Hillary Clinton’s appearance on Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis has caused a bit of a fuss. A good fuss, mind you. So, what juicy behind-the-scenes tidbits are there to be extracted from the comedy interview and fern showcase?
Comedy Bang! Bang! host and Between Two Ferns co-creator Scott Aukerman (Yacht Rockerman) has revealed a few of the magician’s secrets in his post-release round of interviews attached to Galifianakis’ unique interrogation of Clinton. According to Aukerman, a good chunk of what you see on-screen in that hilarious and uncomfortable chat was improvised. Heck, Hillary’s fern funzos has less rigid conditions than Barack Obama’s.
“When we did the Obama one, what was going to happen was pretty vetted. We had a longer prep time and did more of a dance about what was going into the video and what wasn’t,” he explained to the Wall Street Journal. “Generally we like them to be improvised, so we threw that out there for this one and, to their credit, the Clinton campaign wanted it to be as much like the normal experience for us as possible. So I’d say 90% of the questions we asked and the conversation that was had was totally improvised. That’s impressive to me because I didn’t think that would happen.”
Outside of things getting buck wild at a campaign event with Wayne Brady, “improv” is not necessarily the word people think of when they think “Hillary Clinton.” The current White House hopeful did her homework before filming, mind you.
“She had a good handle on what a typical Ferns episode is like, so there wasn’t a lot of directing that I had to do with her in terms of tone or coaching her through a performance,” he revealed. “Once we start the conversation a lot of the hard work is over for me. It’s just about capturing it on film.”
Don’t hold your breath on a Donald Trump edition of Behind Two Ferns bubbling up before the polls open. It’s not out of the question, but a loved one may end up finding your corpse. Why?
“I just can’t imagine a situation in which that would ever even occur,” offered Aukerman. “I just can’t see him subjecting himself to that.”
This seems like as good a time as any to give Between Two Ferns another watch or six.
(Via Wall Street Journal & Vulture)
