![Drunk History Live Features Seth Rogen, Evan Rachel Wood, Colin Hanks](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/gettyimages-1168317547.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1)
A packed Montalban theater in Hollywood on Thursday night received a riveting history lesson — of sorts.
Derek Waters and an all-star cast, including Colin Hanks, Evan Rachel Wood, Jack McBrayer and Seth Rogen, performed a live reading of the Emmy-nominated Drunk History episode “Are You Afraid of the Drunk?”
It was a first-of-its-kind event for the Comedy Central program that just finished its sixth season, which earned three Emmy nominations: Outstanding variety sketch series, outstanding directing (Waters) for a variety series and outstanding picture editing for variety programming (John Cason).
The idea — which came to show co-creator Waters just last week — had the cast of the episode reunite (save for Will Ferrell, whose part as the Monster was played by Martin Starr) to once again lip sync the story of how Mary Shelley’s (Wood) legendary novel “Frankenstein” was developed, as told by the inebriated comic Rich Fulcher.
Waters told The Hollywood Reporter after the show that “Are You Afraid of the Drunk?,” which first aired Jan. 16, was his favorite episode of the series thus far and made the most sense for a live reading.
“People always talk about Drunk History live, and I really didn’t know how to do that,” Waters said. “You can’t really get someone drunk, record and then have people lip sync live, but you can reenact and show how well actors can lip sync, like seeing Evan Rachel Wood do it spot-on every time.”
Saying how proud he was the Emmy noms (“Of all the seasons, I think this is the one where we have our best chance”), Waters credited the lion’s share of the episode standing out to his cast, which all started with Westworld star Wood, who was the only actor Waters wanted to play Shelley.
“The monologues are so long and it is an art form to be able to perform like that — and then do it again,” he said. Wood got the largest laughs of the night, but Hanks and Rogen were right behind her.
Show co-creator Jeremy Konner told THR that the cast and crew knew immediately during production that “Are You Afraid of the Drunk?” was special.
“This is the only one we’ve shot over three days and we blew this one out like we never have before,” Konner said. “We wanted to do a special one around a campfire, a parody of (Nickelodeon’s) Are You Afraid of the Dark, and we loved the story, but we did not know it was going to be a full episode. But as soon as Rich Fulcher started talking, we looked at each other and knew we had something special.”
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