NEAL BRENNAN on
'THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD'

Interview by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor for RadioFree.com
August 19, 2009

In the comedy The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, Jeremy Piven stars as mercenary salesman Don Ready, a skilled fast-talker and motivator who is brought in to help lot owner Ben Selleck (James Brolin) liquidate an inventory of over 200 cars in a single weekend in order to save the dealership from rival businessman Stu Harding (Alan Thicke). The cast features of an ensemble of actors who have been steeped in comedy, including David Koechner, Jordana Spiro, Wendie Malick, and a trio of stars from this past summer's runaway comedy hit, The Hangover: Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, and Rob Riggle, all of whom get a chance to shine in outrageous predicaments. Helms, for instance, plays a pampered son who fronts his own "man band," a sad group of middle-aged posers just a little too old to be a boy band.

Director Neal Brennan is also no stranger to the genre, having worked as a co-creator, writer, director, producer, and editor on Chappelle's Show. He also continues to perform as a comic, as he did during an appearance on the 100th episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon just last week. After his stand-up material, he offered up impressions of Jimmy Fallon and fellow guest Tracy Morgan. He tells us that the key to doing Tracy is to elongate your words and make them a little deeper, while the set-up for Jimmy is to be a bit flighty, but strongly optimistic no matter how dire the circumstances may be. To demonstrate, he poses a scenario of Jimmy being diagnosed with cancer, then launches into his best mimicry: "Ah, man, cancer's the best! Ah, man, this cancer's amazing!" Yes, it's a bit that is better suited to radio or television than the print you are currently reading, but Fallon fans will hear the voice in their head and know how spot on it actually is.

In this exclusive interview, Neal Brennan talks about bringing his extensive experience in the world of comedy to the helm of The Goods.

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is now playing in theaters everywhere.

RadioFree.com: Given that Jeremy Piven is so known for his role on Entourage, was it a challenge to make sure Don Ready wasn't in the shadow of Ari Gold? What distinguishes the two characters for you?

NEAL: My thing was I just didn't want him to be Ari. So I think the writing did about 80% of that. Obviously, they're both salesmen, and Jeremy's naturally blustery--he brings a lot of his own personality to both parts. But having said that, I think Don Ready has more in common with Jeremy than Ari Gold does, in that Don Ready has like an actual sort of soul, and isn't just all sales. There's an off switch. There's like a backstage with Don Ready that there doesn't seem to be with Ari--like "Ari is Ari with his wife," whereas Don Ready feels actual regret.

You've got Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, and Rob Riggle in your movie. Would we sell more tickets if we just said this was the sequel to The Hangover?

Yeah, I think that's what Fallon was sort of saying. We actually shot before The Hangover. So that was the sequel to The Goods. No, I'm kidding...Those are sort of the most culturally relevant, funniest guys around, you know?

What valuable qualities do you feel they each bring to the table in an ensemble like this?

I think Ed is a really good actor. Like you believe whatever he's playing. In The Hangover, you believe that he's an uptight dentist who's really afraid of his wife. And in this, you actually believe that he's in a boy band, as goofy as he is. And then with Ken, he's just like a goofy-ass, fearless dude, you know? Like clearly, he has probably the worst naked scene in the history of cinema.

Yeah, I think it's pretty safe to say that. And what about Rob?

You know, I gotta say, Riggle is only scratching the surface of his appeal. Because first of all, he's really, really lovable. And second of all, women really like him in a weird way. He was a Marine, you know? He served in Afghanistan. Like he's a "man," you know? But he's also really, really funny, and has about as sweet an energy onscreen and offscreen as you can have.

Do you have a favorite scene from the film?

Yes! I like the scene where Jeremy gets broken up with, where he says like, "So you're just going to have sex with me and leave? This hurts." First of all, because I think it's a funny scene to watch a guy play. [And because] I think it's a funny scene for a guy of Jeremy's reputation to play. And we sort of made it up somewhat on the spot, which was also satisfying in terms of [writing it spontaneously]. And then Jeremy would have to memorize it, and we shot it, you know?

On the flipside, was any scene particularly difficult to shoot?

No, not really. I mean, there was nothing like, "How am I going to shoot this?" But obviously, the riot was sort of a pain, just because it's so many extras and alligators. But I mean, there's 80 people there to help me, so it's not like I'm dragging cameras around. There's stuntmen, and there's like guys like, "Okay, we're going to go over this again: If the alligator charges you, here's what you do!" [laughs] You know, every day is a bit of a logistical pain in the ass, but none of it's a nightmare. You have a finite amount of time every day--so that, to me, is a bit of a pain. But it's not like, "This is impossible!" You have to kind of keep your eye on the clock all the time.



You worked as a writer, producer, and director on Chappelle's Show, and you also perform stand-up comedy. Of those jobs, what is your first and foremost passion?

I feel like in comedy, if you're not writing jokes, you're not really doing anything. Like that's where the rubber meets the road. Like whenever those of us in comedy see good comedy, our first question is, "Who wrote it?" So I think writing is the basis for all of it. Obviously, when I do stand-up, people are like, "You're a movie director, what are you doing here?" It's like, "Well, I can't be a movie director at 11 o'clock at night, you know?" There's a lot of different ways to go in terms of ideas I have, so I'm not just going to go, "Oh, it's too bad I don't do stand-up, because this joke's going to go to waste!"

Early in your career, were you in a position where you had been writing for a long time, but had to muster up the courage to finally get on stage and perform live?

I don't know if I would say courage so much as... [pauses, jokes] Yeah, maybe you need to use the word courage, because it makes you feel vulnerable! You know what it is? What happens is you get so frustrated with everything else that you're like, "Screw this, I'm sure I'm funny. Let me go and do stand-up tonight." The only thing with show business is not all of this stuff's going to work, so I gotta "keep a lot of eyes on the prize," so to speak.

How closely would you say The Goods represents your own personal brand of humor?

I think it's very close. There were jokes that I read in the script that were like, "Oh, that's like a joke that I would do in my act" or "That's a joke that I wish I had written." And that's all you can hope for. And the other thing is I was able to add [to the script] on set. I didn't find it [to be] a stretch. Because I wasn't trying to insert my voice, it was just more a matter of, "Oh, you know what might be funny? Riggle, you say that..." or "Helms, you say that..."

I'm sure that when you jump into the director's chair, there are a lot of unexpected problems and issues coming your way...

Oh, yes! What Dave Chappelle used to call the "decathlon of inconvenience." The good news is I'm a know-it-all, so there's very little that I don't have an opinion about, you know?

So it sounds like you didn't have much trouble switching gears from stand-up to director...

Well, no. I mean, I had created Chappelle's Show with Dave, so I've been around this stuff forever. With Chappelle's Show, we'd write everything, and then Dave would be in it, and then a lot of times I'd direct it or produce it. I edited everything. So yeah, I don't see [the jobs] as so different. It's all just basic fundamentals...I was never overwhelmed. Because on Chappelle's Show, I would have to do all this stuff, and then me and Dave would have to go home and write more. Whereas this, it was like I could just do it, and have fun, and then I would go home...I would watch dailies, but it wasn't like [how] me and Dave used to have to shoot for twelve hours, then meet back up and write for another four--it was really, really grueling, you know?

Chappelle's Show has so many memorable moments--are there certain characters or skits that can be directly attributed to you?

You know, me and Dave always had a deal, from the time we wrote Half Baked together, to just not divvy up credit. People want to know "What did you do? What did he do?" And I always feel like it comes from a sort of salacious place. It's like people always want to discount one of us--like they want Dave to be this genius and this crazy person, and I reined him in, or they want me to be a Svengali and I told Dave what to do. I mean, it was a fairly standard partnership, in terms of we both just contributed ideas, and then we would help the other one, you know?

Very nice. Well Neal, thanks for taking the time to speak with us.

My pleasure, man. Thanks for your time.