Make room, “Real World” and “Laguna Beach” cast members.

“Human Giant,” a half-hour sketch comedy show debuts Thursday, April 5, at 9:30 p.m. on MTV. The show consists of three full-time cast members — Aziz Ansari, Rob Hueb'*el and Paul Scheer — and is directed by Jason Woliner.

Ansari and Scheer recently appeared in the Billy Bob Thornton/Jon Heder film “School for Scoundrels,” while Huebel has been featured on “Arrested Development,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and VH1's “Best Week Ever.” Woliner, meanwhile, has directed segments for “Best Week Ever.”

Huebel and Scheer recently spoke on the phone with 210SA.

210: How did the idea for “Human Giant” come about?
RH: We started showing (some previously recorded skits) around (New York City), and people liked them. Aziz and Paul came up with this idea for “Illusionators,” about really dumb Goth magicians. We were just making fun of magic and just sort of started cranking out other little short films. Once they got on the Internet, the people at MTV saw them. They approached us, and that was cool. They knew us from the New York comedy scene, saw pieces (of our work) and asked for a pilot.

210: Is it tough to edit pieces to fit within a 30-minute window?
PS: It gets a little bit hairy. We only have to shave off about a minute at this point, just pulling frames from every sketch. It might be boring, but it's a little bit of science, making sure each piece flows into the next. It's like creating a mix tape. If maybe one sketch is violent, the next one isn't. There's a flow throughout the episode. From one standpoint, we make sure that each one of us is represented in each episode, that the first half isn't bigger than the second.

210: Did you have quite a few skits already shot before the MTV people came along?
RH: We probably had about half a dozen pieces that we had done on our own, that we did just to have and show around New York at comedy shows. We had those in the can, and when we got the deal to do the show, we pretty much had to crank out a million of them. All of a sudden, we went into mass production. MTV was really amazing because they gave us the deal for the pilot and let us do whatever we wanted, whatever we wanted to shoot. They pretty much gave us free reign, so we had to really go into overdrive and start cranking. What we do is sequester ourselves into a room and just throw out ideas. It really works in a weird way because the idea has to be something that makes all of us laugh. If everyone is not on board, it just gets killed. It could be a terrible thing, or it could be the funniest thing, but if one guy doesn't laugh, we don't do it. It has to be unanimous.

210: How has putting sketches on the Internet generated buzz for “Human Giant”?
PS: It's great because we've had a chance to get ready. But at the same time, the audience that found us on the Internet, we have to make sure they tune in to TV, too.

210: Are you ever concerned that you'll run out of funny ideas?
RH: That would be a terrible thing. I try to trick my brain into thinking that there are an unlimited number of ideas in the universe. If I thought it was finite, I'd get stressed out and quit, so I keep lying to myself to feel better.

210: Are there days when you come into the office to write, and just get nothing creatively?
PS: The writing of the show definitely ebbs and flows. We're in a room every day for 10 hours trying to write ideas. Last month, we wrote 90 pieces. Having a handful of short films online, you hit those slumps. We actually had this wall of ideas that are dead, the graveyard of ideas. We thought they were great, and now we look at them, and we're like, “what the hell is that.” We're embarrassed by them.

210: What can viewers expect from the show?
RH: It's a brand-new show, but everyone is familiar with sketch comedy. Hopefully it's something that is palatable to people. With things like YouTube, in the past five years, people have gotten accustomed to short, funny, fast things, and we wanted to do stuff that was really funny but also fast. We're just going to pack the show, and the show is really dense. There are no breaks in anything, no “hello everyone” to start the show. And we don't have a live audience. It's relentless from the get-go. The only transitions between the pieces are music, and there's never any kind of filler in between. That would've been a good idea, though.

210: How much does improvisation factor into sketch comedy?
PS: I would say that in every sketch, there's an element of improv in it. That's our strong suit. The original things we shot, those pieces were heavily improvised. Now, with the TV show, we couldn't improvise as much, We had to write a script.

210: How much has is it helped previewing the show's material before live audiences, at places like South by Southwest?
RH: We're really lucky to be able to test this material in front of live audiences because we show it to crowds and we're doing focus grouping. We're showing it to groups of people, and it's been a really useful thing. I don't think the audiences realize we're completely using them. They're like, “great, a comedy show,” but not for us. It's more like research. We show these videos to them and really shut up and watch the audience, listening to them. If they don't like it, we completely ditch it. If the joke doesn't hit, we change it. We've been able to craft the pieces.

210: You're on “Best Week Ever.” How long does it take for you to film your portion of one show?
PS: They bring us in once or twice a week for about an hour and a half. We just sit in a chair and talk about topics. I may go in on Tuesday and talk about five topics, but by the time the show airs on Friday, four topics are not on the show anymore.

Clint Hale | 210SA