Dan Licata in For the Boys Dan Licata has come a great distance since highschool, the place he shattered each of his legs by leaping off the roof of a Buffalo church. A ferociously humorous comic, he has written for Saturday Night Live and Joe Pera Talks with You and not too long ago carried out stand-up on Late Night with Seth Meyers. His chaotically sensible new stand-up particular For the Boys (obtainable on YouTube) was shot at his highschool alma mater in entrance of a crowd of 15-year-old boys, the proper viewers for his arrested pubescent persona—a blustery Jackass-fueled manchild who desperately desires to attach with the youth however whose cultural references are woefully old-fashioned (he presents one sullen teen a DVD of Jarhead). It is a harrowingly humorous exploration of millenial male insecurity that makes use of each intellectual conceptual pranks and lowbrow dick jokes.
Filmmaker: How way back did you report the particular?
Dan Licata: I recorded it final August. We had it edited and had been attempting to buy it round to sure locations, however this trade is crumbling like a Nature Valley bar, and it was simply inconceivable to promote. Everything occurs for a purpose. I’m really very glad it landed on YouTube, as a result of I feel far more individuals are gonna be capable of see it now.
Filmmaker: You shot this at Amherst Central High School, the place I graduated in 1999. My sister went there. My cousin was in your identical graduating class. So, I once I noticed that you just had achieved this, I used to be amazed. Could you discuss the way you approached the college—how did you even get them to allow you to do that?
Licata: We discovered the principal’s electronic mail on-line and despatched them a chilly electronic mail. I needed to be like, “Look, I’ve written on SNL” and clarify who I used to be. Thankfully, it was a brand new principal. It wasn’t the identical principal from once I went there; I really feel like which may have been an computerized no.
Filmmaker: Who was the principal whenever you had been there?
Licata: Joe Podgorski. Joe Pod was my freshman yr. I feel that was his final yr earlier than he retired, then it was Joanne Bayless the subsequent couple years.
Filmmaker: I obtained kicked off morning bulletins due to Mr. Podgorski. I made bowling staff bulletins with my associates and we might at all times discuss how horrible we had been. And then I mentioned, “Let’s kick it back to Joe Pod” and he responded, “Excuse me?” The bowling coach obtained actually mad at me.
Licata: Yeah, there wasn’t a lot of a vetting course of for making morning bulletins. My pal and I spotted we might go on for an announcement for some bullshit membership or one thing. I bear in mind making a faux announcement and I feel individuals had been amused sufficient by it that I didn’t get in any bother. The present principal, his identify is Mr. Pigeon, which I really feel like these children should torment him with chicken calls on a regular basis. Nice man although. I feel we form of—it’s not that we withheld info, however you already know my type of comedy, I feel, is…
Filmmaker: Not precisely one thing the college would wish to affiliate itself with. Have they seen it? Did they require approval over something?
Licata: I imply, I do know they didn’t ask for any transcript or something. Ss lengthy as we had been keen to pay the rental charge, they had been like, “Do what you want.”
Filmmaker: In phrases of getting the children within the crowd, how did you solid them?
Licata: That was the hardest half. Initially we simply put out a traditional casting name—“If you’re 15 and live within driving distance of Buffalo and like comedy, come check out a show”—and obtained zero bites on that. So, we went via this casting company, and this man discovered all the viewers members for us. I feel we ended up with about 60 children. They all have an curiosity in appearing. I don’t assume that any of them have any actual expertise. It’s not like these are theater children with stage dad and mom or no matter, simply regular children in Buffalo. I feel they gave very trustworthy reactions and had been very real the entire time.
Filmmaker: Yeah, a few of my favourite components are simply the response pictures of children not getting the joke since you’re speaking about stuff means over their head.
Licata: Yeah, a few of them had been giving actually golden reactions. There’s one child who I feel was really 12. I believed, “I don’t know man, he might be a little young,” however the casting director mentioned, “Look, him and his brother are a package deal.” He is the little child within the white polo shirt and was simply making among the funniest faces.
Filmmaker: And how a lot time did it’s important to shoot it?
Licata: Not so much. The first day, we shot me doing it with no viewers to get clear audio on all of the jokes. Second day, I did in entrance of the children, which admittedly there’s possibly about six-ish minutes of the set that I needed to minimize when performing for the children, as a result of this can be too obscene to say in entrance of them. Anything about jerking off or no matter I used to be like, “Let’s not do that today.” From 10:30 to 12:30 we shot within the auditorium, then took a break for lunch, then mainly from 1:30 to five p.m. we shot all of these interstitial segments—the factor with the PTA and stuff with all the children, that montage. So, it was actually run and gun, as a result of we had half-hour to get every a type of segments, and that features arrange and breakdown—run to this a part of the college, get possibly three takes of it after which on to the subsequent. It was fairly aggravating.
Filmmaker: How did you discover the actors who performed the top of the PTA and the lady who performs the principal?
Licata: The head of the PTA is my mother. Forced her to be in it to keep away from paying somebody [laughs]. I didn’t inform her what I used to be gonna say beforehand. That was simply her maintaining a straight face—she was very spectacular. I feel she’s simply desensitized from being my mother for 34 years. The girl who performed the principal is Lisa Ludwig. She’s an actor in Buffalo, however she additionally directed all of the performs at Amherst, and that’s how I knew her. The man that tells me to fuck off was my precise choir trainer. He occurred to be the man that was unlocking the constructing for us each days and I used to be like, “Hey man, you want to be in this?” He was so touched and honored to be part of it.
Filmmaker: You deliver in the neighborhood and tie them in to the pivotal story out of your youth—leaping off the roof of the church and breaking each of your legs. So that actually occurred?
Licata: Yeah, it was Christ the King church. Do you bear in mind the place that was?
Filmmaker: Yeah, however I used to be a Saint Benedict’s child.
Licata: Oh, sorry. Yeah, they’d beef! I bear in mind on the finish of the day, should you went to the CCD there have been the Saint Ben’s buses and Christ the King buses and it was just like the Sharks and the Jets. But yeah, it was Christ the King church. My pal lived proper subsequent door to it. I nonetheless keep in mind that so vividly and it sends a shiver down my backbone generally. I scaled the constructing, which was surprisingly simple as a result of there was this six foot ledge that you may rise up on high of, then there was a window the place, should you obtained your foot within the window, you may seize up and hoist your self onto the roof. There had been a ton of tennis balls on the roof, I bear in mind. It was actually loopy once I hit the bottom, as a result of the EMTs had been known as and I bear in mind them asking me all these questions and I used to be nonetheless being the category clown. Like they’d ask “Do you have any allergies [referring to medicine]”? And I mentioned, “Yeah, cats.”
Filmmaker: I can’t imagine you had been nonetheless aware. That should have been so painful.
Licata: Oh, the worst ache I’ve ever felt. They didn’t imagine that I used to be sober both. I bear in mind they’re like “you have to tell us what drugs you’re on.” I’m like, “I’m not” and so they’re like “No, you have to tell us because you’re going to surgery.” No, I’m simply an fool.
Filmmaker: Was Jackass the primary inspiration on your stunts?
Licata: Absolutely. I used to be watching all that stuff like Viva La Bam, Wild Boys, Jackass. There was a UK equal known as Dirty Sanchez that I used to be additionally obsessive about. There was The Dudesons from Finland who primarily do related stuff. Anything like that I used to be absorbing each potential second of, downloading full episodes off of Kazaa or no matter.
Filmmaker: Any Tom Green?
Licata: Definitely.
Filmmaker: Your harm jogged my memory the scene from Freddy Got Fingered the place the man breaks his leg and there’s a gratuitous shot of a bone protruding of his leg for no purpose in any respect.
Licata: It was on the Criterion Channel not too long ago.
Filmmaker: How irritating was the processs of pitching the present to streamers?
Licata: They’re much less keen to take dangers on individuals which are comparatively unknown, no matter how good the product is. Unless you’ve got 300,000 Instagram followers otherwise you’re already a family identify like Jim Gaffigan, Netflix isn’t gonna provide the time of day. So, we had been speaking to Peacock just about all the time we had been taking pictures and modifying. Then, we lastly had a tough minimize, despatched it to Peacock and didn’t hear something for per week. We adopted up and didn’t hear something for per week. So, I hit up another man I do know that labored there and he goes. “Oh, yeah, she was fired two weeks ago.” The day we despatched it to her, she obtained fired. They had been providing peanuts compared to what different streamers had been providing however you already know, I felt like I’ve had associates which have put out specials on Peacock and really feel like I’m type of of their comedic household. I simply wished to make a teeny bit of cash on this factor. That would have been good, however I suppose it’s the lengthy recreation that you just play the place you’re like, “I took a huge hit on this financially, but I think a lot of people will discover it now, then hopefully those people come out to see me when I perform in their city or buy a t-shirt or something.”
Filmmaker: Your current look on Late Night with Seth Meyers ought to assist as properly. Was that booked earlier than the particular got here out?
Licata: Yeah, I used to be booked earlier than the particular got here out, a pair months in the past. But he had watched it and was very psyched about it, very complimentary, which was cool. I’ve obtained just a few random DMs. Like Tim Heidecker, who’s a really massive comedic affect on me as properly, is obsessive about it. Ryan Phillippe, you already know the actor, he was like “Dude. This is excellent.”
Filmmaker: MacGruber’s Ryan Phillipe!
Licata: He’s a fan.
Filmmaker: What was the comedy scene like whenever you had been rising up in Buffalo? It appears so disconnected from the leisure world.
Licata: I didn’t actually begin stand-up till I moved to New York City. My buddy Joe Pera and I did a pair open mics in Buffalo at Nietzsche’s.
Filmmaker: My brother was in a ska band known as Mexican Cession and performed at Nietzsche’s and all these locations.
Licata: Yeah, in Allentown. I solely did a pair open mics there once I was like 18, 19, 20 years previous, then moved to New York once I was 21 and that was form of an awakening as a result of it was…I’m not saying the bar for laughs is decrease in Buffalo, however New York is a troublesome comedy scene and everybody’s working on the highest stage. It actually forces you to develop faster and work out a strategy to stand out amongst the pack.
Filmmaker: When you had been in Buffalo, had been you considering of turning into a rise up?
Licata: I feel since I used to be 13, 14, 15, I wished to do rise up and there actually was no backup plan or anything that me. Joe and I grew to become good associates and now we have totally different comedic sensibilities. It’s an odd couple dynamic; we’ve hosted a comedy present collectively for 12 years at this level and we’re the identical genus, totally different species.
I bear in mind he and I each went to the primary open mic at Nietzsche’s. I used to be an 18-year-old freshman in school attempting comedy for the primary time. You enroll on the sheet and I bear in mind I used to be alleged to go, then Joe was alleged to go and the host is saying “All right, this guy says he’s never done this before but let’s give him a go—Joe Pera.” So, they skipped me and I used to be like, “Hey, I was supposed to be next” and he or she goes, “Oh, I’m sorry. I guess I’ll have to put you at the very end of the show,” which doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t know why I simply agreed to that. So, the second-to-last comedian is on stage and he’s operating late, going lengthy. And then he begins yelling on the host. She goes, “There’s one more comic.” And he goes “Who is it? Who’s this other comic? I know everyone who does comedy in this city!” And I needed to go up after that. 18 years previous, doing an impression of Terri Schiavo at TGI Fridays or one thing. Obviously, it bombs so onerous. That was a impolite awakening.
Filmmaker: Had you been workshopping these things and assume it’s gonna kill?
Licata: I had all of it written out and memorized. I suppose I had run it by a pal of mine who thought it was humorous.
Filmmaker: And how did Joe do?
Licata: Quite a bit higher than I did, and has continued to take action. It was cool being on Seth yesterday, as a result of I bear in mind being there when he did his first late evening set and it being this type of seismic shift for him profession sensible. And that is so bizarre, however my dad…I’ve by no means seen my dad cry. Even at my grandmother’s funeral he didn’t cry, however my dad was crying on Tuesday evening after my set on Seth Meyers. I lastly obtained his ass in spite of everything.
Filmmaker: Parents solely care about SNL and speak reveals. And you labored for SNL! He didn’t cry whenever you obtained that job?
Licata: Yeah, to our dad and mom’ era they’re the one stuff that issues. I’ve achieved all this different cool shit. I’ve written for an Adult Swim present that lots of people appear to love [Joe Pera Talks with You] that has a cult following. I’m so happy with these episodes that I wrote. You inform boomers about that and so they don’t give a shit. But then it’s like, “I’m writing for SNL” and they’re all, “Oh my god, that’s so cool!” and I’m like, “It actually sucks.”
Filmmaker: So, what was your expertise like on SNL?
Licata: It was tough, and it wasn’t like a dream job of mine or something both. The casting administrators noticed me carry out at a comedy competition and introduced me in to audition for the present. I simply did 5 minutes of stand-up on that stage the place the host does the monologue and so they employed me as a author off of that set and I used to be similar to, “Alright, I guess I’m doing this now.” I form of evaluate it to highschool: I used to be the category clown in highschool and simply wished to make the children snicker, but it surely doesn’t matter should you make the opposite children snicker—it’s important to make the academics and the principal snicker, and the principal is that this famously crotchety 79-year-old man who doesn’t actually have his finger on the heart beat. So, I might write stuff that I believed was humorous and it could destroy on the desk reads each week, and they’d by no means choose it. I feel I obtained one or two sketches on all the two years that I wrote there.
Filmmaker: When you’re speaking about how you’re employed along with Joe—yeah, your kinds are so totally different, however you make it work. You appear extra aligned stylistically with Connor O’Malley, who’s additionally had a particular on YouTube not too long ago, Stand Up Solutions, which is basically wild and superb.
Licata: The man that directed Connor’s particular produced mine. We’re all form of within the identical comedy household. We work with a variety of the identical individuals and Connor wrote for Joe’s present as properly. Which is so humorous, the 2 of us writing for that present. Jo Firestone was there as properly. I get aggravated when generally individuals will say that the present is nearly not a comedy, that there’s probably not a variety of jokes. I’m like, “I gotta differ on that.” I suppose whenever you make artwork and put it out into the world, individuals say issues about it that you just vehemently disagree with and also you’re similar to, “I guess that’s criticism.”
