Where is the rest of the Broken Lizard team at present? Where are you hiding them?
Kevin Heffernan: They're like Superman and Clark Kent, You'll never see us together in one room at the same time.
How did you two decide to tear a piece off the ensemble and do a stand-up by yourselves, or do they simply not have the stamina or the stomach for it?
Steve Lemme: What it is, is that we're the funny ones.
KH: Several years ago, we realized that we were the only two within the troupe who had never done stand-up before.
SL: They made us go, and now we just stay on the road.
As a film entity, you don’t have to be in each other’s business all the time. How does that change on the road with a stand-up career? Anything fortunate or unfortunate?
SL: You can ask me any question about Kevin Heffernan and I can answer.
KH: Ask me about a body part of his, go ahead.
Oh my. This is Broken Lizard's 20th anniversary. Did anyone buy a cake? And as a unit, how has the evolution been – or is that the point, and you haven’t evolved?
SL: We each do our jobs better.
KH: Do we?
SL: We no longer live in the same apartment.
KH: We no longer drive in only one vehicle – all of us jammed in a car, which is how we came up with Super Troopers. Now, we have our own cars.
Aren’t you in one car now, though?
SL: OK, you got us.
I know you all went to Colgate University, but were you all in the same Beta Theta Pi Fraternity?
KH: There were four of us in Beta Theta Pi and another — Paul Soder — in the men's singing group fraternity.
Was he looked down upon? Be honest.
SL: He wasn't exactly looked down upon, but he was the subject of one of first skits, making fun of all-male singing groups on campus. He was a willing participant, though.
Q: Did Broken Lizard have an easy or difficult birth?
SL: We were a breach birth.
KH: We had fun poking fun of on-campus politics at our start, so we shared that camaraderie. There was a void in comedy in that area. We just clicked. From there we moved to NYC, did sketch comedy in clubs, and quickly decided to become a film entity.
Your team has always been on film. But with studios looking to only do superhero flicks, how does a streaming service like Netflix look as an alternative, going into the future? Is getting money from studios rough?
SL: It is difficult to make a mid-range-budget, even a low-budget film, within the studio system. It's a momentum game, however, which is why we do things such as sketch tours.
KH: We're open to any form – we want to tell stories that make people laugh. If we can find a way to do that through Netflix or Amazon, we will. It is hard to harness an audience in a theater when home viewing is such a viable option.
How surprised were you that your crowdfunding effort for filming Super Troopers 2 netted over double the money you asked for?
SL: Shocking. Going back to your previous question, that is THE grassroots way to make money. It was superhumbling to see such an avid audience.
What did you do with the extra money?
KH: Pumped it all into the film.
I thought you’d say you bought a new stereo or splurged on fun insignia hats.
SL: OK, we dropped it all in Mexico.
You realize you’ve turned the always stoic, sinister character actor Brian Cox, who appeared in the first movie, into a cinematic goofball, right?
KH: Yes, and it wasn't hard either. He loves Jerry Lewis. His agent approached us for the first one – he wants to do comedy.
SL: We felt unaccomplished next to him. He's more present in Super Troopers 2 than the first one.
What is it that you guys even do onstage, since we know you from film?
KH: That's a good question.
SL: We mix it up for fans of the movies and those who have never seen the films. We will even tell the story of our make-out scene that Kevin and I have in the movie. It's been but a month since our lips were wet…. Ahhh.