Comedians return for last hurrah
Taste the daring, explicit humor that has caught the likes of MTV2 and Howard Stern.
Celebrating its 10th year anniversary, The DAMN! Show comedians will come home for one final blowout.
Bringing it back to where it began, the group will perform its “best of” from the last 10 years Friday night at the Georgia Theatre.
Created by three college students in 1998 at the back of a fraternity house, the show’s shock comedy eventually graduated from a mini-digital video to the University’s own dorm room channel.
“Initially, it was three guys – Matt Chastain, Lee Sanders and myself,” said Waco O’Guin, the show’s writer, actor and producer, “We’ve had numerous cast members along the way. We had about eight members in our peak.”
Paying their way onto Athens’ Channel 17 later that year, The DAMN! Show creators aired only one episode before getting the boot when the TV station aired their skit, “Hump Dog,” Sunday afternoon versus its midnight or later showing.
THE DAMN! SHOW
When: 10 p.m. Friday
Where: Georgia Theatre
Cost: $10
More Information:
www.damnshow.com
The three were flooded with hate mail and phone calls. Fortunately, they were then invited to the Georgia Theatre, which became the home venue of The DAMN! Show during its formative years.
However, the biggest momentum boost struck when one of show’s characters, Yucko the Clown, appeared on “The Howard Stern Show.”
“Of course, back in the day, Yucko didn’t even try to make people laugh – he just tried to make [everyone] leave,” O’Guin said.
Once Stern endorsed the revolting humor of Yucko the Clown, MTV2 was quick to sign a deal with the group in 2005 under a new name “Stankervision.” The comedians’ raunchy style soon became a part of the network’s “Sic ‘Em Friday” lineup.
But as it is with any big gig, there came highs and lows.
“Although MTV2 let a lot fly and ‘Stankervision’ was one of the highest-rated original shows, even we were too offensive for them, which is why I believe we weren’t picked up for a second season,” O’Guin said.
No fear DAMN! Show fans, the group has just recently signed a 20-episode deal with Turner’s SuperDeluxe.com, a peer Web site to AdultSwim.com.
When asked where they come up with the over-the-top offensive material, O’Guin said, “I was influenced by my grandfather’s humor – the dirty side. He’d be telling the dirtiest jokes and had me crackin’ up.”
However, the fuel to the flame was comedian Tom Green.
“How is he on TV and we’re not?” O’Guin said. “But then we came up with this skit, ‘What Would a Bum Do for a Buck?,’ which made us the first to use real homeless people.”
But as a disclaimer, O’Guin made sure to point out, “We don’t degrade them, we just let them be funny.”
The performance Friday night is a guaranteed shocker, even long-time Athens fans are sure to be stunned.
Although the show will be a tribute to some of The DAMN! Show classics, the group plans to introduce about 10 new skits.
“There’s a twist to the show. We’ll actually be opening The DAMN! Show with a new political skit,” O’Guin said.
“Anyone who is easily offended – don’t come. You’ll just get mad and lose 10 bucks.”
For those fresh to The DAMN! Show scene and unexposed to its crass humor, O’Guin warns, “No one crosses the lines like we do because they care about their careers, but we don’t. The day after Steve Irwin died, we were on it.”

