Lost Loves: Exit 57

For an all-too-brief twelve episodes, there existed a program called Exit 57, from 1995 to 1996. If you enjoy sketch comedy, you already know about it. It was the first place most people saw this guy:

Stephen Colbert surely needs no introduction, right? Eh, just in case…

Four species have been named in his honor.
NASA named a treadmill on the International Space Station after him.
He was a cast member and writer on the now-legendary Dana Carvey Show, where Ambiguously Gay Duo first appeared (voiced by Colbert and Steve Carell, animation by the great J.J. Sedelmaier).*
He grew up in South Carolina, and due to the open prejudice against men with Southern accents, he suppressed his by imitating the basic “anchorman” voice.

*Also very, very highly recommended from TDCS: the sketch “Waiters Who Are Nauseated By Food”, featuring Colbert and Carell. Why are all the best sketch comedy shows so short-lived?

Exit 57 wasn’t a troupe, like Monty Python; it was the title for a congregation of comedians; Colbert, Paul Dinello, Mitch Rouse, Jodi Lennon, and Amy Sedaris. I’m betting those names are familiar to you as well.

Strangers with Candy was a satire of the moralistic “after-school specials” of the 70s and 80s, and it was not only clever but legitimately cringe-inducing. Jerri Blank, age 46, returns to the high school she dropped out of, after a wasted youth as a “boozer, a user, and a loser”. For 30 episodes from 1999 to 2000, Jerri establishes herself as an astronomical grotesque, in a scathing, self-deprecating portrayal by Amy Sedaris.

I’m not saying “Amy” is a “comedy name”, but it certainly seems that way. Exit 57 had Sedaris, and Upright Citizens Brigade had Amy Poehler. Poehler went on to be the next best thing about NBC’s Parks and Recreation (besides Nick Offerman), and I think that it needs to be publicly acknowledged that her hair looks absolutely smashing in every episode. Chris Elliott’s daughter is named Abby, but that’s just how Gerard Depardieu says “Amy” when he has a cold, so I’m counting it.

All cast members of Exit 57 were graduates of Chicago’s Second City comedy branch. Amy Sedaris often collaborated with her brother, playwright and humorist David, as “The Talent Family”. On Exit 57, she was like a blond Gilda Radner, especially opposite Jodi Lennon.

Tell me this next sketch doesn’t make a perfect case for “girl humor”:

Here’s an old favorite of mine with Sedaris and Colbert:

Exit 57 had the loopy absurdity of Mr. Show, but also the solid character work and depth of Kids In The Hall. Mitch Rouse made recurring appearances as an extremely traumatized victim of a violent assault, and I know I’m not making it sound funny, but it was, and then some. He did this thing where he’d wiggle his fingers in front of his swollen eyes, and it was side-splitting. (Really! I’m serious!) Rouse later showed up on Reno 911!, and when he got married in 2001, Jennifer Aniston was the matron of honor.

The core troika of Exit 57 was definitely Colbert, Sedaris, and Paul Dinello. Dinello reminds me of Paul Greenberg from the also short-lived Vacant Lot; a diminutive yet formidable pinch hitter. On Strangers, Dinello played Geoffrey Jellineck, the perfect realization of a gay art teacher just barely inside the closet. Dinello had a gift for delivering lines that twist at the end, making every scene with Jellineck pure gold.

“It’s not a cold sore! I bumped my lip on a biscuit!”

In 2003, Sedaris, Dinello and Colbert published a book called Wigfield, which captures the off-ramp feel of Exit 57 more than Strangers’ Flatpoint High. Wigfield is a tiny town that may actually be a 1/4 mile of concrete and gravel, threatened by the impending destruction of a local dam. Despite this, Wigfield claims a loyal population of oddballs, all played in photographs by the three comedians. The “author” is so desperate to wring 30,000 words out of a boring assignment that he resorts to adding his résumé. Colbert appears as a woman more than once, and it’s weirdly convincing.

Hunt that book down (I think it’s in paperback now) if you miss the Exit 57 days, it pretty much hits the spot. Here’s my very favorite sketch of the entire run.