On Five Seasons of Buttholes with the ‘Workaholics’ Guys

Five seasons in, and there’s still no shortage of butthole jokes on Workaholics. You have to respect that commitment.

Whereas some comedies will shift gears over time and bring on new characters or other developments, Workaholics keeps it real. Week after week viewers are treated to the drunken antics of three slacker morons. They only thing that changes is the mischief they get into. It’s a formula that works so why mess with it?

I caught up with Workaholics stars Adam Devine, Anders Holm, and Blake Anderson prior to their Season Five premiere. We talked about buttholes (of course), A-list guest stars, and their various solo projects.

How’s the shoot going?

Adam: It’s going good man, this seasons going to be rad.

The first episode was great.

Adam: Oh yeah, you saw it?

Yeah. Whose idea was the mirror trick thing for watching porn?

Adam: Oh shit. I don’t really know whose idea that was at first, but it works man.

Oh yeah, you can verify?

Adam: You gotta try it.

I think pretty much every male viewer you have is going to be trying it after the show.  

Adam: Yeah, totally. If you view pornos really they start to make sense.

Blake: What’s up?

So you guys are in Season Five. Impressive. Are we getting into syndication territory, and if so, what are you going to do with your billions of dollars?

Adam: Oh man you came out with the hard-hitting question.

Right off the bat.

Anders: Well we’ve been told the Viacom doesn’t syndicate so it looks like we’ll be poor forever.

Adam: Nowhere near having billions of dollars.

Blake: Yeah, it’s a sore subject.

Seriously though, they don’t syndicate?

Adam: No.

Anders: Sounds crazy, huh?

Adam: We also thought it was pretty loony.

Anders: Can’t bite the hand that feeds you thought, huh? Well I guess you could nibble on it a little bit.

Adam: We’ll nibble and say we’re bummed.

Now I feel like an asshole for bringing it up.

Adam: No man, I think it’s cool. Let’s air it out.

Blake: Let’s get real.

So tell me a little bit more about Season Five. I heard Ben Stiller is going to be on an episode?

Adam: Yeah Ben Stiller plays our landlord and Jack Black plays my dad.

Blake: Yeah, we got some A-listers this season.

Adam: Yeah, who knew? It’s cool though because like now our (crew) will be like, “Oh this is a real television show.� One guy was like, “It’s cool that you kids do everything that’s good, but it’s cool you got real actors.� I’m like, “What do you mean?� He’s like, “I mean big actors!� I’m like, “OK.�

That’s hilarious. How do those bigger names get involved?

Adam: Ben Stiller got involved through Kyle who’s directing a movie for his production company. But it’s also probably because we’re the best show on television. That can’t hurt.

Anders: Yeah that always helps.

Adam: Mmmhmm. And I know Jack Black. We’ve been trying to develop something for a while. So I kind of knew him from that.

When you’re working on different projects and TV shows, do you bring anything you’ve learned back to Workaholics?

Anders: Huh, I didn’t think about doing that. Dammit.

Adam: I mean our show is so different. Like we can’t shoot our show how they shoot Modern Family, you know? It wouldn’t feel the same. It wouldn’t feel like our show. It was also refreshing to go on other sets and realize we hadn’t been blowing it that hard. Like, “Oh yeah, we’ve been making TV how people make TV.� We’re not totally off base here. So it was refreshing to know we’re not total idiots.

Anders: But the nacho fountains at other show’s food service tables, that was a tough one to take.

Blake: Yeah, we’re going to start serving fondue at lunch.

Adam: Except we won’t. We’ll melt some chocolate and cheese in a microwave and tell people to eat it quickly before it… What’s that word?

Anders: Coagulates.

Adam: Found it! Thank you Anders. He’s the smart one.

Anders, this next question is for you. In the first episode you had your butt eaten by a dog and there seems to be a pattern of ass play in your recent roles? Can you talk about that?

Anders: Do I like it? I love it. It’s the new clitoris. The new clitoris is the butt hole. It’s a brand new androgynous zone that we’re hoping the kids…

[Laughs.]

Blake: I don’t think the butt hole is the new clitoris. It’s always been the butt hole, baby.

Anders: Thank you. Yes.

So this is all about sexual freedom and expression for young people? Ass play awareness?

Anders: Yeah. I want these young people coming up to know there are a lot of options for having fun, and safe fun. I mean no one is getting knocked up when you’re playing with the b-hole.

That’s a good point.

Anders: There are no dookie babies, I don’t think.

Adam: I’ll admit it, I was a dookie baby. It finally came out. I’ve been keeping it a secret for so long.

[Laughs.]

Having done the show for five seasons now is there any part of you that is looking to take a break? Are you guys cool with it being the thing you’re known for if that’s the case? I mean who knows, maybe you’re all going to be Oscar winning actors, I don’t know.  

Adam: Well we love doing it and we love doing it so much, but that’s also why we’re trying to do other stuff outside of Workaholics currently. Like Ders is doing all these different movies and The Mindy Project and stuff, and we’re all trying to go off and do different things so that way we do different things and we’re not entirely pigeonholed into doing Workaholics. We love working with each other and we create our own stuff so if we are pigeonholed as the guys from Workaholics then we write a movie that’s not us as the guys from Workaholics.

Are you still as involved in the show as you’ve ever been? Do you relinquish some control now that you’re on Season Five?

Blake: We’re still as much as involved as we’ve been from day one. We’re still in the recording room every day, we’re on set every day, and we sit in on the edits, and the final cuts too. It’s still very much our brain-child.

Adam: And I think we’re getting to trust each other more too. Since we’re all getting so much busier… like if I wasn’t in the writer’s room one day I could come back in and get caught up quickly and trust in what they worked on and not try to totally blow it up.

You mentioned working on some other movies the last time we talked. You mentioned a movie that would be like Die Hard set in an arcade, I believe? Any update on that project?

Adam: Well it’s Die Hard set in a hotel. It’s still happening. We’re on like the 14th re-write. This is the movie business, man, you gotta keep turning out them drafts.

Is this the one that Seth Rogen is producing?

Adam: That’s right.

So it’s still in the works.

Blake: Still happening.

Adam: We got to get to a point to actually shoot that thing.  We’re still really excited about the idea and we really love it so hopefully we get some momentum going on that.

How about going on the road – do you guys have plans of doing anything live together any time soon?

Adam: Yeah, I’m about to go on the road and do standup. I feel like we’re kind of like a band. Like us working together is like the Rolling Stones going on the road for six months or however long and then when we’re done we’re like, “Oh we want to go pursue our other interests and not necessarily stick with each other that entire time.�

Blake: We did do the Festival Supreme though a couple months ago and that was pretty fun. We had to dust off the old live show skills.

Adam: Yeah, we rapped in front of like 10,000 people and we were like gangster rapping wizards.

How did that go?

Together: It was awesome.

Adam: Kyle couldn’t get the track to work right away but besides that it was a monster success. A lot of it was us waiting at the top for Kyle to get the track to work, and we were on stage like, “How we feelin’?  We can’t hear you still!�

Adam, I saw on Facebook that you’re holding auditions for Adam Devine’sHouse Party. So House Party starts again soon?

Adam: We don’t know quite yet. They told me that they want to do a Season Three and I’m pumped, I love doing the show so much. It’s cool. I met so many cool comics that I didn’t know before and it’s really cool getting to know this young new batch of comics that are going to be the next big thing. I don’t know timing wise when we’ll be able to shoot it yet, but it will definitely be sometime this next year.

Are you involved with recommending people to audition?

Adam: Yeah, 100 percent. They give me lists and lists of people and then I tell them who I would like to showcase. Then I sit and watch hundreds and hundreds of tapes. Then I choose somebody who is not only a good standup but somebody who I think could act and carry a scene as well.

So you guys have the first half of Season Five wrapped up and now you’re shooting the second half?

Blake: We have two more left.

You’re almost done? Nice.

Anders: Yeah we can feel it.

What are you guys going to do after?  Are you going to take a trip somewhere—individually of course?

Blake: Hawaii – hey baby.

Adam: I’m going on tour but I’m kind of treating that as my vacation. I’m doing a straight month of shows with one day off. It’ll be an experience. It’ll be a lot of fun and I’ll get to go a lot of places I’ve never been before. I’m looking forward to it. August 10th I’ll be starting at the Paramount theatre in Austin, Texas.

Workaholics airs Wednesdays at 10 on Comedy Central.

Phil Davidson writes about, performs and produces comedy.