1) Your origins are in Boston. What are the major differences you've noticed between Boston and LA comedy audiences, in regard to how material plays? Would you say your material has shifted to accommodate these audience differences?

Well, in Boston we met during college: Where students are starving for entertainment. So we could—and DID—put on 3½-hour comedy extravaganzas for a mere $3 door charge. If you watch those shows, you can see that our material still had a bent-surreal edge to it, but leaned more towards parody and the sketches meandered more. Back then we were also on a college-funded budget, which paid for our giant bear costumes, pirate ships, and “pizza get-togethers” (read: keg parties).

Now, as TROOP!, we try to be good about really workshopping the material, being honest about where the fat is that needs to be trimmed, and putting up lean, tight shows while also allowing ourselves to talk too much. Kevin still wants marathon-length shows, but that is also why he will never make a good studio executive or adult in general. Also, we have to skip rent to buy our own bear costume, but…we get to be bears!

2. Can you describe your experience of working with National Lampoon? How did they find out about you? What did you end up doing for them? What was the process of picking sketches to reshoot for them like?

National Lampoon dug our fancy-schmancy press kit and DVD, which earned us a meeting. We sat around a big wooden table and they pitched us their show idea... which we shot just two weeks later. Not So Silent Pictures [Toga TV] is not filmed versions of established TROOP! sketches, but specially-written dialogue we wrote to perform live over old silent movie strips (kind of like MST3k or What's Up, Tiger Lily?). We had six individual heart attacks banging out about 19 pieces of new material and performed them before a live studio audience at LA's M Bar. Then we went to a party and Kato Kaelin was there. Then Bryan was featured on a National Lampoon Spring Break Special where Nikki Ziering said his name whilst topless. Clearly, we have arrived.

3) What was the most exciting show you guys ever performed?

Last year’s SketchFest NYC. It was killer. We had such a good time and were beyond honored to be a part of such a mammoth lineup of Sketch. We’re wicked thrilled to be coming back to this land of big, smart, enthusiastic audiences and one of the most hilariously hardcore Fests in the world.

A runner up for most exciting performance might be the Best of the Fest show at last year’s CanWest Vancouver Comedy Festival…but that was only because the theatre was so huge that we had to use Britney Spears head mics and that made us all feel like sexy-fabulous pop stars dressed like a Soothsayer and a handful of little girls.

4) How would you describe the LA sketch/improv comedy scene? Feel free to make sweeping generalizations.

LA has become a much better place to do comedy over the last few years. For the longest time your only choices for sketch/improv were The Groundlings and ACME (fine choices, but often too elite for grass-roots upstarts). We performed in small theatres and, when invited, the HBO Workspace and Luna Park. After those two places closed down it was a dark time... but then a pretty unique comedy scene started to grow—places like IO West, Garage Comedy at El Cid, the Comedy Central Stage, the McCadden, and the UCB's new LA theatre started popping up—places where there's a definite scene developing with groups knowing each other, going out to see each other, influencing one another’s work. LA is a pretty good time right now... but they still don't have Dunkin Donuts around here.

5) Britt's pretty cute. She single?

Britt is currently engaged to a very patient and wonderful man. However, for the right price, Britt has been known to be very single. That price usually hits around $9.95. So pool your quarters! You are in for a truly mediocre experience!