David Wain Ken Marino Gail Daughtry and Middle…
New York Post could also be compensated and/or obtain an affiliate commission if you click on or buy through our hyperlinks. Featured pricing is subject to change.
David Wain, Ken Marino and Craig Wedren never actually left summer season camp.
The trio, all of whom labored on the seminal 2001 comedy “Wet Hot American Summer” — Wain directed, Marino acted, Wedren scored — refuse to let the great occasions go 25 years after their iconic comedy cult-classic hit the multiplexes.
That’s particularly true this moist sizzling American summer season. Over the past few months, the three friends launched the goofy romp “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity intimacy Pass” and their group, The Middle-Aged Dad Jam Band, embarked on a temporary East Coast Tour.
“This is a long [tour for us],” Marino told The Post in an exclusive interview. “We set up five days and five nights and I’ve been stressing out because vocally, I can’t make it past two nights.”
One may not imagine that after having seen the band live, though.
MADJB packed out New York City’s standing-room-only Irving Plaza on Friday, July 25 and delivered a true powerhouse efficiency with Marino wailing on lead vocals, Wain proudly owning on drums and Wedren doing a little bit of all the pieces.
Their live show is fan service to the max- if you want “The State,” “Viva Variety,” “Wet Hot American Summer,” “Stella,” “They Came Together” or Wain/Marino/Wedren’s earlier collaborations “The Ten” and “Wanderlust,” the show is constructed just for you.
In-jokes comes fast and livid in between trustworthy variations of traditional rock staples like Elton John’s “Honky Cat” (Wedren’s groovy favourite), Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run,” The Box Tops’ “The Letter” and Billy Joel’s “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant.” It’s half “comedians dreaming of being rock stars” want achievement, half household reunion (Wain’s 18-year-old son Henry impressively crooned The Smiths’ “This Charming Man”), half goofy sing-a-long, all good time. The songs sound great and the bits like a musical recreation of Roger Ebert’s pan of “Wet Hot” are stomach laugh-worthy.
Unfortunately, the Jam Band doesn’t have another tour scheduled at the second but they’ve visions of what another would possibly appear to be.
“If we somehow got it set up like the way Weird Al does it, and we could make enough to live on it and have days off and be comfortable, that’d be perfect,” Wain mused.
“No more than two or three shows in a row,” Wedren added. “Given the logistics of it, would be to sort of have like a monthly residency in Vegas or something.”
“We’ll get ‘Gail Daughtry’ at Sphere and then come and do a live show,” Marino riffed.
“They’ve been on us to do that, and I just don’t answer their calls anymore,” Wain tagged.
Thankfully, while we wait for fingers crossed another tour, followers can try “Gail Daughtry,” which Wain, Marino and Wedren rank close to the top of their canons (“Out of all of the stuff that we’ve done, each time I watch it, it’s really special. It’s number one for me,” Marino famous), which is in theaters now and will hit streaming providers soon.
Or, if you like live, Ken Marino shall be starring as in the national tour of “Death Becomes Her,” which kicks off in Cleveland with a run at the KeyBank State Theatre beginning in mid-September.
“‘Death Becomes Her’ is inspired by the movie and honors all the things that people love about the movie but expands on that and goes deeper into some of the characters and the relationships,” Marino shared. “It’s its own thing. The music is f—ing great and campy as hell.”
After that, anticipate more Wain, Marino and Wedren collaborations.
‘Cause, for them, summer season camp never actually ends.
Where is the “Death Becomes Her” National Tour going?
To make sure you’re in the loop, right here’s when and where you possibly can see Ken Marino in “Death Becomes Her” live these next few months:
Cleveland, OH’s KeyBank State Theatre
Sept. 12 through Oct. 3
Columbus, OH’s Ohio Theatre
Oct. 6-11
Saint Louis, MO’s The Fabulous Fox Theatre
Oct. 13-25
Omaha, NE’s Orpheum Theatre
Oct. 27 through Nov. 1
Nashville, TN’s Tennessee Performing Arts Center
Nov. 3-8
Durham, NC’s Durham Performing Arts Center
Nov. 10-15
Atlanta, GA’s Fox Theatre
Nov. 17-22
Knoxville, TN’s Tennessee Theatre
Nov. 24-29
Orlando, FL’s Walt Disney Theater
Dec. 1-6
Tampa, FL’s Straz Center
Dec. 8-13
Fort Lauderdale, FL’s Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center
Dec. 15-27
Naples, FL’s Hayes Hall
Dec. 29 through Jan. 3, 2027
Greensboro, NC’s Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts
Jan. 5-10, 2027
Boston, MA’s Citizens Bank Opera House
Jan. 12-22, 2027
For all other dates up until August 2027, with the run ending at Tempe, AZ’s Gammage Auditorium, click on right here to discover “Death Becomes Her’s” full calendar.
David Wain, Ken Marino and Craig Wedren interview
As followers doubtless know, the trio met at NYU back in the ’80s, made sketches with The New Group on campus and then created “The State,” one of the definitive sketch collection of the ’90s that made the sardonic solid members Gen X icons in the method.
In the many years since, Wain, Marino and Wedren have gone their separate methods — Wain co-created the seminal sitcom “Stella” and directed a quantity of studio and indie comedies; Marino has shown off his chops in reveals like “Party Down,” “The Other Two” and the criminally-underrated “Marry Me;” Wedren scored “The United States of Tara,” “Bones” and “Hung” — but by some means always come back to each other.
And, while Marino and Wain have written movies together with a distinctive seven-day course of before like “The Ten” and “Wanderlust” (that Wedren scored, of course), they’ve never been more bonded than now.
Here is our temporary interview with the three about a quantity of topics ranging from The Middle-Aged Dad Band to the unmade “Stella” film to the “Death Becomes Her” national tour.
The Post: Is the band ironic for you guys or completely honest?
Marino: Totally honest. The jokes between the songs are…
Wedren: Sincerely ironic.
Marino: It all comes from a honest place. We need people to giggle, we wish people to benefit from the music.
Wain: It’s not a spoof. We’re just doing it.
Marino: Although, I really feel like, at this level, all the pieces we do is seen as ironic.
The Post: What’s the most enjoyable tune for you guys to carry out?
Marino: “Born To Run” is always a good one. We have a tendency to end with “Born To Run” or “The Letter” or “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.”
“Born To Run” is always a cool one to end on because all people so excited to sing it. There’s a call and response and by the end when you get to that last verse, the power in the room is unmatched.
Wain: I’d second that because we’ve performed it for a actually long time, it’s actually in our bones. So for me personally I can just stream. I don’t suppose about what to do. The tune just actually feels alive that manner.
Wedren: I like “Honky Cat” just because that groove. I’m sure it has a lot to do with John Spurney, our piano participant. And the way in which that David drums.
Marino: We have a quantity of people in our band who are skilled musicians. John Spurney is one. He performs piano and guitar and whatever instrument we need, and sometimes he sings backup. Jordan Katz performs trumpet and banjo. Craig Wedren is just a vocal powerhouse. We have these people in our band that make sure that David and I keep on monitor and that’s that’s a luxurious.
The Post: Who are some of your favourite friends?
Wedren: I appreciated Tia Carrere singing “Heartbreaker.” That was fairly superior.
Wain: Uzo Aduba was actually enjoyable. She was great. Having Neil Giraldo play.
Marino: Kristen Bell coming in. I actually loved singing with her because we have now a historical past. I’ve completed a quantity of TV reveals with her. When she got here in and we acquired to do a duet but we did a little wink to “Veronica Mars,” and that was enjoyable because I assumed we sounded fairly good, too.
It’s also fantastic when we get members of “The State” to come in and sing a tune. We’ve acquired Tom Lennon, we’ve acquired Kerry Kenny-Silver, we’ve gotten Michael Ian Black.
The Post: Where would you guys rank “Gail Daughtry” in your oeuvre?
Marino: It’s up there.
Wedren: Way up there, like top 5, even top three. It’s actually so tight.
Wain: I’m very biased toward the most latest project. More than any film in my reminiscence of doing this, it sustains me staying in seeing it over and over again.
Marino: Also listening to people’s response to it [has been really special]. Like “Wet Hot,” there have been people who appreciated it, but such as you had to weed through just like the f—ing critics. And then, all of a sudden, there was this momentum and groundswell of people being like “no, no, no, you guys are wrong. You just don’t understand what’s going on.” With Gail, both critics and people watching it have responded actually positively to it and that makes us really feel seen in a manner.
Wain: It’s validating.
Wedren: I see it a little more objectively, like as a fan. So I’m considering about “Stella” and “The State” and you guys did great. They labored the s— out of this film. Obviously, I used to be doing the music for it, so I most likely watched it a thousand occasions in a thousand different methods and it just saved getting better and better.
Wain: We just hammer it exhausting after the shoot.
Wedren: Somehow it doesn’t really feel dry or overworked or strenuous.
The Post: With the success of “Nirvana: The Band: The Show: The Movie” is there a chance that we’d get another “Stella” factor? Ten episodes just isn’t enough.
Wain: We had always dreamed about doing a film. We really sketched out a film at one level involving a a curler rink. We go to a small city and discover a curler rink and we’re going to put it aside even though no person needs it. It’s like disgusting and run-down and they’re going to construct a new neighborhood heart there, but we are saying “we’re going to save the rink!” But who is aware of? I’d love to do it.
The Post: David, what line do you quote the most from your work?
Wain: My son Solly has seen “Gail Daughtry” more than anybody because he watched the first cut and has seen the film over and over and he retains placing it back in daily dialog where we keep saying different quotes from it all the time. I really feel like I’m by some means advanced just to the purpose where I don’t actually quote my work.
The Post: Do you suppose they’ll ever be a restoration of your thesis movie “Aisle Six”?
Wain: There’s a good enough-video of it online I don’t know if there’s going to be a Criterion or Blu-Ray anytime soon.
The Post: Craig, how do you come up with a sound to match Wain and Marino’s footage and play with the absurdity?
Wedren: Sometimes it’s tremendous clear what it means. We’ve been sharing each other’s spit now for most of our lives. So there’s a shorthand. Particularly with David because we grew up together from such a younger age and have the same musical references. He can say the colour inexperienced and I’ll know what he means. Beyond that, we all just bat concepts around until it feels proper. But not like other tasks with strangers where that will be scary and I’ll suppose “oh, s—, is my job in danger?” With us? It’s like, “oh, okay, let’s try the next day.”
Marino: You’re very affected person with us. When we’re like “that’s not it.” Then we strive to describe it to you and you’re like “okay, let me try this.” Wain and I’ve overlap in our love of music but we have now different kinds.
Wedren: Ken’s more natural, earthy, groove-based and David is more like indie, punk, traditional rock, Violent Femmes R.E.M.
Marino: I actually couldn’t identify one R.E.M. tune besides for “Got My Orange Crush” or whatever. If you had held a gun to my head, I wouldn’t have been in a position to come up at the time.
The Post: Ken, are you able to inform us about what followers would possibly anticipate from the national tour of “Death Becomes Her?”
Marino: When I noticed the show, I used to be like, “Oh my God, I would love to be part of that type of musical.” It’s kind of comparable to the stuff we do. It doesn’t take it too severely. We’ll strive to drop some themes in there and stuff you would possibly choose up on, but, first and foremost, we’re there to entertain and be humorous and enjoyable and audacious and campy and big. And that’s proper up my alley.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Huge comedians on tour in 2026
Although no act is kind of like Wain, Marino and Wedren, listed below are 5 of our favourite comics with considerably comparable sensibilities that are out and about these next few months.
• Steve Martin with Martin Short
• John Mulaney
• Weird Al
• On Cinema! with Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington
• Seth Meyers with John Oliver
Who else is pounding the pavement? Take a look at our record of all the largest comedians on tour in 2026 to discover the show of your desires.
This article was written by Matt Levy, New York Post live occasions reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the latest tour bulletins from your favourite musical artists and comedians, as properly as Broadway openings, sporting occasions and more live reveals – and finds great ticket costs online. Since he began his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed a Bruce Springsteen live performance and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to identify a few. Please be aware that offers can expire, and all costs are subject to change.
We present you with the trending topics. Get the best latest Entertainment news and content on our web site daily.
