Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim make a special kind of comedy. To attempt an explanation of Tim and Eric’s humour would be to call it… absurd. The comedy duo have maintained their cult fan base through numerous TV shows including ‘Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job’, ‘Tom Goes to the Mayor’ and their feature film, ‘Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie’. For the first time ever, the boys are bringing their comedy to Perth stages for two live shows. I spoke with Eric Wareheim about coming down under for the ‘Straya-Zealand Experience.
I’m so excited to get down to Perth.
You haven’t been to Perth before have you?
No, we were gonna take an extra holiday and just go to the beaches and we got re-routed, but this time we’re coming and spending an extra couple of days just to hang out.
What made you decide on hanging out in Perth?
I hear it’s beautiful. It’s got crazy beaches – We’re in this weird world of comedy but we also love the outdoors.
I’ve seen Beaver Boys, I know how you feel about the beach.
We needs to have beavs. I hope you guys have shrimp down there.
Yeah, we’ve got alright white wine as well. How was your last Australian tour, you mention bogans in your trailer?
Yeah, we had a big bogan problem. I had a couple of bogans bite me.
What?!
I was just walking down the street and they ran up and just bit me. When I was on stage I was speaking out against them.
It’s a big problem here.
Yeah! That’s why in this new promo I say that the Australian government made me say that I love bogans. That’s why in the video I say “I love bogans” so many times.
I hear you and Tim have just finished some more episodes of ‘Bedtime Stories’ as well?
Yeah, we just finished two Christmas specials. They’re maybe the darkest things we’ve ever made. I think at the show we might show clips as a sneak preview. It takes forever for Australians to get our shows which is a shame.
Are there things you are able to do in your live shows that you can’t do on TV?
The live tour is totally different. It’s way more fun. TV just means slaving over editing for months and months – live is just a crazy experiment.
Do you bring any of your regular guests along for your live shows as well?
Last tour we brought Dr Steve Brule (John C Reilly) so that was crazy. People freaked out.
How did you guys get to start working with Dr Brule?
We had a cartoon called ‘Tom Goes to the Mayor’ and our friend Jack Black was like, “I can get my friend John to do this thing” and he didn’t really know us, he just loved how punk our office was. He called it “Hollywood anarchy”. While studio bosses were around, we were running around building things and editing how we wanted and he was like, “Cool, this is a character for me. This is live action.” So we thought up this Brule thing and we just started shooting and shooting and now Tim and I are writing season 4 of his spin-off show.
Is there anyone in Hollywood you would kill to work with? Or mess with?
There’s only 2 – One would be Christopher Guest and the other would be Larry David. Those are two idols, but they’re not cameo kind of guys. They do their own thing and they do it so well. We don’t really sit back and think ‘Who can we get?’, the new season of ‘Bedtime Stories’ we have some amazing actors that aren’t superstars but they’re all really, really good and it’s a totally different vibe. Less silly, more nightmarish.
Tim and Eric’s ‘Straya-Zealand Experience will be Astor Theatre Tuesday December 8th and Wednesday December 9th. Tickets available from livenation.com
Leigh Hill
