The MTV sketch-comedy show The State aired for only 25 episodes in 1994 and 1995. But for those of us who were teenagers in the mid-’90s and whose pop-cultural awakenings occurred alongside Nirvana Unplugged and the first few seasons of The Real World, those years were formative, and The State’s cast members — who’ve been performing together since the late ’80s as a comedy troupe also called The State — are revered. We’ll all be gathered at the Ryman like true believers, chanting in unison about being outta here and dipping our balls in whatever, as The State performs its cult-classic sketches live onstage.
The Scene recently spoke with one of The State’s most recognizable figures — Thomas Lennon, who was half of LeVon and Barry and the porcupine of “Porcupine Racetrack,” and who’s gone on to create iconic characters like Reno 911’s Lt. Dangle — about what to expect. Turns out The State is just as excited to bring its absurd-but-sincere brand of comedy, its “Froggy Jamboree” and its “U.S. Men’s Bikini Thong Rollerblading Team” to Nashville as we are to watch them do it.
The State reunion tour — it’s such a good idea. I saw the Pixies play Doolittle in its entirety at the Ryman, and this feels sort of similar.
This is very much similar. It’s not like we play an album in its entirety, but we for sure do a lot of hits, including new versions of old hits. It’s not a show where you are going to want to take a long bathroom break. The show does not have a half-hour lull anywhere.
I hear you’ll be doing “Porcupine Racetrack” — in the original costume.
Oh the costume. There was a really pretty amazing moment that happened on our first leg of the tour when we were playing Denver. I was in the costume, and I didn’t realize it but I had full-blown COVID. I think I had a fever of about 104 or something like that, and I didn’t know what was going on, and I was starting to sort of hallucinate and fade out. And I was like, “Could it be that this is how I go? Like actually onstage in the old porcupine outfit?” And I was like, “In some ways it’s the best end of that story.”
I’m so glad you didn’t die, but that would have been amazing.
“He went the way he lived — in a sweaty porcupine costume.”
Obviously the original sketch is fantastic, but you also did a version in 2020 during lockdown, during that weird time when entertainment was so earnestly wanted that weird ideas came out of the woodwork. Everyone’s a little stir-crazy and making use of what’s hanging around to make costumes, but there’s a moment when the Zoom cuts to Kevin Allison and he’s in this S&M gimp suit with these metal sex toys, and it’s just so lovely — just such a window into his real life.
Absolutely. And that’s I think one of the great things about The State — we’ve always considered ourselves a fairly punk-rock kind of comedy group. You know, I think a lot of shows would have been like, “Hey, Kevin, maybe don’t do that, like, complete leather bondage gear for our ‘Porcupine Racetrack’ redux?” But with The State, it was like, “Yeah, this is exactly who we are.”
I’m a huge fan, and I assume that everyone in the audience will be as well. But I wonder if there’s going to be someone who’s never seen an episode, and is just like, “I like comedy. I want to go see this.” I’d love to know their perspective.
I’m sure some people have come to see the show by accident, or with someone else who didn’t know what the sketches are. Because it almost feels a little cult. But I think if you’ve never seen The State, you’re not going to feel in any way excluded from the fun of this show. You might wonder, “Jesus, how are they famous from stuff this stupid? Wow, these are some dumb premises for sketches. But boy, they really, really commit.” Yeah, that’s the thing about The State — it really didn’t necessarily matter what the premise was. Because we commit so hard to every idea.
Thomas Lennon
Yes! I’m thinking of the tape-on-the-face people, the spaghetti and fried bumblebees. The State is like the comedy version of that trope of like — I could listen to Whitney Houston sing the phone book. You guys are so naturally funny that you could read the phone book and I would laugh.
Oh, “The State reads the phone book” is absolutely an idea that we would probably try to do, and then we’d have big fights about it. But I feel like we probably could land it for at least the first 20 minutes.
It’s clear that you’re all smart, but the jokes are so stupid — that’s the dynamic.
Well, I wouldn’t say for sure that it’s smart, but I would say that it’s sincere. I think our hearts are pretty much always in the right place. And it’s hard to tell from the inside, because to me, everybody looks the same. But there’s videos of us that we made that are in the show that are from like 1989 and 1990. And it’s a little like that famous Michael Apted movie Seven Up! — you get these people who are basically children, and let’s watch them change and see if they stay the same as they get into their mid-50s. It’s a fun thing to see, because people mostly become way more like who they already were.
Yes, I assume you guys would feel more like family than friends.
Oh, it’s way more like that. I’ve actually spent more time with The State than with my actual family. Through so many shows.
Right, and the familial thing isn’t just about closeness, but it’s also about having known someone as a young person, before you became who you are.
Yeah, exactly. And in some ways, it probably helped shape who each of us would become. Once we got together in 1988, we were very protective of each other. We sort of operate like a gang. You know, we had a very inflated idea of ourselves at that time, but that’s the thing that you need to exist in this kind of world. But now, the joke is a little bit on us, because we vowed that we would never have catchphrases or recurring characters. And I assure you that now that we’re on tour, there’s a lot of recurring characters with amazing catchphrases.
But that’s how you infiltrate other people’s lives. It’s not a bit from The State, but “new boot goofin’” from Reno 911 is like that. You are in their brains after the TV is off.
When I saw Hamilton for the first time, there’s a great line, which is like, “You have no control about who lives and dies and tells your story.” And I was like, “Oh, I for sure don’t know if ‘I wanna dip my balls in it’ and ‘new boot goofin’’ would have been the two things I would have chosen for people to say about me when I’m gone.” “Oh yeah, that’s the guy who dips his butt in pudding.” But the pudding guys and “new boot goofin’” — like it or not, that’s my epitaph.
I mean, I think there’s something to that sincerity, like you said. Because you play straight guys too, but even when you play the silly guys, you play them straight.
That’s a thing about The State. Sometimes I watch other sketch shows, and they will have, like, background actors in sketches. And if you look at The State, that will never happen. Because we’re all so committed. I think that in some ways we thought we were like The Wooster Group, or like a performance-art group in some way. The idea that someone would come up to the table as a waiter, and it wasn’t one of us doing, like, an insanely specific character? That would have broken our hearts.
Anything specific you have planned for Nashville?
I guess it’s like that old expression about bringing sand to the beach or coals to Newcastle, but I am bringing a very old banjo to Nashville for the “Froggy Jamboree.” But let me just say this. For some reason playing the Ryman in Nashville is the show that The State as a group is super excited about. I think we feel a little pressure to make that a particularly amazing show. It’s just a cool venue that looms so large. And get ready for partial nudity. I’m not sure if the Ryman does that, but there’s going to be some. To be honest, it’s mostly just me.
Amazing. Well sometimes something like partial nudity feels even wilder at a place like the Ryman.
Right, the gravitas of the venue for an appearance by one of the guys from Bikini Thong Rollerblading Team.
Do you think CBS is ever going to call you back and let you make more episodes?
Ha! That’s actually not a terrible idea. “We forgot that we’re still under contract for two more specials.” That’s kind of a great premise for a new State show. Like, they still have us under contract — and they made us do them. We thought we were a trivia question, and now — we just replaced Blue Bloods on CBS.
I would watch! You guys have such great chemistry and you’re so lucky to have each other. Do you have any plans for what’s next?
Well, being on tour and being together has definitely rekindled a joy between us. I mean, hell, life is short, and I’ll just say that a Porcupine Racetrack full-length musical is not an impossibility in the near future.
Oh my God, yes. I was just thinking about how John Mulaney’s sketches on SNL, those epic musical sketches that he’s done, those all seem very inspired by “Porcupine Racetrack” and how over-the-top it is.
Those are so wonderful, I would love to think that. He really nails those. If there was just a live feed of those sketches, that would be the only thing I would ever need to see.
