Hey Nong Man! Scott Aukerman Talks Touring Australia With Hit Podcast “Comedy Bang Bang” (And His Future On Television)

If the names Marissa Wompler, Gino Lambardo, Don DiMello, Fabrice Fabrice and The Timekeeper don’t ring a bell, fear not; it means only that you’re still sane.

It also means you’ve been missing out on the insanity of Comedy Bang Bang, the hit (and much obsessed over) American podcast led by Scott Aukerman for the past eight years.

If you download an ep – and I pray that you do – you’ll hear Aukerman (a comedian in his own right and co-creator of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis) engaging in absurd high-wire improv for a heroic 90 minutes with truly bizarre characters. Some comedians will play twisted versions of real life figures (including Paul F. Tompkins, as Werner Herzog and the late Garry Marshall); others play twisted versions of themselves (Brett Gelman, Gillian Jacobs, Jason Mantzoukas – we assume).

It’s been a huge success, spinning off not only an entire Earwolf Podcast Network (of which Aukerman is a co-founder) and the subscription Howl app, but also a TV show, which has seen Aukerman paired with bandleaders Reggie Watts, Kid Cudi and Weird Al Yankovic.

Though the TV show is set to wrap up after 110 episodes, there’s no end in sight for the podcast that started it all. (Episode 441 aired just this week.) In fact, it’s perhaps never been bigger. As such, Aukerman and frequent guests Tompkins, Lauren Lapkus and Mike Hanford have come to Australia for some certain-to-be-bonkers live recordings in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth this month, following a 28-show tour of North America. (Next up, the UK.)

We got a chance to chat with Scott about hitting Australia’s “hot button” topics, whether or not Paul F. Tompkins will ever play Garry Marshall again (“these are real people and they’re really passing away and they have loved ones, so it’s always a little bit odd”) and keeping in touch with Between Two Ferns guest President Obama (“I still have his number and I text him every day”).

B-b-b-b-bonus-s-s-s-s-s: Scott also discussed his dashed dream of replacing David Letterman, as well as his hope to one-day host “a [TV] talk show that isn’t an ironic take on a talk show”.

“My dream when I first started [the TV show] was: I’ll do this for three years or four years and Comedy Bang Bang will get popular like Portlandia or something, and then I would be in the conversations for when David Letterman retired, you know?” he laughed.

“Obviously, he retired before I was done and [the TV show] did not become as popular as I’d hoped.”

All joking a salad, Comedy Bang Bang plays Brisbane on August 25, Melbourne on August 26, Sydney on August 28 and Perth on August 29. Get your tickets here.

Photo: IFC.