Jeffery Self (left) and Cole Escola (right), known collectively as the VGL Gay Boys, are a true American success story. Striking out on their own to make it in the Big Apple, as so many do, Jeffery and Cole found each other, a webcam, and YouTube. Their viral videos introduced the world to their acerbic wit, demented minds, and classic 1990s sitcom sensibilities. They were picked up by Logo to have their very own TV show, Jeffery and Cole Casserole. Since then, the TV show, their live shows - most recently at New York City's 2009 HOT! Festival - and two upcoming nights at The Public Theater's Joe’s Pub, have solidified their status as real celebrities. I’m honored to have gotten some quality time with them to discuss their ride to the top.

Photographed for EVB by David Kimelman

Max Steele: So... how did you guys meet?

Jeffery Self: Mutual friends. Sadly there's nothing exciting there. But once we did meet and become friends we had some pretty exciting times, not excluding the time we got to meet Lesley Gore. Yes, that Lesley Gore. Maybe we ought to start telling people we met because Lesley Gore introduced us at her annual Memorial Day Pancake Breakfast upstate.

Cole Escola: We knew each other through friends for many months, but we didn’t really click until he started letting his hair grow out. You can fact-check that if you want.
Max: How do you describe Jeffery and Cole Casserole to people who aren't familiar with your other videos?

Cole: People aren’t familiar with our videos? Haha! I’m half-kidding. I describe it as a sort of casserole made from the messy ideas in our heads and presented to you on a dish that is our TV show. I don’t think Logo likes me to describe it like that because it doesn’t really make people want to watch, but I can only think of things in terms of food.

Jeffery: Cole always uses the term "shit show" but I don't think that's the best marketing angle. I guess it's essentially a hodgepodge of various sketches, stories, jokes, and groove thangs.

Max: What's your writing process like? Do you guys take a lot of notes or mostly improvise?

Jeffery: I'm really controlling so I tend to sit at the computer and type while we talk the script out loud. We definitely write out loud and attempt to make each other laugh.

Cole: When we get together we usually gossip and have coffee for 40 minutes or so. After that we throw out ideas, improvise based on the ideas, and keep what we like. We do that for a few hours until we’re ready to start drinking.

Max: Which one of you is older?

Cole: I am.

Jeffery: He's a loooooooooooot older. Can't you tell? No, but seriously, Cole is older and his hair is graying a lot faster than mine.

Max: You guys recently performed at this year's HOT! Festival. What was your show like?

Jeffery: Is it lame to say hot? Yeah, it was. It was something we originally workshopped back in March under the title A Conversation about Annie Potts. We were offered a slot at the Here Arts Center and we didn't have a show or script to do but we had a mild bit of an idea so we told them we'd do it and wrote the show in three weeks. We didn't really know what it'd be about so we just called it A Conversation about Annie Potts. We reworked the show and I like to think it was pretty groovy. It was called Jeffery and Cole: Make it Bigger. It was the bio-play of our fictitious rise to fame and fortune. We wanna make a movie version of the script. Are you listening Nora Ephron?

Cole: It was kind of like Laverne & Shirley if Laverne and Shirley were 100 times hornier and really high all the time. And that’s not a joke answer. That’s really what I think it was like.

Max: When you began doing videos together on YouTube, was the goal to eventually do a TV show? If not, what is your goal? Exactly how famous do you guys want to be?

Jeffery: Asking someone who has the audacity to film themselves on a webcam and put it on YouTube just how famous they want to be is a loaded and very dangerous question. We really just started out with the videos to amuse each other but once we got into the groove of things a TV show was certainly on my radar. Our main bond is over television of the early 90s so the idea of being on TV is intoxicating.

Cole: I think our goal was just to make videos. I liked doing them because it made me feel like I was doing more in New York than working at a job I hated for $8.50 an hour just so I could afford to sit around my apartment and be miserable. As far as fame goes, I consider myself an artist, and any true artist will tell you that fame can NEVER be the goal. Art is about making money and getting the people you want to fuck to want to fuck you.

Max: As bona fide internet sensations, you guys must get a lot of fan letters. Do you respond to them?

Jeffery: Are you kidding? I LOVE hearing from people on Facebook and stuff, so OF COURSE I respond. Speaking of which. Follow me on Twitter. Yeah, I did that.

Cole: A fan is a friend I haven’t met yet!

Max: Apart form the VGL Gay Boys, you both also perform separately. Do you guys "save" certain material to use in your solo work versus what you come up with together?

Jeffery: They're such different things so not really.

Cole: We usually write collaboratively, so I think it would make things awkward if he were to see one of our ideas show up in a solo project. That’s probably not far off, though.

Max: Jeffery, your solo work deals with unrequited love and one-night stands. Cole, your work as Joyce Conner deals with suicide. So I would ask you each this this: Jeffery, what most makes you most want to kill yourself? And Cole, what do you find sexiest in a man?

Jeffery: Love this question. I tend to get most depressed out of insecurities and being jealous. Wow, that was way too revealing and truthful. I also dislike the way my face puffs up when I drink too much red wine.

Cole: It varies depending on what substances I’m on that day.

Max: Your show has had a lot of cameo appearances. Who would your ideal guest star be?

Jeffery: Thats like my favorite thing to think about in the whole wide world. Obviously we wanna work with some of our favorite ladies: Annie Potts, Jan Hooks, Shelly Duvall, Teri Garr, Melissa Joan Hart, the woman who played Miss Yvonne on Pee-Wee's Playhouse (as Miss Yvonne).

Cole: I think about this almost every day. There’s a long-ass list of comedy ladies that Jeffery and I would KILL to have on our show, even if we had to kill each other - and don’t think we’re not ready. All Jane Curtain has to do is say “go” and I’ll shove an ice pick through Jeffery’s fucking skull.

Max: One of your early videos, The Morning After, made a joke of you two sleeping together, kind of pre-empting any speculation about you guys as a couple. Give me the dirt: have you guys ever had a long day of shooting video and hopped into bed together?

Jeffery: No, but one night we did get really drunk and held each other and cried.

Cole: It hasn’t happened yet, but we still have more episodes to film.

Max: What advice do you guys have for other young queer artists?

Cole: Write all your ideas down right when you think of them.

Jeffery: Do your shit. Don't talk about it, do your shit.

Max: Which one of you likes peanut butter more?

Jeffery: Me, but likely cause I'm more desperate for a "thing". Though... I'm really obsessed with it in a huuuuge way. In fact, now I'm craving a peanut butter cookie and I literally ate a peanut butter sandwich two hours ago.

Cole: Jeffery probably eats it more frequently. I definitely know more about it though. I’d say he likes it more, but I really appreciate it.
Max: Do you guys have any good luck charms? Any other kooky superstitions?

Jeffery: I have all kinds of kooky superstitions and compulsions. For example, and this sorta goes back to peanut butter thing actually, if I walk by the Tasti D-lite in Times Square and they have the peanut butter flavor on their flavor chart for the day I won't let myself eat any peanut butter that day. If I look at a clock and it says 13 on it I won't move until the minute changes, and to make it even more insane, I'll close my eyes and if I open them before it changes I'll flip out. I have all kinds of habitual ritualistic behavior that somehow roots back to my mom.

Cole: On my right hand I wear a ring that once belonged to my great-grandmother. She gave it to my grandmother, who gave it to one of my aunts, who gave it to me when I left Oregon for New York. I always say it gets passed down to the strongest woman of each generation. Every once in a while I look down at it and think, “this same ring was once on a hand that harvested wheat and delivered babies. Now it’s on TV and touches dicks in bars.” I think that’s neat.

Jeffery and Cole perform Jeffery and Cole Casserole: Live at Joe's Pub, Sunday September 13 and Friday September 18