Broken Lizard | |
---|---|
Medium | Film and Television |
Nationality | American |
Years active | 1989–present |
Genres | Physical comedy, Gross-out humor |
Notable works and roles | Puddle Cruiser (1996) Super Troopers (2001) Club Dread (2004) Beerfest (2006) The Slammin' Salmon (2009) Super Troopers 2 (2018) Tacoma FD (2019–2023) Quasi (2023) |
Members | Jay Chandrasekhar Kevin Heffernan Steve Lemme Paul Soter Erik Stolhanske |
Website | www |
Broken Lizard is an American comedy troupe that comprises Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. They collaborate on the screen-writing, acting and productions of their films, with Chandrasekhar and Heffernan being the primary directors; the team however does not have any single leader and they work collaboratively when choosing material and writing projects.
The group formed at Colgate University in 1989 when Jay Chandrasekhar was asked by a friend and fellow student, Ira Liss, to put together a comedy show. [1] Chandrasekhar agreed and assembled a sketch comedy troupe which included Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske, all members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. The team performed a combination of live stage sketches and short videos under the name "Charred Goosebeak". Charred Goosebeak continues to exist at Colgate to this day.
After graduation, the members reunited in New York City and spent the next few years performing at various clubs, mostly Greenwich Village mainstay The Duplex, under the name "Broken Lizard". The group offered various explanations of the origin of this moniker over the years, ranging from a euphemism for loss of virility to a tribute to Chandrasekhar's pet allergies. Most recently, the members admitted that Chandrasekhar simply made up the name "off the top of his head" when he had their first flyer printed. Another possible name that was discarded was "Chocolate Speedo".
Broken Lizard spent the next few years performing at clubs and college campuses. Its membership dwindled to the five current performers. By the mid-1990s, the group's interests shifted away from live material as they became more interested in filmed content. They wrote and acted in Dante's Levels of Hell, a series of interstitial shorts for Comedy Central's "Is This On?" feature.
At this time, the Broken Lizard members also made their first foray into long-form film, shooting the 30-minute 16 mm project, The Tinfoil Monkey Agenda, an absurdist media spoof that earned them a trip to the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival, and cemented in the group's minds that they should be creating full-length feature films.
The group put together the script for their next feature, and first wide-release movie Super Troopers . The film, which portrays rural highway patrolmen as regular men desperate to make their jobs entertaining, was shot in 2000, and was also invited to Sundance, where raucous screenings earned the film a distribution deal from Fox Searchlight Pictures, a unit of 20th Century Fox. The movie was released in February 2002 and only enjoyed moderate theatrical success, but it eventually developed a cult following.
Fox Searchlight sponsored and distributed the group's next feature, 2004's Club Dread , a parody of slasher films that takes place at an idyllic tropical resort.
After Chandrasekhar directed The Dukes of Hazzard for Warner Bros., Broken Lizard was offered a deal with the studio. This relationship resulted in Broken Lizard's third feature, 2006's Beerfest , about two brothers who discover an underground Oktoberfest beer-drinking Olympics and assemble a team to compete.
In late May 2010, Broken Lizard had completed their fourth feature, The Slammin' Salmon , about a group of waiters who are terrorized over the course of a busy night by their unstable boss (Michael Clarke Duncan). Heffernan directed The Slammin' Salmon. [2]
In 2012, both Chandrasekhar and Heffernan confirmed that a sequel to Super Troopers was in the works, and that the script had been finished. [3] In 2015, Broken Lizard had launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund filming of Super Troopers 2 . [4] On a Funemployment Radio episode May 26, 2016, Jay Chandrasekhar confirmed that a small test segment of the film has been shot and full production would start in August 2016. [5] [6] On August 2, 2017, Broken Lizard announced, via their website, that they had finished post-production on the movie. Super Troopers 2 was released on April 20, 2018. [7]
In 2023, Broken Lizard released Quasi and announced that Super Troopers 3 would be next.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(April 2018) |
Receiving financial support from 20th Century Fox enabled Chandrasekhar to establish a career as a television director. He directed episodes of the Fox television shows Undeclared, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Arrested Development, Oliver Beene, and Cracking Up. In addition, he directed three episodes of Psych, including the episode "Bollywood Homicide," in which he also guest starred. Chandrasekhar directed the 2005 film The Dukes of Hazzard, in which each of the members of Broken Lizard also appeared. He likewise appeared in Jackass 2 as the taxi driver in the last main sketch of the movie, performing a "prank on a prank."
Heffernan co-wrote the screenplay to the 2005 film On the One and also acted in the films Sky High and Strange Wilderness.
Lemme was a co-producer of the movies The Decade and Boxes, and also appeared in Open Water and Big Helium Dog.
Soter wrote and directed the film noir comedy film Watching the Detectives, which starred Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu. Soter, Lemme, and Stolhanske also appeared in the film. He also directed the horror film Dark Circles .
Stolhanske acted in a number of television shows and films, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, Undeclared, and The Onion Movie. Stolhanske was also in the Plyometrics DVD that was part of the P90X program that fitness expert Tony Horton created.
Heffernan and Lemme co-created Tacoma FD for TruTV, which ran from 2019 to 2023.
The Dukes of Hazzard is a 2005 American action comedy film loosely based on the television series of the same name. The film was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and stars Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson in her feature film debut, Burt Reynolds, Joe Don Baker, Lynda Carter, and Willie Nelson.
Jayanth Jambulingam Chandrasekhar is an American comedian, film director, screenwriter, actor and editor. He is best known for his work with the sketch comedy group Broken Lizard and for directing and starring in the Broken Lizard films Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beerfest and Super Troopers 2. Since 2001, he has also worked frequently as a television director on many episodes of Community and The Goldbergs, among dozens of comedy series. He has also occasionally worked as a film director outside of Broken Lizard projects, most notably on the 2005 film The Dukes of Hazzard.
Super Troopers is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and written by and starring the Broken Lizard comedy group. Marisa Coughlan, Daniel von Bargen and Brian Cox co-star while Lynda Carter has a cameo appearance. In total, Fox Searchlight paid $3.25 million for distribution rights of the film and it grossed $23 million at the box office.
Kevin Heffernan is an American actor, writer, producer, and director, and member of the Broken Lizard comedy group.
Paul Soter is an American actor, writer, and director, and one of the members of the Broken Lizard comedy group. As a child, he lived in Sacramento, Anchorage, Phoenix, and Denver. He graduated from Colgate University and was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. During his time there, he was a member of the Charred Goosebeak troupe along with the members of Broken Lizard.
Puddle Cruiser is a 1996 American comedy film, the first full-length film created by the Broken Lizard comedy group. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie was filmed entirely on the campus of Colgate University, the alma mater of all five members of the comedy quintet. It was released on DVD in December 2005; the disc also features a 17-minute documentary called Rodeo Clowns on the marketing of Puddle Cruiser and Super Troopers with free previews on college campuses and using specially-painted tour buses. The extras and actors are almost entirely friends, family and other alumni, due to the very tight budget of the film. The film is repeatedly shown on Comedy Central.
The Fountain Valley School of Colorado is a private, co-educational independent college preparatory school for students in 9th through 12th grades. The school's primary campus is located on 1,100 acres (445 ha) of rolling prairie at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The school also owns and uses a 40-acre Mountain Campus near Buena Vista.
Club Dread is a 2004 comedy slasher film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and written by and starring the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Brittany Daniel, and Bill Paxton. The film follows a group of staff members on a tropical island resort, where an unknown killer begins a murder spree. It’s an international co-production film between the United States and Mexico.
Beerfest is a 2006 American comedy film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and written by the comedy group Broken Lizard, who also star in the film alongside Nat Faxon, Will Forte, Ralf Möller, Mo'Nique, Eric Christian Olsen, Jürgen Prochnow, Cloris Leachman, and Donald Sutherland. The film was theatrically released on August 25, 2006.
Big Helium Dog is a 1999 comedy film. It is produced by Kevin Smith's View Askew production company and also features the Broken Lizard comedy troupe in starring and supporting roles.
Watching the Detectives is a 2007 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Paul Soter. The film stars Cillian Murphy as the film geek owner of an independent video rental store whose life is turned upside down when a femme fatale comes into his life.
Philippe Brenninkmeyer is a Dutch actor. In Germany he is known as Philipp Brenninkmeyer.
The Slammin' Salmon is a 2009 American comedy film by the comedy troupe Broken Lizard. It is about the owner of a restaurant who holds a contest to see which one of his waiters can earn the most money in a single night. The winner receives $10,000, and the loser receives a "beat down" by the owner, Cleon Salmon, a former heavyweight boxer. Kevin Heffernan directed the film, his first time for a Broken Lizard film.
Nathaniel Wales Faxon is an American actor and comedian. A frequent presence on comedic films and TV series, he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing The Descendants (2011). He starred in the Fox comedy series Ben and Kate (2012–2013) and the FX comedy series Married (2014–2015), and voices Elfo in the Netflix adult animated television series Disenchantment (2018–2023). He also co-wrote and co-directed The Way, Way Back (2013) and Downhill (2020) with writing partner Jim Rash.
Freeloaders is a 2012 American ensemble comedy film directed by Dan Rosen, and written by Rosen and singer Dave Gibbs. The film is produced by the Broken Lizard comedy troupe and is independently financed. Freeloaders stars Clifton Collins Jr., Josh Lawson, Kevin Sussman, Zoe Boyle, Nat Faxon, Warren Hutcherson, Jane Seymour, Olivia Munn, Dave Foley, and Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz. It follows a group of friends who find their luxurious lifestyle threatened when the rock star they freeload off decides to sell his home.
The Babymakers is a 2012 American comedy film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, and starring Paul Schneider, Olivia Munn and Kevin Heffernan. Chandrasekhar and Heffernan are both members of Broken Lizard. The film received a limited release on August 3, 2012, in theaters and on video on demand services. It received a DVD and Blu-ray release September 18, 2012.
Super Troopers 2 is a 2018 American comedy film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. A sequel to the 2001 film Super Troopers, the film was written by and stars the Broken Lizard comedy team, made up of Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske. The plot follows the Super Troopers being called upon to set up a new Highway Patrol station when an international border dispute arises between the United States and Canada.
Graham Kay is a Canadian stand-up comedian.
Quasi is a 2023 American satirical comedy film directed by Kevin Heffernan and written by Heffernan and Broken Lizard members Steve Lemme, Jay Chandrasekhar, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. The film takes a satirical take on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.