Sitting in a New York diner across the booth from a nervous young woman, George St. Geegland and his associate Gil Faizon can barely contain themselves. You see, she thinks she’s traveled here all the way from London to interview for a big babysitting job. But George and Gil, two bespectacled older men dressed in turtlenecks, have something else in mind. Less than a minute into the big interview, a waiter brings over a plate and places it in front of the woman. On it is a tuna fish sandwich that has what is, without question, an excessive amount of tuna on it. They inform her that’s she’s been pranked with too much tuna.
“So there’s no job and there’s no children?” she asks.
George leans forward, eyes peering out over his glasses.
“May I ask you a question? And I don’t mean to be rude. Do you have fucking Memento disease?” he asks. “Because every two minutes it’s ‘Is there a job? Is there kids?’ There’s no kids, there’s no job. There’s too much tuna. You’re on a prank show.”
John Mulaney, the man who brought George St. Geegland to life, remembers that Memento line fondly.
“I pretty much like everything they’ve ever said,” Mulaney said in a phone interview. “But I thought that one in particular was nice of him.”
The stand-up comedian and former Saturday Night Live writer will be bringing lines like that to Washington, D.C., starting this weekend, along with comedian Nick Kroll, who plays Faizon. Together, the two have turned this pair of misinformed, questionably behaved tuna lovers into a cult hit entitled Oh, Hello. What began as a series of sketches on Kroll’s Comedy Central program, Kroll Show, is now an off-Broadway theater piece that is touring the country and will be stopping at the Warner Theatre.
Given the opportunity to speak to the duo, I felt it was only right to ask them about college. Turns out Mulaney and Kroll met at Georgetown, an origin story very similar to that of their fictional counterparts.
“Gil was at Columbia. As a trespasser,” Kroll said.
“George was a student there and he was very involved in the antiwar movement and women’s rights — basically anything he thought could be used to get women,” Mulaney said. “He was fine with the North Vietnamese, but he acted like he wasn’t to get women.”
It’s clear in talking with Kroll and Mulaney that George and Gil are more than your average sketch characters. The touring show wasn’t just born out of the desire to bring the men to their fans, but also of the two comedians’ borderline-obsessive love for them. Mulaney said separating themselves from George and Gil is hard, in part because the two talk like the men “all the time.”
As any fan of Kroll’s show or Mulaney’s stand-up specials can attest, both comedians have the kind of quick, whip-smart minds that make improvised riffs a walk in the park. So as George and Gil have gone from city to city, the jokes have adapted. Will a trip to Washington bring about some political material?
“Material?” Mulaney said. “These will be rants, because you know what? They’re sick of it. George and Gil are sick of it.”
“Yes,” Kroll chimed in. “Sick of the politics.”
The inspiration for the characters came from two men Kroll and Mulaney once saw at a bookstore. Both of the men were buying actor Alan Alda’s memoir. It was then that they knew. That one joke, the idea that this type of man is funny, became the basis for the entire Oh, Hello run.
The comedians said the reaction to this tour, one that has garnered critical praise and write-ups from notable outlets of all kinds, has surprised them somewhat, but has not caught Gil and George off-guard at all.
“They’ve been literally waiting for their New York Times write-up for 50 years,” Kroll said.
“They were just mad that we got any ink at all for presenting their show,” Mulaney added. “So mad they could throw lukewarm water with lemon on us.”
The whole thing, especially upon a first viewing, can certainly seem strange and very niche. But the comedians believe that no matter how despicable Gil and George can be, the essence of who they are can remind a lot of people of someone they know.
“Everyone knows someone that smells like wet wool,” Mulaney said.
“You find the universal in specificity,” Kroll said, growing a tad serious. “It’s a story about two guys; it’s about friendship. But it’s also about tuna fish.”
Oh, Hello is playing at the Warner Theatre in Washington on Feb. 14, 15 and 17.
