Last week, the resident film critic of SoBros Network, Brandon Vick, and I had the honor and privilege of sitting down with Jay Chandrasekhar, Adrianne Palicki, and Eric Stolhanske to talk about their new movie Quasi, the latest effort from comedy troupe extraordinaire, Broken Lizard. Check out the highlights from Brandon’s interview below, and fire up Quasi on Hulu as soon as humanly possible.

Brandon: I have a question for you, Adrianne. You’ve worked with some brilliant comedic minds between Seth MacFarlane on The Orville and, of course, Broken Lizard on Quasi. What did you enjoy the most about working with them? How does it compare to the more dramatic stuff that you’ve done? They always say comedy is way harder than drama.
Adrianne: It can be, for sure. The difference is The Orville is much more structured. This felt in a lot of ways like Friday Night Lights in the sense that there are freedoms that happen and you have to use your instincts. These guys made me feel comfortable enough to use my instincts, and to improv. It felt freeing and fun. So, they’re two different kinds of comedy. But, working with them (BL) was honestly one of the best experiences of my life. Being on that set is one of the funnest places to be, and you guys (looks at Eric and Jay) are like brothers…it’s just so fun to be apart of.

Brandon: As far as Broken Lizard goes, how has your creative process evolved since the early days? Has it ever been a goal of yours to keep engaging with the younger generations?
Jay: We don’t write for other people. We write only for ourselves…under the idea that we are like other people, and that if we think it’s funny, there’s probably a group of other people out there who also think it’s funny. It’s all you really can do in comedy and in music. You could attempt to try to appeal to some people, but that’s just not our way.

In terms of the youngsters, when I do stand-up shows, I feel like there’s a lot of youngsters out there, and I think what they’re responding to is that we’re willing to make jokes that not everyone is wiling to make in a certain way that has not gotten us canceled yet. Sometimes, the studio’s like “I don’t think we can make that joke,” and I’m like “I’ll say it, and then it’ll be my face on it, and then when they come for you guys, put me out there with a mic and I’ll defend the joke.” They say “alright,” and we do the joke! So far, nobody’s come after us.

I feel like we’re lucky in that our films like Super Troopers and Beerfest, and I think hopefully this one (Quasi) will be that too….we’ve got a certain rhythm that seems to be appealing to different age groups.

Brandon: The Slammin’ Salmon was 2009, and then we waited about 10 years before Super Troopers 2 in 2018. It was another five years before Quasi – my logical conclusion here is that you guys have gotten sick of each other….
Jay: No. I think our output is going to increase over the next five or so years. We’ve got a good thing going with Searchlight in that we make them money and then they get to spend that money on their artsy stuff. So, we’re sort of their clown.

Eric: Things just take so long. If we pitch an idea, we want to make it great, so we spend a year writing it. A whole year goes by when you’re trying to make 20-30 drafts. Then, even if you finish shooting, sometimes they need a marketing target down the road. So, another year could go by when you’re waiting with a film in the can.

Adrianne: It was a year and a half since we wrapped.

Eric: Yeah, and it’s been done for a while! Time goes by.

Jay: Yeah, and they only want to release our movies on 4/20! So, we have to have a movie ready by then or else we have to wait another year.

Read the entire interview at SoBros Network.