Name: Chris Lilley | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #200
Uploaded: 2019-05-23T04:15:58.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Chris Lilley | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #200' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-05-23. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Chris Lilley | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #200' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-05-23. Transcript available.

Chris Lilley | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #200

Today's guest is one of the funniest people that I've ever seen.
I'm so honored to be able to sit down with him today.
He is the guest that I've been trying to get.
I sent him a DM probably a year ago.
And I'm just, I had to come to Australia to be able to sit down with him.
He is the creator.
He's just creative.
He has a new series on Netflix called Lunatics.
He is, he is the creator and the lead of like nine different characters in
Jonah from Tonga and Summer Heights High, which are two of the most amazing
shows.
You might have to go a little deep into the internet to find them, but I think
you should.
Summer Heights High, Jonah from Tonga, his new Netflix series, Lunatics.
And I'm just really happy to be sitting here with Mr. Chris Lilly.
Yeah, dude, I actually had a dream, dude, like a couple nights ago that you
were, we're at like a restaurant or something.
It was like a fast dream.
And you were having like a, maybe like a salad or something.
I don't even know.
Does that seem like something you would eat?
What do you think you would even eat, you think?
Well, I don't eat, I don't eat meat, but yeah.
Oh, so you, maybe within.
I'm not really a salad at all.
I don't know what I ate.
Yeah.
Mexican.
Mexican food.
So maybe, yeah, maybe it wasn't, I think it was you.
It was pretty much you because I remember I was meeting you at this restaurant.
And cause I was excited about meeting you.
And so I was meeting you at this restaurant.
Yeah.
And then it kind of cut to, yeah, it looked like you were having like a salad
or something.
Yeah.
I wonder what made you think that?
Did I look like, cause you don't know what I really look like.
You would be thinking of the characters and stuff.
Yeah, some of them, I mean, yeah, I'm trying to think of what character maybe
we'd be having
like a salad, maybe, uh, uh, not, uh, the Earl of Havenhurst, that, not that
guy.
God, dude, that guy is so great.
Nah, he's not a salad eater.
Bro, that guy is.
He's a chasel eater.
Yeah.
And what's wrong with him?
I feel like he's on the spectrum.
Yeah.
Of some sort.
The tism, that's what they call it where I'm from.
Oh, the tism.
Yeah.
There's something going on.
Yeah.
I don't know.
He's like kind of a victim of like society a little bit, you think?
Well, does he do his own thing or is he like a, yeah, I mean, I feel like he's
like aspirational.
It's like everyone wishes they had the balls to do the stuff that he does and
say the stuff
he does.
Yeah.
But I think he gets away with it cause he's a little bit unaware of how
impactful it is,
which yeah, maybe that's the spectrum thing.
Yeah.
It's kind of a blessing too, to be a little bit unaware.
Yeah.
Once you get too aware, stuff's not that fun a lot of times.
Yeah.
I think, I think people want to be him.
That's why it kind of works.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
I think I do a little bit.
I think, I think I was, I wish I was a bit more like him.
Just fearless, huh?
Yeah.
And his little cousin too.
What's the guy's name?
Dylan.
Yeah.
How great was it to work with that kid?
He's a cool kid.
Yeah.
He just kept laughing at me the whole time.
Oh man, man.
You could see some scenes where it cuts away from him.
I noticed because he was just going to start laughing.
Yeah.
It was, well, cause we just keep rolling.
I think he, he didn't quite know when we were on or not.
Yes.
Um, but he's a really great kid.
Um, but he picked up on a lot of the language and he started like ad-libbing
and throwing
in like a few C words and stuff.
So I had to kind of pull him back a bit.
Oh, he started to get crazy, huh?
Yeah.
But he was just having fun.
That's great though, isn't it?
It must be fun to see that as like a, and we're talking about lunatics for
people that
haven't checked it out.
Uh, it must be great to see like in the beginning, a guy like Dylan, an actor
like him kind of,
you know, learning his way.
But by the end, him starting to get that confidence and stuff.
Is that pretty cool to see as a director?
Yeah.
Um, I was unreal.
There's a lot of scenes where we drive off in this little red car together and
I had to
like pull out the audio because as we drive off, he was like, fuck, slow down,
you cunt.
Like swearing, swearing at me and just like, he was just, he got into it so
much.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
I wanted him to be a bit more mute.
So I had to pull him out, pull the audio out.
You had to take him aside sometimes a little.
A little bit, but I just, usually these people that we cast, you kind of just
roll with whatever
you've, you've got.
Like you've, you've chosen them for a reason and you just make the best of what
they have
rather than trying to shape them too much.
Yeah.
And do you do most of your casting as well?
Yeah.
Well, I choose all the people that I'm, um, I have a really great team of
casting people
that find them.
They literally go find them off the street.
They walk around the streets and find them or they'll just like rock up to
schools or whatever.
It's, they'll go anywhere.
Yeah.
Because it's so specific, the kind of people we need that you have to like
search far and
wide.
Yeah.
It must be that it seems like you almost need like kind of a garden.
You set up a garden and you're kind of the, the rabbit in a way.
So it's like every, the other people are still amazing people and humans and
everything,
but it's almost, does that make any sense to you?
It's almost like you have to have a place to put where your creativity just is,
be able
to kind of flow through the, the, the, the slalom poles of the other characters.
Yeah.
That's it.
That's exactly it.
Um, and it takes a while to find those people.
Also you don't, because they're real people.
I mean, not all of them.
Some of them have some acting experience.
But a lot of them are real people and they're, they behave a certain way in the
audition.
And then when you're on set, it's kind of like, oh shit, there's Chris Lee.
Oh, he's in a wig.
He's swearing at me.
And they kind of become a bit different.
So you kind of have to adapt to the new version of them.
Because you can't talk them back into the regular version.
Sometimes it's kind of hard, I guess.
I try to a little bit, but then it makes them lose confidence.
So sometimes I'm like, I'll fix it in the edit.
But I mean, they do, the great thing about that is then you get these magic
moments where
they just, they do these things that actors never do.
Like, and you're like, shit, that's so real and good.
And, um, yeah.
Is it hard for you sometimes when you know a moment like that is, cause I can
imagine there
are probably times where in a scene, you know, a moment just happened that was
so perfect
that it's like, is it hard sometimes to, are you able to notice those as they
happen kind
of sometimes?
Yeah.
You're in it.
You, yeah.
You see it when it happens.
Yeah.
And then a part of me is also like watching the cameras and I've told those
guys what
to do while they're doing things.
I can see the way the cameras are moving at the same time.
I'm like, oh shit, they covered it.
Awesome.
Got that.
Like, cause we have two cameras rolling at the same time and yeah, it's a weird
thing.
And I can sort of, I'm editing it in my head as I'm doing the scene.
I don't know.
I'm not trying to make myself sound.
No, it doesn't sound like you are.
I'm just like, it's a weird process and you're like, oh shit, that's going to
work.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cool.
Well, there's not a lot of people that do, that have ever done really kind of
what you
do.
You know, it's rare.
It's extremely rare.
I think, man, like, I don't know.
I mean, Ari and I were talking about it yesterday.
There's like, you know, in the US we have, who's that guy, Ari?
Sacha Baron Cohen, I think it's a similar genre.
Yeah.
A little bit of Sacha Baron Cohen, but his, some of his stuff is a little more
mean spirited.
I think where yours is just kind of like this world that is just so, it's all
about fun.
It seems like a lot of times, is that the vibe on set or does it get sometimes
a little
bit too mad?
Like you have to manage so much that it's hard to stay in the fun stuff.
It's probably more, it's a little bit more serious, but it's pretty relaxed and
kind of
peaceful.
It's, it's a really quiet, thoughtful kind of set.
Like it's not, yeah, that's not people like, like often you have like a first,
first AD
that will be yelling at everyone, but in our world, it's just very peaceful and
he talks
quietly.
And it's just about getting those moments because I've thought it through so
much before we get
on set that I just know I need these little moments.
So it's not like everyone's laughing their heads off the whole time.
Yeah.
You kind of know, like you sort of, you know how it's going to come together.
Yeah.
It's, it's more like peaceful than hilarious on set.
Yeah.
Do, um, do you feel like, like recently I was thinking about like what makes,
like why
laughter is like important to me kind of, you know, or what like it's always
been to me
in my life.
Like, and sometimes I was thinking that, you know, I feel like laughter, it's
like, it was
like when people were laughing when I was young, it was like the only time that
I kind of felt
okay.
Like for some reason in my head, I was always kind of judging myself or, or I
thought other
people thought something was wrong with me, you know?
And so I knew if they were laughing and they couldn't be like not liking me at
the same
time or something, you know, like if I have those people laughing, there's no
way they could
be laughing, you know, see, seeing their smile and hearing the joy come out of
them and also
not liking me.
So it was like a second of like peace in my, in my head or in my spirit or
something.
Do you, what, what is laughter kind of been like for you or the?
Or the ability to make people laugh?
Like what's something, do you, do you have any thoughts on any of that from
your own experience
in life?
Yeah.
I mean, it's so, it's everything, like every friendship I have, it's a bet
about laughing
and making jokes about things and just, yeah, I'm not really friends with
serious people.
So it's like, it's everything.
It's like so fun to just, even friends that I just text, it's just all jokes.
Like, and it's not like we're like, you know, it's yeah, everything's funny.
It's just about seeing the funny side of everything.
Um, yeah, similar thing, like growing up, I just knew that there was a sort of
power in
the idea of making the family laugh.
And I think, I feel like you're the youngest as well or something.
Are you the youngest?
Um, I have an older brother.
Yeah.
So I'm the youngest.
I've got two, two older brothers and sister.
So I remember growing up.
Are you the little one then?
Yeah.
Wow.
And so when I was like five or something.
Usually the drug addict is a little one.
Oh yeah.
Well, there's time for that.
Oh, there we go.
Um, but it's, yeah, I remember just being like five and then my brother and
sister were
actually born in the same year.
Oh wow.
Same parents, same year, January, December.
But anyway, they were like.
I thought you meant like May and July.
Nah, um, still it's like, that's close.
Um, and I think they call it Irish twins.
Yeah, they do something.
Um, that.
Well, I was supposed to be triplets too.
Someone told me once.
Yeah.
And I wasn't.
It's just me, which is crazy.
Cause I've always felt like there was something else out there for me.
You know, how did they do an ultrasound?
The doctor said that.
Were the other ones in there at one point?
I don't know.
Told my mom that it was triplets whenever they were going in there and then
nothing.
Just me.
Can you have two that don't make it and one comes out?
My mom would have told me.
I've always secretly thought I was a twin and that my mom is keeping it a
secret.
And I like hit her up with that a couple of years ago and she had a, like a flinch
on it.
She sort of reacted when I said it.
So.
So you think maybe it could be something?
There could be something.
There's.
Yeah.
But I don't know if that's possible.
I don't kno