Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson and Anders Holm stood on the sidewalk at the Tempe campus on March 14, screaming at students to join them on their party bus - not exactly the average Tuesday at ASU.
The iconic trio from the cast of "Workaholics" and various movies individually such as "Pitch Perfect," "Dope" and "The Intern" respectively was on campus to promote their new Netflix film "Game Over, Man!"
The comedy group spent the day talking with students about the film, and that night, the Programming and Activities Board offered a free pre-screening of the movie to students, which the cast also attended.
DeVine said he expected ASU to be much hotter, and it was the perfect day to be driving around and meeting students.
“It’s the perfect temperature for us to go out and push this movie, which we are super excited about,” DeVine said.
A crowd of students waited and cheered for them outside the Memorial Union, as they arrived and hyped up the audience, urging students to check out the movie when it is released on Netflix on March 23.
Sammy Zecher, a business tourism major, had a more up-close-and-personal experience with the group when she was called up on stage.
“It was cool seeing how similar their characters are to their actual personalities,” Zecher said.
The action/comedy film will be the Mail Order Comedy trio's first project together since the final season of "Workaholics," and they said the film will show them in ways that fans have never seen before.
“It gets pretty intense and real in a way that I think a lot of people won’t necessarily expect,” DeVine said. “It’s not just us in the office or drinking beers on the roof anymore.”
This film strays from the casual acting that "Workaholics" fans are used to seeing from the three. Although the groups' distinct humor is not lost, fans should expect to see the crew being more serious in the movie than they have been known to be in the past.
“We’re definitely acting in this movie more so than you’ve seen the three of us act together before,” DeVine said.
This being the group's first film together, they noted the drastic differences between acting for television and creating a movie.
“Coming from TV, you’re rushing through your days," Anderson said. "It was cool doing a movie and being able to spend time in the scenes and find the comedy of it."
Considering the film will be available on Netflix instead of in theaters, the group was given more freedom to stay true to their typical explicit humor.
“I’ve done big studio movies, and you have to go to things like conventions, where you go out there and realize that they’re there to make money off of popcorn and soda," DeVine said. "They can’t piss those companies off. With Netflix, they just want cool, fun movies that serve an audience.”
The screenplay was written by Holm, who currently has a new television show called "Champions." Holm collaborated closely with DeVine, Anderson and Kyle Newacheck, the movie's director and a co-creator of Workaholics, in creating content for "Game Over, Man!"
“It was always going to be our project. I’m just the guy that enjoys putting together our collective ideas we come up with, such as characters and stuff like that, into a watchable movie,” Holm said.
The film's screenplay takes inspiration from the "Workaholics" episode "Office Campout," but also '80s action movies.
“We’re kids of the '80s and '90s,” DeVine said. “All of us have that collective love of '80s action movies.”
The group is excited to release “Game over, Man!” to the world, and they feel it will be loved by "Workaholics" fans and non-fans alike.
“I think if you’re a fan of 'Workaholics,' then you are going to love this film, but I think it even reaches a broader audience,” Anderson said.
Reach the reporter at mmbarbe3@asu.edu and follow @meganbarbera_ on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
