Michael Showalter on 'Spoiler Alert,' 'Wet Hot American Summer' and more

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Michael Showalter is a founding member of the sketch comedy group The State. He's in part responsible for other cult comedy favorites like Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, Stella and more. These days, Showalter has been spending more and more time behind the camera.. He directed the new film Spoiler Alert. It's a romantic drama based on the book Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, a memoir by TV writer Michael Ausiello.Michael joins us on the latest episode of Bullseye to talk about Spoiler Alert. Plus, what it was like to direct Sally Field, and his process when casting his movies.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:11.0	It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:22.3	My first guest this week is Michael Show Walter.
0:25.1	This is his fourth time on the show.
0:28.9	Four.
0:29.9	And somehow this is his first interview on our show by himself.
0:34.4	Michael Show Walter is a member of the sketch comedy group The State, who had their own show
0:39.2	on MTV in the 90s, Genuine Gen X comedy legends.
0:45.2	With his fellow state members David Wayne and Michael Ian Black, he also starred on Stella,
0:52.1	a comedy central series that is one of my personal all-time favorites.
0:57.1	Oh, and Show Walter in Wayne also directed Wet Hot American Summer, one of the most unique
1:04.2	enduring cult comedies of the 21st century.
1:07.6	And I'm just going to say it, probably one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time.
1:11.9	Today is the big culminating climactic softball game against evil camp tiger claw.
1:20.3	We have put together an unlikely team of misfits and we've been training like crazy all
1:26.0	summer.
1:27.0	Yeah, it's a motley crew that you'd think would never even be able to win a single game.
1:31.5	We had a kooky training period where it seemed like, well, it seemed like nothing was going
1:36.1	to go right.
1:37.1	But guys, somehow we made it to the finals.
1:40.0	So I say, when those anonymously evil campers from Tiger Claw get here, we give it our
1:45.1	best shot.
	...

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