Christopher Mintz-Plasse is well-known for playing the underdog in films such as Superbad and Role Models. He has an equally impressive resume in voice-over work. But it is the Comedy Central Original Blark and Son where the established actor is having the most fun.
Blark and Son is an online short-form series featuring strange-looking puppetry and the delicate relationship of a father and son. The show is created by master puppeteer Ben Bayouth who also plays the titular Blark role. Bayouth happens to be close friends with Mintz-Plasse. With the latter playing Son, it makes their charisma on-screen that much more genuine.
Blark and Son season two premiers on Saturday, January 30 on Comedy Central’s social channels We had the opportunity to chat with Christopher Mintz-Plasse about making a show with his friends and the fun that they are having.
Here’s what Cristopher Mintz-Plasse had to say about Blark and Son –
This interview has been edited for clarity purposes.
Jesse Bereta: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: Yeah, no problem, man. Thanks for helping promote this little YouTube show.
JB: For sure, it is a great show. And I am a big fan of yours. I have always said that you are underrated for the complex comic book movie villain that you played in Kick-Ass.
CMP: Oh, thanks, man. Oh yeah, the Mother F-er and Red Mist. Thank you so much.
JB: So, Blark and Son, do you want to give us a synopsis of the show in your own words?
CMP: Absolutely. This is a project that is pretty near-and-dear to my heart. Because it was created about five years ago by two of my best friends – who I have known for about 15-years. My buddy, Ben Bayouth, who voices the other character, Blark, is an incredible special effects artist. Right now he is working on making all the costumes for The Masked Singer. Just so you know how brilliant he is.
He had been working a lot, a long time ago, and he hadn’t done anything really creatively fulfilling. So he wanted to create this Instagram show. A 30-second Instagram show about a puppet father and a puppet son, who are two completely different people, and never see eye-to-eye. And it was made for, maybe, five-thousand dollars.
He wanted me to come to do the voice. And I was like “yeah, this is a no-brainer.” I get to do some creative fun with my boys. There was no money on the line or anything. So, we made the show, and people really liked it.
And Comedy Central saw the Instagram show, and they saw some potential to make a full 8-minute YouTube show. They gave us a budget, and Ben started getting to work making some more puppets. We got a great cast involved. We got Donald Faison. We got Jim Rash from Community. Justin Roiland from Rick and Morty. And on the new season, we got Jane Lynch for a couple of episodes.
So, I’m very excited, you know, it’s very close to our hearts.
JB: That’s awesome. We did talk to Ben Bayouth when the show just hit Comedy Central, and he let us know you were friends and went to high school together. But, when he approached you with this project, and these awkward puppets, how did you feel going into it?
CMP: I mean, I felt great. Ben has been doing those things for so long. His father was even involved with that kind of stuff when he was a kid. So, he’s had hands in puppet making for probably close to 20 years now.
Obviously, we looked at the puppets and they looked insane. Pretty scary, stuff that nightmares are made of. But I think that is kind of what he was going for. Because back on Instagram it was just 30-seconds and he wanted this creepy looking father to just slam the door in his son’s face. Obviously, I looked at them and thought, these are intense. But I trusted him fully. And it was me, him, and our buddy Adam in a room together for a few weekends. It was a dream, honestly.
JB: And, you’ve done lots of voice-over work. But this one is a little different, a little more mature content. How did you approach it?
CMP: Yeah, I love animation. I have done so much of it like How to Train Your Dragon and Trolls. And it is more family-friendly. I think it was pretty easy to switch gears. Because this is more my sensibility and humour. I go into the room and try to make Ben and Adam laugh. If I see them laughing on the other side of the glass, then I know I am doing a good job. So it was pretty easy to come into it.
JB: And you are playing a puppet, so is there room for you to improv or do you have to stick to the script?
CMP: No, there is plenty of room. They want us to rip around, absolutely. Because they do all the audio first, and they puppeteer to the audio. So, we have free reign when we are in there doing the voice-over.
JB: Oh, that’s great. I mean, it is tonnes of work what Ben Bayouth and the art team are doing. Do you spend a lot of time in there, or do you just wait for the final product?
CMP: I did. When we shot the first season, pre-Covid, I stopped by set a couple times. It was incredible to watch. I thought it was pretty interesting that Ben made these puppets, and they are so specific to handle.
I remember he hired a puppeteer that had been doing it for 30-years who had worked on really big movies like Aliens. He had his hand in puppeteering for a long time. But he couldn’t even get the gist of working with these puppets. Like he didn’t know how to make it look like it was coming to life. So, Ben had to puppeteer those, pretty much, on his own.
But, during this Covid season, I haven’t stopped by the set. It was a small crew. Everyone was getting tested daily. It was really intimate. So, for safety reasons, I avoided coming in this time.
JB: Fair enough. Did you ever try one of the puppets?
CMP: No – oh, you know what? I did when we were making the Instagram show. I did put the Son puppet on my hand. And it weighed like 10-15 pounds. It was very heavy. Ben definitely got some strong biceps from doing that for a while.
JB: You play Son – does he have a real name, or does it say ‘Son’ on his birth certificate?
CMP: I think it says Son on his birth certificate. We aren’t sure yet. But for now, his name is Son. I would like, maybe down the line, maybe they make an episode where they give him a new name and it ends up being something like Guy or Buddy, or something really bland. He’s like super stoked to get a new name and it turns out to be something boring. But, for now, he is Son.
JB: And he is an internet-addicted gamer. He is kind of a symbol for the way youth are today. Do you resonate a lot with his character?
CMP: Yeah, I definitely was a huge gamer back in the day, for sure. I played a lot of Madden, a lot of Call of Duty. So, I can relate to that in a sense. But I had a much different relationship with my father, a pretty good one, so I couldn’t relate there.
JB: I was going to say, the show centres around this father and son connection. And it is kind of the way things have been heading where fathers are respected the same way as mothers. Was that important when the show was being put together?
CMP: That is definitely the main theme of the whole show. The two of them trying to connect with each other. The season gets very wacky and intense because there is a lot of things that you can do with puppets. The way you can contort their bodies, the sets that you can build. So, there is obviously some wacky stuff going on.
But at the core, we really wanted it to be this father and son relationship. Making the dad trying to relate to the son’s video games, and the son trying to prove that he is a man that his father doesn’t see. We are trying to bring in a lot of that sense of reality to the show.
JB: Yeah, I really appreciate this crazy humour, but there is this heart at the centre of it all.
CMP: Totally.
JB: It is a really impressive, cast as well. You mentioned a few names there. What’s it like working with some of these guys? Like Justin Roiland, who is big in adult animation.
CMP: Yeah, that was a great get. Funny enough, Ben (Bayouth) is married to Justin’s sister. So, they have been buddies for a long time. Ben’s made so many puppets for Rick and Morty for Comic-Con and commercials that Justin has made. They are family, obviously, they have an incredible relationship. So that was a no-brainer get. And he is absolutely insane on the show.
And then Jane Lynch I have worked with in the past. She’s this comedy monster. She is a delight. Actually, Donald Faison, I worked with on Kick-Ass 2, as well. He is great on the show. It is a really great cast.
JB: And you mentioned Jane Lynch is coming, is there any other names we can expect this season?
CMP: She is the only new blood for season two. We still have Jim Rash from Community, Deborah Baker Jr., who is hilarious, and the rest of the cast. Hopefully, if we get the series to TV we can bring in some more characters.
JB: Awesome. Season two of Blark and Son is premiering on January 30th. Any word on a season three?
CMP: Not yet. Not yet. But season one did really well with very little promotion. I know the pilot itself has close to a million views. A handful of episodes tallied up has somewhere around 5 million, or something like that. So we have a cool, good audience so far. I think we just wait and see how season two goes and how it is received. And then hopefully we get more.
JB: It has to make it up here in Canada though. I am in Canada, and I had to get special screeners because Comedy Central hasn’t released it up here.
CMP: Ah, what’s that? I’m calling Comedy Central right now. They have to change that.
JB: I know, they are ignoring their northern brothers here.
CMP: That’s awful.
JB: Well, thanks again for talking with us.
CMP: Of course, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah, season two premieres this Saturday, and then the next episode is on the Sunday. Then they air every Saturday and Sunday after that. So everyone tune in. And thanks for letting me promote the show.
JB: Of course. Any other projects coming up for you?
CMP: I just had a movie come out called Promising Young Woman. I have one scene opposite Carey Mulligan, and I am very proud of that. It is a very heavy movie with a tense subject, but I would highly recommend everyone going and checking it out.
Be sure to tune in and watch the Blark and Son season two premiere exclusively through Comedy Central Socials on January 30th.