The Birthday Boys are back! The seven-man UCB alum sketch team returns to IFC for Season 2 on October 17th at 11:30PM. After successful debut season, the Boys continue to be ground-breaking with their narrative form of sketch comedy. Capturing the spotlight on cable, IFC rolls out the new season with the Boys who continue to turn heads. With brand new sketches, new surprise guest stars, and fresh takes on new topics, The Birthday Boys are ready to bring the funny.
Season 2 of The Birthday Boys premiers with a familiar face. Comedy veteran Dana Carvey joins the Boys in a hilarious take on name brand clothing commercials. Channeling a very Ralph Lauren-like, hoity-toity persona, Carvey appears as a clothing designer in his own commercial. The premise of the sketch is simple: how can people in these commercials roughhouse in expensive designer clothing? Troupe member Tim Kalpakis is the lone voice in the sketch who realizes he doesn’t want to get his over-priced clothing dirty. Here, the Boys show their strengths in parody by reminding viewers that advertisers can be quite sneaky. “It does ask that question, ‘how rich do you have to be to put on like Calvin Klein’s top rack new menswear … and go out and play rugby?'” comments Dave Ferguson. In their classic narrative form, Kalpakis returns later in the episode pitching his own line of inexpensive clothes designed for normal everyday wear and tear. It’s this fresh take on parody that has drawn guest stars like Carvey to the show.
Not only has a vet like Carvey taken notice, but the Boys sense of humor has even drawn the likes of Fabio to the show. While writing a sketch that required a stereotypical handsome man, the first person the Boys thought of was the alpha male model Fabio. Without having a personal connection, the Boys recall mailing Fabio the script. To their excitement, the scene’s concept was enough for Fabio to agree to appear. The sketch involves Mike Mitchell and Fabio as a couple who decide to have a child through a surrogate. Oddly enough, the couple has chosen Mitchell’s less attractive character to be the male donor. Hilarity ensues as Mike Hanford plays the shocked friend who doesn’t understand why Fabio’s DNA wasn’t chosen to have a perfect baby. Creative and and honest, the Boys’ humor make the surreal highly entertaining.
Since airing Season One, The Birthday Boys have gained respect amongst their peers in the comedy community. Dana Carvey felt right at home on the show due to reminiscent feelings of his short lived but loved sketch comedy series The Dana Carvey Show. With Bob Odenkirk as the Boys producer and former Dana Carvey Show writer, the pieces came together organically for Carvey’s appearance. Other praise has come from a wide spectrum of comedy peers such as Jack Black, the cast of Workaholics, and Tim & Eric. Ferguson mentions, “It’s a good feeling when you’re registering with people from different facets of the current comedy scene.” Tim & Eric are not only two of team’s favorite sketch performers, but became co-producers of The Birthday Boys out of mutual admiration. “To connect with them, I think you have to have something unique,” Ferguson comments on Tim & Eric, “And I don’t know what it is, but as long as we’re falling in that category somehow that we are still putting a wrinkle on sketch comedy [then] that’s good.” Providing a new platform for performing sketch, comedy veterans like Odenkirk, Carvey, Ben Stiller, and even Fred Willard have a place to shake the dust off and go back to their roots. Taking their personal time to work on the show, these stars give the Boys their seal of approval.
After completing a full season, the Boys have learned from the process. They now have a better understanding on how to produce shows more efficiently and quickly. As Ferguson mentions, “The biggest challenge for a group of seven filmmakers is to agree.” Expanding on the team’s abilities that were learned from their time at UCB and creating their own comedy videos, the Boys have acquired new skills. The change for them was learning how to manage their limited time to film during the season and handling a cable TV budget. The results were positive as it actually made the gang more creative. The Boys also joke about having a “very detailed color-coded note system” for producing shows. They also laugh about their access to reach out to different celebrities to guest appear. “We are proud to have gotten passes from some of the biggest names on the planet this year,” jokes Kalpakis, “We went up to Meryl Streep this year, and she politely passed. So that was a nice feather in our cap.” All kidding aside, the Boys continue to work hard in order to connect with their sketch heroes. “There’s at least somebody you’ll love in every episode [of season two] even if you don’t like the seven of us,” laughs Ferguson. Establishing themselves in the world of television sketch comedy came from successfully navigating through a freshman season on TV. With new guest stars, new sketches, and the finer sense of how to produce television sketch comedy, Season Two of The Birthday Boys is one to look out for.
Season Two debuts Friday October 17th at 11:30 PM only on IFC. Don’t forget to check out their page on ifc.com!
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