06 | 04:30 PM - 05:15 PM

Comedy Dockside Chat: Live Snarking
Top comedy professionals talk shop from the frontlines of TV, Hollywood and the web.
David Zucker, Director, Producer, Writer, Comedy Grandmaster, "Airplane", "The Naked Gun", "Scary Movie 4"
Jason Sklar, Actor, Comedian, "Back on Topps", "Held Up", "Sklarbros Country" http://www.supersklars.com
Randy Sklar, Actor, Comedian, "Back on Topps", "Held Up", "Sklarbros Country" http://www.supersklars.com

Click here for photos from this panel at the spring summit

David Zucker, Director, Producer, Writer, Comedy Grandmaster, "Airplane", "The Naked Gun", "Scary Movie 4"

With worldwide box office hits such as Airplane!, Ruthless People, The Naked Guns, Phone Booth, A Walk In the Clouds, and the record-breaking Scary Movie 3 and 4, all to his credit, director/writer/producer David Zucker is one of Hollywood’s most successful filmmakers. All sixteen of his studio films have been profitable, and include several international franchises. His new company, David Zucker Entertainment, is an “independent hybrid”: an A-list Hollywood team funding and creating commercial films, TV, and web on ‘indie’ budgets, for worldwide exploitation. DZE’s core business: produce profitable, premium content that makes people laugh.

Starting out after college with a borrowed video tape deck and camera, David, his brother color: #000000;">Jerry, and friend Jim Abrahams, created the Kentucky Fried Theater in the back of a Madison, WI bookstore. Moving the show to Los Angeles in 1972, they became the most successful small theater group in Los Angeles history, presenting a new type of outrageous sketch comedy. After parlaying this success into a iconic hit independent feature, Kentucky Fried Movie, David, Jim, and Jerry conceived the idea that would create a whole new film genre: Airplane! Breaking all conventions, it featured dramatic actors like Robert Stack and Peter Graves performing zany dialogue with straight-laced sincerity. The spoof became the surprise hit of 1980, positioning David and his partners as kingpins of Hollywood comedy. Their streak of successful movies continued with the secret agent spoof Top Secret! starring Val Kilmer, and the biting farce Ruthless People, with Bette Midler and Danny DeVito, one of that year’s top-grossing films.

In 1988, David went out on his own to direct The Naked Gun, a zany comedy that was a runaway hit. His 1991 Naked Gun 21/2: The Smell of Fear surpassed the original’s grosses, and the final installment, Naked Gun 33 1/3, was yet another box-office winner. David then branched out into producing A Walk in The Clouds (Keanu Reev es) and Phone Booth (Colin Farrell), as well as directing the comedy classic BASEketball (Matt Stone, Trey Parker). The Weinsteins then asked David to revitalize the Scary Movi s/advanced/langs/en.js" type="text/javascript"> e comedy franchise. The result was two blockbusters. Until 2010, Scary Movie 4 held the record for the biggest Easter weekend opening ever; Scary 3 still is the biggest October opening ever. David then produced the

successful spoof Superhero Movie, and helmed a low-budget independent feature, An American Carol. Always taking a hands-on approach for his films’ marketing and promotion, David has created numerous trailers, teasers, and now will do webisodes; the Hollywood Reporter gave him their entertainment marketing Key Art Award for his Naked Gun 3 work. David created DZE to be a comedy factory. It is completing its film fund and a slate of lowerbudget comedy films, developing branded television and web properties, mentoring young comedy talent and their projects, and has opened David Zucker Advertising for David to work with brands and agencies on effective comedy content for traditional and digital media.

David resides in Los Angeles with his wife, a physician, and two children, 11 and 8.

Jason Sklar, Actor, Comedian, "Back on Topps", "Held Up", "Sklarbros Country" http://www.supersklars.com
Randy Sklar, Actor, Comedian, "Back on Topps", "Held Up", "Sklarbros Country" http://www.supersklars.com 

Growing up outside of St. Louis , Randy & Jason Sklar had a typical suburban upbringing – playing soccer and baseball after school, hanging out with friends. Then they found comedy.

Moving to New York in 1994, the brothers worked at a variety of jobs during the day to support their comedy performances at night. Within a few years, they began to develop their unique style – "a tag team delivery in which one talks over the end of the other's sentence, completing, adding to or reaffirming his comment (much like the raps of The Beastie Boys)," wrote Neil Strauss of the New York Times. “Their comedy accepts the reality of being twins but does not use it as a crutch. Instead," noted Strauss, "they work with their physical and mental similarities and correspondences, their status as imperfect carbon copies of each other. In their comedy, the straight man is often an echo."

Their comedy quickly attracted the attention of MTV's talent executives looking to develop a different kind of comedy show.

What they came up with was " Apartment 2F " – a sitcom format based around Randy and Jason's characters living in New York City . The format allowed the team to work into plotlines, live comedy performances, comedic characters, and short films by other performers. The show aired on MTV from July 13, 1997 through November of 1997 garnering rave reviews.

After developing pilots with HBO Independent Productions, WB and NBC, Jason and Randy provided the voices of Biff and Chip Oblong on the critically acclaimed animated show, The Oblongs.

Randy and Jason have also guest starred in several TV shows, including an Emmy Award winning episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. They starred as conjoined twins in a memorable episode of Grey's Anatomy and as warring agents on HBO's Entourage. Of the Entourage episode, Entertainment Weekly television critic Paul Katz wrote of their turn, “in the hands of comedic masters, The Sklar Brothers, they made it soar.”

Their half hour Comedy Central Presents stand up special is still in regular rotation on the network.

In November of 2006, Randy and Jason wrapped their 4th and final season of their critically acclaimed comedy series, Cheap Seats on ESPN Classic. In 77 episodes, the Sklars built a strong following in both the sports and comedy worlds.

Currently, they write and appear in a regular segment on ESPN's SportsCenter called, “The Bracket”. They fill in as guest hosts for Jim Rome on his popular nationally syndicated radio show.

Also, Randy and Jason can be seen in Touchstone's, Wild Hogs, as well as in Fox Atomic's, The Comebacks. And in November of 2007 Randy and Jason can be seen in the season three finale of the cult FX hit “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia .”

Randy & Jason currently reside in Los Angeles . They continue to perform stand-up all over the country.

Photos from the spring panel

Digital Hollywood Content Summit VII - Monday, May 2, 2011 - COMEDY SUMMIT