Cigar exclusive: 'The Whitest Kids U Know' discuss 'Miss March' movie

03/24/09 -Prom night is meant to be a magical life milestone that you'll remember for the rest of your life. And, generally, it is. unless, of course, it ends in you getting so drunk that you fall down a flight of stairs, get crushed by a bookcase and end up in a coma for four years. Then it kind of sucks. All the more so if, while you're in a vegetative state, your girlfriend ditches you and becomes a Playboy Bunny.

Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore's new movie, "Miss March," chronicles the exploits of two sex-obsessed BFFs, Tucker and Eugene, as they hightail it to the Playboy Mansion to win back Eugene's high-school sweetheart. It's not exactly a heartwarming story- but if nothing else, it'll leave you laughing.

Cregger and Moore are only in their late twenties, but they're already comedy veterans. Founders of the sketch comedy group "The Whitest Kids U Know," the pair has already paid their dues in the business and have an irreverently hilarious sketch show on the Independent Film Channel (also called "The Whitest Kids U Know") to prove it. From "smoking bones" with a gaggle of stoned dinosaurs to uncovering the real reason why Abraham Lincoln got shot (.apparently he put the "ass" in assassinated), no subject is off limits.

They bring that same sensibility to the forthcoming feature film, "Miss March." After (quite literally) getting smashed on prom night, Eugene winds up in a coma. Now obviously, being comatose is not an ideal situation, but it's all the worse if you're left only in the hands of your incompetent slacker friend - especially if that friend turns every fireman in America against you, outfits you in a tight pink hoodie that has the word "foxy" splashed across the chest and gets you in deep with one of the most popular rappers on the airwaves.

Cregger and Moore, who came through Boston to promote the film, sat down to talk to the Cigar about the leap from sketch comedy to filmmaking, what it was like working with Hugh Hefner, and why stuntmen are awesome.

The jump from three-minute TV comedy sketches to a full-length film was huge for Cregger and Moore, who wrote, directed and starred in the film.

"You're really doing two jobs at once," Cregger explained, "You're trying to make each scene as funny as possible, and you're trying to advance the overall story."

"Sketch is really the perfect medium for comedy," Cregger continued, "because you just kind of take a subject, jump in there with your best eight or nine jokes, and then get out, and you're on to the next thing. You don't have to segway, you don't have to care about character development or anything, so, when you're doing a movie, there's this whole different dimension to think about."

Moore put it pretty succinctly saying, "Doing the TV show is like trying to organize a mob. Doing a movie is like trying to run a business."

Part of "trying to run a business" was getting Playboy on board with the film. Thankfully, this proved easier than expected. Corralling an iconic corporation is never an easy task, but Moore and Cregger managed to convince the eminent enterprise to be in on the joke.

"We took the movie to Playboy, kind of tail-between-our-legs," Moore explained, "and they showed it Hefner and we kind of lucked out because, he not only liked the movie- he wanted to be in it."

"We got on the phone with him like a week before we were going to shoot," Moore continued, "and he goes 'I had one question. I noticed at one point you say a girl's busted. What does that mean?' and we were like, 'Oh it means she's like, not pretty." "And he says, 'And kids will know what that means?' We were like, 'Uh.I think so.' And he goes, 'Alright, I'm fine with it.' And that was it. That was his only note."

"So it was kind of cool that he's like an 82-year-old guy, doesn't need to do this movie, you know, he's doing fine financially, and he really just did it, kind of helping us out."

While Hef is a legend in his own right, he probably couldn't survive throwing himself down a flight of stairs four times or lighting himself on fire

Aside from working with the original playboy, one of Cregger and Moore's favorite part of making the film was chilling with the stuntmen and picking up some tricks of the trade.

"I got really drunk with one our stunt people," Moore said, "and that was awesome because we were on location so we got to stay overnight and everyone went out drinking. And we're just getting drunk with the stunt guy and we'd walk past this flight of stairs, and be like, 'can you jump down the stairs?' and then he'd just throw himself down the stairs, and we'd be like 'Whoa.Okay now run into the wall!'"

Cregger was equally awed by the stuntmen's enthusiastic masochism, adding, "We'd be at dinner, and be like 'light yourself on fire!' and he'd be like 'f**k it, I don't care!' like running around. And we'd all be like 'Why doesn't he get hurt? This is amazing!'"

"Miss March" made its way the big screen March 13, and the final product is "a dark, disgusting movie that pushes it as far as it can, disguised as a road-trip movie," according to Moore. "That's how I like to think of it," he said, adding, "It's a funny road trip comedy for people who are tired of seeing road trip movies. At least I hope. That's what we were trying to do."

"If people go see this movie, we'll maybe be able to do a 'Whitest Kids' movie," Cregger said. "That should be the tag line: you want a 'Whitest Kids' movie? You gotta suffer through this one."

But if that doesn't pan out, Moore has a pretty solid backup plan. "I'd like to do a movie with John Goodman and Prince," Moore said. "...A buddy comedy about them being friends.