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Okay boys, first things first. Tell us a bit about Beerfest!

Kevin Heffernan: Paul Soter and Eric Stolhanske play these brothers, Jan and Tod Wolfhouse. Their grandfather died and they go to Munich to spread the ashes, where they stumble across this secret, underground beer fest. They get the crap kicked out of them by the Germans, and then go back to America and form the team. Lemme plays Charlie Finklestein, the brain of the group. He’s a scientist of beer. I play Landfill, who can drink or stuff anything down his gullet. Jay plays this guy Barry Badrinath, who is the greatest beer-gamer to ever walk the earth.

That sounds pretty tempting. How did you guys come up with the concept this?

Jay ChandraseKhar: We were traveling in Australia promoting Super Troopers. They were taking us to different malls, putting us in our cop costumes and making us go on stage.

Erik Stolhanske: We knew no one knew who we were, so we thought it would be funnier to challenge the Australians to a chugging contest. We got five Australians to come up on stage.

Steve Lemme: Because, you know, we went to [Colgate University, New York], and we were really good drinkers.

ES: They were all yelling “Yanks!” at us, and practically throwing cabbage at us.

KH: USA vs. Australia!

JC: We were actually beating the five guys who came up there. But then, one of us was kind of having a tough day, and slowed down a bit.

ES: We almost beat them.

Was there like a Dark Emperor of beer?

ES: Yah (laughs). It was great though. It won the audience over. It turned into an arm wrestling contest, and by the end of it, we’d become friends with all these people. Then we thought the whole thing was a fun kernel of an idea for a story, like putting together an American beer-drinking team.

A lot of times in films, actors have to study martial arts for years for their roles. Did you guys have to go through similar training for the beer-stunts?

KH: It’s reverse training. Instead of getting in shape, you get out-of-shape. We did an intensive six-week drinking boot camp before we started shooting.

JC: When you’re in the movie business and you’re not making movies, you spend a lot of time boozing and promoting and drinking. So, we’re in fairly good drinking shape already.

SL: We get challenged pretty often wherever we go out. People always want to see how they fair next to us. And I think we’re undefeated.

Seeing as how you wrote and star in a movie called Beerfest, I have to ask: what’s your favorite beer?

ES: We drink Budweiser

JC: Bud in bottles.

Nothing fancy?

JC: Nothing fancy.

KH: It’s America, you know? The King of beers.

You seem to have tapped in the young demographic’s sense of comedy. There’s almost of a cultish vibe to the fans of Super Troopers. What was your comical inspiration growing up?

JC: You know. Monty Python. The films with John Landis, like Blues Brothers, Animal House, Trading Places.

ES: I was always raised on the early Saturday Night Live, with Chevy Chase and Jim Belushi, Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy.

KH: We were also, I think, each other’s influences. The whole idea was always just to make each other laugh. I think that was always the motivation.

ES: We just put together a bunch of friends, and fellow actors and comedians, about eleven of us altogether when it first started. I remember a slot opened up for a one-act play, and Jay decided to put up a sketch comedy show instead, and that’s how it all started really.

SL: We wrote a bunch of sketches, and were performing in this little cabaret, two drink minimum club. We were having a great time, it seemed like the audience was having a great time, and it just sort of built of from there and went into the city (New York).

ES: But then people started dropping out because they had to get real jobs, or got too much pressure from their parents. It kind of dwindled down to the five of us that worked the best together.

I think people tend to be so loyal to Broken Lizard because it’s inception is such a cool story, of guys meeting together in college and making a name together off of jokes. It’s kind of what everyone aspires to do.

ES: It’s funny, I was just listening to Pearl Jam. They’ve been together for so long, and I assume that they’re good friends still. They get to tour around and play, and we get to tour around and make movies. I feel really lucky.

Your troupe used to be called Charred Goosebeak in college, and then it was switched to Broken Lizard. Any particular reason why?

JC: Well, Charred Goosebeak is the name of the improv group that’s still going at Colgate. We sat around for three days and came up with the new name we wanted. I think was, The Chocolate Bikini Speedo Team?

SL: Chocolate Speedo?

JC: Chocolate Speedo was the name of it, yah. Then, when I went to make the poster I just unilaterally and randomly switched it to Broken Lizard. That’s the story.

You get compared to Monty Python a fair amount. Is that irritating or flattering?

JC: We’re happy to be mentioned in the same sentence. It’s definitely flattering.

KH: We aspire to that.

ES: It’s more just a form of comparison than anything else. They had four or five guys, and we have five guys. I’d hate to get compared to them because they’re on a level that’s so hard to attain, so if we get compared we would get shredded.

SL: If anybody ever says “these guys want to be Monty Python,” or say Broken Lizard and Monty Python in the same sentence, we end up getting attacked, even though we had nothing to do with it. People come after us and tell us we suck.

JC: I’ve never heard of that. I’ve always though that people say it fondly. I think it’s more that we’re the ones who get worried about it.

SL: Exactly. I spend too much time on IMDB.com, which is nothing but hate.

You’re so different, I don’t see a real stylistic comparison.

KH: It’s like bands comparing themselves to The Beatles. You can’t really do it.

So, now that Beerfest is almost here, you all seem to be off doing your own stuff. Do you still consider Broken Lizard to be “home” creatively or are you more excited about other things?

ES: With five people, it gives you time to do a lot of different things. For example, when we write a draft of a script, we’ll get together and jam out really hard on it for like a month or two. When we hand it in, we’ll have weeks that are down time. That allows you to go and work on a television project, or write a script yourself, and then get back together when you have to write the next draft.

KH: A lot of the other stuff we do, we do so that we can make the Broken Lizard movies. I think that’s our first love. We’re with Warner Bros. now, and the idea is we do something bigger for them, and then they let us go and make a Broken Lizard movie.

SL: Ideally, the Broken Lizard movie will become the big Warner Bros. movie.

Were you at all surprised by the public’s reaction to Club Dread? How does Beerfest match up against your previous efforts?

ES: With Club Dread, we tried to do something that was very hard to get. With comedy, and horror, it was difficult to really drill the tone.

KH: Club Dread did us a favor. The reaction to that movie was that people wanted to see us play the same characters that we played in Super Troopers. Now they’ve seen that’s not really our intention. I think they get it, that we’re going to be playing totally new characters in this movie. It’s not going to freak them out anymore.

SL: I think the thing we’re all psyched about with Beerfest is it’s a return to just pure comedy, like what we did with Super Troopers. It’s more of our comfort-zone I think. It’s my favorite movie that we’ve made.

Now that you’re bonafide movie stars, how do people approach you? Do they know your names, or do they shout out your characters’ names when they see you?

KH: Yah, I’m “Farva,” wherever I go. No one knows what my real name is.

JC: It’s mostly from Super Troopers. You get the occasional Club Dread fan, but I’d say it’s mostly Super Troopers.

SL: Sometimes they call me “Penelope” (pronounced Peen-a-lope), the name of my love interest from Club Dread; so they don’t even know my name in Club Dread. They call me my girlfriend’s name.

ES: They usually approach us with a shot of Tequila or Jagermeister and ask if we’ll chug it with them. Usually you don’t have a choice. It’s like calling you out your masculinity.

KH: A big one is, someone will come up to you and throw their cell phone at you, and ask you to record their outgoing message with a Super Troopers line.

Do you do it?

KH: Hell Yah! Any press is good press.

With the amount of creative output you guys are coming up with, it’s impressive that the jokes keep coming. Do you ever go through times when the well starts to run dry?

JC: Usually that’s when Steve Lemme rolls a big fat joint.

SL: He’s right about that.

KH: When we were first starting out we were all basically living in a car together this one summer, and then in hotels. When you’re with guys that often, everything you talk about when you’re not trying to come up with ideas is still hilarious, so we’d say, “Oh, this would be a good idea for this,” or “this would be good for this.”

ES: That’s how a lot of stuff from Super Troopers came about. The opening scene kind of happened to a friend of ours.

SL: And now, with this Warner Bros. deal, we’re all back in this office, and it’s kind of like a clubhouse, so it’s fostering the original, creative juice that we had when we were first starting out all in one place. And we smoke joints.

Beerfest is coming out amidst a slew of hits. Any recent releases that you liked?

JC: I’m a fan of Superman Returns.

ES: Nacho Libre. I love Jack Black, I laughed my ass off.

SL: In America, you ever see that one?

KH: You cried, right Lemme?

SL: Yes. I cried. I cried my ass off, during it, and then walking down the street talking about it afterwards I started to cry again during the scenes I was talking about, because I loved it so much.

Funny. So what’s next for Broken Lizard?

JC: We might make this movie called The Greek Road, which is set in ancient Greece. Kevin plats Plato, and Steve plays Socrates. Plato is a freshman-wrestling recruit at Athens University, and he’s failing his class “Basic Thought.” They hire Socrates, who’s a senior, to tutor him. Plato ends up cheating, but passes, and the two of them road-trip to Mt. Olympus on a chariot. The rest of us play Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, who are trying to get in the way. It’s a big epic Greek comedy.

Super Troopers 2. A lot of people want it. What would it take to get it made?

JC: We have an idea. Basically, it’s called Super Troopers ’76. We play our versions of ourselves, but in 1976. We have a little longer hair, ride motorcycles, Bicentennials.
We’ll see if we ever get around to it.

That sounds pretty great. Hopefully we’ll get to see it! Before we end this thing, do you guys have any parting words you’d like to give?

ES: Lick it, kick it and stick it.

KH: Brush you teeth.

SL: Go see Beerfest!

KH: Brush your teeth and then go see Beerfest.

Oh! One last question. What do you guys do on a Saturday night?

KH: Sixty-nine, dude. With whomever I can. Saturday night is sixty-nine night for me.

SL: Originally when you said ‘what do you do on a Saturday night,’ I was going to say ‘your ma.’ But that’s so immature.

What about you, Jay?

KH: Jay, you can maybe get them in some sixty-nine if you want.

SL: Jay, If you want, you can get your mom in on it.

JC: Do my own mother with you?

SL: Sure!