Q&A with 'Whitest Kids U'Know'

Trevor Moore is best known as the founding member of Independent Film Channel’s “Whitest Kids U’Know,” but in addition to writing sketches for the show and producing viral YouTube videos, Moore also just released a solo album on Comedy Central Records, “Drunk Texts to Myself.” His unique and sometimes offensive brand of multimedia comedy has garnered tens of millions of views on YouTube, and now Bloomington residents will have a chance to experience it live during his performances  today, Friday and Saturday at the Comedy Attic.

Moore will perform alongside fellow WKUK members Sam Brown and Darren Trumeter, with a special opening performance by local comedian Joshua Murphy.
Moore spoke with the Indiana Daily Student about sketch comedy versus live performances, his collaboration with comedian Reggie Watts and the advice he has for aspiring comedians.

IDS  You just released a solo record, but you’re performing with some of your WKUK cast members. What can people expect to see at your performances this weekend?
MOORE Probably two to three songs off of my album, maybe more, and then some sketches that we like doing. Then I’ll show some videos. I really like multimedia, so there will be videos, sketches, songs and then we’ll go back and do some of it again.

IDS Do you take the same approach to your performances each night, or do you like to switch it up?
MOORE  The nights are kind of different — I’ve just started touring with this solo album, so I’m working out what I want to do. If we fall into something that’s working, we’ll keep it.

IDS How does performing for a live audience compare to performing in front of a camera?
MOORE It’s like editing on the fly. We’re doing something and getting immediate feedback. We always try to do some of the popular sketches from the show. Even if we are doing a sketch people have seen, we try to mix it up and add to it. We keep trying to mess each other up and make each other laugh. It keeps it fresh.

IDS  What are you thinking when you approach the writing of some of these sketches, particularly some of the racier sketches?
MOORE  I write what makes me laugh, even if it’s offensive. The groups that are made fun of, if you watch the show, you’ll see that none of it really comes from a negative space. It’s universal. We make fun of everyone. If we’re an equal-opportunity offender, hopefully it’s not offensive. I feel like there are a lot of people who like comedy that you don’t see on TV, so I try to make a show that’s not for the mainstream.

IDS What has the process been like of getting to a point where you and your cast members are able to work together well as a group?
MOORE We’ve been doing this for 13 years. We’re kind of past the point of being friends to just being family. It’s very short-handed for us within the group. We know each other so well and can tell what the other people will do. We’re also very blunt — no one is concerned about the others’ feelings anymore (laughs). If someone gets upset, it washes over in a day or two, like family.

IDS You just released a solo album. What was your approach to the content of the album?
MOORE I have always done music stuff for the “Whitest Kids U’Know.” Every season I would try to do two to three music videos. When we stopped “Whitest Kids,” I approached Comedy Central with an idea for a music album spanning all genres pop, dubstep, rap, a “We Are The World”-style song. It’s not cornered into a genre.

IDS Is it specifically a parody on genres of music, or do you target more cultural topics?
MOORE I didn’t want to do just parody songs. I wanted each song to have a point. I go into a song about circumcision. I wrote a song about the Founding Fathers smoking pot and the Pope and how much money he makes.

IDS You also collaborated with Reggie Watts. What was that like?
MOORE He’s awesome. We worked on a song called “Drunk Texts to Myself.” I have a habit when I drink of texting myself reminders in lieu of a to-do list on the fridge. I send myself ideas that I have and read them the next day, and they make no sense. I took six months of those, and Reggie put down a beat box loop for the drunk texts I read out.

IDS  You’re also working on a “Whitest Kids” film.  Where are you in that process?
MOORE  I’ve been writing a “Whitest Kids”  film for a while. I did something called “The Civil War on Drugs” that you can watch in its entirety on YouTube, so it’s similar to that. We were working on a couple of different ideas, trying to figure which one we liked. We’re almost finished writing it.

IDS In the beginning, you guys were really early on the viral scene. How has YouTube been useful in building your popularity?
MOORE We were kind of in the right place at the right time. When YouTube came out, we were already putting things on our website. People were taking videos off our site and putting them on YouTube and spreading it around the net. It worked well for us, so we have always kept an open policy when it comes to sharing our stuff. We still don’t have an official YouTube account.

IDS Do you have any advice for comedians trying to approach comedy in a similar style, particularly given our media-saturated culture?
MOORE Do it as much as possible. I know it’s cliché, but it’s the best advice. If you like making videos, make a lot. If you like standup, be up there every night working on it. There’s no one way to approach comedy, but what’s universal is the way people are obsessed with it and do it all the time. In the beginning, we had day jobs. After work on Friday, we would write sketches and Saturday we would make videos and edit them before our performance on Sunday. Then we would be back to our day jobs Monday morning.