This is the story of The Lonely Island, straight from their own mouths. ...And mine.
From their website:
"The Lonely Island is a group of filmmakers located in (formerly Los Angeles, CA) New York. They have recently joined the cast and writing staff of Saturday Night Live."
Now back to me:
The Lonely Island is the comedy group that Andy Samberg is involved in. They actually did two "sitcom" pilots that weren't picked up by the networks, and they were commissioned to do a "sketch show" pilot. Well, that one (Awesometown) also didn't get picked up by the networks. However, one of the networks that passed on it, MTV, hired the three boys to write on the MTV Movie Awards. That's where they met Jimmy Falon, who was the host for that year. Jimmy thought they were hilarious and introduced them to Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live.
In the meantime, Andy had been practicing his standup comedy in clubs, and he even landed a comic showcase TV spot on Comedy Central's Premium Blend. So that's why Lorne hired Andy as a cast member and the other two as writers, directors, and musicians (they mix all of Andy's music vidoes). Lorne hired Andy because he was more experienced in front of audiences and it showed.
Lets just hope that Lorne lets another older cast member go next season in order to bump up Jorma. I'd let go one of these (1) Seth Meyers (they won't, because he's the head writer; they should only use him for the Weekend Update and take him off the cast list), (2) Darrel Hammond, (3) Maya Rudolph, (4) Kenan Thompson, (5) Will Forte, or (6) Bill Hader (he's new, but he's already starting to annoy me. Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen anchor the show. Plus Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg, and Jason Sudeikis are the future of SNL.
Anyway, that brings us back to the current time. Last year, Andy Samberg was approached by Pam Brady (producer and writer of Just Shoot Me, South park, and Team America: World Police) to star in a movie she wrote, Hot Rod, about a moped rider named Rod. Well, they hit it off, and she let all three members of The Lonely Island rewrite her movie with her and share the credit. She also let the director of their group, Akiva, direct the movie (he had been directing all the SNL Digital Shorts and several music videos). Jorma also stars, and they got Chester Tam (long-time collaborator of The Lonely Island) and Bill Hader into the cast.
More on Pam Brady:
More on Hot Rod:
Back to The Lonely Island talking about themselves:
"The group was founded in 2001 by Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg. The three have been friends since attending junior high and high school together in Berkeley, CA. After high school they parted ways for college (Akiva to UCSC majoring in film, Andy to UCSC followed by NYU Film and Jorma graduated from UCLA Theater.) Eventually they all landed in an apartment in Los Angeles where they resumed filming comedy shorts and christened themselves (and their apartment) 'The Lonely Island'. They have been collectively writing, directing and acting in projects ever since and are frequently joined by their friend Chester Tam and others.
They are represented by United Talent Agency and Mosaic Media.
For fan mail and all other subjects, please send email to: films@TheLonelyIsland.com. The Dudes read all of the email sent to them, but they're so busy, and there's so much of it, that they rarely get a chance to respond to any of it. But they do read everything and appreciate all of the sweet, sweet, fan love."
Their "autobiography" is from the contact page of their website:
1 comment:
Pretty helpful piece of writing, thanks so much for your post.
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