Bob Baker and Tyler Marshall, two of Tuscaloosa’s biggest personalities from the popular local podcast “Trivial Pursuits,” have ventured outside the realm of the recording studio with their new live comedy show appropriately named “The Bob and Tyler Show.”

“It’s an excuse for us to get on stage and tell our dumb jokes and get a few laughs,” Baker said. “Hopefully it’s evolving into something that we can be proud of, something that we can show people outside of Tuscaloosa at some point.”

Baker, who graduated from The University of Alabama with a degree in telecommunication and film in 2006, said much of “The Bob and Tyler Show” audience is comprised of people just like him and his counterpart.

“It’s a lot of post-graduates,” Baker said. “It’s people who have finished college but haven’t yet flown away to their next destination. Townies is the nomenclature, and we’re one of ‘em.”

Marshall said “The Bob and Tyler Show,” which is hosted at Green Bar, started out as “Trivial Pursuits Live” and followed the same format as the podcast. The first half of the show was comprised of an interview with a Tuscaloosa-centric guest – usually a local business owner, musician or comedian – and the second half of the show featured the guest playing a game in which they answered unusual trivia. Baker said after two months of following the podcast’s format, the show evolved into something different.

“We realized if we were given such a stage to do a production, we should explore it and see what other things we could do,” he said. “We’re both TV junkies, and we enjoy bad television oftentimes. ‘The Bob and Tyler Show’ is now essentially a variety show exploring different television formats.”

“The Bob and Tyler Show” has already successfully explored the game show format and produced a Christmas special show. Next, the show will take on the realm of late night talk shows. Baker and Marshall said they also have plans to produce shows in the style of telethons and daytime talk shows.

Marshall said he enjoys doing “The Bob and Tyler Show” as opposed to “Trivial Pursuits,” which ran for roughly a year and produced 30 podcasts, because the live show provides more of an outlet to be creative with different television formats.

“It’s always changing,” Marshall said. “I think we’re still trying to figure it out a bit, but it’s fun to have those parameters and see if we can make it funny in our own weird way.”

Another advantage to doing a live show is the freedom to explore the visual jokes that they were previously unable to try in the audio-only podcast format, Baker said. They use an on-stage television with graphics and sound cues in an effort to make the show seem like a live television production, but without any cameras.

“There’s a certain synergy between us and our audience where we play off of them and feed off of what’s going well and what’s going bad,” Baker said.

Marshall echoed Baker’s comments about the role of the audience and its importance in the success of a live comedy show.

“In the audio-only podcast that we used to do, you can tell your jokes, and you don’t really get that immediate reaction from it,” he said. “It’s kind of fun to write our jokes and try to be funny and see if we actually get laughs out of the crowd.”

Baker and Marshall’s close friendship has contributed considerably to the success of their podcast and now live show, they said.

“Tyler is one of my best friends,” Baker said. “That’s why it works, because it’s ‘The Bob and Tyler Show.’”

The two have known each other since high school and have been writing together for about eight years.

“We know how each other work,” Marshall said. “A lot of times our friendship has provided a really funny chemistry on stage. We’ve even made out on stage before.”

Marshall said the show brings something different and exciting to the Tuscaloosa community.

“It’s a thing you can do on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night that’s not going to watch a band play,” he said. “It’s going to see this weird absurdist comedy show that you don’t have to pay for. I’ve never seen it done before here.”

“The Bob and Tyler Show” will take on late night talk shows in their next show, titled “Up All Night” at Green Bar Thursday starting at 10 p.m. The show will feature musical guest The Ne’er-Do-Wells.