Tenacious D Unveils Its Festival Supreme, With Sarah Silverman, Adam Sandler and More

Michael Elins Who brought s’mores?: Outdoor fun with Kyle Gass and Jack Black of Tenacious D.

When a rock group describes itself, as Tenacious D does, as “the greatest band in the world,” then when its members, Jack Black and Kyle Gass, decide to set aside self interest and organize their own live festival, you expect them to enter into the enterprise with that same spirit of modesty and altruism.

“I guess it’s the same reason people climb Mount Everest,” Mr. Black said in a recent telephone interview. “The answer is, because it was there. You know what was there? An empty hole, waiting to be filled with comedy rock.”

For its first-ever festival of music, comedy and musical comedy acts, which is called Festival Supreme and will take place on Oct. 19 at the Santa Monica Pier in Southern California, Tenacious D has gathered a roster of performers that is nearly worthy of this band’s tongue-in-cheek bravado.

The event, which was announced on Monday, will feature 25 artists, including Tenacious D itself, as well as standups like Tig Notaro, Hannibal Buress and Demetri Martin; comedy bands like the Gregory Brothers and Garfunkel & Oates; bona fide superstars like Sarah Silverman and Zach Galifianakis; and a few performers you almost never see on a festival stage, like Adam Sandler and Eric Idle.

Naturally, Mr. Black, a star of films like “The School of Rock” and “Tropic Thunder,” was humbled that he and Mr. Gass had been able to pull off such an accomplishment.

“No one’s ever done a really great comedy festival in L.A., which is really weird, because, no offense to New York, they’re all here,” Mr. Black said. “They’re all just sitting here working and waiting for a festival to happen. We’re like the guys who invented the ShamWow. We’re not talking rocket science. We’re just like, ‘How come there’s no ShamWow?’ Now the ShamWow’s here and we’re geniuses.”

The bill also features the Mr. Show Experience, whose founders, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, gave Mr. Black and Mr. Gass some of their earliest breaks. (“They kind of discovered us,” Mr. Black said.)

In the case of Mr. Sandler, Mr. Black said, “He’s just doing us a favor.”

“I said to him, ‘Dude, we’re doing this thing, come down and play some songs.’” Mr. Black said. “You are one of the great forefathers. The jams that you played on ‘Saturday Night Live’ inspired us all. He was like, ‘Oh, God, all right. Yes, I’ll do it.’”

For now, Mr. Black said, Festival Supreme is envisioned as a Los Angeles-only event. “I can’t imagine saying, ‘O.K., now everybody form a line, we’re all going to be getting on Southwest Airlines,’” he said. “But there’s lots of talent in other cities. We could conceivably do a Festival Supreme in all the major hubs of the world, I suppose.”

After a pause, Mr. Black added with characteristic humbleness: “We’re in talks right now with Richard Branson. We’re talking about doing one in space.”

Presale tickets for Festival Supreme will be made available online at Ticketmaster on Wednesday at 10 am Pacific time. (The password is SUPREME.) Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 am Pacific time.

The full announced lineup is:
Tim and Eric
The Mr. Show Experience
The Mighty Boosh
Sarah Silverman
Zach Galifianakis
Adam Sandler
The Gregory Brothers
Tig Notaro
Hannibal Buress
Eric Idle
Fred Armisen
Princess (Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum)
Will Forte
Demetri Martin
Dynasty Handbag
Reggie Watts
Beardyman
Craig Robinson and the Nasty Delicious
Garfunkel & Oates
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
Neil Hamburger Band
The Abe Lincoln Story
Nancy and Beth (Megan Mullally and Stephanie Hunt)
Tenacious D