Exclusive Interview: China IL’s Brad Neely and Daniel Weidenfeld talk Season 2

Posted on September 19, 2013December 21, 2017 by Juvenile Troll

(left: Brad Neely; right: Daniel Weidenfeld)

Juvenile Troll: Daniel, a few years back you were talking about promoting the first season of China, IL and you had mentioned that you could definitely see the series taking on a sort of Springfield-esque setting that, you know, that could provide a lot of characters for you to deal with. Did you know then that the series would be a half an hour long or did you just think it would be a less effort or referring to it that way?

Daniel Weidenfeld: No, we never really had an idea. We always had the hope that it would be able to expand but, you know, coming from shorts to 11 minutes it really felt like the world expanded so much. Only when we were like deep into the first season we were like – this could feel so much better if we could just breathe a little bit more.

Juvenile Troll: Right.

Daniel Weidenfeld: So, you know, we talked to Adult Swim and they were really open to it. Like they are such huge fans of the world around our core group of characters as well. Where, for us and, you know, this is Brad and my first real turn trying to do a longer narrative show. I had background primarily in short form online stuff and Brad was doing it on his own. And so, you know, we had the opportunity to do 11 minutes which was incredible. And then now that we’ve done these half hours I can’t ever see going back.

Juvenile Troll: Right, right.

Daniel Weidenfeld: You know, we have like 300 and some characters in this show now – probably only 70 of them speak and 300 characters we have names for and like we can talk about and that they’re real people.

Juvenile Troll: Right.

Daniel Weidenfeld: It’s pretty expansive.

Juvenile Troll: Right.

Daniel Weidenfeld: We have a map of the world where we know where every single person lives. Like we really – with our crew

have been able to put together this whole universe that, you know, even last season we had a sense of this but have just been able to expand so much more because we’re doing these half hour episodes.

Juvenile Troll: For that map of the whole world. Is that something that fans can find? Is that available anywhere because that sounds awesome.

Daniel Weidenfeld: We’re working that. You know, we do the show in sketch up. Our background’s primarily – that’s how we like really know the world – that’s easier.

Juvenile Troll: Right.

Daniel Weidenfeld: We are trying to get it done in our style in Flash so that we can put it up online. We do have a character directory figured out so hopefully the network will put that out. But yeah, so you can see all 350 characters. But the map – ideally we can get someone to get that done soon.

Juvenile Troll: I like that idea, too. That’s awesome. That actually brings me to my next question. It’s about some of the new characters and cast. Like what do they bring to the table? What do they add to the value of the show?

Daniel Weidenfeld: Well, in season one because of the limited time that we were allotted we focused on the teachers mostly. Now that we are able to have more time to tell more stories we can spend more time – an equal amount of time on the students. So we have some recurrent students that we really like. Hannibal Buress is the voice of the character named Matt Attack.

Juvenile Troll: Who’s awesome!

Daniel Weidenfeld: We have Ryan Flynn doing two different voices then we have Chelsea Peretti who already was doing some voices for our teachers. She does two students. So it’s really just making that other side of the desk more human and decked out with the individual.

Brad Neely: When we did season one, you know, the premise of the show really was with a school where the teachers were fucked up. Excuse my language – the teachers were screwed up and the students were trying to learn. And then we really realized that we were building the world up. It’s way more fun if the students can act like normal students as well. It’s much more relatable. The other thing that’s a very funny premise that holds up but the show will have much more longevity if the students are fucking crazy, too.

Daniel Weidenfeld: And don’t care about being there.

Brad Neely: Plus, people are just crazy.

Daniel Weidenfeld: Yeah, and in half hour episodes we can tell those stories about it when we couldn’t in the 11 minutes or we just had to tell our main core story and hope we could put some ancillary characters around them.

Juvenile Troll: Right, right. And yet – well that’s exactly what like it felt like watching the show that these students – especially FlipFlop. FlipFlop has to be one of my favorite characters. He’s absurd but I like him working off of Hannibal Buress’s character – Matt Attack

Brad Neely: They brought, you know, so much to the table, too. Just like, you know, once we really cast Hannibal while he was working on the Eric Andre Show and Brian who Brad has worked with on a pretty good pilot, then we were able to bring these relationships that we have in and have them really form characters.

Juvenile Troll: That’s awesome.

Brad Neely: Until, you know, we also have a few recurring characters – like Ronald Reagan will be appearing. Like, you know, we’re really just trying to blow this world out. He’ll be making an appearance hopefully down the road in a future season. We’re really just trying to create this, you know,

bigger world where the characters go on for a season and you’ll still remember them from the season before and that we just have all these characters that can come in and out.

Juvenile Troll: That’s awesome. That actually brings me to a question I had. One of my favorite characters from the first episode was Ronald Reagan. Is Reagan ever going to come back because he was kind of awesome. I mean, not very often do you see a character who can shit on people and it would be really entertaining. Yeah, I just – will we ever see Reagan again?

Daniel Weidenfeld: In your world.

Juvenile Troll: That’s true.

Daniel Weidenfeld: Ronald Reagan, yeah, he definitely comes back for an episode. He’s a major player in season two.

Juvenile Troll That’s awesome. I fell in love with him.

Daniel Weidenfeld: He’s voiced by Dave Coulier by the way.

Juvenile Troll: Dave Coulier does Ronald Reagan. Awesome. Awesome. All right, so you spoke a little bit about constructing the plot line and the story lines now and how that’s changed with the additional time. What are some of the challenges, though, with that or some of the things that you had to contend with because of the additional time?

Daniel Weidenfeld: We’d always, no matter what kind of time that we’re given, wanted to tell just way too much. So the challenge is always just tearing it down and making sure that it’s not cramped and not too much. You would think that if someone gave us an extra 15 minutes that we would, you know, be comfortable but we just end up cramming that too. The biggest change – and this is for the better – was going to half hours since it allowed for us to like build a writer’s room with people around us actually got these stories out where for the first season it was Brad writing them and then getting Vern Chatman who does Archie Howard and Xavier and Wonder Showzen.

Juvenile Troll: Yes.

Daniel Weidenfeld: You know, he helped us with the first six but then it was just me, Brad and Vernon like coming up with, okay, what makes sense for these stories. And then Brad in a vacuum going off and writing them and, you know, me talking them. For this season we had, you know, Rebecca Addelman, a new girl that kind of showed up last season. And Kyle McCulloch who Brad worked with on South Park and has been there forever and was just incredible. Greg Cohen who’s on American Dad now but is working with, you know, Robert Smigel and Dino Stamatopoulos forever. And L.E. L.E. Correia. You know, we had an amazing writer that’s just in who grew up – grew in to be a writer who is in our production coordinator on the Eric Andre Show that’s L.E. Correia. And, you know, Mason Steinberg and this woman helped as well. We have just a great group of writers around us who, you know, this is the first time Brad or, as you know, just from being a fan of his work he had written literally not in a vacuum but in a closet when he started doing these super deluxe shorts seven years ago. And so, you know, to grow into like working with two other people, I mean, Vernon and that.

There’s seven other people and it really like , “Oh, this feels professional and real. This is a job now. It’s not just a hobby I’m doing.”

Juvenile Troll: Got it. Oh, Brad, I wanted…

Daniel Weidenfeld: You know, really legitimize the production of it, too, for both of us.

Juvenile Troll: Well Brad, I wanted to ask – China, IL has a really interesting sort of a fan base and it goes all the way back to Professor Brothers and Baby Cakes, the web series. How do you manage and balance introducing new characters, and stuff like that with the animated series but also somehow keep the older fan base happy?

Brad Neely: That’s a definite challenge Juvenile Troll!

Juvenile Troll: Thank you.

Brad Neely: It’s one I struggle with constantly and the truth is you really can’t. A lot of people get mad but then every time you make somebody mad, you make somebody happy. So we just have to stay, Daniel and I, focused on what – being honest and true to us as a team and nothing running contrary to who we know these characters to be now. They’ve grown and changed over the age. So I don’t think there’s anything that contradicts any of the earlier work. You know, probably no one will ever see them unless the DVD gets released that we did.

Juvenile Troll: Right.

Brad Neely: We look at the first piece and it’s 11 minutes really as our pilot and this is our first season – it’s about to come out. But the pilot that came out – it looks great and was really amazing but…

Juvenile Troll: Absolutely.

Brad Neely: The characters – it’s like in the earlier short, had no pupils. And we realized we were doing that to give something back to the fan base who originally had seen the shorts and loved them. But they looked like these soulless, dead monsters when they were moving without pupils rather than when they were just the animatic or single panel sort of cartoons put together like an animatic not moving. They were a little more expressionless. So we just learned from there you can’t just make everyone who would like the earlier shorts happy all the time. You need to make the best creative decisions sometimes. And that doesn’t always come hand in hand. People were so mad when they saw that we had pupils in that first season.

Juvenile Troll: Really?

Brad Neely: And then we realized this was not – everyone else didn’t care.

Juvenile Troll: Well actually I wanted also to ask you – speaking of anger – this is for both of you guys. How do you even possibly start to go about giving Hulk Hogan any sort of voice direction. Like how does that work?

Daniel Weidenfeld: Well, I mean the truth is he’s a pro, you know. He’s game for anything and he’s been alive for thousands of millenniums. So we kind of – it doesn’t take much. He’s just ready to get it done and move on to whatever – whoever he needs to body slam.

Juvenile Troll: Because he’s a wrestler.

Daniel Weidenfeld: Yeah, if he has trouble with something he

just like– he’s okay with I’m not trying to cut you off.

Juvenile Troll: That’s fine, that’s fine.

Daniel Weidenfeld: The one thing that has really been helpful and has made the time so much fun is working with Brooke Hogan, you know, as Brad mentioned earlier, he’s another one of our actors in the show She has played a lot of different roles. But she – we try to make her a lot of different students – like a lot of different students and a couple of girlfriends. But she goes in her corner to Hulk whenever they have to go in. And when they’re together he just has so much fun.

Juvenile Troll: Awesome.

Daniel Weidenfeld: Like watching him just up there with her like trying to like a little bit looser, especially from the first season when she’s there. Because he knows that he’s making her laugh.

Juvenile Troll: Awesome. So like having the father and daughter work together is like – is a complete asset.

Daniel Weidenfeld: It’s really incredible. You know, other than Hogan Knows Best this is the first time they’ve ever been on the same show together. We love seeing the two of them and she is unbelievable. She’s so versatile.

Juvenile Troll: And do you – what are some of the other reoccurring guest stars that you might have. Are you gonna tease? Are there any that you can tease for us right now?

Daniel Weidenfeld: James Hong.

Juvenile Troll: Okay.

Daniel Weidenfeld: He’s on. I don’t know if you’re familiar with his work on Seinfeld and any others. Tommy Blacha is fantastic. Dave Coulier we mentioned. E.T. Daily is sometimes on the show as well as Robert Clotworthy (Ancient Aliens)

Juvenile Troll: I’m familiar with that.

Daniel Weidenfeld: In that and as the narrator or as the voice of the narrator and it is amazing.

Juvenile Troll: That’s awesome. That is really awesome.

Daniel Weidenfeld: And Gary Anthony Williams. He’s incredible. I’m sorry to be boring you with a list of names.

Juvenile Troll: No, it’s fine. Actually there’s another few names I wanted to get. Who did the voices of the cartel members in ‘Is College Worth It’ because they were amazing. Who attacked Pony…

Daniel Weidenfeld: That was the guy who did that was Jason Welding is who you’re probably thinking of who often plays the voice of Sammy.

Juvenile Troll: Oh, okay.

Daniel Weidenfeld: Who is, I mean, one of the most fun and interesting voice actors. He’s like family to me. Like he’s incredible and the most unique taste of anything you’ve ever heard. Man, he can sort of like bring so much. A lot of it’s like, why are you in the room? I’m like, “Holy shit, I never imagined it coming out like this.” But every time he does a read, I mean, he must do like a million different voice in the show because he always comes up with something so different. But he’s one of the cartel members. He’s the one that’s like, “Cut the heads off all these.”

Brad Neely: The other one’s Gary.

Dan Weidenfeld: (matter of factly) The other one’s Gary!

Juvenile Troll: Got it. Awesome.

Brad Neely: And then earlier there’s The drug cartel leader is Robert Clotworthy.

Juvenile Troll: Awesome. Good. All right. Another question I have for you guys is how is working with Titmouse for the production of a series. Have you enjoyed that experience while you’ve been working on season two?

Brad Neely: Thoroughly. These guys really get it. They have a group of really energetic film people who are optimistic about the future of America that we…

Daniel Weidenfeld: The people between here (LA) and New York working on the show. But, you know, our producer Dave Newberg who has been, you know, a phenomenal part of this – like, I mean, we couldn’t have done this without him. He keeps everybody sort of in line – all 70 people making sure that we hit the deadlines which is pretty intense. And then Griff Kimmins who’s our director who took over for Mike Mayfield who, unfortunately, had to leave us last season. And then Griff had made the show look so good. And Mike Mayfield actually found out and said like, “I can’t believe how good the show looks. It’s better than anything I ever could have done.

Juvenile Troll: Awesome.

Brad Neely: And then he had a supervising director ,Angelo Hat [Hatgistavrou] who works for him. And the two of them – I don’t think they slept in years. And we’ve got an editor here who does all of the music that isn’t the music that I provide. He edits every single piece of sound and vision. And it’s, you know, been amazing – they really just left us to operate on an island so to speak with our crew. You know, we get everything done and they’re super supportive of everything we have to do but at the end of the day it’s like we’re in a building all by ourselves and we’re just trying to – I can’t believe the shows got made that we made this season.

Juvenile Troll: That is awesome. Well, what are some of your favorite synopses or story lines for the up and coming season that you can give us like just a tidbit of it. Nothing too specific. I know, no spoilers at all. But whatever…

Brad Neely: There’s one big one where the dean is on competition with a bunch of other college – other deans from other universities raising the tuition to $500,000 a year because he gets really greedy. Frank wants to recreate a perfect lecture. And, you know, it’s the first day of school and all the students think it’s cool. Let’s see. Steve gets in a fight and Frank is banished to Chinatown where he, you know, he has to learn how to live on his own.

Juvenile Troll: Awesome.

Brad Neely: There’s one where Pony who is played by Greta Gerwig, one of our core group, where we did not mention earlier but who is incredible. We have a Pony club in love with something that isn’t exactly human. So, yeah, Frank definitely wants to become a person of the day – one of those local news stations that just showcases like a good Samaritan in China, Illinois. Then I think – is there anything else? Every episode has at least three stories going at once. So there’s like 30 little stories that you get to see through the season.

Juvenile Troll: That’s awesome. And my final question…

Daniel Weidenfeld: We feel that person. We don’t even know – we’re so excited about other people watching them.

Juvenile Troll: Well, yeah, I’ve seen some of the tidbits that you guys let me see and I’ve got to say you guys are doing great and amazing. And I think this show is going to take off pretty hardcore. And you definitely have a crowd that’s like into what you’re doing. It’s just totally obvious. Especially with the subject matter of college. Which brings me to my last questions. Do you guys think college is worth it?

Brad Neely: It depends on what – how much money you have and if you get to go for free. Yeah, of course, an education is worth it but…

Daniel Weidenfeld: And, for me – you know, Brad – one reason I think the show is so unique is Brad didn’t have a real college experience. He didn’t really get to – he didn’t go. He left after a semester, I believe.

Brad Neely: Yeah.

Daniel Weidenfeld :

And so this whole show is Brad’s interpretation of what he imagined college to be like. It’s like high school for adults. And, you know, for me I did go to college and I loved it and actually finally learned stuff like a lot of academia. But, I mean, it was nothing socially. It was more important for me socially to get away from home and experience live on my own and like actually learn to mature in a more sort of stable environment.

Juvenile Troll: Right.

Daniel Weidenfeld: Then it was about going to classes.

Juvenile Troll: Well, that’s awesome. Well, thanks guys. I really appreciate you guys doing this interview. This is Juvenile Troll speaking to Brad Neely and Daniel Weidenfeld.

Daniel Weidenfeld: If I can say one more thing, too, it’s just, you know, one of the most impressive things is Brad wears a lot of hats on this show obviously but there’s also 50 plus original songs that he wrote and recorded on his own.

Juvenile Troll: Awesome!

Daniel Weidenfeld: Which we have integrated into the show and, I mean, the music helps make this show so rich as well. It adds a whole new layer of jokes just like in the shorts. Like, you know, Brad and I have been friends for ten years – eight or ten years now and when we started working on these super deluxe shorts together and like whenever a short like Prisoner Christmas would come in to – you know, a super deluxe short but it would come in and I would see it and I would really understand the layering between the visuals, the audio and then the music itself that was a part of it. We’re able to incorporate that because Brad understands like how comedy and music can play together over these visuals. So, you know, there’s a texture to this show that a lot of other shows don’t have because they don’t have people behind them as talented as Brad. Not just –like in front of all of you over the phone but it’s really incredible.

Juvenile Troll: I can see it and like I hope there’s a soundtrack or something coming out to this. You guys should consider that very strongly.

Daniel Weidenfeld: Well we’re gonna try to put them online at the very least in downloads.

China IL is all new this Sunday Night on Adult Swim @ 11:30 pm EST, check your local listings and check out a trailer here.