Column: How Stella got its grove back

I had pretty specific goals when I got into journalism: Go on tour with an up-and-coming band, fall in love with Kate Hudson, become a golden god with Billy Crudup and solicit journalistic advice from Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Translation: I wanted to write about famous entertainers.

My first famous-person-I-admire interview was with New York City-based comedy troupe Stella. I watched the "Wet Hot American Summer" director's commentary (a movie Stella members starred in, wrote and/or directed); I cribbed laundry lists of interview questions. I was nervous as hell.

When I got on the phone with Michael Showalter and David Wain, two thirds of Stella, they must have sensed my fear. Showalter and Wain made fun of me for more than 45 minutes.

I can't remember a time when I'd laughed so hard during a phone call. It was my best interview ever.

I met them backstage before the show and they were incredibly gracious (and funny).

Stella went on hiatus after a failed Comedy Central show (which didn't capture the magic of what makes these guys so funny). Wain went and made another movie, "Role Models;" Showalter and Michael Ian Black put together another Comedy Central pilot. But Stella's back, on tour and coming to D.C. Tuesday. I jumped at the chance to interview one of these guys again.

Showalter agreed to speak with me on a few hours notice. And again, I was obviously unprepared. But this time, for a different reason: He was (more) serious.

Check out the highlights:

Josh Eiserike: I'm taking my boss to your show in D.C. She is totally unfamiliar with anything Stella.

Michael Showalter: I would say, first and foremost, low expectations. It's always good to have low expectations because you could always go up from that. I would say these guys are really funny, kind of weird. They wear suits and it's like stand up comedy, but not really, and it's sort of like sketch comedy, but not really. It's sort of in between… We're like the hipster Three Stooges.

J: Stella has been on hiatus for a little while? You had the show.

M: We had the show, nobody watched it, the show got canceled and I think we all felt kind of like it was probably a good time to take a break. We all kind of went off and did different things. Michael Black and I did a lot of touring together; doing stand-up and David Wain did movies. Mike and I also made a TV show at Comedy Central that hopefully will get picked up for a series.

J: It's something like "Mike and Mike have Issues" or something?

M: Mike and I play ourselves. Not Stella-versions of ourselves. We play more our real selves. We have a TV show called "Issues" and a lot of the show is Mike and I sort of, Spy vs. Spy like, competing with each other and one-upping each other behind the scenes of this TV show that we're making… We've shot the pilot and we're all hoping it goes to series now. No big developments to report.

J: So anyways, we were talking about "Why get Stella back together?"

M: I think after the TV show it seemed like a good time to take a break from it. I think sometime maybe about a year ago the three of us started talking that if we had some time we would do a tour. I think at a certain point, over the summer, it was decided we would do it right around now.

About 80 percent of it is new material. There's maybe one or two sketches that you've seen before. I'm not even sure about that. Almost the whole show is new. There's a new video. It's kind of more of the same. The show is a little bit, a little bit aged, a little bit more grown-up, maybe. … We like trying to make jokes out of subjects that aren't necessarily just sex and poo. I mean, there's always room for sex and poo. But we're branching out, finally.

We'll be talking about Christmas, we'll be talking about fast food. Stuff like that. Really important stuff. We're also going to be talking about botany and horticulture. You might want to write that down.

J: OK. Writing it down.

M: Botany and horticulture.

J: Yeah.

M: I hope you wrote that down.

J: I did. One thing I sort of --

M: You think I'm joking but I'm not. We are really going to be talking about botany and horticulture.

J: I believe you, man. I wrote it down.

M: OK, stop attacking me. Stop attacking me.

J: I'm not attacking you dude. One thing that I sort of noticed --

M: Why are you attacking me? Keep going. Sorry. Sorry.

J: What kind of stuff are you working on right now?

M: I'm on the phone, sorry. I'm sorry. What's that?

J: Are you on the streets right now?

M: Yes.

J: In New York?

M: Yes. I just got accosted.

J: By who? A fan?

M: No, no. By a panhandler.

J: Other than the Stella tour, what else are you working on right now?

M: I'm writing a book called "Mr. Funnypants." It's about me and my attempts to write a book. It's a memoir.

J: I read somewhere a possibility, and you probably get asked this all the time, but a possibility of a (MTV sketch comedy show "The) State" reunion movie?

M: Yes. A movie, I'm not so sure about. It looked like that was going to happen at one point but then it kind of didn't materialize. Although, it's still a possibility, but we are, there is going to be a full "State" reunion at the San Francisco sketch comedy festival in January. … We're all going to show up on Friday and put something together real fast. The show's on Saturday night. We're going to have one day to put the show together. But we do actually have a lot of material, old and new. And I could definitely see, somewhere down the line we would make a movie together.

J: You probably get asked this a lot too, but on the topic of "Wet Hot American Summer," which when I say "Michael Showalter" and people say "who" and I'm like "the dude from 'Wet Hot American Summer'," they know exactly who you are and what the movie is. It seems to have taken on, like, a cult status. Why do you think that is? It wasn't successful in theaters, but it went on to achieve a second life on its own.

M: I guess… I don't really know. I guess… the people who liked the movie would probably be able to answer that better than me. I really don't know. It has a kind of cool cast and a very sort -- it's a movie that feels different than a lot of other movies. But I don't know. I couldn't account for that. Why do you think it is?

J: I think a lot, personally, just with my group of friends, I think people look back on their summer camp days and "Meatballs" didn't really do it for us because it was kind of cheese, but "Wet Hot American Summer" was sort of like, sort of self-aware cheese. It was very aware of itself, but it also felt more true. That's just my two-cent answer.

M: I love it.

J: Sweet.

M: I've got two cents for you right here.

J: But not for the panhandler.

M: I'll give it to you at the show.

Staff writer Josh Eiserike can be reached at 703-878-8072.