Josh Sharp and Aaron JacksonsDicks: The Musicalis a faggy mess.
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Then theresDicks: The Musical.
Now, Sharp and Jackson are attempting to get that party atmosphere into theaters across the country.
They then attempt toParent Traptheir mom and dad, played by Megan Mullally and Nathan Lane.
Mullally, at one point, sings that My nipples wink, I never sneeze.
There are slimy-looking puppet sewer boys referred to as gay culture.
And the final song intones, God is a faggot, and all love is love.
If the film seems designed to provoke anyone with an even slightly conservative streak, well, it wasnt.
If people are offended, people are offended.
So they can be offended by my art as well if theyd like.
Spoilers forDicks: The Musicalabound.
What reactions do you want to this film?J.S.
:We only wrote this for the people that will like it.
Its mostly Dadaist and absurd and queer to want to push a thousand buttons.
That was not the intention of this, even though I know some people think it was.
You say offensive is part of your POV.
What do you like about the aesthetic of it?A.J.
:We come from a very underground, alt-comedy background, so were always being freaks and geeks.
Its weird, fucked-up basement shit.
This movie came out of that.
Im not easily offended.
Im putting my own perspective out there.
:We were raised onStrangers With Candy thats always been the shit that makes me laugh.
Its not trying to be full-on Dane Cook.
Its very John Waters.
Its that queer version where youre pushing buttons, but youre not just pushing the offensive button.
Youre also pushing the stupidity and absurdism buttons.
Can you describe the vibe ofFucking Identical Twins?A.J.
:Even at UCB, it was a cult hit.
It was a pretty rowdy crowd.
:It became a queer mixer.
Most shows youd pair with another show.
Then UCB found that because ours was bombastic and also a musical, nothing could follow it.
So after a month of that, they were like, What about you do the whole hour?
I wanted to talk about the metanarrative of those Barracuda nights.
They have some hefty lore as a founding moment for the modern queer alt-comedy scene.A.J.
:They have lore, baby!
It was where we got to know a lot of the younger gay comics.
:Joel Kim Booster had just moved to New York.
I met him at Barracuda afterTwins.
:The podcast cabal.
Did you see it as a community-building activity then?J.S.
:No, it was literally a joke.
It became important to us, but it was more just like an added perk.
:We would invite the whole audience.
We werent trying to build community, but we do love to throw a party.
The movie feels like a party, and the show felt like a party.
Then what do you think of the lore?A.J.
:I do think that time was very formative for a lot of us becoming friends.
So when there was this one, people took it as this moment to assemble.
Now its localized in different spaces.
There was just less of that then.
Were also always like,Well, John Early and Kate Berlant are mother and father.
:And Jeff Hiller.
:I think for that generation, yes.
We happened to be the show that ran for long enough that it became a twice-a-month thing.
When making the movie, what was important to you to preserve about the original?A.J.
We still wanted it to be a runaway train.
Thats why he shot a lot in proscenium.
He wanted the cinematic version.
The stage show wasThe Parent Trapin half an hour but it wasnt like, Lets stretchThe Parent Trapout.
I didnt want this to beThe Parent Trapin 90 minutes.
Then it would just beThe Parent Trap.
:Larry was also very good about that.
And Larry has never seen either version ofTheParent Trap; he has no idea what its about.
:As a point of pride.
I didnt want this film to be parody.
WithThe Parent Trap, we could play the twins, then we could switch between playing parents.
What excites you about chaos?J.S.
:It comes back to UCB.
But it comes from a place of joy and delight, and not from wanting you to feel bad.
The show thats going well could turn bad at any second, and that is so electric.
Thats why people love watching Judy Garland.
Shes right there on the brink of going south, but shes giving you all she can give you.
For the movie, we wanted to take some of that live danger.
When did you start to see it as a movie?J.S.
I could see this whole thing in my head, and you couldnt cut a thing.
Every scene related to the next scene.
We just never thought it was going to get made.
I want to talk about the wordfaggot, which you love.J.S.
:In certain contexts.
What do you love about it?J.S.
:It does make me laugh.
Im not of the belief that it has to make everyone laugh.
Its the classic answer of Take this thing that was used against you and reclaim it.
But it is a funny-sounding word.
And its become a descriptor I really identify with:Am I gay?
No, Im just sort of a faggot.
What it is aboutfaggotversusgay man?J.S.
:Well, I love that its non-gendered.
I think Im a man, but I just dont care enough to want to lead with that.
I love all the curse words.
:And the idea that its trying to push you on an iceberg and send you out to sea.
Fuck off, faggot!
Id rather be that.
I dont need you anyway.
Ill go over here with the other faggots.
Theres a sensibility implied beyond just sexuality, right?J.S.
How is the faggot sensibility different than the gay sensibility?A.J.
:Gay is more clinical.
Pete Buttigieg and John Waters are gay, but John Waters is a faggot.
Im not sure Pete Buttigieg is a faggot.
Thats not to say its political; there are faggots who areRepublican.
Its a freak show.
:Folsom is a faggot event, whereas a lot of Pride is gay.
Gay pride is gay pride, not fag pride.
But then we were like, It is funny to trick the audience into singing God is a faggot.
When they were isolated, some people would rebuke it.
:It was decades waiting.
:And the whole audience cheered.
We had removed the barbs.
We are now inviting you to use this word in a joyful, absurdist context.
So obviously, when thinking of the movie, we did the same thing with a bouncing ball.
Its like a cinematic version of the same joke.
I am really interested in the ugliness that you put in there with the idea of the faggot.
Theres messiness in there, and bitchiness, and an uncomfortable kind of camp.J.S.
:Is this not God?
:We really respond to that ugly-weird.
There are slick, well-produced movies that I like, but I get very bored during most movies.
My brain is smooth, and everythings sliding off.
I can predict whats going to happen, or even if I cant, Im bored.
Thats not why were writing were writing it to be funny.
So yes, its gay, but its also just what I like.
A lot of them have turned into dramedies.
I like a lot of them, but we dont get off on it.
It was wild just how many incredible people agreed to do it.
Larry, Nathan, Mullally, Marius de Vries.
With Nick Offerman, his participation came from him and Megan having us over for dinner all the time.
He would say, They will teach this in theater school.
I feel it honors my 20-year-old self who was doing avant-garde theater in Chicago.
Finally we were like, Would you do it?
And he was like, I would hold lights if you wanted.
I wantFucking Identical Twinson my IMDb.
We were like, Welcome aboard!
But now itsDicks: The Musical.J.S.
:I think hell still like it.
Itll still jump out on his resume.
Whats so exciting about messiness, beyond just that you like it?J.S.
:Life is messy.
Particularly as queer people, youre relegated to,Your life is gross and weird.
Embracing that is fun to me.
I was just like, Why is it bad?
To me, thats more real than pretending everything is fine.
I couldnt wait to leave suburbia.
I was like,I need to get to a city.
Its gritty and it knows its gritty.
I feel at home in filth.
:Im a musical-theater major.
We wanted to make a real, original musical.
We didnt want to make fun of musicals.
We wanted ours to have a joke in every line.
Its not a film for test screenings, which blessedly enough people knew.
But we kept saying, Youre not showing them a finished movie.
The music was bare bones, and people didnt know that.
None of these songs were hitting, and it really felt flat.
A.J..:Its a high-low mix.
How else did the high-low come in?J.S.
:Its us, as nobodies, paired with legends.
Karl is an incredible composer who hasnt worked in the film space, but he got paired with Marius.
It was fun to see those collaborations.
Its also faggy to love musicals.J.S.
When Ive watched it in screenings with faggots, frankly, theyre going crazy.
We wanted very little heart in this movie.
Obviously, you have to have some of that.
People have to care.
The characters could be absurd cartoons doing crazy shit.
The audience begins empathizing with the movie itself.
We like that it got made.A.J.
The audience is instantly like,Oh, those are the gay guys I was told about.
:Its the classic fucking Susan Sontag camp of acknowledging artifice.
You definitely know we are Aaron and Josh all the time.
You definitely know Nathan Lane is Nathan Lane.
You certainly know its Megan Thee Stallion.
Youre invested in these people doing this little goofy project and having a lot of fun together.
Youre more invested in the project than you are in Craig or Trevor.
How do you make camp satisfying when you know youre camp?J.S.
:Were using camp a lot because thats a buzzword, but were rarely seeking to be camp.
The intentional artifice is more true to this originating as a two-man show in a black box.
You always knew it was us doing it, because we were in shitty wigs.
:I hate to call it punk, but its kind of punk to me.
And then because we are queer, our version of punk is camp.
John Waters is camp, but his work is also punk.
People are eating shit.
But acknowledging artifice is camp, and we definitely do that throughout the entire movie.
That sensibility and DIY-ness can feel camp.
:We werent saying, Lets make a camp classic.
:In the original show, there was a sense of danger.
I felt that especially when Nathan Lane was mama-birding food to the sewer boys out of his mouth.
It felt like a dare.A.J.
:And then you see the bloopers, and it reallywasa dare.
:This is a spoiler, but we have a sex scene, and Larry pitched that.
We were never going to do that, but Larry really wanted us to do it.
:When people say, Its gross, theyre twins, Im like, Its so not gross.
The central joke of the movie is we dont look anything alike.
Were Josh and Aaron.
Weve always said that its not a sex scene, its a masturbation scene.
These guys are selfish assholes of course the only person they could ever love is their identical twin.
When these straight guys get everything they want, they still want more.
I want to talk about bitchiness.
:We like characters that like themselves and the world they inhabit.
Gay bitches are usually cynics theyre commenting, but theyre not involved.
These are all front-row kids.
Theyre very happy to be there.
Everyone is all-in, and theyre all like, I dont give a shit what you think.
Im doing this because Im very self-involved.
Even in Bowens bitchiness, youre celebrating him as a bitch.J.S.
:Old Testament God is a bitch.
Its true to text!
:And I love bitchiness.
The title cards say, This is the first time gay men have ever written anything.
Josh and I dont play in that world very often.
There is a nihilism to this movie.J.S.
:Conversations with people through the years of developing this were always like, Whats the message?
But the message is All love is love.
No, the message is God is a faggot.
