People look at me like I’m insane when I bring up Viva Variety. But it did exist. I am not making it up.
Viva variety existed, people. It was The State on acid.
It may not be on DVD or Netflix, but Johnny Blue Jeans lives on in our hearts and minds.
And why the hell ISN'T it on DVD or Netflix, huh? Or Hulu? HUH?
Phone Keys Gum: a new dance sensation.
Starring David Wain & Thomas Lennon.
One night, Stephen Colbert and his Strangers With Candy co-star and co-creator Paul Dinello rented bassoons for a duet of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Every time there was an instrumental break, they’d dramatically lean into the mouthpieces, lick their lips, and make other grand “about to play” gestures. But they never did, always pulling away from their instruments at the absolute last second, for almost ten minutes of this song. Finally, near the end, they blew into them with full force, having no idea how to play them. “It sounded like elephants dying,” says Showalter who, like Black, remembers this as one of the funniest things to ever happen at Stella. Wain doesn’t remember it, but concedes that his own recollection of bits is hazy because between Stella’s material, “I would go around the room in the audience and just flirt with girls.”
