NBC recently had a brief interview with Steve Oedekerk, here it is!:

NBC.com: Your special, "steve.oedekerk.com," is very unique. Is this what the inside of your mind looks like, this show?

OEDEKERK: Yeah, yeah, very much. Watching this show is the closest anyone can get to tooling around in my brain.

NBC.com: Is it worse?

OEDEKERK: (laughs) It can get...pretty scary in there.

NBC.com: What is it about this animated virtual world that has you throwing yourself - literally - into it?

OEDEKERK: I was watching TV one day and I realized, man, there's really nothing on television like what I've been doing in features. So it really stemmed from me with just this idea of I'm going to do a show that's so wild and so cool... that follows no rules, you know? It will not be like a show that was on before. And I started there and then it just got more fun because I started having different combining virtual sets with live action characters and virtual characters in a live action setting. And it just got really fun and started to snowball. NBC.com: What made you decide to go with the web angle on it? Are you into the web yourself?

OEDEKERK: Yeah, very much. You know, all this show is to me is what in a few years you'd be... you'll be able to get on the Web and participate in the show. So rather than just watching Oedebattle, you'll actually be able to battle me, you know. And I know that’s where it’s all headed. It seemed natural. My mind works in such a non-linear fashion and (it) pops around. I thought, why not do a show that has the feel of flowing around between websites?

NBC.com: Tell us a little bit about the website portion. We know we’re going to see a TV show. This is also going to be digitized on the web. Tell us about what we’re going to see on your website.

OEDEKERK: Right now, we have images from the show, sound clips from the show, AVI movies from the show. So you can play around with little outtakes and things that didn’t make it into the show for whatever reason - if they’re a little too wild or a little too bizarre. You can pick and choose. And then I’m actually working on a virtual world that will allow people to enter the show and elements of the show and other new ideas we come up with. So you can go into the comedy club that has the octopus and the aliens at the tables. You actually can play a battle against Oedebattle. That’s where I’m branching it into. I eventually want to have an amusement park out there that’s just nuts - that everybody can go and get lost in.

NBC.com: Too cool. Tell us a little about the Comedy Café. The production of creating that is something people may not realize all of the different elements that come together, including the live audience.

OEDEKERK: One of the fun things with this show is it sort of tricks you in a way. When I’m in this comedy club performing and there actually is no comedy club, it’s not a real audience, it just feels like it is. You know, it really does feel like I’m on stage in this freakish club with an octopus here and a table of aliens and astronauts and a duck. It has this bizarre sort of feel. There’s sort of a surrealistic feel about it. It’s neat.

NBC.com: What advice would you give someone trying to "break into the business?"

OEDEKERK: I would suggest doing what I did, which was not looking to make the leap, you know? I mean the only reason I’m doing what I’m doing now is I wasn’t playing the game of, "Oh, I have to find an agent. Oh, I have to get a manager. Oh, I have to meet the right person. Oh, I need a break." Instead, I was playing the game, "I want to make my own stuff. I’m just going to make my own stuff." And that’s how it all started for me. "I’m going to make my own low budget films. I’m going to shoot my own five minute short." Just by getting out there and doing stuff. If it’s really funny, things will happen. But if you spend all your time trying to figure out how to get a job, you’re not executing. There’s no spark there.

"steve.oedekerk.com" airs Wednesday, September 3rd, 8-9pm ET, on NBC.

© 1997 National Broadcasting Company

Email Me with any Oedekerk Intereview Info!! I TRIPLE-DOG(muled)-DARE YA! furrows@i-mockery.com