Nerd News Social Sits Down With the Stars and Creators of “Dream Corp LLC”

We were able to sit down with the artists behind one of the most insane, and impressive show on Adult Swim. Dream Corp LLC is an amazing experience in the absurd as the characters delve into the mind and dreams of their patients. While they attempt to help their patients, they can barely help themselves.

Eric Bryan Seuthe II: Last time we talked on the phone, you mentioned you were happy to have the ability to make 6 episodes.

Daniel Stessen (Creator): Yeah!

ES: This time they’ve given you 14. Are you happy, nervous, or upset about getting over double of the episode run?

Daniel: I couldn’t be happier to have that opportunity again. We’ve been saying that the six was a great opportunity to show what the show was about, but it really serves as the pilot for what we are doing, in comparison to season two. With fourteen episodes we can dive more into the world. We dive into each character a bit more. Everyone has their own episode. We learn more about 88, we go into Ahmed pharmacy this year, we just kinda go down into the whole thing. We look at Dream Corp as a an ice burg, where there is the little exterior, and it just keeps growing and growing underneath.

Johnny Heck: It seems like Season 1 was the prologue and we are wrapping up now, and getting to business. What did you want to do last year, that you are doing this year?

Daniel: We just focused on season 1. That’s where John Krasinski and Stephen Merchant are so good. We need to know what this show is about, no one’s ever seen it. We’ve been working on it for years, and Season 2 is just coming out now. So sometimes we get a head of ourselves, but Season 1 was all about how does this place work? How does it function? Now we get to this point, where there is a couple episodes where there is no animation. It’s just now more focused on the workplace.

Nicholas Rutherford (Patient #88): It takes a back seat, there will be a patient in the background getting therapy, and something terrible has happened. Ahmed has become a lizard, and we have to deal with that. So Roberts is dealing with this patient who is under, while Ahmed is in the foreground.

Ahmed Bharoocha (Ahmed): There is one patient that comes in and they are just droning on and on, with a record going, “Uh, huh, okay…” and then we are working.

Nicholas: Because you know how sometimes your therapist is just doodling on that sketch pad.

Ahmed: She is just talking about her Ex-boyfriend or something.

Nicholas: They can’t always be good.

Daniel: In that episode in particular, there is a new Jim Henson Puppet. They built the T.E.R.R.Y. robot. This year there is a garbage monster. We pay homage to the Star Wars Trash Compactor Monster. 88 gets pushed into the garbage shoot by someone who is trying to steal Robert’s Software, and he hits his head pretty badly, and arises Norf Norf the new Henson puppet. She is so cool and is voiced by Maria Bamford, and the guest stars go on from there, and she’s just a voice. The patients this year are crazy.

ES: Speaking about guest stars, you had really amazing guest stars throughout the first season, are there any guests for the second season that you can tell us?

Daniel: We are not supposed to talk about it..

Nicholas: We’ll tell you…

Johnny Heck: This isn’t going anywhere

ES: This is between just us…

Daniel: I’ll tell you what, in that same episode, with Maria Bamford… Darrell Hammond is the evil man who went to science college with Roberts, and always has a bone to pick, because Roberts was trying out an early version of Truth Paste out on Bill Ruff (Darrell Hammond), and the early truth paste made him loose all his teeth. So he comes back with these huge chiclets teeth. That’s an example of the fact that we do a lot of things practically this year. We lean into it a lot more. A lot of blood sweat and tears.

Ahmed: Randy gives birth out of a huge neck cyst and it smells.

Nicholas: Randy is really into cysts, and he has cyst popping Youtube channel, so he is very excited, but then it turns out to not be a cyst.

Ahmed: As an actor, what was really fun was the second season art department was on top of it. The garbage pit… I was geeking out. As a fan of Star Wars, I was “This looks so cool!” The pharmacy was really cool to live in. It helped as an actor to help.

Nicholas: I had a stunt double!

Daniel: They both did!

Ahmed: Oh yeah!

Nicholas: I get thrown around a lot. Even by a dog at one point.

Ahmed: You get beat up a lot the first season.

Daniel: A German Sheppard attacks him this year.

(They all laugh)

Daniel: General Jim comes back. Jimmy Simpson is in the first episode, so we open with him. He moderated our panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

Ahmed: He was awesome!

Daniel: It’s like from Jimmy and on. We never let our foot off the pedal.

ES: You mention that there is going to be less rotoscoping animation that you guys are famous for, in the first season. Yu guys are still keeping the same artwork style right?

Daniel: Yeah, we have actually evolved it. It actually looks better.

ES: I’m kind of happy, but I love that style.

Daniel: We talk about… well you’ll be happy. We talk about it in the way that you watch an old Simpsons, or old Family Guy, and you say, “Oh that drawing looks different….

Nicholas: Yeah, you don’t miss it, and when you watch it your like…. what is this.

Daniel: And some of the episodes, that don’t have the rotoscoping ae there to give the rotoscope guys time on a different episode that they take more time.

Ahmed: That takes a long time.

Daniel: So when we are making 14, those guys are just grinding.

Nicholas: That’s like the one where I get thrown in a trash compacter, and make a “Die Hard/Odyssey” though a ventilation system with a Jim Henson puppet.

Daniel: So we make up for it…

Nicholas: Or another one, where Ahmed doses me accidently and I go on an insane drug trip, and Ahmed is my shaman, like a “Holy Mountain” journey.

Daniel: I think we are doing a good job keeping the real world as psychedelic as the dream world. So you can’t tell which is worse.

Nicholas: Or which is better. 88 especially.

Daniel: Yeah, well we are still working on 88’s confidence.

Nicholas: Still can’t get boners. Ahmed has a new hairdo.

Daniel: Yeah!

Ahmed: Ahmed gets dreads and steps.

Daniel: Also we have a new cast member/assistant. Megan Ferguson who plays Bea. Who is excellent. She is the lucille ball of of our time. She is amazing. We are excited about her as much as possible.

ES: Why did it take two years for us to get more Dream Corp LLC?

Daniel: Things take time. There is timing with actors. We have to write the script. The two years gap is mostly because the network business trying to find out were we fit in and how much to invest the next time. With the more time, it’s night and day with the new season. You’ll see the difference. That’s due to the development we’ve done in the downtime.

Nicholas: I think season one was amazing, but looking at it, it looks like film school to me now. It looks like shorts made in college.

Daniel: Well thanks Nick.

Nicholas: Not to stop there. It looked atrocious. The talent made up for it.

Ahmed: Yeah once we showed up, we took the reins.

ES: Is Roberts going to restructure his LLC into a corporate format to protect himself more since the events of the last season?

Daniel: No, that’s why I think he’s an LLC. Dream Corporation Limited Liability Corporation, Corporation.

Ahmed: Lot of tax stuff going on.

Daniel: Yeah, lots of tax stuff going on.

ES: Well thank you guys so much!

Dream Corp LLC will be returning to Adult Swim this Fall, make sure to check back here as we get closer to the event.

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