Here’s an excerpt from Backstory Issue 30 for your reading pleasure:
Fast-forward to 2017, in the shadow of Drunk History’s fifth season, and creator Derek Waters is reflecting on the show’s long road. “No human being knows the result of what’s going to happen,” he says, “but every human being has things that they want to do, and it’s so upsetting when you’re too worried about what the final result is going to be instead of doing it. Obviously, that’s easier said than done, but this little idea is the best example I’ll have ever have. I just thought it would be fun. I think when you do anything based on this would be fun, what’s the worst that can happen? Every project I ever had where I thought, This has to be it, you destroy it because you put too much pressure on it. I think the show works because it is what it is and it’s not trying to do something it’s not.” Each episode usually consists of three stories tied together either by location (in the early seasons) or theme. At the beginning of each season, Waters, co-creator/co-executive producer Jeremy Konner and their group of researchers sit down to discuss story possibilities. Drunk History never focuses on the typical events handed down through the history books. Its view is a little more askew, mining the past for tales that never quite made it to mainstream. “We like finding stories about someone famous that we know in history but we’ve never heard that particular story about them. Or about someone who never got any credit. Those are the best when the audience goes, How did I not know about that? It varies, but ultimately we like finding stories that make you go, Why wasn’t I taught that in school?”
Since the show’s best accounts are about individuals pushed to the margins of our history texts, many center on women. There’s the Wright brothers’ sister Katharine, who was crucial to their work in aviation, and reporters Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, who mounted competing races around the world to beat the fictional journey in Around the World in 80 Days. “History is written by the victors usually,” Waters says. “It is a conscious thing we do. We try our best to have people wonder why they didn’t know about that person.” For Drunk History, that extends to the comedians themselves telling the stories. Mixed in with big names like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jenny Slate, David Wain and Bob Odenkirk are a lot of up-and coming comedy actors to whom Waters happily cedes the spotlight. Once Waters and Konner have selected the tales for the season, they seek out their narrators. Waters does his best to match the storytellers with a narrative they’re fervent about retelling. “I first ask them what is a moment in history they’re passionate about, so I would get to know what type of story they might like. That might remind me of a story we plan on doing that particular season that has a similar tone.” He emails each person three story options¬—one he thinks they’ll pick and two he believes they won’t like so they gravitate more toward the first one. Once a story is selected, Waters sends a research packet with a wealth of background, and the narrator usually has a week or two to memorize it.
The day before the shoot with Waters himself, the speakers get on the phone with a show producer to do a sober run-through. He is never involved in these calls as he wants his reactions during filming to be as fresh as possible. “As the host, I do my best to only know the summary of the story,” he says. “It has to be that way, or my reactions won’t feel genuine. I know the overall story, but there are always moments that make me go, Wow. Sober or drunk, a human being loves to tell a story you’ve never heard.” Waters will have made sure everything said onscreen in Drunk History is 100 percent historically accurate, and the only time he jumps into the filming of the narration is to correct a date or a pronunciation. Because of the show’s offhand feel, it often seems like the narrator is making up the story as they go along, which is great for the viewer but actually the furthest thing from the truth. “I love to imagine people thinking it’s not real and then looking it up later and going, Oh my god, that was true.”
Anyone who has spent even a little time in bars knows that inebriated storytellers tend to overperform, and Waters accounts for this as well. The narrators are filmed telling their stories multiple times, because Waters and producers know very little from the first account will wind up being used due to the comedians trying to be overtly funny rather than just telling their tale. “The first round is always like that,” he says. “Any human being, funny or not, with alcohol in them and a camera pointed at them—they’re going to try and be funny. I know that going in. But once that’s out, they don’t have to do it anymore. It just comes with the territory.” A season of Drunk History films in two parts: The narration is shot first, followed by all of the reenactments. The show’s fifth season is the largest yet at 14 episodes, with the overall shooting schedule an insane 63 weeks. Occasionally the show will have to cut a narration entirely, either because the story isn’t working quite the way they thought it would or because it no longer fits thematically within a certain episode. If you’re curious how the actual drinking portion of the filming works, Waters allows the narrators to select their own brand of poison so they know how much they can and cannot handle. If someone does get overserved, there are medics on set to provide oxygen in case things go too far.
The visuals for the reenactments fall somewhere on the spectrum between a high school stage production and a Wes Anderson film. “The idea has always been that here are these filmmakers trying to make this history show, but it’s not going as well as possible yet their hearts are in the right place,” Waters says. “I never want it to look too good, but we still want it to be taken seriously. We use models or really bad backdrops now and then, [because] I do my best to consciously make it feel like its homemade.” Still, there are exceptions. One of them is the season-five highlight “Drunk Mystery,” directed by Waters. Inspired by the host’s unabashed love for Unsolved Mysteries, the episode tells tales about Agatha Christie, D.B. Cooper and an unsolved suburban crime. Waters himself plays a version of Robert Stack, the face of the show for 15 years. But as a director, he also gives the episode a cinematic feel that other episodes of Drunk History don’t have. He never helmed more than a sketch or short film before he began Drunk History, yet it’s something he plans to do more of. “I came out here 17 years ago to be an actor, and I love acting, but I have so much more fun directing. I love both, but I think directing is something I’m better at.”
To read the complete article in Issue 30 of Backstory, click HERE to subscribe.
Backstory Issue 30 includes an in-depth interview with writer-director Rian Johnson about Star Wars: The Last Jedi, plus chats with the film’s editor, cinematographer and producer. For more info, check out the Table of Contents.
