Are you experienced An interview with the makers of The Connor O'Hoolihan Experience

By Julie Armstrong     3/27/08 7:00pm

The Rice Thresher spent a few quality moments in the RTV5 studio getting to know the faces in front of and behind the camera of the new Rice Sketch Comedy spin-off, The Connor O'Hoolihan Experience, before the satire-driven show takes on an independent life of its own.The mock news phenomenon stars Baker College sophomore Connor Hollowwa as the show's namesake and features writing by Jones College junior Barr Reed. Hanszen College senior and Thresher cartoonist Dan Derozier heads up filming and production. The show's third episode premiered online on Thursday.

Thresher: So tell me what this show is about.

Barr Reed: The point of the show is that it kind of has a Stephen Colbert theme, but it's at Rice, and the character is a racist guy from [America's] white suburbia. It's his process of exploring the world around him in the form of investigative reporting, kind of like Amy Davis, but more intelligent.

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Thresher: Who does what on the show?

BR: I wrote the first episode and came to Connor with the idea to do this, but after he got on board, it morphed from what was originally written.

Connor Hollowwa: I helped with the second episode, which was obviously worse, but -

BR: [laughs] No, I mean, the second episode was worse, but Connor had nothing to do with it . The process is that I write the general idea, throw out some scene ideas, bounce them off of Connor for a while [until] it really shifts, then he brings [the ideas] back to me and I write them down. If we had to give positions, I would say I'm the principal writer and he's the principal actor, but there's much more of a blur.

Thresher: Have you two worked on anything else together in the past?

BR: Connor and I actually have a history of collaboration. I guess it's weird because we've never been best friends, but at same time we've always had some sort of project. We worked a lot last year [on] a failed, failed, failed .

CH: Miserably failed.

BR: . terrible electronic music project. It was like Ratatat, minus the guitar and the drum beats. I didn't even like listening to it.

CH: You can only do so much with GarageBand.

BR: We have a history of wasting our time on things we'll never be able to put on business or dental school applications.

Thresher: What does Dan do?

BR: He feeds us chocolates. We lie back and he dangles them into our mouths and we listen to classical music.

Dan Derozier: I work the cameras, and I do a good part of the editing. Basically I'm the producer.

Thresher: Why did you decide to start the show?

BR: [God] said, "If you don't write this, I'm gonna kill you," and I didn't want to die, so I wrote it. But seriously, I was writing for Rice Sketch Comedy -- and we still kick around a few ideas with [RSC president and Baker College junior Faheem Ahmed] - but we started to realize that the sketch was taking on its own personality and maybe should be a continual thing.

Thresher: Like The Colbert Report?

BR: Right . So I guess Faheem is like Jon Stewart. That's an SAT analogy for you.

Thresher: What are your influences?

CH: [laughs] Probably DMX. I mean, in every episode, I pick up a little more of what the character is supposed to be like. It started as a Stephen Colbert-type [influence], but also, the American people [have influenced us]. There's a lot of comedy at Rice that can't get expressed. A lot of people enjoy our comedy, but they don't know why they enjoy it.

BR: I think the point Connor makes is that we don't take ourselves too seriously, obviously, but we do want to provide sort of a voice for Rice that [it doesn't] have. For instance, the construction on campus is really annoying, and you could write an article about it, but no one would read that because everyone already knows it's terrible; at the same time, it's something weighing on people. We can't really do anything about it, but I think just noting it and bringing it into the open is a good thing.

Thresher: Is the comedy in the show staged?

CH: Sometimes we [prep our subjects], sometimes we don't, and usually it's a mix of the two. It can be very hard to tell. We're not even sure a lot of the time.

DD: It's a mix between scripted and unscripted comedy.

Thresher: How is working with President Leebron?

BR: He's extremely intelligent, and as far as acting goes, he's very polite, and we had a really good time.

CH: He is also surprisingly good at improvisation, compared to reading from a script.

Thresher: Is Ping Sun as attractive as she appears in the Sallyport?

BR: The answer is a resounding yes.

CH: Yes.

DD: Oh, everybody knows that.

Thresher: What are your long-term goals for this show?

BR: I want to bring revolution to Rice. I want a revolt of the people.

CH: If we could say that just three people had a blast watching the show, then it would be worth it.

DD: To see the light in a child's eyes.

BR: And the rainbow in a gasoline puddle.

CH: If our show can take away from people's attention like Facebook, [even for] one person at one time, then I'm complete.

Thresher: I've heard that from now on, the public will not hear from the creators of the show, but from the

characters.

BR: We just want to say that the nature of satire is to tell the truth in a series of lies, so it can be implied that everything said in an episode is the complete opposite of what we believe. After that, there are no apologies.

CH: If we were to swap back and forth between our characters and real life, it could be confusing for people.

BR: There is no turning back. You're looking me in the eye as I manually cross over the line. You're the last person to see me for who I am.

It's all satire, and if we make fun of a group, we're paying homage. Like the last episode on the Marching Owl Band. Connor and I are big fans of the MOB. No other schools do it like they do, so the episode is very much a tribute to that. If we cover you, it means what you're doing on campus is either making it better, messing it up or doing something else that we think is noteworthy and want to record, and that is our respect toward you.

CH: There are too many kids on this campus [who] do nothing other than schoolwork, and they need to get out and see that there are other things to do.

Thresher: This show is going to be pretty offensive.

BR: You know, any time you do something worth your while, there will always be a group of people who dislike it, and I feel that's just something we have to accept here. Now, I guess you could make a case, you could say, "Yeah, but you don't have to make a 9/11 joke to an Islamic person." To which I say to you, "Yes, we do."

For more information and to view the show, visit connorohoolihan.com.

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