Thomas Lennon enters the dressing room where seven of his cohorts in the sketch-comedy troupe The State are hanging out, recovering from the first night of a three-night run at the Palladium Times Square and preparing to perform again in 90 minutes. He has bad news. āThe testing of the good smoke machine is, they think, what set off the smoke alarm,ā he says, referencing an incident that interrupted rehearsal earlier on this Tuesday afternoon. āSo we donāt get to use it. Itās a bit of a bummer.ā
Annoyed murmurs and at least one āWhat the fuck?ā ripple around the room. Fog appears in the opening of the show, which leads into āThe Jew, the Italian and the Redhead Gay,ā a send-up of stereotype-perpetuating sitcoms and one of the more popular sketches from the groupās influential ā90s MTV series, also called The State. Later, the fog accentuates the arrival of Barry (Lennon) and Levon (Michael Ian Black), two cheeseballs who became quasi-famous on the original series by trying to make utter nonsense sound sensual (āAwwww, yeahā). Back in the ā90s, Barry and Levon celebrated the existence of $240 worth of pudding. In the version updated for The Stateās āBreakinā Hearts and Dippinā Ballsā tour that stopped in New York this week, they seductively try to sell reversible mortgages.
If thereās no fog in either of those moments, the audience likely wonāt notice. But that doesnāt matter to these sketch perfectionists who have spent more than three decades treating absurdity with the seriousness a brain surgeon usually reserves for the operating table. Their MTV show, which ran for four seasons in 1994 and 1995, treated the utterly silly with an almost intellectual, committed rigor, apparent in sketches like āThe U.S. Menās Bikini Thong Rollerblading Team,ā about a group of male Rollerbladers who perform classic dramas of the 1930s and ā40s while skating in, yes, bikini thongs (itās slyly referenced in the current live show), or āTenement,ā reprised for this tour, in which Kerri Kenney-Silver, Ken Marino, and Joe LoTruglio perform a bleeped version of a gritty stage drama (āDarn me to h-e-double-hockey sticks!ā). Arriving on television in the wake of The Kids in the Hall, The State stood proudly as the work of subversive Gen-Xers ā simultaneously lowbrow and smart, with an electrifying chemistry between the members of its ensemble.
That chemistry is still crackling, which is why, after a minute or so of lamenting the loss of the fog, these kids who found each other at New York University turn the situation into an opportunity to riff. āDo you want me to dress up as fog? And just come dance around?ā offers Marino, the State player whose character, Louie, is responsible for the ādippinā ballsā reference in the tourās name. āYes,ā Lennon immediately responds. āYou come out [adopts spooky voice]: āIām Old Man Foo-oog.ā Theyāre joking. But also: Marino would do it. Because thatās the other thing about the guys (and one woman) in The State: Theyāre willing to try just about anything to get a laugh.
The 11 members ā Marino, Lennon, Black, Kenney-Silver, LoTruglio, Michael Patrick Jann, Kevin Allison, David Wain, Michael Showalter, Robert Ben Garant, and Todd Holoubek ā have collaborated so frequently over the years that their Wikipedia page includes a chart tracking all the times their creative paths have overlapped, whether in the Wet Hot American Summer franchise; Cops send-ups Reno 911 and Reno 911: Miami; the movie The Ten, co-written by Marino and Wain, who also directed; and various other scripted cable or streaming series, including Childrenās Hospital, Party Down, and Burning Love. But due to constantly conflicting schedules, itās rare for all or even most of them to reunite specifically as The State. It has happened on a few one-off occasions ā in 2008 at Upright Citizens Brigade in L.A.; in 2009 at SketchFest in San Francisco; in 2014 at Festival Supreme, also in L.A.; and on a Zoom call for charity in 2020. But they havenāt toured together since the MTV show ended its run. There was an extra full-circle nature to the New York performances because the Palladium, located at 1515 Broadway, shares the same address with the former MTV offices that once functioned as The Stateās headquarters.
Three of the original members ā Showalter, Garant, and Holoubek ā were not able to join the group in New York or on their other scheduled dates in Boston, L.A., San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Seattle. (More are slated to be announced.) But the others have put together a lively variety show that includes multiple costume changes (Kenney-Silver notes that she wears ten different wigs), musical numbers, tons of lighting cues, and, in between sketches, videos from their MTV era, including pieces from You Wrote It, You Watch It, the MTV sketch-comedy series hosted by Jon Stewart that gave The State kids their first television break. The sets are pared down on purpose so they can be changed quickly ā thereās a few tables or chairs, if that, in each sketch, and the backdrops are projected onto the video screen behind them. But the pace of it is brisk, and feels even brisker to the actors when eight of them are in the wings trying to strip in and out of ensembles with only two assistants to help them.
āThe show is almost too big,ā says Lennon.
āItās tiny compared to Les Miz,ā deadpans LoTruglio. āBut thatās about it.ā
The go-for-broke quality of the performance went over well during the first Palladium performance on Monday night, where the audience included parents, spouses, aunts, cousins, and siblings of several members of The State as well as actors like Becky Ann Baker, Dylan Baker, and Paul Rudd. Outside the Palladium before the show, I asked Rudd, a co-star of Wet Hot American Summer and longtime FOTS ā thatās Friend of The State āĀ if he was excited to see this big reunion. His perfectly sarcastic response: āWas anyone really demanding this?ā
Some hard-core State fans ā who, based on a scan of the audience, looked a lot like the comedians they had come to see: middle-aged and white ā actually were demanding this, though, and they cheered as soon as certain recognizable characters strolled onstage. That included Louie, Marinoās life of the party who, in a State sketch repeated almost verbatim, crashes the Last Supper by shouting his signature catchphrase, āI want to dip my balls in it!,ā which, coincidentally, is also exactly what happens in the Bible; the Tape Kids (Black, Kenney-Silver, and LoTruglio) ā people with Scotch tape plastered across their faces, obviously ā who provided the Palladiumās āsafety instructionsā; the aforementioned Barry and Levon (an excited woman sitting behind me yelled out for $240 worth of pudding almost as soon as they showed up); two frogs (Lennon and Kenney-Silver) who sing an updated version of āFroggy Jamboreeā; Allisonās Taco Man, a mailman who insists on delivering quality tacos instead of the actual mail; and the entire ensemble in the sublimely ridiculous āPorcupine Racetrack,āĀ a musical number set ā and I canāt believe I need to explain this ā at a porcupine racetrack. Lennon, who wrote the sketch in the ā90s a half-hour before a pitch meeting, even appeared in the same porcupine costume he wore on MTV, a prickly ensemble recently rediscovered in Michael Patrick Jannās basement.
While the performances went well, there were some technical glitches during the first show, including a couple of set changes that took place in complete silence because the Spin Doctorsā āTwo Princesā didnāt play when it was supposed to. āLast night was our Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,ā Lennon says. As a comedic perfectionist, he is exaggerating. It was not that bad.
Even The Stateās deep cuts were well received, particularly Allisonās āHalf-Time Hilarity,ā an extremely sexual pep talk delivered in a football locker room ā āYou see this beard on my face? You can consider this your personal fucking parking spaceā āĀ that originally appeared on The Stateās album, Comedy for Gracious Living, recorded in 1996 but never released by Warner Bros. And then there was Doug, the teen slacker who says āIām outta heeeereā and is, arguably, the most recognizable character born from The State. He was originally played by Showalter, who couldnāt be there to reprise the role. In a move emblematic of the new life the show brings to the familiar, The State circumvented this problem Monday night by inviting an audience member, a guy named Rich who works in real estate, to play the part, then berated him repeatedly for not getting it right. Rich seemed to love it.
Despite all the concerns about tech problems and faulty fog machines, the fans are what keeps The State engaged and excited to perform. Backstage on Tuesday, LoTruglio talks about a friendās boyfriend who saw Mondayās show despite not being familiar with the MTV series. āIt was clear there was such a history, and watching how much fun we had ā a rare group of people who have known each other that long and have been doing it for this long ā made it very entertaining for him to watch.ā
Black, reclining on a sofa, jumps in: āI honestly donāt remember your name, and I feel horrible.ā
Kenney-Silver, speaking very slowly, tries to help: āJoe.ā
āJoe, the little Italian guy thatās always going on and on,ā Lennon adds. āThe little Italian guy.ā
Marino, the other, taller Italian guy chimes in: āHeās on Barney Miller.ā
LoTruglio corrects him: āIt was Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Thatās a common mistake.ā
They could do this all day, and honestly, they probably do. But sometimes they allow themselves to speak from the heart about how it feels to still be cracking ball-dipping jokes with their best friends. āWhen Iām in the room with these guys, it feels like weāre back in the ā90s just hanging out,ā says Marino. āThese are my brothers and sister, and itās a beautiful, special, magical experience.ā
āI couldnāt sleep the night before [Mondayās show] at all,ā Kenney-Silver adds. āThe only thing I could equate it to was: Tomorrowās Christmas. It felt like Christmas.ā