Sklar Brothers

Randy and Jason grew up in suburban St. Louis in a Jewish family.{{Cite web|url=https://denverjewishchamber.com/sklar-brothers/|title = The Sklar Brothers}} They went to the University of Michigan, where they joined the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.[http://www.aepi.org/about-aepi/notable-alumni/ Notable Alumni | Alpha Epsilon Pi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219154241/http://www.aepi.org/about-aepi/notable-alumni/ |date=2014-02-19 }}. Aepi.org. Retrieved on 2014-06-25. While enrolled, they decided to pursue a career in comedy.

In 1994, they moved to New York where they developed their comedy style at stand-up comedy clubs. In 1997, Jason and Randy starred in and wrote for MTV's sitcom/sketch/standup program Apt 2F. It was their first television work. The show lasted one season.

The Sklar brothers have also appeared in television shows such as CSI, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Mighty Med, Childrens Hospital, Law & Order, Becker, Providence, The Oblongs (as conjoined twin brothers Biff and Chip Oblong), Entourage, Grey's Anatomy (as conjoined twin brothers Peter and Jake Weitzman), Curb Your Enthusiasm (Jason only), and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (as dance marathon DJs on the episode "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off"). They appeared in two episodes of season 3 of Better Call Saul as the owners of a music shop called ABQ In Tune. The Sklars have appeared in the films My Baby's Daddy, Bubble Boy, Wild Hogs, and The Comebacks.

The brothers were pit reporters on Comedy Central's Battlebots. Randy appeared on an episode of Take Home Chef, where his wife and chef Curtis Stone surprised him with a gourmet dinner of Beef Wellington. They have appeared numerous times on Chelsea Lately. They have appeared on Comedy Central's @midnight. They produced and starred in a special that ran on ESPN2 called Utilityman: The Quest for Cooperstown, a lighthearted yet somewhat serious attempt to get seminal utility baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1980s José Oquendo into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Randy has appeared numerous times on the Forum on Jim Rome is Burning on ESPN and Rome on CBS Sports. They appear monthly on Rome on Showtime in a segment called "Sklarred for Life".

They appeared in the 2008 Microsoft film VoIP As You Are: The Legend of Dan Wilson.

They regularly fill in as guest hosts for Jim Rome on his National and North American syndicated radio show formerly on Premiere Radio, currently on CBS Radio.

They participated regularly on NPR's southern California affiliate KPCC's The Madeleine Brand Show as sports correspondents.

They produced two sports pilots called Sklar Talk for NPR's KPCC that both aired in 2011.

The Sklars are also frequent guests on the podcasts Never Not Funny and World Football Daily. They have also appeared on The Adam Carolla Show, AST Radio, Jordan, Jesse GO! and Battleship Pretension, WTF with Marc Maron, You Made It Weird, and Professor Blastoff.

They were featured in the Troma production Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV as Jason Gonzalez and Randy Diaz, a pair of Tromaville news anchormen.

Randy and Jason are featured in an ad campaign by running shoe and apparel company Brooks.

In August 2010, they made a cameo appearance in the web comedy The Legend of Neil in season 3 episode 3, depicting two football-loving "Armos" statues.

In 2012, the twins began to appear in what would become a series of commercials for Time Warner Cable.

In February 2014, the brothers recorded their first one-hour stand-up special at the Majestic Theater in Madison, Wisconsin. The special then premiered on Netflix on April 25, 2014 and the CD/DVD dropped on iTunes on April 29, 2014. The brothers uniquely framed their special as if it were an NFL playoff game with Rich Eisen leading a roundtable discussion of the brothers' comedy on an NFL Network set, along with future Hall of Fame defensive lineman Dwight Freeney, NY Giants defensive back Terrell Thomas, and actor and former Georgia Bulldog football player Omar Dorsey. In addition, the ubiquitous sideline reporter Bonnie Bernstein makes a cameo, interviewing the brothers pre- and post-show. The stand up special features a pre-game breakdown by this crew, a halftime report, and a post game wrap up. The stand up special titled What Are We Talking About was available on Netflix instant streaming for three years after the April 25, 2014 premiere.

Randy Sklar is married to Amy Sklar, an interior designer who was featured on HGTVs Design Star and they have two daughters. Jason is married to Jessica Zucker, a fertility therapist who created her own line of critically acclaimed pregnancy loss cards. They have a son and a daughter.

While on a special Mother's Day themed episode of @midnight with their mother, Annette, she was asked to pick her favorite son; she picked Randy without any hesitation.

{{Main article|Cheap Seats (TV series)}}

From 2004 to 2006, Randy and Jason appeared on Cheap Seats, on which they played fictitious ESPN research assistants who end up hosting a comedy show as they comment on odd and notable sporting events from ESPN's extensive library.

Cheap Seats borrowed its format from Mystery Science Theater 3000.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} The cast of MST3K apparently were pleased with the show and afforded it a high honor - they appeared in the second season opener in their normal silhouette format, making fun of the Sklars' host show bits. So far it is the only time Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy have appeared as their MST3K characters Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, respectively, since MST3K was cancelled.

The brothers co-wrote with Nick Kroll the web series Layers, directed by Michael Blieden, on which they played twin publicists Larry and Terry Bridge.[http://www.theclawproductions.com/] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090707115608/http://www.theclawproductions.com/|date=July 7, 2009}} Their web series Back on Topps was produced by Vuguru, the online production company of Michael Eisner. It won two Streamy Awards.

In 2010, the online network Crackle released Held Up, an original series written by the brothers and starring Kaitlin Olson of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Held Up tells the story of a bored bank teller's life-changing experience when two teams of bumbling bank robbers hold up his branch. They also started hosting a weekly Earwolf podcast series called Sklarbro Country in 2010.

The brothers wrote and appeared on ESPN's SportsCenter in a comedic segment called "The Bracket". Randy and Jason occasionally fill in for Jim Rome on The Jim Rome Show on radio. Randy occasionally appeared as a "Forum" guest on ESPN's Jim Rome Is Burning. Currently, the duo make appearances on the Showtime show Rome also hosted by Jim Rome.

In 2012, the Sklar brothers hosted a television show on History titled United Stats of America. A "by the numbers" series, it featured interesting statistics about the U.S., mixed with experiments, stunts, and the Sklars' unique brand of humor.{{cite web|url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/04/11/united-stats-of-america-new-series-may-8-on-history-uses-statistics-to-tell-americas-stories/128536/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414002631/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/04/11/united-stats-of-america-new-series-may-8-on-history-uses-statistics-to-tell-americas-stories/128536/|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 April 2012|title=United Stats of America: New series May 8 on History|publisher=TV By The Numbers|date=11 April 2012|access-date=26 April 2012}} After one season, the show is currently on indefinite hiatus. United Stats of America episodes are now available for viewing on Apple TV.

From August 2010 to 2017{{cite web|title=Welcome to Sklarbo Country|url=http://www.earwolf.com/episode/welcome-to-sklarbro-country/|website=Earwolf|access-date=16 July 2014}} the Sklar Brothers hosted a popular weekly podcast called Sklarbro Country on the Earwolf network. They described the podcast as the intersection of sports, comedy, and indie rock, and the show had guests ranging from Jon Hamm to Terrell Owens to Diablo Cody. Memorable episodes featured Richard Simmons, Patton Oswalt, the end of the year Character Specials, Hamm, Rich Eisen, and Adam Carolla. Sklarbro Country was nominated for best podcast in the televised 2012 Comedy Central Comedy Awards.

In the summer of 2012, the Sklar Brothers added Sklarbro County to their weekly output of the podcast. Described as a shorter midweek snack of an episode, the show is co-hosted by up and coming character comedic actor Dan Van Kirk. Dan finds crazy stories of people doing stupid or silly things and Randy, Jason, and Dan and a guest all riff as if it were a writers' room. Randy has described the show this way: "If a 30-person brawl breaks out at a Chuck E. Cheese in Tampa, FL at a 5-year-old's birthday party and the fight spills over into a Burlington Coat Factory parking lot, ending in someone defecating in an ex-boyfriend's hatchback… we'll be there to make fun of it." Sklarbro County was available weekly on Tuesdays, also on the Earwolf Network.

The brothers have become a regular staple of Jim Rome's monthly show, Rome on Showtime with a popular segment, titled "Sklarred for Life", where Jim Rome tees up the 6-8 craziest stories of the last month that happened in the world of sports, video clips, photos, arrests, and the brother skewer the subjects.

The Sklar brothers made two cameo appearances on AMC's Better Call Saul as the owners of a music shop who are purchasing television commercials from the suspended lawyer Jimmy McGill.{{cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/jimmy-can-t-catch-a-break-as-better-call-saul-sets-up-1798191415|title=Jimmy can't catch a break, as Better Call Saul sets up this season's endgame|first=Noel|last=Murray|website=The A.V. Club |date=23 May 2017 |access-date=14 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://uproxx.com/sepinwall/better-call-saul-expenses-recap-review/|title=Jimmy's 'Expenses' Start To Grind Him Down on 'Better Call Saul'|date=23 May 2017|access-date=14 October 2018}}

The brothers were featured on an episode of This American Life titled, "Sklar-Crossed Brothers", in which they investigated a family rumor and lifelong suspicion that their mother had misidentified them at some point in their infancy and their identities were from that point mistakenly switched. After getting an expert comparison of their baby footprints with their adult feet, it was determined that there was no mix up.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/691/gardens-of-branching-paths/act-three-24|title = Sklar-Crossed Brothers|date = 11 January 2020}}

The Sklar Brothers later auditioned in season sixteen of America's Got Talent where their comedy act enabled them to advance to the next round. They were not invited to appear in the quarter-finals.

The brothers have done three stand up specials in their career. The first two stand-up specials were Comedy Central Presents half-hour stand-up specials that aired on Comedy Central in 2001 and in 2009. In April 2014, the brothers premiered What Are We Talking About,{{Cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/the-sklar-brothers-latest-album-is-always-frenzied-and-1798180363|title=The Sklar Brothers' latest album is always frenzied and sometimes funny|date=May 6, 2014|website=The A.V. Club}} their first 1-hour stand up special on Netflix. The material was a culmination of material from the past couple of years, the 2011 album Hendersons and Daughters, and material written as close to 2 weeks before the special was recorded in Madison, Wisconsin at the Majestic Theater.

Since 2017 Randy and Jason have hosted a twice weekly podcast with Daniel Van Kirk called Dumb People Town. They usually have another comedian as a guest to discuss their career and life, and then they go over a few news stories, usually sent in by listeners via social media. These news stories are outrageous in nature, with people often hurting themselves or engaging in other "dumb" behavior.

• Poppin' the Hood! (2004)
• Sklar Maps[https://www.amazon.com/Sklar-Maps-Explicit/dp/B0017UANZ4 Sklar Maps [Explicit]: The Sklar Brothers: MP3 Downloads]. Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2014-06-25. (2007)
• Hendersons and Daughters[https://www.amazon.com/Hendersons-Daughters-Sklar-Brothers/dp/B005HBLCAE Hendersons and Daughters: Music]. Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2014-06-25. (2011)
• What Are We Talking About (2014)
• Hipster Ghosts (2018)

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.whosay.com/sklarbrothers Sklar Brothers at whosay.com]
• {{IMDb name|name=Jason Sklar|id=0804448}}
• {{IMDb name|name=Randy Sklar|id=0804460}}
• [http://www.earwolf.com/show/sklarbro-country/ Official Sklarbro Country site]
• [http://www.maximumfun.org/blog/2007/10/podcast-sklar-brothers.html Interview with the Sklars from 2007] on public radio program The Sound of Young America

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Category:1972 births

Category:Living people

Category:American male comedians

Category:Jewish American male actors

Category:Jewish male comedians

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:Identical twin male actors

Category:Male actors from St. Louis

Category:University of Michigan alumni

Category:American comedy podcasters

Category:American identical twin actors

Category:Comedians from St. Louis

Category:American comedy duos

Category:American stand-up comedians

Category:Brother duos

Category:Identical twin males

Category:21st-century American comedians

Category:Stand Up! Records artists

Category:America's Got Talent contestants

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American comedians