Broken Lizard in Boulder: 'Super Troopers' guys bring the funny (VIDEO)

Long gone are the days when Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan and Erik Stolhanske -- aka the "Super Troopers" guys -- can drink beer in the corner of a seedy bar and play a hand of deuces.

Any semblance of a normal life for the comedy fivesome, dubbed Broken Lizard, is history.

"If we walk into a bar, especially together, you can see the ripple happen," Lemme said in recent interview. "You can see all the dudes crank their heads towards us. Before we know it, we're surrounded and people are shoving shots in our face and screaming lines to us."

Not that they're complaining.

"We have a very weird status," Soter said. "That's the thing I would have never predicted ... we do go to places where we're swarmed and people are going nuts and screaming at us.

"It's just a bizarre twilight zone."

Note to Broken Lizard: There's a decent chance you'll be mobbed in Boulder on Thursday night, too.

The group, who also collaborated on 2004's "Club Dread" and 2006's "Beerfest," makes a highly anticipated return to their stand-up roots with a tour stop at the Boulder Theater on Thursday.

It will be a night of sketch comedy, all the

This is Broken Lizard

Note to audience: This doesn't mean it's acceptable to scream "chicken fucker" and "meow" throughout the show.

"We hear a lot of 'Farva's No. 1' when he's not even on stage," Lemme said. "They like to shout all your lines at you."

Soter said the group didn't know what to expect when hitting the live stage again.

"We thought either it will be good and they'll love us, or it will be bad and they'll heckle us," said Soter, an alum of Littleton's Arapahoe High School. "We didn't count on they'll love us and heckle us."

The members of Broken Lizard met in 1990 at Colgate University, where they began their careers in sketch comedy.

However, Lemme was a stand-up virgin prior to this tour.

"Not only was I a virgin, but I was a welcher," Lemme said. "I lost a bet to Kevin (Heffernan) years ago where I owed him 10 minutes of stand-up comedy and I was too chicken to do it."

And now?

"It's quite a thrill out there," Lemme said. "It's a rush, it's like a drug. I recommend it to everyone."

Just as the guys loved when the 1980s-'90s sketch comedy group Kids in the Hall would go on tour, Soter said they wanted their fans to have a chance to see Broken Lizard's live show.

The group is promoting a new flick, "The Slammin' Salmon," featuring Michael Clarke Duncan as a restaurant owner who holds a contest to see which waiter can earn the most money in one night. (Look for Broken Lizard's "Super Troopers 2" and "Potfest" on the near horizon, Soter said.)

Early reviews have hailed the new film as Broken Lizard's best yet.

Anchor Bay is slated to release the film in select theaters Dec. 11.

"The Slammin' Salmon" marks a return to the indie ranks of Broken Lizard's first two films ("Club Dread" and "Beerfest" were studio films).

"With an independent film, you don't have to answer to anybody and you can sort of make up the rules as you go along," Lemme said. "It was really nice to return to our 'Puddle Cruiser' (1996) and 'Super Troopers' roots."

Alas, before the world memorizes "The Slammin' Salmon" one-liners, Broken Lizard is at hand to please the rabid fans.

Calm down, there's enough to share.

"It's not like Yankee Stadium where now the real fans can't even afford the cheap seats," Lemme said. "All of our fans can come out and be a part of this thing. We're all sort of in it together."