It’s a pop-culture phenomenon that’s been proven time and time again: The dismemberment of comedy projects breeds more successful ones.

See this firsthand with Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain, members of the comedy group Stella.

These three never let up the act, and even when given the chance to plug the release of their show’s first season’s DVD release, they couldn’t stop cracking jokes during a conference call this week.

“I’d like to be a reporter for a college newspaper,” says Black in response to what he would do if comedy wasn’t already his life. Funny, huh?

New York University is where it all began for the three men, who met and helped create the sketch comedy troupe The State. Former members of The State went on to join the cast of Comedy Central’s COPS-satire, Reno 911.

The State’s success eventually evolved into a show on MTV, which ran for three seasons from 1993 to 1995. But the troupe disbanded soon after the show was canceled.

Undaunted, Black, Showalter and Wain went on to form a new comedy troupe, Stella, naming their group after the daughter of the woman who booked gigs for them at New York City-area nightclubs. They performed as a weekly show at the Fez Under Time Cafe, lassoing in celebrity guests that included Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo.

The comedy show inspired a series of video shorts that appeared on Stella’s official website (www.stellacomedy.com), but are inarguably more vulgar than the series of the same name that debuted on Comedy Central in 2005.

The videos have garnered mainly a college student audience – as shown through the large turnout for Black’s appearance last year at the Grand Ballroom – but the three insist that the show’s demographic consists of “elderly female Koreans.”

“We developed Stella personas in a stage show, but then the TV show was invented kind of from scratch – somewhat based on the shorts,” Wain says of Stella’s transition from the stage to the small screen.

Although the show could appear on any less FCC-fearing channel, such as HBO or Showtime, Black, Showalter and Wain never wanted to venture outside of the basic cable realm, they said.

“Comedy Central was the only [channel] we pitched our idea to,” Black says. “We’re not interested in being more vulgar.”

The television series would bring the group’s absurdist Marx brother-esque humor to a wider audience, but the men of Stella had no interest in making the show mainstream.

“When things were too funny, we tried not to use them,” Black says.

“That was our big secret to keep our show underground and cool,” Wain adds.

Though Comedy Central did not renew Stella for a second season, the three men don’t harbor any hard feelings, they said.

“On a creative level, we were very successful, very proud of what we did,” Wain says. “We now have a better idea what we will do in the future.”

Live comedy is still a passion of Stella’s, and Black and Showalter are currently embarking on a national tour.

Wain is in the process of editing The Ten, a movie he directed and co-wrote. The movie is composed of 10 stories based on the Ten Commandments and features an all-star cast including the Michaels, Adam Brody and Winona Ryder.

The Pleasure of Your Company, the movie Black wrote and directed, recently debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. Wain can only sing praises: “f—ing fabulous.”

The members of Stella only offer very literal – yet somewhat mystifying – advice to college students who want to follow in their footsteps.

“There has to be sand, so you can see our footsteps,” Black says.

“Or snow – tightly packed snow,” Wain suggests.

“I have no feet. I hover,” Showalter laments. “I’m hard to follow.”

Black and Showalter will appear at the Black Cat in Washington on Oct. 11. Tickets are $15.

Contact reporter Nancy Chow at diversions@dbk.umd.edu.