To Gawker, he’s a “horrible piece of garbage.” To TIME magazine, he’s one of the year’s 100 most influential people. Whatever you think of Tucker Max — and he’s got plenty on both sides — he’s laughing all the way to the bank. I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL — a collection of his true-life tales of drunken debauchery — remains a bestseller since its 2006 release. Today, the film adaptation — scripted by Max himself — hits theaters. In the midst of promoting the movie, Max talked to BOOKGASM about turning BEER into a box-office contender.
BOOKGASM: Since your book is a collection of stories, how did you approach adapting them into a movie?
MAX: I wrote it with my buddy Nils Parker, and a lot of the credit goes to him. He’s brilliant and a fantastic writer. At first, we took the stories and put them together in a screenplay, and it sucked. It was 240 pages, had no plot, kind of meandered and wandered. There was a lot of funny in there, but it was boring in a lot of places.
We eventually whittled it down and got it to the point where it was kind of a movie, but … I don’t know. I showed it to my buddy David Zuckerman, who is the co-creator of FAMILY GUY. He won Emmys writing for KING OF THE HILL. He’s one of the most respected comedy writers in Hollywood, for a reason.
I showed him the script, and of course, I thought it was genius — you know, I’m the greatest writer ever — and he said, “Look, this is very funny. You have great characters. But the script sucks. You have no story. The plot goes nowhere. It’s tenuous at best. It’s not really a movie. It’s just a bunch of jokes put together. If you want to make SUPER TROOPERS or BEER LEAGUE, that’s fine, but if you want to make a great movie, this is not it.”
And, of course, that sucks to hear one of your heroes say that, but when David Zuckerman tells you something about writing, you listen to him. So we swallowed our pride, and David spent the next two months teaching us screenplay structure and story structure within the context of narrative. So we went back to the drawing board.
Once we had all the building blocks in, then we put in the funny. Writing funny for characters, for Nils and I, is easy. But it took us a while to learn the correct format and structure for a screenplay, but once we did, I felt like we nailed it.
BOOKGASM: Did you feel like you were too close to it?
MAX: That’s one of the reasons I brought Nils on board, because that’s exactly what the problem was. I was so close to the events and so emotionally attached to the reality of the situation, I had a hard time divorcing myself. Now, the movie is not supposed to be a documentary — it’s based on a true story, but it’s not a true story — but Nils wasn’t there for the “Awesome Road Trip” story. To him, it’s what’s funny, not what happened in real life.
BOOKGASM: What do you think of the final result? Anything you would’ve done differently?
MAX: Shit! Are you kidding me? So much I’d do differently! But this is our first movie, dude. If we did it perfect on our first movie, that’d actually kind of suck because we’d have no way to grow. At the end of the day, I am extremely proud of this movie. I feel like we made a genuinely hilarious movie that is not just funny, but also has a real, meaningful story behind it, which is something you almost never find in a comedy. You know, OFFICE SPACE does that, and BIG LEBOWSKI does that, and I think we do something similar. In our own way, we do sort of the same thing.
BOOKGASM: With so many books dying their first week on the shelves, why do you think yours has had such longevity?
MAX: Because of word of mouth, man. There’s no other explanation. I’ve never spent any money on ads for it. I’ve never really promoted in any way. I’ve never been on a fucking TV show for my book. No one wrote book reviews. No one gave a fuck about my book when it came out, except for the people who read it, and loved it, and they told all their friends, and they told their friends. And that’s why a year and a half after it came out, it went back on the bestseller list. I mean, backlisted books don’t go back on the bestseller list without some sort of triggering event. There was no triggering event for me. My book just went on, because so many people loved it, and so many people told their friends. The best marketing there is is word of mouth, and if you make something great, people will tell other people about it.
BOOKGASM: When’s the second book coming out?
MAX: That’s a good question. I don’t know, dude. Probably, it’s scheduled to come out in February 2010 and I’m doing my best to hit that mark.
BOOKGASM: So you’re not done with it yet?
MAX: Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s kinda done, sorta, not really, I don’t know, man. The movie is No. 1, 2 and 3 in my life since this project, so the book’s been pushed to the back. If I get it knocked out in time, it’ll come out; if not, it’ll get pushed back.
BOOKGASM: Can people expect more of the same from it?
MAX: Yeah, it’s very much like BEER IN HELL, just new stuff. Man, I’m just hoping for it to be as good as BEER IN HELL.
BOOKGASM: On a scale of “the whole truth, and nothing but” and James Frey, where do your stories fall?
MAX: First off, I’m very far away from James Frey, and no one’s at “the whole truth, and nothing but.” You know, there’s my truth, your truth and the real truth? No one has the real truth, and I’m no different. But I feel like P.J. O’Rourke said it best when he said, “Comedy by its nature is more truthful than factual.” So my stories are all true — now, they’re not supposed to be perfect, forensically accurate accounts of the events.
I mean, of course I leave a ton of shit out! I focus on the fun parts — it’s a short story, it’s supposed to be entertaining. I don’t make up events that didn’t happen, and the things that did happen are all true. I might leave something out if it’s boring, like who wants to hear about this girl I talked to, and we had a nice conversation and I went home? No one gives a shit about that. I don’t give a shit about that! So they’re definitely truthful; they’re not supposed to be police reports.
BOOKGASM: How long do you see yourself doing this? At what age does your style outgrow its audience, or vice versa?
MAX: Look, everything comes to an end. I have no intention or desire to do this forever, but I have no idea what the timeframe on it is. It is what it will be, and I am neither smart enough nor wise enough to know when it is. It’s probably sooner rather than later. I mean, I’m 33; I don’t even like doing a lot of the stuff I did when I was 27. I was a fucking idiot at 27, and I don’t want to go back to being that stupid. That’s one of the few good things about getting older. I don’t know, man. We’ll see.
BOOKGASM: Do you give much credence to your critics? I think you and President Obama may be the most hated people on the Internet.
MAX: Well, if you want to put me in the same category as President Obama, I’ll be happy with that, man. I’ll take that! Okay, I’m gonna pull this one out, and it’s kinda cheesy, but I don’t give a shit. … I don’t know if I should — ah, well, fuck it. So Jonathan Swift said it best. He said, “You will know a genius when you see him because a confederacy of dunces will align against him.” Dude, I don’t know if I’m a genius, but I have yet to see a critic of mine who I wasn’t kinda happy to be on the other side of the fence from. —Rod Lott
OTHER RECENT BOOKGASM AUTHOR INTERVIEWS:
• Q&A with IDW Publishing’s Chris Ryall
• Q&A with Q&A with VALLEY OF THE DEAD’s Kim Paffenroth
• Q&A with WORST NIGHTMARES’ Shane Briant
Related posts:
- I Saw You …: Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections Filled with Near Misses, Brief Encounters, Lusty Longings, and a Little Hope for Love
- Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m sure this horrible and troubling film will do well enough with the frat boy types it has been engineered to appeal to, and date-rape culture will continue to thrive on college campuses.
Basically this guy copies Stifler. Its kinda funny as one guy with a supporting role but as a whole movie its lame as hell. but the world is full of idiots and college kids are afraid to be different so it might do well but id be shocked
Although some lines are very cheesy and wordy at times I found this movie to be great. By no means is this movie comparable to Bread collins or Blog Mans favorites- Titanic and The Notebook. However, this movie gives individuals who actually had an interesting college experience an opportunity to reflect back on their glory days. The movie has a deeper meaning behind it. One that portrays the dynamics of any group of friends. Not sure if the characters are intellectual enough to go against the standard norms of the college experience. Not sure if I would classify that as “afraid to being different” rather or trying to make memories and build friendships.
This is my favorite review of the movie so far:
http://louisfowler.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-hope-they-serve-beer-in-hell-wheres.html