Truckin' in the nude

Duo dishes on improv comedy and new show on Comedy Central

By: Cristine Mayer

Posted: 1/25/07

The Naked Trucker and his sidekick T-Bones, (Dave Allen and David Koechner) sat down with The Battalion to talk about their new Comedy Central show, character development and, of course, nakedness.

How did the naked thing come about?
DA: It was lazy character building, honestly. One day we wanted to do a song, so we did a trucker song. We were trying to figure out how we could make this trucker different. And we thought: 'Hey, let's make him naked.' And we just decided to see what would happen. But then it became a sense of, 'who cares?' He's kind of a hippie, living out a protest just by not wearing clothes. So he's free from the fashion, or as I like to say, fascism industry.

After being so successful with the live show, what made you want to do the TV show?
DK: Our drive has never necessarily been one specific goal. I always wanted to do a movie, but these characters have been in and out of development for the past few years. It's just that this was the first time to have the full opportunity to [pursue them].

What inspires your characters in the comedy in general?
DK: The quest for truth. I studied with Del Close and his quest was to always be truthful, so we try to bring truth to the characters, to make it smart and always trust our audience and treat them with respect. A lot of people in the press are missing those elements and dismiss our show as a redneck adventure. But we've tried to make these jokes smart. Our characters may seem less educated, they certainly aren't. As far as T-Bones goes, he's absolutely living for every moment. No matter what, he's going to win the situation.

How did you meet and decide you wanted to work together?
DK: We met for the first time when I did my one-year stint on SNL and [Dave] did two weeks guest writing. The following summer (1997) we were both cast in…"Spinal Tap." We were on a tour bus for three and a half months together and bonded over a lot of things together. We both grew up in the Midwest and had a lot of cultural background. Our characters really hit it off, and it's been a beautiful endeavor ever since.

What do you really wear behind that guitar, or are you really naked?
DK: Nothing! Of course he's really naked!

Many have said that the infamous Naked Cowboy of New York stole his idea from you, Dave, do you think this is true?
DA: I've heard that, and I've heard the reverse, and no one stole it; it's just our generation. He does his thing, and I do mine. We've never met. The one thing we have in common is that we wear barely any clothing and hold a guitar…he has better physique than me, though.

Are a lot of the things on the show improvised?
DK: The live show was largely improvised. For the television show, the songs and such had to be written before, because there is just not time to improvise. Improvising doesn't lend itself to this form of television.
DA: It's divided into five acts, and we really have to hit 10 to 20 second endings. A lot of hilarious stuff had to be cut.
DK: You have to be a slave to the clock.

What do you think your audience's response will be to the fact that it is completely out of the realm of political correctness?
DK: All we know is this is what we like, this is how we like it.
DA: T-Bones is jokingly saying things he knows not to be true, and the Naked Trucker usually responds with something moral.
DK: There are satirical elements that people overlook; the characters play with language, and it's deliberate and how we speak to each other and what we can and cannot say.

Can we expect any more guest appearances on the show?
DK: Well, in doing a TV show, you have one chance to call in all the favors and lean on all your famous friends to help out; you need all the eyes you can. We're going to have a guest star in every episode. We do want people to know they can look forward to their favorite comedians, such as Neil Flynn of "Scrubs" and Tenacious D.

How much creative control does Comedy Central have on the show?
DK: We have a lot of freedom. A lot of networks took a look at the show, said they liked it and never did anything. But Comedy Central did.
DA: There's a lot of passion on behalf of a lot of the execs at Comedy Central to make this thing work. There are a lot of fans of our show at Comedy Central, and we don't feel like it's a watered-down version of our show. There are standards, but those are just practical standards. We might have trimmed a verse of a song to make it fit, but it's just because we need the time.

Is it harder now to write for a show that's half an hour each week, or does it get to the point where the characters write it for themselves?
DK: Stephen King once said that 'writing is like archaeology; you just keep uncovering it.' Writing is failure. You know you're going to fail, but you just try again.
DA: Our acting is like archaeology - it's old.
DK: The one thing we do know is how these characters are going to react. So we have that fluidity, and we have that point to start at.

Can the audience expect a CD
on the way?
DA: We're actually putting some stuff together right now. We have a live show coming on DVD. And that has all of [the songs] in their entirety. Once a month on the website we'll also probably put one song up. I mean, for the people interested, there's definitely music out there floating around.