When it Wains, it tours

BEYOND A SHADOW OF A TOUT Wain’s not one to talk himself up.

When David Wain calls from his home in New York—15 minutes late—he’s sweetly apologetic. As the conversation proceeds, he’s perfectly nice, never hesitating to answer our questions or give thanks to the fans who’ve followed him over the last 15 years.

But we don’t trust it. Not for a minute.

Whether it’s on his Web-only sitcom Wainy Days or in his hybrid comedy act Stella (the reunion tour stops off at the Vic Friday 5), Wain always plays the soft-spoken, lightly lisping guy. But, as soon as you’re convinced he’s harmless, he lets loose with a string of profanities that would’ve made Lenny Bruce blush. On Wainy Days, he passes a woman on the sidewalk and shoves her to the ground. Understandably, then, we ask him if it’s all an act.

“The reason my mind goes there, it has to do with social wish fulfillment,” he says. “It’s about acting on those impulses that people say you shouldn’t. I’ve always wondered, Why can’t I just push someone down in the middle of the street?”

Actually, “Why can’t I?” could be the motto for Wain and his close comic cohorts, a Wu-Tang Clan–sized crew that has worked together since the 1993 MTV sketch-comedy show. The State. With its anything-goes brand of humor—a family feasts on Muppets, two lotharios dip their butts in “$240 worth of pudding”—The State created a cult following that’s only grown in the last 15 years. (The latest rumor for the long-awaited DVD release places it in March, Wain says.)

In 2001, the Cleveland, Ohio, native made his full-length feature directorial debut with the independent Wet Hot American Summer, a send-up of ’80s camp movies that reunited much of The State’s cast, including comedian Michael Ian Black, and the core cast of Comedy Central’s Reno 911. Last month, Wain had his first go at directing a Hollywood flick with Role Models, a Paul Rudd–fronted comedy about two buddies sentenced to serve as “big brothers” to troubled kids. It seemed like a departure for Wain, whose humor has always been a little too divergent and bizarre for Hollywood. But a quick search of online fan reviews shows the faithful have remained true. One read, “Never mind the mainstream-skewing trailers and TV spots: Role Models is unmistakably a David Wain film.”

“I’m very happy to hear that people are saying that,” says Wain, audibly relieved. “My fear in making a studio film would be that I would lose my voice. I feel like I was able to do a mixture.”

If Wain has an itch to do some unalloyed comedy, the upcoming Stella reunion should relieve it. Stella began as an unusual nightclub act, an absurdist, mutant mix of stand-up, sketch and video comedy, featuring Wain, Black and former State cast member Michael Showalter. In 1997, the three took to the stage at the old-school Fez Club in Greenwich Village, clad in suits and affecting (and misappropriating) tropes from vintage comedy teams. The act consists mostly of the three bantering, which quickly devolves into bickering, hectoring and, finally, nonsense (in one routine, they call out Bruce Willis for changing his name from Bryce). In 2001, they began making videos that, in the days before YouTube, became some of the first viral-video sensations.

“I always feel lucky to be born when I was,” says the 39-year-old Wain. “It did seem like we were doing something no one else was doing at the time. Who knows if today anyone would even notice us?”

Again with the nice talk. After making it through the entire interview without glimpsing Wain’s dark side, we ask if he shares his characters’ other dominant trait: a penchant for spontaneous, goofy dancing.

“Yeah, that is more based on my real life,” he says. “Who doesn’t like to dance?”

The Stella reunion comes to the Vic Friday 5.