When Bob Odenkirk, best known for his portrayal of crooked lawyer Saul Goodman on “Breaking Bad,” offered a budding comedy troupe the chance of a sketch show, members jumped at the chance to work with the comedic icon.
“The Birthday Boys” comprises seven friends who began practicing their craft during their days at Ithaca College in New York. From there, they began to perform at the renowned Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, where sketch show veteran Odenkirk discovered them.
On Friday, The Birthday Boys will premiere its eponymously titled show on IFC. Chris VanArtsdalen and Jeff Dutton — both actors, writers and directors of the show — say “The Birthday Boys” is its own animal compared to other sketch shows.
“It’s basically a traditional sketch show,” VanArtsdalen said. “But every episode has one sketch that is a recurring runner that comes back two or three times during the episode. So it’s your basic sketch show except that it all kind of hangs together as one package.”
He said the show also isn’t as character-centric when compared to other shows like “Key & Peele” or “Kroll Show.”
“A lot of our sketches just involve more ideas,” VanArtsdalen said. “They’re more about ideas and less about characters. Our group is not really composed of seven guys who try out for ‘SNL’ every year. We’re much more like ‘Kids in the Hall.’ It’s more collaborative and collective.”
In the debut episode, “Paychecks,” the interweaving sketch parodies the inception of Apple Inc. by focusing on the garages where the first computers were built rather than the technological advancements themselves.
Odenkirk reprises his role of sleazy conman with a Steve Jobs-inspired character who takes advantage of the garage-loving technophiles.
Dutton said the dynamic between Odenkirk and the boys works best when Odenkirk plays some type of authority figure, mirroring real life.
“We sort of found his [Odenkirk’s] role in the group both in the writers’ room and in sketches,” Dutton said. “We work best with him when he is a person of higher status and we are a group of seven idiots. It’s art imitating life, I guess.”
Along with Odenkirk, Ben Stiller is an executive producer for “The Birthday Boys.” Dutton said Stiller will appear in a handful of sketches throughout the season, but mainly did his work behind the camera.
While Dutton said the show doesn’t have a clear-cut target demographic, VanArtsdalen countered the show isn’t for everyone.
“The show has kind of an alternative comedy log to it, definitely,” VanArtsdalen said. “I don’t think a lot of parents will love it. I don’t know if it’s going to have a big mainstream appeal, but I’m hoping that college kids and young people who liked weird stuff will be into it — basically anyone who likes silly, fun comedy,”
“The Birthday Boys” will premiere on IFC at 9:30 p.m. CST Friday. More information can be found at thebirthdayboys.com.