?
The album drops on September 11th. Wise counter-programming move, or just bad luck?
They asked us if we had a problem with that date –and we didn’t! We should have done a bonus EP of every 9/11 joke ever made at CDR just to commemorate it. Oh well — maybe next time.