A conversation with comedian Derek Waters as he prepares for his largest show ever at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Weston: Why the San Francisco Film Festival for a ‘Night with Derek Waters’ event?
Derek: Well, I chose San Francisco because I got asked to come here and I said, “Yes please.” Yeah, and in all seriousness it’s really exciting because “Wholphin” is the best DVD ever and that’s how Brent and I met ‘cause he asked me to do their show and it’s just cool, ‘cause none of these videos were really made for anyone to see who wasn’t sitting in front of a computer.
Seeing all these people sitting in front of their computers in a theater is gonna be pretty cool. I should have given everyone a laptop, sit down and just played it on the laptop, not on the screen. It’s a big deal tonight, I can’t screw this up.
Weston: Is this your biggest live audience ever?
Derek: Yeah, this is bigger than 50, 60 seats. But no one’s in the theater yet, so don’t judge a book by its cover. Let’s see what’s inside this book tonight.
Weston: How’s everything been with the show so far, the Funny or Die show?
Derek: Yeah, the “Funny or Die Presents” show is really cool, we got to do two sketch shows, two 15-minute shows and people seem to like it. I don’t know, it’s on TV, so I can’t tell how many hits it has. I don’t know how “Two and a Half Men” do it, they don’t know how many people are watching. Like, with the internet you get to see how many people are watching – with TV, no idea.
Weston: There should be a way to check that, then you see how many people are watching, and if there aren’t that many people…
Derek: You could turn it off…If there was a way to do that, they would do it. [pause] Actually, it would scare people, they wouldn’t do it. There’s some weird thing on YouTube I just found, like if you have your own video, there’s an insight thing that you can see the sex of people that have watched it and then there’s a part that’s like, what people’s attention span is, where it peaks and where it drops off. Yeah, it’s really interesting and I bet if they did that with “Two and a Half Men,” things would be different. It would go straight to the internet.
Weston: How have things been after Sundance? What have you been doing since?
Derek: Well, I got a limo. Yeah, well, a limo driver I should say. I don’t pay for the limo, but I just toured around. I got a “Sundance Jury Prize winner” helmet that I wear on auditions and so far, it’s helped out. [laughs] No, it’s been really great. I don’t know how to take anything seriously. It’s still very surreal that that was taken seriously.
Weston: Anything else you want to talk about? Expand on?
Derek: No, I love “Wholphin” and it’s just really cool to be in San Francisco.
Weston: We are doing this interview before the big event, let’s fast forward a day and tell me how last night went?
Derek: Oh, well last night, everyone loved it. I was wondering when people would sit down from clapping. You know, it’s nice, but please sit down. You gotta sit, we put chairs here for a reason, stop standing and clapping. Sit and clap.
Weston: What was the best moment of the night?
Derek: The best part of the night was being there.
You can watch some of Derek Waters work online by clicking on the links below.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered dir. by Nicholas Jasenovec and starring Derek Waters, Lizzy Caplan and Jake Johnson
Druk History Vol. 1 – Featuring Michael Cera dir. by Jeremy Konner
13th Grade – dir. by Andrew Vona and Derek Waters.
The Pity Card – dir. by Bob Odenkirk starring Simon Helberg and Derek Waters, featuring Zach Galifianakis and Bill Hader.
from SFIFF "Rising comedic writer/actor Derek Waters headlined a night of mild debauchery, featuring several of his short films including installments from the ridiculously popular Drunk History series—for which actors such as Will Ferrell, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly reenact videotaped recountings of historical events by sloshed storytellers. Simple, popular, dead-wrong, just like so many things we adore. The program also included short film collaborations between Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show) and Waters, including the hilarious The Pity Card from the series Derek and Simon, starring Waters and Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory) and featuring an appearance by the always disturbing Zach Galifianakis. Interspersed with these and other shorts were bits of conversation between Waters and Brent Hoff, editor of Wholphin, the quarterly DVD magazine of short films published by McSweeney’s in San Francisco. Hoff, former science editor for McSweeney’s and a kindred spirit in energy and wit, provides the perfect sounding board for Waters’ ideas and schemes. Bursts of audience participation added to the mix"
nice post. thanks.