Every time I see the Horrible Sickness I leave with a new perspective on the world. Whether it be the universal weakness in robots (sensitive testicles), NASA management (it’s true that we do looove juice boxes and I’d say about 40% of employees don’t know what their job title means, myself included), or how to get a rocket out of your head (very dangerous, life threatening operation, must have a doctor on the phone to lead you though it), these guys can explain it. So, without further ado, I present an interview with The Horrible Sickness.

The Interview:

1. First off, can you give us a brief background on The Horrible Sickness? E.g. its origins, adolescence, and/or aspirations for the future?

1. The Horrible Sickness, as best we can gather, was born in the summer of last year. It was late at night, there were no birth records, the umbilical chord was not saved in a jar. At nine members, it was an unusually large, good natured infant that enjoyed simply making people laugh. However, as it grew in renoun, it shrank in size to just five members obsessed with self promotion and monetary gain. Now as a teenager, it is less like an adult, and more like a enormous powerful child… who is hungry. When it eats, it is restless so it runs around and ’round in circles and then is tired. In the future, The Horrible Sickness hopes to one day be paid for its talents, even the smallest sum, anything to justify its own existence. And maybe to settle down with the right one.

2. Who is in the group? Do you like them?

2. Joe Chandler, Jared Crain, Daniel Campagna, Adam Sauter, and Soren Bowie make up The Horrible Sickness. Yes, they are all smart people who love their own jokes. In fact, they strive to someday produce comedy no one thinks is funny, because that would prove them misunderstood and before their time. They get along well and all like each other almost as much as themselves.

3. What were some of your favorite shows, and why? Any special moments you’d like to share?

3. Ok, so this one time Joe goes out on stage and he’s all, “Hum-de-dum, I’m eating cereal.” And then Jared jumps out and he starts going, “I’m a crazy kid hopped up on Fruity Pebbles!” except without saying it, he just made it obvious . So Joe’s all, “What are you doing?” and Jared just keeps right on jumping around like an eight year old, no, like a six year old, one that has ADD. I forget what happened next, but then he started counting his hairs. F*ck that was funny.

4. Do you have any interest in taking the show beyond improv? In other words, does improv define the Sickness or might it spread? (be specific…)

4. The Horrible Sickness hopes to start doing sketch comedy considering everyone in the group has a sketch background. In fact, improv was really a poor jumping off point because most of the members are enormously more talented at other things. With the exception of Adam, the rest of the members sit just north of the mediocre boundary. Also, the group has recently started getting down about the lack of perks in the comedy scene, they’ve sort of decided it might be more fun to become rock stars. There are still a lot of insecurity issues that need to be hammered out and a fear of non-coolness but rockstardom is sort of the light they’re shooting for.

5. Can you give us any behind-the-scenes info on the Sickness et al.? Drama? Gossip? Romance? Improper use of chopsticks?

5. Yes. It turns out that everyone in the group has directly or indirectly hooked up with girls because of the shows. Two of the members have girlfriends but we’re counting those as improv-related hookups. Rarely does the group fight amongst itself, and the fights usually have less to do with creative differences and more to do with Adam showing up drunk to the show.

6. Do any of you have professional lives outside of the Sickness?

6. Some of the members write for sketch comedy groups or are members of sketch comedy groups. Dan, Jared, and Adam fancy themselves actors, however, none of them have achieved the same international, and deserved renound as Soren. He is considered the “pretty” one of the group, prooving that talent is always a distant second to looks on the road to success in any field.

7. If given the prompt “cheese,” describe in some detail how you might respond.

7. Can we have another suggestion?

8. Where and when do you perform? Do you have material available via the internet and/or do you plan to?

8. Dan, I’m giving this one to you.

Okay, Dan here. We perform Saturday nights at 9:30 PM at the Westside Eclectic Theater. That is located at 1323-A 3rd. Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA. In case our performance dates ever change, check out thehorriblesickness.com for an up to date schedule. The only material we have available on the internet is at the aforementioned site. And it really just consists of bunnies whose heads explode, butterflies being vaporized, and Da Vinci’s ‘Man’ being injected with a green liquid. All those things are pretty funny. There’s also a secret “balls” page on the site that always makes me laugh. Once we have some sketches filmed they will be up on our site as well. That’s all the information I have, so I’m going to give this interview back to The Horrible Sickness.

9. If I live in Connecticut, how can I support the Sickness and what do I get for it?

9. Shit, I really wore myself out on the first questions. I don’t really want to answer the rest of these.

I’ll do it (Dan again). If you live in Connecticut you can send us money. We are absolutely not a non-profit so you don’t get any kind of tax write off. In fact you don’t get anything out of it. The only thing that happens is that we get money. I’d like to say that you’ll get a warm feeling from supporting a talented troupe that is trapped in the throws of poverty, but you won’t. The other thing you can do is visit our Website every single day, even when nothing new is happening. Then recommend us to anyone you know who would want to sponsor us: Budweiser, Kaiser Permanente, the makers of Immodium AD, etc. I’m seriously done this time and permanently handing the interview back to The Horrible Sickness.

10. Is there a cure?

10. No. Oh thank god that’s it.

EOF

These guys are pretty awesome. And I know they really enjoyed doing this interview despite answers that suggest otherwise… You should check them out, and especially go and see them if you’re in the LA area. I’ll keep you updated if (when!) they start putting some material online.