David Wain and Ken Marino have been frequent collaborators since “The State” on MTV (and “You Wrote It, You Watch It” even before that). In the past 30 years, they’ve had a great run of films and television they’ve collaborated on, including Role Models, WanderLust, The Ten, and the comedy series, “Children’s Hospital,” which ran for seven seasons. In the past few years, they’ve also been an integral part of the Middle-Aged Dad Jam Band, performing all sorts of fun musical covers on YouTube with Wain behind the drum kit and Marino up front as primary vocalist. MADJB also frequently has some surprising guests.
Wain and Marino reunite for their latest comedy feature with the seemingly unwieldy title of Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass – don’t worry, it’s easier to remember once you’ve seen the movie – with Zoey Deutch playing the titular character, a small-town Kansas hairdresser about to marry her high school sweetheart, Tom. When Gail’s best friend Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) asks Gail about her “celebrity pass,” someone famous she might sleep with that Tom would have to be okay with, she mentions the conversation to Tom, who ends up meeting and fulfilling his own pass almost immediately. Distraught, Gail goes with Otto to L.A. for a hairstylists’ convention to get her mind off Tom’s infraction. They soon realize that Gail’s “pass,” Jon Hamm, lives in L.A., so the duo go off to find him, so Gail can even the score.
On this journey, they assemble a group that includes Ben (Karate Kid: Legends) Wang’s Caleb, an assistant at the talent agency, CAA; a fallen paparazzi named Vincent who can help them find Hamm (played by Marino); and even Hamm’s “Mad Men” colleague, John Slattery, as himself. Gail Daughtry also includes a number of hilarious cameos, including appearances by a good portion of “The State.”
It was great having Wain and Marino on the Weekend Warrior Show, since it was the first time I’d interviewed them as a duo since The Ten at Sundance almost twenty years ago. It was a fun interview, though you might notice that the guys tended to make jokes, rather than give serious answers, which was fine and par for the course from these two very funny guys. Besides talking about Gail Daughtry, we also spoke about the 25th Anniversary of Wet Hot American Summer, and a great doc about “The State” that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year.
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass opens nationwide on Friday, July 10.
