"I hope tonight you find out what a complex guy I am," actor and writer Kevin Heffernan told a crowded Cabot Auditorium last night.
Well-known for his roles as Officer Rodney Farva in "Super Troopers" (2001), Lars in "Club Dread" (2004), and Landfill in "Beerfest" (2006), Heffernan spoke bout how he got started in comedy, told tales from the sets of his movies, and even gave some commentary on the various beer choices available to undergrads.
Heffernan is a member of Broken Lizard, the five-man comedy group behind most of the popular films in which the Connecticut native has starred.
Sponsored by the Lecture Series, the event began with clips from Heffernan's movies. Junior Ben Moskowitz then asked some questions and later opened the floor to the audience.
In response to a question from Moskowitz, Heffernan discussed how his experiences in high school and college led to a career in comedy.
"I wasn't the class clown kind of guy that was always getting in trouble," he said. "I was a more subversive humor kind of guy."
At Colgate University, Heffernan was a founding member of Charred Goosebeak, a comedy group that he said had many participants at the New York school. After many of its members graduated, some, including Heffernan, met again in New York City and started the Broken Lizard group.
"Ultimately, we figured out how to write scripts and kind of got the hang of it after a while," Heffernan said.
Broken Lizard gained popularity after its first film "Puddle Cruiser" (1996) played at a number of film festivals. When film studios began to notice the group, Heffernan said, more opportunities came along.
"From there, they gave us more dough," he said.
This enabled the comedy team to produce its first blockbuster film, "Super Troopers." The movie centers on a group of Vermont state troopers who compete with local law enforcement, all the while playing games on unsuspecting motorists and committing crimes of their own.
Asked about the origins of "Beerfest," a comedy about a group of friends who travel to an international beer-drinking competition in Germany, Heffernan said the group was inspired after participating in an Australian beer-chugging contest as a promotion for "Super Troopers."
He said that the topic hit home for the comedians, some of whom had been fraternity brothers in college.
"That's a write-about-what-you-know situation," he said.
Before they pitched the movie to a film studio, though, Heffernan said that the group members were somewhat reluctant to continue down their sophomoric-comedy path.
"We kind of got hit hard by the critics for [using] frat-boy humor," he said.
But ultimately, they went through with the idea.
"F-k them, let's make 'Beerfest,'" he said of the group's eventual decision to go forward with their idea.
Asked about the possibility of a "Super Troopers 2," Heffernan said that a sequel has been in the works for some time, and that he hopes the group will start shooting next year. The plot would involve a group of Vermont state troopers who are involved in an American occupation of Canadian territory.
Members of Broken Lizard generally take a very active role in their movies. Jay Chandrasekhar, who played Trooper Arcot "Thorny" Ramathorn in "Super Troopers," usually directs the films, while Heffernan often does the editing work. All members usually help with the writing.
In addition, Heffernan will enter the world of directing for the first time next year with "The Slammin' Salmon," a comedy that he said will the group will begin shooting in Jan. 2008.
When asked about other future plans, Heffernan discussed the plot of an upcoming movie entitled "The Babymaker."
He said it is about a group of friends who help him impregnate his wife by breaking into a sperm bank and stealing semen.
"It's like 'Oceans 11' with sperm," he said.
Heffernan said that since the release of "Super Troopers" and its subsequent popularity, he and his colleagues have received a lot of fan mail from police officers who claim that the movie actually portrays some aspects of law enforcement rather well.
"Everyone has a Farva in their station, apparently," he said, referencing his bumbling, problem-creating character in the movie.
He also said that some policemen have told him that they have messed with citizens in ways similar to how the on-screen state troopers muttered unrelated words such as "meow" during routine traffic stops.
"A lot of guys have been suspended for playing the 'meow game,'" he said.
