Rob Huebel on His ‘Comedy Mafia’ and Making Justin Long Strip Naked at a Malibu Beach — Turn It On Podcast
For his new YouTube Red series, Rob Huebel couldn’t find a nude beach to shoot a scene. So he forced a nude Justin Long on unsuspecting families at a beach in Malibu.
“We’re naked, and families are out there, children are crying, and other people are out there filming us with their phones,” Huebel told IndieWire’s Turn It On podcast. “The producers had to go up to people and say, ‘hey man, please don’t post that naked photo of Justin Long on the Internet or sell it to TMZ!”
Long is one of the guests on Huebel’s new irreverent YouTube Red series “Do You Want to See A Dead Body?” The comedy features Huebel and celebrity friends as they search for a dead body that Huebel has found.
“It’s such an absurd premise,” Huebel admitted. “Sometimes we find the body, sometimes we don’t find the body, sometimes the guest gets killed; I get killed in one and magically come back alive in the next episode.”
And then, of course, Long gets naked in one episode. “Justin was such a good sport,” Huebel said.
IndieWire’s Steve Greene sat down recently with Huebel to discuss his comedy mafia and what he puts them through on “Do You Want to See a Dead Body.” But first they discussed doing a show for YouTube Red — and whether it was considered TV. Listen below!
To pull off a show as bizarre as “Do You Want to See a Dead Body?” Huebel relies on a little help from his funny friends.
“We’ve formed this comedy mafia a little bit and everyone kind of knows each other,” he said. “Nothing is more fun than calling up your friend [and saying,] ‘hey man, can you do me a huge favor and come out for half a day, I know it’s a pain in the ass but it’s a really funny thing and you’re going to be hilarious in it!'”
The show, which started life as a Funny or Die sketch, features guests including Adam Scott, Terry Crews, Randall Park, John Cho, Rob Corddry, Paul Scheer, Judy Greer, Alexandra Daddario, Michaela Watkins, and Adam Pally.
Huebel admitted the show came about as a bit of an absurdist way to find a counteract to the steady flow of frightning Trump news.
“The whole Trump thing has been on my mind so much and it really poisoned me so much that it’s almost all I think about. I just want him to choke on a Chicken McNugget and the FBI is probably listening to this, but I guess I was in the mood to just make this a crazy, balls-out show and not have it connected to reality, not have any sort of real moral to it or social commentary either. I just wanted it to be something purely bingeable and unapologetically funny. It’s the kind of stuff I love.”
Huebel can also be seen in Amazon’s “Transparent,” as Len Novak, and his other credits include MTV’s “Human Giant” and Adult Swim’s “Children’s Hospital.”
He says the YouTube Red experience was pretty similar to any other TV production. “[YouTube has] real money, it’s like a real TV show. There were times where we’d be shooting with well known comedy people that do movies and stuff, and I’d be, ‘thank you so much for doing this tiny show that’s so crazy!'” he said. “We had completely normal TV budget to do what we needed to do and then time to edit it and go back and make sure that it’s just the way we like it.”
Huebel said he doesn’t feel the platform matters much: TV is TV.
“The knock on ‘Transparent’ is it a drama or comedy, who cares? It doesn’t matter if it’s a good show, it’s a good show. If the writing is good and you’re into it, I don’t know if those labels matter that much. As long as its funny or good or compelling people will find it. I’m also just a fan of making stuff and figuring out later where it will live.”
Here’s the trailer to “Do You Want to See a Dead Body?”:
“Do You Want to See a Dead Body?” premieres November 17 on YouTube Red.
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