ADULT SWIM
ON THE GREEN TOUR
At Gore Place, Waltham, Friday at 5:45 p.m. Tickets $5 (concessions voucher), www.adultswim.com
Friday night, Waltham’s Gore Place will be filled with people who want to breathe some fresh air and watch television. The space usually hosts weddings or family-oriented events. But Adult Swim is bringing its “On the Green Tour’’ to town, so instead, there will be a giant LED screen on the lawn and most likely fans dressed up as their favorite characters from Adult Swim shows like “Rick & Morty’’ or “The Venture Brothers,’’ there to preview new network content.
The “Things You’ve Never Seen’’ screening is at the center of the age 18-and-older event, but Adult Swim is tight-lipped about what shows, specifically, will be shown, though a new “Squidbillies’’ episode is confirmed for the Waltham stop.
“It’s a combination of pilots, infomercials, things that fit within the Adult Swim world. New episode premieres,’’ says Ashley Wagner, Adult Swim’s director of events. “The content is constantly changing. No stop is the same.’’
The past two summers, the network sponsored the “Adult Swim Drive-In Tour’’; fans would show up and watch the screen from their cars. This year, the network scouted more picturesque locations to get viewers outside. “We chose the location in Waltham at Gore Place because it was just such a scenic backdrop,’’ Wagner says.
The showcase will also be a communal experience, with games and food trucks. “It’s very much a carnival, festival environment,’’ says Wagner. “There’s lots of different, fun things to do. Most importantly, meeting other Adult Swim fans and hanging out with your friends.’’
The idea is for Adult Swim fans to meet each other, and for Adult Swim organizers to see who their fans are. “It’s a genuine connection,’’ says Wagner. “For us, it’s about meeting them face-to-face and seeing their enjoyment with it. People dress up in costumes. They get to meet other people who are just like them.’’
“Squidbillies’’ creators Dave Willis and Jim Fortier were about to appear this month at the Atlanta stop when they spoke to the Globe by phone (no show creators will attend the Boston-area event). They were looking forward to watching fans react to something they were seeing for the first time. “It’s a good opportunity to see if it works,’’ says Willis. “Otherwise you just put it on the TV and then it just disappears. You work on it for a year and then you have no idea how people react.’’
Says Fortier, “You laugh at it a little bit when you’re writing, you laugh at it a little bit when you hear it, and you see it. Then you watch it 50 times and no one’s laughing at it anymore. It’s definitely a good feeling to be out with a crowd and see it work.’’
“Squidbillies’’ is emblematic of the type of show Adult Swim makes. Adult Swim is the Cartoon Network’s evening block of programming aimed at young adults and the age 18-49 demographic. The shows can be outrageous in attitude, profane, and surreal. It’s where “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!’’ was born and is now home to the pair’s current horror-themed series, “Bedtime Stories.’’
“Squidbillies’’ one of the longest-running shows on the network, kicks off its 11th season in October. It features a family of mud squids from Georgia. The characters, led by patriarch Early Cuyler, sometimes get into politically explosive territory. In one episode, Early defends the Confederate flag. In another, he tries to build a wall around his property to keep immigrants from taking American jobs. The episode being shown at the Waltham stop is called “Knights of the Noble Order of the Mystic Turquoise Goblet.’’
“It’s got echoes of the times we appear to be living in, with the Internet and all that,’’ Willis says. “Early’s got a whole fact shack full of conspiracy theories, and we sort of have a lot of Easter eggs in there about certain crazy things that are going on these days.’’
Another episode from the upcoming season deals with the controversy over transgender people using the public bathroom of their choice. “Early has stationed himself in women’s bathrooms to make sure no men are in there trying to pretend they’re women,’’ says Willis. “Then he later finds out that he’s both man and female because he’s a squid. He has to somehow square that with his staunch stance for a bathroom law.’’
The political content is more a reaction to than a comment on social issues. “I can 100 percent tell you we don’t design the shows as a ‘message of the week’ kind of thing,’’ says Fortier. “It does evolve from us having similar points of view in some ways and also just being annoyed by hypocrisy and annoyed by just positions of stupidity and having a way to sort of clown on it. And it’s fun to do that. It’s fun to have your version of Archie Bunker who’s a green hillbilly squid.’’
ADULT SWIM ON THE GREEN TOUR
At Gore Place, Waltham, Friday at 5:45 p.m. Tickets $5 (concessions voucher), www.adultswim.com
Nick A. Zaino III can be reached at nick@nickzaino .com.
