Chicago Party Aunt arrives on Netflix on September 17, the latest in Netflix’s tradition of adult-centric animation. The raunchy comedy series focuses on a woman of a certain age who loves to have a good time, Diane (Lauren Ash), and the people who love her through all her phases.
Executive Producer Matthew Craig spoke with Screen Rant about the journey from parody Twitter to Netflix series that this concept has taken, and why the cast is pitch-perfect.
Screen Rant: How familiar were you with Chris Witaske's Chicago Party Aunt parody Twitter account, before entering the show?
Matt Craig: I was familiar with it. To be honest, like the masses, there was a good chunk of time there where I figured it was somebody I probably knew, but I didn't know who it was. But I was a fan of the Twitter feed, and I think I probably knew who it was pretty early on.
Chris and I have been friends for a long time. My background, and knowing a lot of the people that I ended up working with on the show, was The Second City in Chicago and our affiliation with that theater and that city back there. The Barinholtz brothers, I've known for years. Ike and I came up at the same time in Chicago in the comedy scene. I met Dave Stassen through Ike. Katie Rich and I have known each other for years and years. My wife, actually then girlfriend, introduced me to her back in the late nineties.
So, I had been familiar with the Twitter feed when they came to me. And then it was kind of a no-brainer when a group of people that you're already friends with [work together]. That's the dream, right? When you have an opportunity, and that was what I was always saying in the writers' room: when you were taking classes at Second City, the goal was that maybe someday we'd be sitting in a writers 'room in California together working on a show that we sold.
And when it happens, it's mind-boggling. It blows you away. That was what happened on this, being familiar with the Twitter feed and being like, "Of course, this would translate. But how is it going to translate?" And then the rest of it was just day-to-day leaning into it and letting it come out of its own accord.
Can you talk to me about the challenges of adapting a parody Twitter account into a full-on Netflix animated show?
Matt Craig: I think the main goal that a lot of us had was to make sure that the show had merits, aside from what we already loved about her. There was a no-brainer moment that the show would be funny. I think we all knew, "The zingers are going to be there." But the goal was how do you get people to stick around? And that's always really good storytelling and really good characters that connect and resonate with the audience that's watching; that is reflective. Which I think comes, inherently, with what we learned and studied at The Second City Theater - relationship-based humor that connects with the audiences.
Second City, for the most part, is just looking at the United States. But when I performed there, your audience would be made up of people from all 50 states, so the idea was that you wanted it to be something that could resonate equally, regardless of where you were. I think we did a good job on that level, of having the opportunity of creating a woman who has a lot to learn and a lot of growth. We built that world out, we gave her a sister and Daniel [Rory O'Malley] so that we created this triangulation of people who care about and love each other. And at the end of the day, I actually think that's what carried the show: this strong storytelling, and that you do care and you resonate with her.
We all have this person in our lives, and that's the part that resonates. We all felt it when you'd read the Twitter feed. You're like, "I have this aunt or uncle too." And we all think of those aunts and uncles in that regard of, "Oh yeah, they tried to teach me how to make apple cider by putting it behind the radiator to get drunk when I was 16." That's a true story.
So, there's a side note of what they do that made them your party aunt or uncle. But the part that we'd never talk about or isn't on the Twitter feed is that you love that person. Those people mean a lot to us; we think of them when we talk about them. We're like, "They took me to a Grateful Dead show when I was 12," or "They had me do nitrous when I was nine years old." But you don't talk about the fact that they're the ones you call when you're drunk, and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I'm scared my mom's going to kill me." There's the other side of the coin to these people, and I think that's the side that we really managed to swing full tilt into the show: to make sure that it's a person you care about.
Another Second City alum, Lauren Ash, did such an amazing job with the role of Diane. What were some of the intangibles that she brought to the role?
Matt Craig: I think we all were trying very hard to create that feeling, but it requires a certain [talent]. Lauren Ash, I can not speak highly enough about, because vocal acting is really difficult - because it all is the voice. And she has such a vulnerability in her voice. The joke that we always made was that she would have this crack or squeak in her voice that was just so genuine and so heartfelt. There were times that we were leaning on it more and more as we were recording. She did it just naturally, and then as we heard it, we would try and push her towards that a little bit more.
Her and Rory - boy, oh boy - and Jill Talley; we were so fortunate with our voice cast. For a show like this to really sing and resonate, you need a cast that can emotionally carry it. And truthfully, we knew we were onto something when you would just hear the radio playback and be like, "Just the words alone are resonating." It could work as a podcast. And once you know that, then the animation can truly become the icing on the cake.
But Lauren brought an ebullience and an energy to this character that I just can't imagine any other way at this point.
What are some of your favorite Diane quotes from the series?
Matt Craig: Oh man, I don't know how PC this particular interview is. There's a phrase in one of them where she says she wants to do a little hob-knobbin' and then a little knob-slobbin', which I love. Boy, oh boy. That's one that gets me. "Tits up, tits out" is one that came in early, obviously. It's been around with the feed too.
But that was the thing that allowed us in the writer's room to have moments where you'd get frustrated, and all of us would be like, "Tits up, tits out. What are you going to do?" A lot of her philosophies can be translated into the day-to-day grind of trying to create a show. And a lot of it is like, "What would Diane do?" A lot of it is like, "Let it roll off your back, it'll be okay, let's go have drinks and we'll think about it tomorrow, we'll figure this out."
But yeah, my goodness, she's a hell of a character. The joke we always made was that we could make 30 different shirts with different slogans, so we've got to narrow it down.
What famous Chicagoan would you like to see come on this show?
Matt Craig: Man, we did okay. We got a handful of people that came in on some capacity. Oprah would be really good. I don't think we even thought we could get her. Rahm Emanuel would be fun.
Where my brain immediately went was: I would love to get Michael Jordan, but I guess my brain is thinking like, "Who could we get?" But my dream would be Jordan and Pippen, a handful of different people. My goodness, there are so many people in Chicago. Depending on how we're treating them, maybe Mayor Daley?
You know what, another one that I would love to see is CM Punk. I think he'd be great, mainly because he's a straight edge guy. I would love to see his interaction with Diane. I think it would be comedy gold.
Matt Craig: Yes! Yeah, well, let's knock on wood. Hopefully, we can keep this going and make all this happen.
This show is absolutely hilarious, but it has a ton of heart. What are you hoping audiences take away?
Matt Craig: Well, I hope it's both. We knew the show was going to have some really funny moments. The hope is that people stick around for the storytelling and where it's going to go, and start to really care about the characters and see where they're going and root for them. Root for their growth, root for their relationships and the changes in their life, and that they make those right choices.
It's just like any good television, so the hope is that it resonates with people in a way that makes them enjoy it, want to re-watch it, take something away, connect the dots between their own lives and what their own experiences are. That's the thing that I think I'm most proud of with this show.
And you nailed it when you said it has a lot of heart. I think when people come into what is considered adult animation or animation for adults, that gets lost sometimes because I think people get nervous and they think that it means that it needs to be gratuitous or you're not living up to the definition of it. But the goal on this particular show was you wanted to have that same quality of - almost the joke of the "Jerry Springer moral," where by the end, you want people to feel like, "Oh, I get it." And it's true of any good sit-com, that there's a little bit of that something that resonates and that sticks with you.
The jokes will, I think, be around on t-shirts and the like. But the idea is that maybe two or three years later, people would be like, "That was a really interesting way to look into that topic and the way they handled that." So that's the hope, that there's some takeaway here that allows us to internalize generational differences and how they affect society at large.
Chicago Party Aunt is now available to stream on Netflix.
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