Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I. I did this one for a long time last year called Just this Guy at a Bar. And I think looking back, I had made. I think by the end of the year, I made 35 of them. And I was kind of surprised. But then also, it's like. It's just really funny to me. Like, every time he. Basically, I would just think of a thing that, like, kind of backfires or sounds impressive, but then it slowly admits something really embarrassing. And it just was funny to me. And so I kept coming up with them, and then at some point, yeah, it kind of fizzled out. And then when I looked back, and when I looked back, I think there were 35, and I was like, wow, that's a lot. But it's like, you found something funny, so just change the setup. But, like, you probably found some fun mechanism. Like, the idea of a guy accidentally exposing something embarrassing about him is obviously funny. And so, yeah, there's. There's 30 different embarrassing things you can admit. So, yeah. And also the funniness was in, like, the specificity and, like, all the weird stuff that he was doing. Like, I think. I think he was, like, trying to breed rats in his basement, but he didn't know how sex works. And so he was struggling. And so he's like. So, like, that is a pretty specific, embarrassing thing to admit. And so then that is, like, was funny to me.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: I'm Luke Steinfeld.
[00:01:11] Speaker C: And I'm Wyatt Sarkisian.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: We made the 5050 podcast to support you on your filmmaking journey.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: 50% business, 50% creative.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Every Tuesday, a new how to.
[00:01:20] Speaker C: This week, comedian Jack Greenberg joins the pod. I'll be honest, guys, when people ask me who my dream guests for the podcast are, Jack Greenberg always sits around that top slot. I've been a fan of his for a while. He is hyper specific with his comedy, yet feels universal at the same time. It's satire, but it doesn't feel like he's punching down whatsoever. More than anything, you'll find on this episode that Jack is just a nice and friendly guy. He cares a ton about comedy, and it was great to bond over the mutual passion that all three of us have for the art of making people laugh. It's comedy season, guys. Enjoy.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Were you one of those guys that had, like, a beard in middle school?
[00:02:09] Speaker A: No, I was a late bloomer. I did not get any facial. I think even trying to think if I ever. I really did not have to shave much in high school. Or maybe I'm misremembering, but kind of halfway through, I Kind of had like a hippie summer in between my sophomore and junior year in that I, like, don't think I ever shaved once. I had been growing on my hair already and I, like, came into junior year with, like, a beard and hair like, past my collar. And I was like, this is. This is good.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: And did it feel right?
[00:02:41] Speaker A: It felt right. And then of course, like that fall, I was like, interviewing for internships. I don't know. For me, I've always.
I've associated like, the corporate. Know, like classic corporate world is like the short. I just like, anytime it's time to get a job, I cut my hair short and shave my beard, which is like, old school. But.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: No, that's
[00:03:00] Speaker A: how. That's how the world works, I guess.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: I. It definitely still works like that. Like, I. And I w. I'm sure you can speak to that too, just of your New York days. But, like, I feel like that's. The clean cut is still very much the traditional.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: It is. I. I'd like to think, I don't know, you go to the agencies and they're all in suits and really, you know, sort of.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: Yeah, they're clean cut, for sure. They got
[00:03:24] Speaker C: really, really clean cut. But you kind of, you know, I feel like it's getting more relaxing here and there. I would like to think so.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: I'd
[00:03:33] Speaker A: love to think so.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Does it feel good having short hair wide again, or is it.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: It does. It's actually. I just took a shower, so it's not actually that short, but I got a little. It's like a little longer in the back.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: I don't know. Yeah.
[00:03:46] Speaker C: My haircutter, Jack. You're a Silver Lake guy, right?
My. I go to Silver Lake Barbershop. I don't know if you've ever been there.
It's right on Hoover.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Oh, I drive past. It's at the intersection.
[00:04:00] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. The big intersection.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Every day because. Yeah, exactly.
[00:04:04] Speaker C: Well, I was there and my. My haircutter, I'll give him a shout out. Draven. He's like a.
He is a local guy.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: Draven.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: Draven. D, R, A V I N. I
[00:04:16] Speaker B: think I feel like I've heard of him.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: I'm sure I've talked about Draven before, but he, like, he's so local to the extent. And I live. I'm not going to say where I live, but very close to there.
And so he's like, rattling off names of people, like local people in the neighborhood. Like, I just, like, I just know them.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: And
[00:04:35] Speaker C: he'll always go, like, do you know this guy? And I kept saying no because, like, I don't know, like, other local people in the neighborhood necessarily. But then I was finally, like, I got to, like, say yes to one of these, you know?
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:48] Speaker C: So he said, like, do you know Theo? Blah, blah. And I said, yeah. And he goes, okay, so what do you think of him?
[00:04:54] Speaker B: What? Did you have a response? I said.
[00:04:56] Speaker C: I said, you know, I've. I said, you know, I mostly just, like, observed him from afar. I'm curious, like, what you think of him. That. That was my. That was. Was my best answer.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: And I'm sure he went right back in.
[00:05:07] Speaker C: Oh, completely. Yeah. I think he just wanted to talk about.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: I.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: Whatever.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: I actually. I had to, because, I mean, hair. Getting haircuts is a pretty difficult thing for me. Like, finding the right haircut person is hard for me to do because of my hair. And if I get a bad haircut, it takes either a couple more haircuts to get it normal again, or it just takes a lot of time for it to, like, shape again properly.
And when I find a good haircut person, it's like, oh, yeah, I'm a loyal guy.
I found someone new recently, and he was amazing, but the dude just, like, would talk the whole time, like, nonstop. And that was enough for me to be like.
[00:05:51] Speaker C: I don't know. I feel
[00:05:52] Speaker B: like
[00:05:53] Speaker C: I try to. I guess I am the type of guy who, like, if I'm in an Uber, like, I'll try and make conversation with the Uber driver. I
[00:06:00] Speaker B: just,
[00:06:00] Speaker C: like, can't. I can't. The silence is hard for me. You know,
[00:06:03] Speaker B: I. I definitely. It. It wasn't even, like, a silence thing. It was just one of those types of people that just, like, keeps talking, I think. I. I mean, maybe it was a timing thing where just, like, I'm wiped, you know, after work or something. It's like, the last thing I want to do is talk a bunch, but.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: But how good was. I mean, if the haircut's amazing, can't you put up with that for an hour? I
[00:06:22] Speaker B: couldn't. I honestly couldn't. Wow.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: All
[00:06:25] Speaker A: right.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Then I found someone else who's, like, amazing, and I go to her now, and I'm going to her next week.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Well, Draven got a shout out. Do you want to give her a shout out?
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Her name is Claire.
She's also in Silver Lake. I think she just opened a shop out there. I don't know. I'll do the. I'll put it in the show. Notes.
[00:06:44] Speaker C: Yeah, we can link all this in the show. Notes.
Well, Jack, it's so great to have you on the podcast. I'm truly such a fan of yours and your, your videos and I've,
[00:06:54] Speaker A: I've,
[00:06:54] Speaker C: I, I literally like, you know, in the past years I've been sending Luke videos of yours just because I'm a fan.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: That's nice
[00:07:03] Speaker C: and I'm so thrilled to have you on. And, and Johnny Marks, a recurring guest on the podcast at this point. Put us in touch. So thank you Johnny, and it's great to have you on the show.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: How about Johnny, let's link Johnny's info in the show notes too.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:07:16] Speaker C: yeah, let's definitely.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Johnny's
[00:07:18] Speaker B: been on
[00:07:18] Speaker C: like
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Johnny, Johnny's been on like four times at this point.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Too much?
[00:07:24] Speaker B: No, there's never enough. Never enough.
Yeah,
[00:07:28] Speaker C: yeah.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: How do you know they're really. How did you meet Johnny?
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Just through I did his stand up show. Linda.
[00:07:38] Speaker C: Yeah,
[00:07:38] Speaker B: yeah.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: And that's enough. Just one time, one time meeting someone, if you really click and you really hit it off, that can be enough to then later get introduced to other people.
[00:07:53] Speaker C: For sure.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: Where, where are you at with standup? Because I, I, I actually, I, I'm not sure I was at that Linda show, although I've gone to a bunch of them and that's, it's a really cool, supportive audience obviously. But I'm curious, like, what are you going and doing people shows a lot? Like, where are you at with that? Right now
[00:08:10] Speaker A: I'm not doing too much standup. I probably do like on average like a show a month, so not too much.
Over the summer I wrote a two person show with my fiance and we've been doing that. It's an hour long show and from that also kind of this, because of that, this fall we've been getting booked a little bit to do chunks of that on people's shows. So not quite it's mostly stand up, but we have like some interactive bits and some multimedia bits too. So I think my last three or four times performing has been people booking the two of us to do that together.
That's fine. Like chunks of that show together. Yeah. So not full stand up, but pretty close.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: Can you give a little teaser of what that show's about and what, you know, I'm curious about like doing specific chunks of things like what that looks like.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Yes. The show is called, I kind of forget. I think it's called Jack and Caroline present the show or it's just called the show. But it's gone through a couple. I think we've done it three times. We did it twice in LA and then once in New York and then we will do it more next year in other cities.
But yeah, the show, its current iteration is the first like quarter of the show. Like 15 minutes we come out, we kind of do like a two person stand up thing and we're kind of in slight characters. Like we're still Jack and Caroline, but we are kind of a little more cheugy or like a little more cozy core. Like, we come out, we're like, y', all, we feel so awkward doing this. We just wish we were on our couch with our doggo and. But honestly, this comics, this comedy stuff is pretty lit too. Like, I'm kind of getting into this, y', all. Like, and then like so like we kind of do a two person stand up set and like also we're having not relationship issues, but like, that's kind of like. Yeah, it's kind of a mix of like, it's a mix of like stand up jokes and then weird things and some audience interaction stuff. And then after 15 minutes we kind of are like, okay, cool, well, mind if we do some sketches for y'? All? And then kind of those characters go away and then it just becomes a series of sketches, slash, like multimedia bits. Like we do a couple things with the projector, with music and. And then some of the sketches too are like mostly improvised and they'll just change per show.
And then some of them, if we actually like them and we've been doing them kind of, I don't know if we ever write them down word for word. But like we just kind of know what the beats are. But yeah, it's kind of loose. Even in a lot of the sketches, there's audience interaction. Like one of the sketches is, I play this horror short film I made which is like purposely super on the nose. Like the horror, like sometimes a horror you'll see at a short film festival. And it's called My Grief Monster. And it's just Caroline is in the kitchen, she hears something she sees as a monster in the living room. She runs into the bedroom, closes the door and does a two minute monologue of how she's realized that that monster represents the grief from losing her grandma. And then the short film ends and she just like overly is explaining it and explaining it and explaining like, we only saw the monster for like three seconds. But then we get a two and a half minute monologue analyzing what it means.
[00:11:31] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: And Then once that I do a 10 minute Q& A with the audience about the short film, like,
[00:11:37] Speaker B: people
[00:11:37] Speaker A: can ask about the motifs and the themes of it.
[00:11:41] Speaker C: So good.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it's pretty fun. That stuff like that is super fun. I love doing, like, the audience interaction stuff is so fun because all the Q and A's are real. Like there's no plants or whatever. It's just actually people. And people do have a lot of questions about it because there's a lot of all these weird little Easter eggs and stuff.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: So when you. When you do go on these or get invited to go on other, you know, people's shows and stuff, and they want little snippets of it, do you guys. Will you do a sketch? Is there a certain piece that you like? Will it be the intro? Like, what. What piece of the larger show do you find yourself kind of returning to?
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Yeah, we're kind of testing out. Actually. We did it October. I think we did it three times in October. So this was like the little chunk thing. So it changed every time. But the common thing was we would do an abridged version of the opening and then we would always make sure to at least do one bit just because that really is kind of like the point of it. Or like, that's kind of like at least what we like more.
But the host set is really fun too. I mean, we both used to do more stand. I mean, we both do stand up, but.
But the host set is really fun too, I think, because it's slightly in character and there is some real stuff too. Like we talk about, you know, like we got engaged and I tell like a kind of a fictionalized version of how it happened and.
But yeah, when we've done chunks, we've been doing like. Yeah, like an abridged version of the host set and then one and if we have time, two of the bits from. Cool. So
[00:13:11] Speaker B: you're really just. It's not like you're taking one piece out. It's like we're gonna abridge the entire thing so you get the full experience.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: It's turning a 60 minute thing into. I think we did a 12. We did a 10, a 12 and a 15 minute version. So there's.
Yes. However much time we got.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: And then do you prefer being up there with some. I mean, obviously someone in this case is your fiance. But, like, you know, when it comes to being on stage and stand up in comedy, like, do you like having that scene partner with you or are you more of someone that, like,
[00:13:44] Speaker A: I like the Scene. I like the scene partner. I mean, my first. The first type of comedy I did was improv, which is totally team based.
And so, yeah, I like that it's fun to do.
Yeah, the team based stuff is fun also. Just Doing stand up alone is fun too. Even when I do stand up by myself, I do kind of a light character, just like a slightly more weird, crazy version of myself. So that's fun too. I've never loved just the complete for myself performing, like complete straight stand up. Just. This is me and these are my thoughts.
[00:14:15] Speaker C: Like, observational stuff. Yeah,
[00:14:16] Speaker A: yeah, yeah. I just don't really have enough, like, hot takes and stuff. And so it's better for me if I can just play kind of like a weird guy and then just do jokes as him. I don't know. But even better is if there's some sort of. Yeah, like a group or a team is super fun. Um, yeah. So, yeah, it's been good. It's been really fun. I'm excited to do more shows. Hopefully we can do some more cities. And yeah, we're still. It's very early too. It's like it's. I already know it's changed so much. I mean, it's almost, I think from the first show to the. Even from the first big show to the third big show, like, there's maybe like 10% the same. So if that keeps happening, it will be very different very soon.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: That's amazing though. You keep evolving, you know.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah, we just. Anything that didn't kill, we just completely cut. And anything that did okay, we changed. And then some things I've done really well three times and so it doesn't need much, but.
But yeah, just keep every. Yeah, I think just every time we do a show, just try a bunch of new things and cut everything that was horrible and then just keep, repeat, rinse and repeat that.
[00:15:26] Speaker C: It's a good way to do it. I want to pivot a little bit and talk about character because that is your sort of preferred way of performing. You're not doing the observational standup thing. You're definitely. Even when you're doing yourself, you're doing a heightened version of yourself. I want to talk about where that comes from because your characters are. So if I watch a video of yours, I've seen that guy. You've actually seen this guy at a party or you've actually seen that couple.
Even like the comfort core stuff, it's like so specific, you know? So I'm curious, like, are you going about life and seeing these People and you're like, oh, that's a great person that I have to like, go home and film a video as or something. Or like, where. What is that process? Like, with character?
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to try to start doing that more. But no, I haven't done that of like, being able to observe people and remember it. Sure.
It mostly, I think, has just come from, like I was saying, the first type of comedy I'd ever did with improv, which is just huge on, like, volume and reps and kind of just when coming up with stuff, I'll just like a lot of free writing or free thinking or trying out a ton of things. And just through one of those, something kind of interesting pops up. But I also have really insane screen time. And so I guess I'm seeing a lot of people that. Just not like in real life, but I'm like scrolling and seeing a lot of people.
But no, I don't know. I think the characters are like. When I do, like a character video, I don't think it starts as like a very full, fleshed character. Like, I think because it's kind of improvised, it kind of starts with a line or two.
[00:17:06] Speaker C: I
[00:17:06] Speaker A: mean, the classic thing of improv is like, like, if. If this, then what? Or maybe I'm messing it up. But it's just like, if you kind of start with a line of dialogue and you're like, that is really weird. Like, who said this? Oh, it's a guy who's like this. Okay, what else would that type of guy do? And it goes from there. And then after like 30 or 60 seconds, like, for on the outside, it pro. Maybe looks like it's specific or like a type of guy, but it just kind of started from something kind of random. But I think it's good to. Yeah, like, starting from random is fine, but then it's like taking a pause and being like, you know, trying to follow some specific rabbit hole. Because then I think.
I don't like when things get really random sauce, which is like a hodgepodge of different types of guys or different. It's fun to like. Yeah, like, as you go on, you know, like narrowing in on. On something.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Staying specific, you know.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: I think a lot of times too, like, with character, like, if you're able to hone in on one trait or something, like you kind of set it like, if this, then what. And you also said it of like, not getting lost in. And he said random sauce, like loss in the sauce, you know, it's like they Are characters, obviously, you know, real people have a lot of layers, but, like, in a comedic sense, you could really lean into this, like, one horrendous flaw. You
[00:18:26] Speaker C: have to refine
[00:18:26] Speaker B: it.
[00:18:27] Speaker C: It's. It's simplicity.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:18:30] Speaker A: yeah. And a physical thing is good, too, for characters. Like, just while we were talking, like, I feel like my film guy, after his Q A, when he rephrases people's questions back, just goes like this a lot. It's like, yeah, dude. Like, yeah,
[00:18:44] Speaker B: yeah. People
[00:18:45] Speaker A: who try to. People who use a hand motion to try to seem smarter, like, try to, like, break things. Like, I don't. I kind of do that every single time. I don't know what it means. But
[00:18:55] Speaker B: are you. Are you pretty interested in, like, the.
It's not actually, like, the science, but, like, the. Like, when you do that and you're like, okay, like, the audience keeps laughing, like, let's see how long we can push this. Like, are you. Are you pretty into the. The analyzing piece? And I know you mentioned bettering this set after every round.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: I'm a little bit into it. There are people who, especially with standup, are, like, way more analytical and, you know, they have the spreadsheet and track the jokes and, like, how long did it go? And how. How many laughs did it get? And, you know, switching the order of the punchline.
I have. I don't really do it like that, but I think I'm really into probably just from starting from improv. Like, in the moment. Especially, like in our host set, if we're try something new on accident and it gets a little pop of just being like, okay, let's pause the host set and keep exploring this until there's no more laughter, and then we can get back on track. So, like, yeah, in the moment of something.
[00:19:53] Speaker C: Yeah. See
[00:19:53] Speaker A: how far you can
[00:19:54] Speaker C: go with it. Yeah,
[00:19:55] Speaker A: yeah. Just doing it. Yeah. Doing it kind of over.
Doing it over and over, doing versions of it just because it's kind of fun that we found something that people like.
But besides that, probably just normal level of. Yeah, like what you said, like, yeah, after a show, just sitting down. If it was just me, then just me, but if it was with Caroline and just being like, okay, so, yeah, like what we said earlier. Did anything bomb? Okay, let's never do it again. Did anything do. Okay. Okay, let's improve it. Did anything do? Great. Okay, cool. We probably don't have to change it for the next one.
It's probably okay as is.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: I would love to take it back too, because I know you mentioned you come from the corporate world and like hearing about jumping ship and, you know, what it took to do that and maybe the mentality behind it and then digging into the social side of things. Because I know Wyatt also is building his own Instagram on the comedy side and could be super interesting to hear takes from someone who's established in this space
[00:20:56] Speaker C: for sure.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: But
[00:20:58] Speaker A: starting
[00:20:58] Speaker B: with the. The origins a little bit, you know.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I, yeah, my first. So I did a lot of comedy in college. Like I was on the improv team and I did stand up and then I graduated and I worked in consulting and I moved to New York and I was. Kept doing improv. Like I, within a couple months was back taking improv classes and was on a team a couple months after that and doing a bit of stand up too.
And yeah, I think I worked there for like a year and a half and then I left and worked at a startup for two years with and kind of the same thing was working there and then was doing improv. Still not really making videos. Maybe like one once a month just for fun.
Still doing that. And then like, yeah, after two years at the startup, I think, yeah, I think the startup was like folding and so I just, yeah, I was like this actually kind of a natural time to leave and I not to make. I still would not make videos for another year after that. I just was. I would like, was thinking I would spend all my time screenwriting, which I did, but it just didn't.
I mean it was, it was actually good practice but like nothing great happened in that year. But then like a year into that I was like, well, I also should probably make videos too. I always had kind of made videos. Like even in middle school and high school I was kind of. I would make like a YouTube video once a year for fun. And then in Covid I had this stint. Like I was. I was making like two or three TikToks a week for like a six month chunk in Covid. So none of it, none of them did super well.
But it was like, it was just really fun. But then what that was like in. That was like in the six month period where I had been sent home from school, you know, like a couple weeks early because. Yeah.
And then my job had been pushed back six months since they didn't know company wanted to like have new people start remotely. So it was like during that. So you had
[00:23:04] Speaker C: this free time. Yeah, yeah,
[00:23:06] Speaker A: yeah. I wish I had kept going from there. But then I took four and then I took four years off of Making any videos and then returned again last year.
[00:23:16] Speaker C: I have like a rather similar trajectory. I was making a lot of stuff during COVID just like, purely for fun. And I'm curious, what was your mentality during COVID Were you like.
Covid was obviously a devastating time, but for people who were lucky enough to just be in this weird period of whatever, like a positive purgatory is of like, you have a job lined up or you have a school lined up or you're going back to school or whatever. And it's just like this weird time of like, not like the pressure's off, you know. So what, what was your comedic mentality during that time?
[00:23:53] Speaker A: It was not that focused. I would, yeah, it would have been cool to be. Be more into it, but no, it was just like. It was just like I was bored and didn't have much to do and I had like downloaded TikTok like that earlier that or no, the year before in like 2019.
I was already like becoming a scroller and getting my screen time up. And so I just was like
[00:24:13] Speaker C: putting in the work. Yeah,
[00:24:14] Speaker A: it was just very casual. I just didn't even. It was like, purely just for fun and not at all like, thinking I would keep doing it or that it would lead to anything or.
Yeah, like, the idea of it was so. Yeah, it was really, really far from like, these videos will do well or like, I will spend more time on this.
[00:24:34] Speaker C: Totally. Kind of just doing it for your friends. Right? I mean, that's why I was doing it.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And just. Yeah, if they saw, that's great. And also just to like do something during the day.
[00:24:44] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Why did you come back? Like, like, why are you back now doing it?
[00:24:52] Speaker A: Pretty much because after this like, year of like, just trying to focus on screenwriting.
No, I had. I mean, it does take a while. I still, I still write a lot, but like, there's no short and not really any medium term wins. And so I just was like, let me do some sort of just comedy that you can like actually make and actually do day of or like within an hour maybe to pair with stuff that is just taking years.
And. Yeah, it's pretty much it. I also, when I moved to la, was, you know, started doing improv again and starting was having. Was having fun doing comedy again.
And.
Yeah, I don't know, I just thought it'd be good. And also, like I was saying, I've just always had. I just have always, like, since middle school, watched, you know, so many hours of comedy videos every week. Like, first on YouTube and then, like later, just all the sketch groups and really, you know, short form sketch groups and people. So I just was always like, I've always just been in a. I've just appreciated, like, online sketch comedy.
Yeah. And so, yeah, I was kind of like, felt comfortable jumping into that.
Yeah.
[00:26:09] Speaker C: Who. Who were the big influences for you with Internet sketch comedy?
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah. In middle school, my big two were Jake and Amir and then Good Neighbor and specifically Kyle Mooney and good Neighbor.
And then, yeah, I think, like, in high school and then going into college, I was. I loved Nathan Fielder and Tim Robinson. When I think you should leave came out. I was obviously like many people, like, completely obsessed.
And then Nate with Nathan Field. Yeah, with Nathan. Like, you know, with just watching Nathan for you. And it's like that heightened version of
[00:26:55] Speaker C: yourself, you know, that's. That's what he. That's his bread and butter doing. Doing the version of yourself that is a little bit weirder or a little bit more awkward or whatever it is.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:27:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: I mean, all of those, like, with Tim too, obviously. But yeah, I mean, Kyle 100%. And we actually, we. We gave Kyle the first honorary achievement award with our festival. 50. 50. We had him.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Oh, cool. Is
[00:27:20] Speaker B: that a year ago? Two years ago? I don't even know. Yeah, but. But that. That makes a lot of sense that, like, you'd see those as.
As inspo. That's fun.
I love Tim, man. Oh, my God.
[00:27:32] Speaker C: Yeah,
[00:27:32] Speaker B: I think you should. Yeah. Like, unbelievable.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And Detroiters is so good, dude. Detroiters.
[00:27:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: The chair company. Yeah, everything.
[00:27:42] Speaker C: It's all good cheer
[00:27:44] Speaker B: company to me. Felt like it's like, okay, like, this guy. This is it for, like, he really did it, you know? Right.
[00:27:52] Speaker C: That's the thing that he wanted to do.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:54] Speaker C: It's like if we give Tim full creative freedom. Right.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:27:59] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: I think so. I think so. I'm so pumped. I think they're right there. There's another season of that coming. Yeah,
[00:28:05] Speaker C: I think it got renewed.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Jack, do you, like, when it comes to screenwriting, are you focused on features or shows? Like, are you building the next. I think you should leave. Like, is that your thought? Writing wise? Like, what's the. What's the goal for you? Writing wise?
[00:28:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
I would love to get staffed on a comedy show.
So I have, you know, a couple samples that get used for that for submitting.
I'm writing a, like, black comedy thriller right now that I would love to try to make.
That would be really cool. And then Yeah, I think a show making my own show would be awesome. It feels a little bit, a little bit far away right now. But there are some like other steps before then that would probably make more sense to do first. But that would be awesome.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: And, and as you're. As you're ideating and thinking about that like could you, could you see yourself acting in that again? Like a Tim esque even any of those. Or Nathan. Right. Like all these guys you mentioned.
[00:29:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I think depending on what it is. I. I think so. In my.
The script I'm writing right now there's a.
Yeah. Like the protagonist is like a 30 year old tech, you know, AI tech CEO.
So I'm like that's kind of. He's kind of like an asshole. So I'm like yeah, that's like. I guess probably kind of like myself pull that off.
[00:29:38] Speaker C: Yeah,
[00:29:39] Speaker A: yeah. But it's not.
That's kind of.
That wasn't. It actually didn't start with me thinking about. Yeah, that was just like. It's actually just kind of the right age and demo for what that character was. But.
But yeah, I think that could be good. I.
Yeah, it'll be fun. I. I wrote and got a short film of mine is being made soon. We're shooting it in December and that's kind of that vibe. It's also kind of like a.
It's like a engaged guy and he's kind of like a bad guy and I'm also him. So yes, that there's.
That could be the case. But we'll see. Yeah, I'm not sure what, I'm not sure what we'll do with it. But
[00:30:24] Speaker C: yeah,
[00:30:25] Speaker A: I think as I've been doing like pre production stuff forgetting my short film like just like during either when we're shooting it in you know like the second weekend in December. So it's kind of coming up.
Yeah, it's been kind of fun because I, I'm not finished with the feature yet. I'm like 2/3 done but it should be done pretty soon since it's all outlined and stuff. But when I started thinking of at the beginning of the year I definitely was not thinking about making it. It was just to write as like and send it around or see what happens. But now that I feel like it's been really fun to be like putting together the short film, I'm like,
[00:30:57] Speaker C: yeah, you got the bug.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Oh, I thought you meant my WI fi also I had, I had a pop up that said your WI fi is unstable right as you Said you got the bug and it.
[00:31:10] Speaker C: No,
[00:31:10] Speaker A: I don't know. Hacked.
No, I got the filmmaking bug, not the wi fi bug. But yeah, yeah, honestly, it's just been really fun. Like. Yeah, like the casting of it and like, I don't know, interviewing cinematographers and like starting to shot, storyboard. It. It's just been really fun. So I'm like, maybe that thing that I'm writing, you're like, I can
[00:31:37] Speaker C: just go and make this. Yeah,
[00:31:38] Speaker A: maybe. Yeah, because it's especially. I actually in the last couple weeks, I've also just changed some things just to make it simpler, just in case it does ever get made. I'm like, might as well just start to make these little changes. Like, like we had just like yesterday there was like a lunch in a restaurant and I was like, let's just have them be eating at their desks. Like it didn't.
[00:31:59] Speaker C: Yeah,
[00:31:59] Speaker A: I don't. We don't really need them to be in a restaurant for this one page thing.
But yeah, that. That'll be kind of fun. That, yeah, that will definitely be like a, A fun thing to think about or try to do next year.
But yes, first it has to be finished.
[00:32:18] Speaker C: Where are you at? I'm curious, just from like an acting perspective, where are you at with. Because you obviously do a lot of short form stuff that's very character based. But in terms of a longer form thing, like even a short film, what is. I mean, have you thought about the preparation process in terms of playing a character with more ups and downs and things like that? Because I assume it's, you know, that you get more into that in the short film format.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I, I haven't really thought about changing the process too much. I mean, luckily I've been. I've acted in a couple things this year, including some other short films and including one like indie feature. And so I think I'll probably just approach it the same way, which is like, I also am lucky enough that I, like, because I wrote it, kind of get the backstory a lot more or like that they're.
I think it should be quicker, but I think. No, I mean, I'm going to just because I'm making it. I also just got get to pick about like the rehearsals and stuff. And so I'm just think, no, hopefully it'll be a little quicker even just from writing it and getting it a bit more and getting to, you know, like probably just, you know, like practice it as much as I want. Like, there's no. We still have like five Weeks, so.
But it's nice. Yeah, but it's a good question. I was thinking about getting.
I don't really know about the world of, like, getting, like, an. I think, Alex, you know, I haven't done much acting, and I know people get. Well, like, get acting coaches for, like, a role or get people to come help prepare for something. I've never really thought much about that, but I'm. That's kind of interesting.
[00:34:02] Speaker C: I don't know. I mean, I, I. People say that comedy is the hardest thing to act in, so then. But. But I. I feel like comedy comes most naturally to me. But then I. I feel like if I'm thinking. Even thinking about myself as an actor in those more emotional moments, I'm like, oh, my God, I don't know if I can pull that off, you know?
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Yes, I know. It'll be. It'll be a little harder. I was in a short film over the holidays last year, and it was like. It was also like a dark comedy thriller, but it was. It definitely was hard. My character was, you know, like, really not especially in the first 75%, not supposed to be funny and supposed to be intimidating because he's, like, robbing a restaurant. It's just a guy's cleaning it up by himself at night, and my character walks in and he's like, kind of a crazy guy. And that was actually really, like much. It was really hard.
Yeah. To like, just purely try, you know, playing a character that's just supposed to be read as, like, really scary and frightening to be around. And then by the end, my guy kind of broke down and I understood that a little bit more, and I'm like. Because it's funny, like, a guy's robbing you is now crying. Like, that's pretty funny. But just when he's robbing you.
That was hard. So, yeah, it's definitely good food for thought. It's kind of what I think. Like, it'll be kind of a. It's kind of a project for November is like getting the.
Getting this. It's pretty much. The short film is pretty much like one really big important scene. Confrontation between three people and with, like, some stuff leading up and then them leaving afterwards. But getting that scene dialed in will be like. Is a major November project.
[00:35:43] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure.
[00:35:45] Speaker B: Where are you from originally?
[00:35:47] Speaker A: I'm originally from NorCal.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:49] Speaker C: Oh, nice.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: So that's the. You mentioned the tech background. Like, you got the luck.
That's why it's so natural to you.
[00:35:57] Speaker A: Well, yeah, and then I worked, so I Went to Stanford. And then my second job after consulting was exactly. At a tech startup.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Got
[00:36:05] Speaker C: it.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: This is
[00:36:06] Speaker C: all making more sense. Got it.
[00:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So that.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: Are you. Are you like, oh, man, AI is gonna take all of our jobs?
[00:36:15] Speaker A: I don't know.
I have no idea.
It seems like.
It seems like a good amount of them. Yeah. But I also kind of agree with the thing that there's going to be, like, people required to, like, watch over them or whatever. I. I don't know. I do. It does seem like a lot of jobs are, like, a good amount of jobs will be like, yes, the AIs do the work. But then you get called into the office to be like, why is it not happening? You're like, oh, I'll go straight up.
Your
[00:36:46] Speaker B: human touch.
[00:36:48] Speaker A: Someone to get, like, in trouble or like someone that is like, you know, like, you're responsible.
[00:36:53] Speaker C: You always need
[00:36:53] Speaker A: someone to
[00:36:54] Speaker C: get. I
[00:36:54] Speaker B: don't know. I don't know if this happens to you guys, but my friends who aren't in the industry will send me, like, the new Runway update, like the promo, like the, The. The product videos or whatever, where it's like, prompt to video stuff. They're like, are you scared? Have you seen this? You know, and it's super depressing, but it's, you know, it'll. I think it'll definitely just be a tool, you know, and like, on the. On the visual front, I think it will be more of like a previs situation, you know?
[00:37:21] Speaker C: Right.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: Like, you know, Jack making his first indie feature, and it's like, okay, I might not have the budget for this crazy Previz software, but, like, I can go on Runway and, like, Shotless the whole movie, you know?
[00:37:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: BB's blender, too. I saw Curry use Blender on the Obsession, which is cool. Which is a free software as well, but that's pretty hard. It's like a 3D rendering thing that's pretty difficult to learn. But AI also, I guess, could be very helpful.
[00:37:49] Speaker C: It's tough, but at the same time, and I don't mean to get whatever political or whatever, but it feels like there is definitely a community of people which I align with to some extent, which is like, if you're using AI whatsoever, I'm going to think that you're not a creative I can trust anymore in some way, you know, that's definitely part of it.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: Yeah, but I feel like. Or that's part of it
[00:38:17] Speaker C: for some people.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, for me personally, like, I'm using it and Jack, I'm Curious to know too for you, like if you're using like Claude and stuff and if you are like is it, are you using it in any way for you know, creativity or is it more for like I gotta send an email to something which is what I do. I'm like very. If I'm sending emails out or something, it's like, hey, draft up, you know, 50 emails for me and I'll take a look and once they're polished up, I'll send them.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the type of stuff I do is not. That would not be that helped by AI.
So yeah, I don't really use it because I just make videos and those are like improv based and for writing. My problem is I don't really know. I don't really want to use AI for that. And also I'm not sure what step I would even do it for because my problem is just like I can maybe from doing improv or just from, I don't know, I can come up with a lot of ideas and a lot of options for different things. So actually just, just get like, you know, decision paralysis and just get stuck on like what to do and just, you know, so it's, it's like I think AI is probably, I don't really, probably best at like brainstorming, you know, like I feel, you know, like you said like 50 emails, like high volume things but I'm trying to like I. The thing that takes the most time for my writing is like narrowing stuff down or just thinking through one thing. So.
[00:39:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it doesn't come up a lot. I would probably personally. Yeah. Like lean away from using it especially for anything creative. But
[00:40:04] Speaker C: yeah,
[00:40:04] Speaker A: I don't really know anything like line budgeting.
Like I don't know what people, whatever software, whatever people use to do their job. So. Yeah,
[00:40:14] Speaker B: right.
It's true. Yeah.
Well they
[00:40:18] Speaker A: like if you hire a line producer and they're then that's what they do to draft a thing. Right. You would just never know.
[00:40:23] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:40:24] Speaker C: you're hiring them for their process and that.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: I mean I, I do think on the brainstorming front as you said, because I feel like a lot like the chat, you know, chat GPT feels like it's a mirror in a lot of ways. And like it, it is interesting to kind of be like, okay, I have this idea, you know, and here are two different ways I can go with it. And then it's like, oh, okay, like here are the two different ideas that you just said to me. Like how would this. And it's kind of just someone that can. Not someone, but something that can kind of just be a wall that you can kind of throw stuff at.
[00:40:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: You know, maybe it'll throw it back and maybe it'll be, you know, something.
Whether it's a tiny little nugget of the four paragraphs it sends you, it's like, oh, there's actually a sentence here that actually really clicks, you know.
[00:41:06] Speaker C: Right.
I think it's just tough because at some point it becomes replacing that. That. That thought process is so valuable, like Jack, that the. The thought process that you're describing of I'm writing a scene, and what's the funniest thing this character could say? Or what's the craziest reference?
That thought process of the act of thinking of that in your brain is really valuable. And that comes from your improv education, all that. And my parents are both teachers, and they talk a lot about how they're very worried about that the analytical part of the brain that AI is
[00:41:47] Speaker A: now
[00:41:48] Speaker C: completely replacing for, like, kids, you know, like, they're not used to, like, writing an essay in English anymore. Like, they'll just have AI do most of it, and there's no way to stop it.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: So.
[00:41:58] Speaker C: It's crazy.
[00:41:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that's kind of where I fall to, like, not really wanting to use it. I'm like, feel like any time that there's, like, things are slowing down or getting stuck, it's kind of interesting too. So, yeah, like, yeah, I think, like, this. The hard parts in the process are kind of part of it for me, so. But yeah, it's.
That's all real.
[00:42:21] Speaker C: Do you. Do you still have friends in, like, the AI space and startup space that are. Because I know I definitely do. Of, like, their. You know, you see them on LinkedIn and stuff, and it's crazy, you know, I
[00:42:32] Speaker A: feel like
[00:42:33] Speaker C: you're good at, like, doing impressions of people like that, you know,
[00:42:35] Speaker A: I tried to do a couple, actually. One didn't do terribly. I did a couple of, like, your.
What was it called? You're at a party in San Francisco. And I did, like, three of them. And it's just a guy coming up to you and he's like, hey, what do you do? Teacher. Wow. I didn't know people still did that. I am a founder, and then, like, every video, I just would come up with, like, the most evil, evil company ever. Like, one was like, before your grandparents die, you can upload their brain, and then we'll run it as, like, a neural network and we'll like have their conscious. Like we can, you know like rent their consciousness out to McKinsey for, for 80 hour shifts to do like decks for that like
[00:43:12] Speaker B: oh my
[00:43:13] Speaker A: God. To do decks
[00:43:15] Speaker C: for McKenzie's
[00:43:15] Speaker A: selling your grandparents brain before they pass away. Just like that was kind of fun.
But yeah. And then. Oh well, actually my first like kind of. So I kind of started trying to do like a daily video last summer. I think it was last May.
And one of the first ones I was doing was called like.
I think just like a consultant blank. Like a consultant meets, you know, I don't know, I guess like POVs is just like picking a situation and putting a character there. But yeah, that was fun. I would like wear my. I have a Patagonia Corda zip and I'd wear that and kind of similar idea like shock like shockingly or like comedically like evil things he's working on and stuff. But he's just super polite and super friendly.
[00:44:03] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. It has toxic.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: It's so funny
[00:44:05] Speaker C: to, to think about someone who is saying the worst possible thing in the world and they're just like so, just nonchalant about it.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: Actually in retrospect I think that was more the, the, the consultant one was actually more of what I just said of like the speaking and frameworks. Because that's something that I always thought was so funny in consulting. Like, you know, you know they, they get kids like right out of college and you go to like what they call their boot camps, which is like how you should talk and act in meetings and stuff. And one of. And like they give you these really prescribed frame thinking or talking. And I find them to be. I think at first glance they're supposed to maybe impress people because you're able to break down something to three parts. But I find them like really sad or like it's kind of like the really obvious crutch that you're like needing help organizing your thoughts. Actually no, it's okay to need help organizing your thoughts, but I. It's weird to like speak in a way that you think sounds more impressive. Like if you guys saw, you can see everything.
I think that's a little bit what's happening with like Billy Evans's speech and why it was getting parodied is because they'll take really simple ideas but judge up the organization of them. And for people who aren't impressed by that, they then sound really silly. Like if you ask Billy something that he's like. Yeah. So you know, I think the way that me and Liz, think about. This is like a top down approach, right? Like, we'll start from the top, we'll think about, like, what's most important, and then, like, we'll go down from there and each level down starts getting more nitty gritty. And like this whole time all he's saying is, you know, like, we started with the most important things, but instead of just saying that, he's using a framework. And now we have to wait an extra 30 seconds to hear the real answer. Because somewhere along the way he was taught that this will make your answer sound more impressive.
[00:45:55] Speaker C: Right? It's very tech speak. And then it's nice to have Nathan being. I mean, there's that one part in the movie, Luke, have you seen it? Please tell me you've seen it.
[00:46:04] Speaker B: I'm seeing it today, actually. But it's cool. I'm just muting you when you're talking about it so you can say it.
[00:46:09] Speaker C: Perfect. Well, there's the. This is not giving anything away, but there's one part where Billy is doing that sort of speak and he says something like, you know Nathan, like, I know you or something. And Nathan goes, no, you don't. Like, just like the. Nathan is so good at taking us out of his, like, little spell that he's trying to put on us, you know?
[00:46:30] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:46:30] Speaker C: Crazy.
I wanted to
[00:46:33] Speaker A: talk unmute. Luke, we're done.
[00:46:35] Speaker C: Yeah, you're good, you're good.
[00:46:36] Speaker B: Perfect. Thank you.
[00:46:37] Speaker C: Yeah, Luke, we're done.
[00:46:39] Speaker B: Thank you.
Thank you.
[00:46:42] Speaker C: I want to talk about daily videos. In the beginning of what you said, you were doing the daily videos, and what does that look like?
Because we've gotten a bunch of different. We've talked with a handful of Instagram sketch comedians, and they all have a different way of framing audience response. And if a video does well, then leaning into that, and you know, if they love a character leaning into that, what. What does that look like for you? And how quickly were you sort of figuring out, like, what your audience wants versus what you want and what. How does that sort of weigh for you?
[00:47:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good question.
I don't. It's pretty casual, the system.
It's kind of just like, yeah, try to make a video every day.
Maybe it's just a brand new random one off video. Maybe it's a recurring part of like a series. Or maybe I also do these, like, I call them. I actually don't have a term for them. Maybe like, what. What did I said before? Like, a mini vertical is like, like, I will like book a Place and shoot for four hours and try to get like 10 clips out of it or something. Like, I did a business seminar, one where I was like wearing skinny jeans and cowboy boots and giving advice to EntrePR.
And I did like a speed dating one where you would like hit the button if you want to end the date. Or I did like a basketball series where like rented a gym. And so those I will then, you know, film a bunch and you can slowly release them over the next six weeks.
But yeah. Are you
[00:48:14] Speaker B: editing all your own stuff?
[00:48:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I am. It's not too complex of editing, so that's nice.
But yeah, so the daily video will just be kind of like one of those. Like maybe if I've filmed a mini vertical in the last month, I'll still have some of those left. Or if not just something else. And then balancing like what people like versus what I like. Yeah, sometimes there's a trade off. But like, I will try to keep doing a series until, yeah, just either the views start going down or if I stop liking the character.
But I've done some, a lot. Like I had this one care. I still.
Sometimes there's a character that's just such a generic setup that is just really funny to me. Like I. I did this one for a long time last year called Just this Guy at a Bar. And I think looking back, I had made. I think by the end of the year I made 35 of them and I was kind of surprised. But then also it's just really funny to me. Like every time he. Basically I would just think of a thing that like kind of backfires or sounds impressive, but then it slowly admits something really embarrassing. And it just was funny to me. And so I kept coming up with them and then at some point, yeah, it kind of fizzled out. And then when I looked back and when I looked back, I think there were 35 and I was like, wow, that's a lot. But in the moment it was just funny to me. And so, yeah, I haven't done. I haven't like done that in a while. Like start a new character and done and do a bunch of them. But it is fun and it's a good way to get going. It's kind of like an improv, you know, when you do like second or third beats, it's like you found something funny.
So just change the setup. But like you probably found some fun mechanism. Like the idea of a guy accidentally exposing something embarrassing about him is obviously so good. So yeah, there's. There's 30 different embarrassing things you can admit. So
[00:50:05] Speaker C: absolutely,
[00:50:06] Speaker A: yeah. And also the funniness was in, like, the specificity and like, all the weird stuff that he was doing. Like, I think.
I think he was like, trying to breed rats in his basement, but he didn't know how sex works. And so he was struggling.
So, like, that is a pretty specific embarrassing thing to admit. And so then that was funny to me.
[00:50:25] Speaker C: That's so funny.
I want to also talk about, because we do, you know, with people who have representation, discuss their relationship with reps and general meetings and things like that, because our audience is mostly people, you know, who are either, you know, starting out or maybe at the point where they're thinking about that. And I just wanted to talk about your relationship, you know, as some. Someone who has, you know, first sort of popped off as an Instagram comedian, but also has hopes of writing and acting as well. What is your relationship like with representation, specifically with, you know, on the comedy performance side, but then also with your scripts and taking generals and things like that?
[00:51:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I'm lucky because, yeah, my manager kind of is familiar with like, all the different things you just said. Like, he's not just a digital. Only he's not like a digital agent, you know, which, like just doing brand deals, but he's does. He handles brand deals and, you know, submits for writing and, you know, sends me self tape. So that's nice.
But yeah, the digital thing was definitely helpful because he reps people who do, like, digital and at least one other thing. And so, like.
Like, for me, I was signed from, you know, like my social media and then I was connected to him and then I sent him one of my pilots and then that was.
That was good enough for the. For the list. Yeah, there we go. Like, you know, it was. It's an okay pilot, so.
But yeah, so it's great. So my relationship is just.
It's. It's good. Yeah. I don't know. Like.
But yeah, what do you. Yeah.
[00:52:18] Speaker C: And then generals. How has that experience been? Is it awkward? Is it productive? I mean, what. What are your thoughts on that?
[00:52:26] Speaker A: I actually haven't done a ton. I've done just a. Probably just like a normal amount.
But no, I don't. I don't think I've had any awkward ones. I think it's a good match if you like the place. And it's like. Yeah, I haven't. Yeah, I haven't done any, like, bad fit.
Yeah, I think maybe when people have awkward ones, it's because, like, they were Just this was like not a company they'd ever work with or like the type of thing they do is just like. So maybe both people are like, what's going on here? But I think I've, I'm just trying to think of like the ones I've been on have been like comedy specific places and then like a place that does, you know, like, like works with younger people to make their first features. Oh, those are like, just more natural. Like there's no. Nothing forced. Like these are directly on the nose. Like, totally.
[00:53:14] Speaker C: Like you're going to be helping each other. Like this is something you both want to be doing.
[00:53:18] Speaker A: It's plausible. Yeah, it's plausible that both.
It's unlikely, I guess odds wise that you know, you'll work together just like how everything is. But it's not like,
[00:53:26] Speaker C: sure,
[00:53:27] Speaker A: off the table,
[00:53:29] Speaker C: sure.
[00:53:30] Speaker A: But no, I haven't, I don't find. I haven't found it to be awkward also if, you know, you can also just talk to them about their life. Like if it takes just 20 minutes to run through, like, what are you guys looking for? What are you working on? Then you can, you know, talk about life and stuff and.
Yeah, and also like, I think, you know, people do so many of them that a lot of people are in a good rhythm of like meet with a random person, spend an hour, you know, like it kind of.
Yeah, I don't find them. I haven't had an awkward one.
[00:54:02] Speaker B: Do you have any advice for the film student that wants to make, you know, social content? Like that's just starting out.
What's like the one. Maybe, maybe the question is the piece of advice you'd give yourself starting.
[00:54:20] Speaker A: Well, I. Yeah, yeah. For if it was myself, I would just say to have started earlier. Like when I had those six months in Cova, like I just wished I hadn't stopped for four years and just had kept going from there, which is kind of similar. Like
[00:54:35] Speaker B: can you. Can. Yeah. Can you dig into that though, and, and kind of break that down a little bit?
[00:54:40] Speaker A: Well, I just feel like even. Well, for a couple reasons. One, it's just good to have started earlier and start building and learning. Just like I just kicked that whole trajectory four years down the road, which is okay. I had other stuff to do for, you know, I worked and moved to New York and that was nice. But.
And the second thing was just like that was also a really good year to start as a creator.
Just like I have friends who, you know, started in Covid and it's kind of like the glory days of like you could, you know, like add 100,000 TikTok followers from one viral video just because like it was a crazy ratio of creators to consumers. People scrolling.
[00:55:16] Speaker C: Right.
[00:55:16] Speaker A: It's like if you found someone good in Covid, you were like definitely going to follow them versus that following doesn't happen. I mean following is just a slightly rarer these days, which is kind of interesting probably also. Probably because the algorithms have gotten so good, you don't have to. But also because you really don't have so many people that you really don't even necessarily want to.
Right, because you're just going to find someone else tomorrow.
[00:55:37] Speaker C: It's a good way
[00:55:38] Speaker A: to break
[00:55:38] Speaker C: it down. Yeah,
[00:55:40] Speaker A: but so that would have been good. So that's like a strictly just the COVID reason to keep going then. But just in general, like for you, like, you know, it's. If you. It just seems like video stuff helps with everything else. And so if I just think if I'd started four years earlier, things would have just compounded and maybe led to something cool. But I'm not. I definitely don't feel regret, you know, like regret or like wish I had done it before because yeah, it's all. Everything seems okay. But for like a film, if anyone wanted to do social media.
No, nothing to. No to, you know, it's not that hot of a take. I guess a more practical thing besides just doing it is like I saw. This is kind of how I think too. I unfortunately don't do this analytically just because I'm a bit more casual, but I actually think like if your problem is you're really in your head and you would want a more analytic approach. I saw this video once that was like how to start a.
How to start your social media page. Do like 10 random ideas. Especially if you're like pre niche, like you don't even. I mean if you didn't even know if you want to do like cooking or traveling or comedy, like that would be like just try 10 different things and just the two that do the best. Do like part two or a series two, which is like kind of, I guess like implicitly a little bit what I did just like making a ton of characters and then if people ever liked one, I would do a part two. And if that was still people seem to like it, keep going.
But yeah, I guess not getting too stressed if something doesn't do well, like trying 10 super distinct things if you already know you want to do comedy and character, maybe that'd be 10 characters, if you're even pre that doing like, you know, I don't even know, like a get ready with me and then a comedy video and then a cooking video and then a study with me. Like you could, if you really like just wherever you are in the process, just do 10 things within whatever you're considering and just like. Yeah, as long as you like the ones that did well too. Like don't post anything like, but you know, just follow that because people are just showing you like what they, what they like of yours and then what's your. That I was like, that's good. That's. That's
[00:57:48] Speaker C: yeah. Totally
[00:57:49] Speaker A: good way to
[00:57:50] Speaker C: say. I'm sure you. It is essentially what you did to some extent. I'm curious, like what is your relationship with failure? Because obviously if you're doing 10 different videos, I'm sure you've done videos that are one offs that are a character that never, you know, people didn't, you know, respond to as much as others. Like, what is your relationship with that sort of thing.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I. It happens every week, so it's all good. It's like.
[00:58:14] Speaker C: Yeah,
[00:58:14] Speaker A: I don't really. Yeah, it's. It's just like people didn't like this one.
Yeah. Luckily they're just.
It's probably chill for me too because I make them pretty quickly. Like they're not editing heavy. I'm just shooting on my phone. It's not like you
[00:58:28] Speaker C: put your heart into something
[00:58:30] Speaker A: for
[00:58:31] Speaker C: hours upon hours.
[00:58:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And luckily the ones that I did put a lot more time into and actually and cared about a bit more, they also did well. Like anytime I rent a space and invite people, I'm like, oh, I hope this goes well. Just because they came and acted in it.
So. Yeah, on the video side, I think it's been okay. There's really no downside because hopefully people, you know, hopefully if you're not spending too much money on it, there's not downside.
And you know, we spoke about that too. Why
[00:59:00] Speaker B: where it's like there is no downside if the video doesn't do well. It's like, well, I made something.
[00:59:04] Speaker C: It's also like nobody saw it. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Like it's
[00:59:07] Speaker A: not
[00:59:07] Speaker C: like the whole world is seeing it. Yeah.
[00:59:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, okay. Actually, to be fair, I guess the downside is it goes viral for bad reasons. That is the downside.
[00:59:14] Speaker B: There you go. Yeah. It's
[00:59:15] Speaker A: like,
[00:59:15] Speaker B: wow, I have to now make this a hundred, a thousand. Yeah. Yeah,
[00:59:18] Speaker C: you have to make it.
[00:59:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:20] Speaker C: You keep
[00:59:21] Speaker A: the thing
[00:59:21] Speaker C: that Everybody's laughing at you.
[00:59:22] Speaker A: One thing, thing I've been forgetting about for the past five minutes is the idea of hate comments. I think in theory that's downside. I have been lucky enough that I don't get a ton of hate. I. It's all. I think it's kind of a gendered thing too because my fiance makes videos and she gets really out of pocket really mean comments all the time.
So I think that can be. That can be tough. I'm. I.
Yeah, I don't know. I think in. Com. I think comedy maybe has a little less hate comments. And then also if you're a guy in comedy, maybe there's a little. It kind of like ends up being kind of an okay spot to be in.
[00:59:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:59:53] Speaker A: For me, I
[00:59:53] Speaker C: don't know
[00:59:53] Speaker A: if you.
[00:59:54] Speaker C: I don't know if you know Kenzie Gross, but she was on the podcast a couple months ago and she talked a lot about just the fucking weirdos who are in her DMs or commenting. It's like, it's a lot of that. So it does feel gendered to some extent because guys and comedy is. Is sort of like sometimes a masculine gatekeepy type scene anyway, you know, to some extent. So I.
You feel that. Yeah,
[01:00:21] Speaker A: yeah. I should preface. Everything I said has just been from my very lucky perspective doing it. But yeah, there's definitely. I mean, if you're actually dealing with a lot of hate comments, like, that's. That is really very difficult. And so that is a really real downside. I've just been very lucky that I haven't really had that.
But yeah, that's a very legitimate downside. But that's also. That wouldn't. I would hate. I would be sad if that was a reason someone didn't even try or begin to try because that's such a
[01:00:48] Speaker C: right.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: Kicking down the road problem. Like, that's just, you know, that's a, That's a problem for another day. But yeah, I would not. I wouldn't worry about that at the start.
[01:00:58] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure.
Well, we, we do have one. I want to be wary of time. And we do have one final question that we ask all of our guests, which is what is the dream? And that's intentionally vague. So what. What is the dream for you?
[01:01:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it's.
It's. Good question. It's kind of been changing recently.
I think for a long time it was.
Oh, maybe just a more general version. I would just like to make really loved comedy shows and. Or films.
Yeah. Just like ones that are like, really, like, super memorable characters that, like, break into pop culture and people talk about and just, like, really hard funny and.
Yeah, that would be the dream. So, yeah, it's kind of what I'm working towards. Like, I think videos are good. Writing is good.
Yeah. I love, like, comedy genre stuff. So, like, if it's, you know, scary and funny or if it's, like, thrilling or intense and funny, I think that's. That's.
I think that's awesome. Like, I loved Widow's Bay, so, like, making something that would obviously be.
[01:02:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:02:15] Speaker A: Would be the dream, which is the question. So that's perfect.
[01:02:18] Speaker C: Well, while you're putting in the work, man, it's exciting to see you right now and where you're gonna go, because we need more people like you in the. In the comedy space who have the. The sort of dream to make it the zeitgeist again. You know, it's so segmented, I feel like, to some extent. So to. To have those, like, universally beloved characters is. Is always the goal.
[01:02:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, that's the goal. That's the dream.
[01:02:43] Speaker C: I love it. I love it. Well, appreciate you coming on the podcast, man.
[01:02:46] Speaker B: Thank you, J.
[01:02:47] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, Seriously, for having me, guys. It was really fun.
[01:02:59] Speaker B: Did you learn something? I'm like your mom. Did you learn something in this episode? I hope so. Or not. That's okay. Thanks for hanging. Make sure you follow us at the 5050Fest on Instagram and give us five stars, because. Why not? Why not subscribe? Why not? You know why not? Okay, bye.
