Last Friday, Broken Lizard, the comedic filmmaking group responsible for “Super Troopers,” graced Milwaukee with a side-splitting sketch and stand-up show at the Pabst Theater, 144 E. Wells St.

The comedic styles of Broken Lizard’s five members (Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske) are the result of endless dedication to their dream of professionally writing and performing. Aside from “Super Troopers,” the guys are also the stars of “Beerfest” and “Club Dread.”

“People always say that they like us the most when we’re all writing together,” Lemme said. “We’re each a different type of person and that translates into our senses of humor.”

During the interview, it was obvious that each guy really has his own unique personality. Chandrasekhar is the leader of the group, with his confident but wacky humor. Lemme both tells and receives self-deprecating jokes. Believe it or not, Heffernan, Stolhanske and Soter are the quiet members, but have excellent timing when tossing in hilarious comments or insightful advice.

Each member also showcased individual styles through stand-up sets, where they shared stories about their fellow co-stars.

For example, Stolhanske, who played Rabbit in “Super Troopers,” serenaded the audience with a tune he wrote about a recent breakup with his girlfriend. Unlike your normal heartbreak story, his breakup was caused by a wizard turning his girlfriend into a parrot.

When the guys weren’t getting personal with the crowd, they reenacted scenes from their films. Heffernan, who dressed as the character Farva from “Super Troopers,” kicked off the show.

“Let me show you how easy [comedy] is,” Heffernan said. He pointed to an audience member and asked, “Hey, what’s your name? That’s a stupid (expletive) name.”

The group also welcomed audience members on stage to take the place of movie characters. Rather than having three members of Beerfest’s Team Germany contend in a beer-drinking relay against Team USA, they selected two men and one woman from the young audience.

Team Germany ended up losing, but they weren’t very sore about it. After all, they had just chugged beer on stage with Team USA!

The genius behind Broken Lizard originated at their alma mater, Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., in 1990. Like many of us, they partied and studied subjects like history, painting and political science at the small private school.

Then, Chandrasekhar decided to take a chance.

“I was asked to write a one-act play [by the theater department],” Chandrasekhar said. “I decided to do a sketch comedy show instead.”

Chandrasekhar called up Heffernan and they began assembling the team.

“A lot of groups are put together by other people and they break up,” Lemme said. “The key to our longevity is the fact that we were friends before. So in our tensest moments, and there have been plenty of them, we can get through it.”

But not everything went smoothly for the group once they reunited in New York City after graduating.

Chandrasekhar explained how the group auditioned for an open slot on MTV. Even though the guys killed at their show, another sketch group killed more and got the spot.

Despite the loss, the guys kept going strong and received more attention for their talents. After getting an offer to write a 30-minute film for a New York University senior’s thesis, the guys got the fever to go into the film industry.

“[After that], we said, ‘let’s try to make a movie’” Chandrasekhar said.

Stolhanske said the group went back to Colgate’s campus in the summer of 1996 and created a short film called “Puddle Cruiser.”

In 2001, the guys created an off-the-wall cult-hit comedy based on a squad of state troopers who manage to screw everything up called “Super Troopers.” They have been unstoppable ever since.

“You just gotta throw yourself in the ring,” Chandrasekhar said.

Heffernan, agreeing with Chandrasekhar, said, “You really have to do it. A lot of guys will just sit around, but until you put words on paper you just keep talking about it.”