It's a Hit!

Well, looks like we did something right.

The past two performances sold out with a vengeance. Tonight we packed that sucker to full capacity and then some, seemed like. This chivalrous playwright actually gave his seat up and watched from the booth.

People linger after the show to discuss the play and shake my hand until Note kicks us out. Everybody keeps telling me how smart/mature/talented I am.

It's all pretty overwhelming stuff for a scrawny kid who always got picked last in dodgeball. (Their loss. I can dodge those suckers like a spider monkey.)

I guess the only thing I'm really trying to convey in this little post is "Wow." And "Thank you." So grateful and humbled by everybody who's come out and made this thing a success so far, and I can't wait to see the last half of the run.

Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't include a huge thank you to Michael Nankin, without whom this play never would've been the same.

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: I Think, and Therefore I... Um.

I Think, and Therefore I... Um (#32)

Mwahaha! With Zach out of town, my high-art existential comedy BS is free to RUN WILD!

My favorite feedback about this sketch:

• Other Guy
  just watched your video
• 
  

  9:46pm

  Nathan Wellman

  oh yeah?
• 
  

  9:46pm

  Other Guy

  yeah..

  : //

  ?
• 9:46p

  ??

  ?????
• 9:46pm

  Nathan Wellman

  EXACTLY
• 
  

  Other Guy
  

  ...

  exactly

  
  

  All jokes aside, this sucker was a nightmare to learn. Many an hour was spent pacing my empty apartment, muttering to myself with no pants on. I actually had a few takes where I didn't stumble over the words nearly so much, but I felt like the character bumbling through the monologue added an extra layer of hopelessness to it that made things more fun/real.

  
  

  As far out there as this piece really is, I think it's one of my favorites. It's extraordinarily unique it its bizarreness. Like a big logic vacuum that sucks the audience's brains out. Or something.

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Cheese Puffs and a Cowboy Hat

Cheese Puffs and a Cowboy Hat (#31)

Pretty sure every aspiring actor has had a moment like this. "What am I doing here?" "What's the point?" etc. Heck, I've even blogged about it myself. 

But I guess there's also something darkly funny about every actor's secret conviction that they're special and deserving of global adulation for doing nothing but spreading around a little charisma. Eventually every actor has to face the harsh truth that this big dream of seeing your name next to Meryl Streep may never happen. In fact, statistically speaking, it probably won't.

I think that's the point where you find out if you're what they call a true artist. Because that's when you can either keep going because it's what you love or mope on the couch and drown in a bag of cheese puffs.

Artist vs Person?

So as of now I am currently in Lone Pine, California, about three hours away from LA's gravitational pull. The friend that I came to see mostly works during the day, so when the sun is up I'm left to my own devices, whether that means fixing a screenplay in the hotel room or walking alone through the tiny town and enjoying the mountains.

I don't think my friend fully understands why I haven't yet died of boredom and screeched my way back to the city, leaving behind only the stinging smell of burnt rubber.

It's something I've noticed any time I leave town. When I'm in the city, Nathan Wellman the Artist is always in my belly, snarling for more successes. Even when I'm just walking to the grocery store, I catch myself scheming about this web series idea or that marketing class. I moved out here to MAKE ART and damn if that's not what I'm gonna do!

But when I leave the city, I'm allowed to just regress back to Nathan Wellman the... dude. I can't tell you how liberating that can be.

Now don't get me wrong. LA is an absolute blast and I couldn't live anywhere else in the world. I love being Nathan Wellman the Artist. Even though nobody is calling me a superstar by any means, out there my name still represents a body of work and ambitions that are larger than myself. That's a thrill and an honor that shoots me full of adrenaline every day.

But sometimes it's nice to set that burden aside for awhile and waste a few days watching raccoons cross the street, closely followed by a lazy tumbleweed.

Sometimes art can wait.

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Serial Killer Happy Ending

Serial Killer Happy Ending (#30)

He finally butchered somebody! Yaaaay! Eh?

So ends our first little trilogy. I'm going to miss that character. He was one of my faves. Just like I'll miss ol' Matt.

And no, we haven't cleaned the blood off the walls yet.

Don't Polish The Turd

I was at a casting workshop taught by Marisa Ross a few hours ago. (She's the casting director for How I Met Your Mother.) She paired us up, gave us scripts, and told us to go rehearse for awhile.

Technically, the point of these things is to "learn valuable lessons." But come on. Everybody in that room was just trying to get cast as Barney's new girlfriend, Ted's secretary, Robin's co-anchor, whatever. So of course I'm excited. Time to show her what I can do!

Until...

I'm rehearsing the scene with my acting partner and... well... what's a nice way to put this?

He sucked.

Me: Hi Bob, how are you?
Him: (PAUSE.) Hi Jack. I'm doing... well... (Pause. Pats my shoulder for some reason.) pretty good. 

It'd be easier to suck bone marrow out of this guy than acting energy. I start to panic. This scene is terrible. I have to jazz it up! I MUST SHOW HER HOW FUNNY I AM!

Him: How are... (Pause. Touches my face.) you doing?
Me: I'M GREAT, WAKKA WAKKA WAKKA!
Him: That's............. (Pppppppppppaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuussssssssseeeeeee) good.
ME: IT SURE IS!!!!!!!!!! (Random cartwheel) I'M HAPPY TO BE ALIVE. (Unnecessary ad libbing)

And that's the story of how I paid a casting director fifty bucks to watch me drown.

Spoiler alert: I won't be cast as The Mother in the next season.

Thank God she let us do it again, and she complemented me for mostly fixing the problem the second time around. The other guy still got most of the heat (and she was pretty blunt), but no matter what I managed to fix, I was only as good as my partner. Which is true for pretty much every audition, I've found.

While perhaps I won't be called in to audition for HIMYM anytime soon, I did, ironically enough, learn a valuable lesson. Particularly about just playing things honestly even in dismal acting conditions. It's not my job as an actor to be funny. Or even interesting. I just have to react to what I'm given and leave the rest to the audience. The arts are not the place to be in complete control.

I'm Going Places

When I first got to Los Angeles, any time people asked me what I did, I would always say "Oh, I'm an 'actor' right now" or "I'm trying to act." or "I'm trying to maybe get into the acting business someday. Perhaps."

Gee, who wants to hire that guy?

The thing I didn't realize was that even at those parties and coffee shops, I was auditioning. The aura of success around you is often just as important as actually succeeding out here.

Now that sounds like a bunch of LA bullshit, but it's really just as simple as how you present yourself. A friend of mine was talking about this on the way to a screening with me today: If a police officer is on the way to a crime scene, he doesn't sit in traffic on the 405 and maybe change lanes every once in awhile. That dude BLARES THOSE SIRENS because he's getting where he's going and he wants everybody to know it.

Even when I did get gigs, I would shrug sheepishly and mutter to the ground "Yeah, I booked this modeling gig for a Del Toro movie" almost as though I was ashamed of it. Because God forbid somebody might think you're smug! Gasp!

Not anymore. I trumpet my successes from the mountain tops. When people ask me how I've been doing, I look them straight in the eye and say "I'm great. My KIA commercial just aired and I can't wait for my next project. Let me tell you about it..." 

And ya know what? It works! Even in dry spells, I'll run into friends who say "You're really doing well out here!" They see me with a new respect, because I respect my own successes first. And that respect, in turn, creates new opportunities for people who remember you as an artist whose career is on the rise.

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: For Your Consideration...

For Your Consideration... (#16)

Okay readers, honesty time. Gonna tell you a little story.

It's 11pm on a Friday night, and we have no ideas for the next day's sketch that could conceivably be done in one evening. To make things worse, Matt was still working, so he was unavailable.

So I said "Hey, let's just destroy the apartment and film you throwing bread at the window."

Zach said "Okay."

And that's what happened. 

That being said, considering we probably did the whole thing in less than thirty minutes, I was very pleasantly surprised at how funny the end product actually turned out. There's a pretty cool Samuel Beckett kind of rhythm to it, especially the way he keeps forgetting to flip the knife. Reminds me of the first five to ten minutes of Endgame.

Funny how there've been a decent amount of people who didn't "get" the punchline, as if there was something to get. I guess it takes a certain kind of person to be comfortable with that anarchic kind of comedy.

And yes, we did clean the window afterwards.

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Vegan Food

Vegan Food (#15)

You know that you probably have the wrong kind of friends when you send them a script involving them eating poop and they respond with "This is awesome! I can't wait to do this!"

But that's the kind of trooper our friend Evan Nischan is. Evan eagerly brought his Meisner mastery to our humble little script, not to mention his apartment as a location. He also gets the honor of being the first guest star to appear in two atx episodes. (His other appearance can be found here.) Congrats, Evan! You should feel... proud?

Special thanks to this kid for an easy fake urine recipe. (Yes, all the food was fake, sickos.) It was strangely difficult to find a feces recipe though. Seriously, never type "Edible Poop" into Google Search. Zach and I pretty much just kinda had to wing it. It took us a good couple of hours to get those two little turds figured out.

And no, I have no idea if the ingredients were vegan or not.

Making a Reel: Uploaded and ready to go!

When we last left our hero, he was engaging in a healthy round of Facepalm after futilely smashing his head against the horrors of assembling reel footage, like scissors trying to beat rock. Nothing was going his way, and it seemed all was lost.

AND THEN...

My First Acting Reel!

There it is! I can't believe it's finally done! Just when I was about to give up on a pretty important chunk of the reel, a professional editor friend of mine said "Uh. I can convert those files for you." AND IT WAS SO!

Special thanks to David Haverty for getting me the 1000 Ways to Die footage. And an honorable mention goes to my Dad for having his heart in the right place by videotaping the TV screen of my Operation Repo footage and snail mailing me the CD.

Ultimately, I decided that my Repo footage really didn't showcase me in any especially helpful way, so I figured I'd ditch it. A good reel should DEFINE YOU as an actor. My reel showcases me as a mostly comedic actor with a unique physical build capable of playing some very diverse roles. Some would ask why not throw in a dramatic scene or two? Well, because since I've been in LA, I've never been cast in a drama. Not once.

This tells me that, based on their first impressions, casting directors think I should be funny. I can cry about this or I can embrace it and show them that by heck, I am pretty funny! This is what potential agents will be expecting of me as well, I'm thinking. Besides, money from comedies is just as spendable as the boo-hooey stuff.

That being said, I would like to showcase the more grounded side of my skill-set soon. There are a lot of places in LA where you can pay professionals to shoot specific content for your reel, and I suspect in the nearish future I may pay some friends at ProduceYourReel a visit....

But for now, I'm going to see how far this one takes me.

Some quick demo reel tips that I've picked up this last month or so:

-Always put your name first so the directors actually know whose reel they're watching, and make sure CONTACT INFO is clearly displayed at the end. You could maybe put some contact info with your name in the beginning too, but I felt like that might be overkill for mine.

-The SHORTER THE BETTER. If you're a nobody (like me!) then don't you dare go longer than two minutes. If you can do it in one, so much the better. Don't waste time making sure viewers understand every little thing of what's going on in the scene. They aren't watching a movie, they're watching you. Once the character, emotion and arc of the scene is established, MOVE ON!

-Simple, simple, simple! Don't waste people's time with scrolling graphics or clever transitions. Casting directors don't care about your fancy editing skills.

-Also... and I know this seems obvious, but make sure any given clip actually has you doing something interesting. If it's a boring scene or crappy writing, even if you're good in it, you're probably better off not putting it in there. Unless it's a really recognizable show. Which brings me to...

-Put your biggest accomplishments up there first, then scroll back in order of importance. You have about ten seconds to capture a casting director's attention, and "Hey! I know this show!" just about always helps in that regard.

Anyway, hopefully that was informative to you folks. I'll keep you posted as I submit this bad boy to various agents and managers all over town. Wish me luck!

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Double Date

Double Date (#14)

Inspired by this scene from Louie. I love the quiet tension in just having one static shot focusing on an uncomfortable situation. Makes you feel like you're trapped there. Obviously owes a little bit to Waiting for Godot as well.

Had kind of a tough time getting the hang of this, acting-wise. Obviously, we had to shoot the whole thing from start to finish without stopping. Can't cut away or do any editing trickery to make me look better, it hinges on the acting 100%. (Kinda like what Aqueela had to go through in Audition.) 

But I'm by no means new to that kind of "endurance acting." My whole background's in theater (in a show right now actually), so I knew the drill. What was challenging to me was the absolute stillness that the role demanded. (The amazing Erin Holt had it mastered on the first take, of course. Show off.) I fidgeted and smacked my lips. Plowed through my lines a little too quickly. I had trouble trusting the notion that even when nothing's moving or speaking, compelling things are still happening: jokes are being told and decisions are being made. As I talked about in another blog post, simplicity is often the best policy.

It's a lesson that I obviously already understood as a writer (I wrote the scene, after all) but as an actor I guess it unnerved me. As I sat there in between the lines, I could practically hear David Mamet screaming "Pacing! Pacing! Don't be so pretentious! Go faster!" See, early in my career, teachers ground into my head not to take long, self-indulgent pauses onstage. And I think those teachers were absolutely right... But sometimes you just have to hold still and be quiet.

Zach was all too happy to beat these hang-ups out of me. "Every time you smack your lips, it makes me want to blow my brains out." I think I'm gonna log that away as "favorite direction I've ever gotten." He sure did get the job done though. I'm really happy with the end product.

We've already gotten a lot of positive feedback on this one. Guess you folks like to see me getting shot down by beautiful women.

Not that such a thing has or ever will happen in real life, of course.

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Dakaboobie

Dakaboobie (#13)

Got another Matt offering for you this week! Kind of a comedic version of Bartleby, the Scrivener. 

Seriously, try to say the word "Dakaboobie" without smiling. You can't do it.

I've noticed in sketches especially how just one joke or idea is usually enough to carry the whole piece. Simplicity has power.

My little cameo was a lot of fun. Kinda hate that you can see our apartment intercom though.

We totally stole that tree from the front of our apartment building, in the name of looking like a slightly different location. Then we put it back. I like to imagine that the landlord saw the security footage of that and shook his head in complete confusion.

Shot this the same night that we did Stop the Anti-Bullying Campaign. It was very late, so I fell asleep through a big chunk of the shoot.

That's why this post is a little scatterbrained.

I'm wearing red pants.

I'm in a play and it's a blast! How King Kong hooked me up with some awesome LA artists.

For whatever bizarre reason, I have yet to get around to posting on my acting blog that I have, in fact, been acting this last month or so.

Kong: A Goddamn Thirty Foot Gorilla is playing at the SkyPilot Theater until Nov. 25th. (8pm on Sat. 7pm on Sun.)

Upon arriving back in Los Angeles from Kentucky, I got to experience the smug satisfaction of having a director ask me to be in his play without having to audition.  And not just any director! This is none other than Jaime Robledo, a director I know through Sacred Fools whose imaginative staging and physical comedy has lately started to attract a lot of attention in the Los Angeles theatrical community. His work on the Buster Keaton show Stoneface (starring French Stewart) extended several times and sold out almost every night.

Long story short, I quickly found myself acting as an ensemble member in the World Premiere of Kong: A Goddamn Thirty Foot Gorilla at SkyPilot Theater. A teaser of the show can be viewed here.

The show itself (written by Adam Hahn) is a genre-bending cocktail of wacky physical humor, intellectual analysis, satire, and outright recreation of iconic scenes from the classic King Kong. Telling such an epic story is a huge undertaking for a tiny theater based in North Hollywood, and these challenges have spawned a show that has creativity bursting out of every scene. But don't take my word for it, check out our 100% Bitterlemons rating.

Playing an ensemble member has proven to be a fun challenge. I play everything from a simpleton sailor to an enraged New Yorker to a flying prehistoric moth. That means, of course, that I get to find different physicality and dialects for each and every character. Jaime's pretty much given me free reign to inject whatever personality I'd like into all of them, and the rehearsal process functioned as a creative sandbox to play around with how I wanted the characters to fit into the world of the play. It's been a fun ride.

We've basically taken source material that is impossible to adapt for the stage... and then adapted it for the stage. It's been great to work with people who say "How?" instead of "Can't." There's a boldness to the mentality of everyone involved with this project that I associate with real artists, and this young whippersnapper sure has learned a lot from all of them. Can't wait for tomorrow so I can do it all over again.

Come check us out!

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Stop the Anti-Bullying Campaign

Stop the Anti-Bullying Campaign (#12)

Ah, the persecuted bully. Finally, one of them has the courage to stand up for themselves! I think the bully's bloated sense of dignity is my favorite part.

I've recently started to discover the power of the monologue for the low budget sketch writer. Amazing what a high quality story you can tell with just actors in front of plain black backgrounds. We got a lot of love for Audition a month or so ago, which had a similar set up. So I figured I'd try something similar with this. What do you guys think?

I think this is the best utilization of Zach that ATX has done so far. For whatever reason, a lot of these sketches have focused a lot on Matt and I, with Zach stuck playing the straight man. It's always bothered me a bit, because he really has a powerful stage/screen presence. Expect to see a lot more of that guy in future sketches.

Really proud of how this one turned out. It's a lot more grounded than some of our louder, wackier stuff. Excited to pursue more grounded, story/character central humor in the future.

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Sara and Andy's Wedding

Hollywood Spotlight Stories: Sara and Andy (#11)

Slightly unconventional collection of sketches this week. Our friends in Kentucky wanted us to shoot something for their wedding, so they sent us videos across the country of them answering our questions and told us to have a blast with the rest. So we rolled the cameras and just told Zach to go crazy. I think I can confidently say that he took that direction and ran with it, haha.

I really love the two commercials, especially knowing how much footage got left on the cutting room floor. Matt did a pretty awesome job of distilling it down to the essentials. Haven't had to bust out my Italian accent since my college production of Napoli Milionaria! three years ago, but I had a lot of fun with that character. Maybe we'll bring him back sometime?

From what I understand, the video was a hit at the wedding. (I think they played it as a sort of prelude to the ceremony.) Pretty cool way to be involved from a good 2,000 miles away!

A lot of exciting things have been going on these last few weeks. I'll try to write about some of it tomorrow.

Making a Reel: What is this Nightmare?!?

Some of you might remember me writing a post in which I optimistically talked about how I was getting my reel together and all the exciting doors that could open for me once I had one. All I had to do was get the footage together! Well, that was more than a month ago. Here's what I've run into.

I want my reel to consist of my segments on 1000 Ways to Die and Operation Repo, my zombie PSA, Melvin Becomes a Man, and Dude Tips. As you may have noticed from all the hyperlinks, all of these clips can be found on the internet. So it should be super easy to collect all the footage, right? ...Right?

Let me say first off that Youtube is awesome. All you have to do to lift a Youtube video is put the url on www.keepvid.com and it takes care of everything for ya.

1000 Ways to Die and Operation Repo is where I'm having problems. My clips are streaming on their respective websites, and are protected against greedy little data thieves like myself. Okay, fair enough. But these shows have employed hundreds of actors, surely all I have to do is just email the folks from the show, and they'll send it right to me!

Psh. One show sent me an email that said "we don't send original copies to actors" whereas the other one just flat out never got back to me after two straight weeks of emailing, I guess in the hopes that eventually I'll buzz off

Looks like I'm on my own with these two.

Well, nothing like shelling out four bucks on iTunes to buy an TV episode that you're featured in. But I did that for 1000 WTD, only to discover that iTunes won't let me convert the file into a format that I can edit with. Even tried to use it on crappy iMovie, still wouldn't work. Bought iSkysoft Converter. Won't work. The episode is just sitting on my computer, and I can't use it.

Repo doesn't even have my episode on iTunes... Crap.

As of now, I'm waiting on my Dad to try some wizardry with his DVR to see if he can get Repo off of it. Still not sure what I'm gonna do about 1000 WTD.

You know what the funny part is? Once I actually have all the footage, stringing it all together into a rough cut will take fifteen minutes, tops.

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Conflict Resolution (Grappling with Green Screens)

Conflict Resolution (#9)

Old ATX fans will recognize the ever-talented Jamie Burke from Melvin Becomes a Man making a triumphant return to our channel, and boy is she a force to be reckoned with. It was good to have her on set with us again. A lot of laughs were had during that shoot, and you can kind of tell in some places of the video where people were trying to keep a straight face. Hopefully we'll be able to trick her into getting into more nonsense with us again soon!

Well, my big triumph in this video is that I figured out how to use green screen effects ALL! BY! MYSELF! Boom. 

I guess our Final Cut's green screen program wasn't working for whatever reason, and Matt had pretty much given up on the idea. So I plopped down in front of my computer with a steadfast heart and a cup of hot cocoa... An hour of Youtube tutorials later and I figured out a way to transfer the completed video onto iMovie and add the green screen effects there. (Side note about iMovie: Not my favorite editing software.) 

I know that the end product probably isn't what one would call professional quality... I probably won't be working at Pixar any time soon, but I still think it's a nice touch that really gives the piece something that it wouldn't have had before.

Mostly, I'm proud of myself for being confronted with a problem that I had absolutely no idea how to fix, and then just grappled with it until I could make it work without any outside help. And as a result, I have one more skill that I can tuck into my back pocket for future videos.

How to be a "Real" Actor

I've noticed a growing trend in the roles I've been going out for lately. Here's a snippet of the last couple of character breakdowns that I've auditioned for:

REAL to slight character looking. He's REAL and relatable...

REAL to character looking...

...REAL with character to very character teen...

Within the past couple of years, it's become important for casting directors to find actors who are "real." You can't go to an audition anywhere in this town without being asked to look real. But what in blazes does a real actor look like?

The first step to being real is looking like a real person. Just what the heck does that mean, you ask? You need to look just like "somebody you'd see on the street." Not specific enough for you? Okay, well let me try again...

Real Actor

To be real, you can't look like a big glamorous super star. Just look like a normal person! But at the same time, remember to stand out apart from your competitors or you won't get the gig. But don't try too hard, or then you won't be relatable anymore. They want somebody who is both mediocre and attractive. Just be real!

Not a Real Actor

Being real isn't just in your looks either! It's in how you act as well. You want to be approachable and down to Earth. (But don't forget to have more confidence and pizzazz than your competitors!)

Sometimes you'll be going for a role that is "Real to character looking." This simply means that they're looking for an actor who looks both subtle and animated at the same time. It's as easy as being told to act "Happy to sad!"

(If you're as befuddled as I am, don't worry. If you're alive and breathing, congratulations, you're real. When casting directors ask for a real actor, they're basically just saying "We're looking for an actor that we want to cast." Real means something different to each casting director, and you don't have much control over what that's going to mean. It shouldn't affect your performance at all. Go in there and ride the hurricane of chaos that is auditioning, and don't give it a second thought.)

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: First Kiss

I'm back in LA and ready to kick the crap out of some auditions! Woot! Until then... here's the new ATX!

First Kiss (#8)

Ah, thank God we managed to shoot an episode in a location besides our apartment. The backdrops help to give an illusion of variety, but I would like to see us switch things up more than we do. But new locations require either generous friends or shooting permits. Sooo that's why that can be tough sometimes. It's probably partly my fault. I can get a little timid about asking people for favors when I'm sure more often than not it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal. Man up, Wellman!

But speaking of asking for outside help, we got ourselves a bona fide Groundlings alum! I met Sara Cravens through the Virginia Avenue Project, which is a children's theater group I got involved with last July. She's one of those fearless actors where you say "Okay, now you're going to climb on top of me and scream right in my face as loud as you can" and she very comfortably replies with "Like this?"

I was a little nervous about this one as I was writing it, because originally the roles were switched, and it was the guy who was the awkwardly aggressive kisser. It kinda worried me because I was afraid maybe it would come off a lot darker than intended. The safer (and much funnier, I think) idea to have the girl be the aggressor came to me maybe a few days beforehand. I ran it by Sara and we both agreed that it was funnier, so I went through the script and swapped character names around. Funny how just one change can improve a script so significantly.

Also got to put my editing hat on for this one, which I'm a little proud of. Matt did most of the editing, but I went in last week while I was in Kentucky and cut a few things down. Basically I just cut some of the monologue at the beginning (it was WAY too long) and a joke at the ending that didn't really work. Took me a good hour whereas it probably would've taken Matt about three minutes but I'll still call it a victory. 

Barely posted this sucker on time! I was madly scrambling to throw the video onto the internet before midnight like Cinderella trying to escape the Prince's dance before the spell breaks and everybody finds out she's just some poor tramp. But by Jove, we made it! Two months in and we've hit every deadline! Stay tuned!

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Puppy Love

Oh, hello there internet. So sorry for forsaking you. I managed to put this sketch up on time, but somehow doing the corresponding blog post always managed to fall securely in the "I'll do it tomorrow" quadrant of my vacationing brain. But anyway... yeah. New sketch. Here it is.

Puppy Love (#7)

If I can pinpoint any one common thread in our sense of humor, I'd say it has to be ugliness. When I hear of anything especially serious or horrifying, I'll eventually think "How can I make that funny?" As a rule, comedy is generally only funny when somebody isn't in on the joke. The audience's laughter is mostly a knee jerk reaction of "Thank God that's not me." (Or, sometimes, "That's me! That's me!") That being said, I think this ATX project has become something of a challenge of mine to see just how ugly I can make a character and still get laughs. 

The guy in Puppy Love is, I think, one of the more extreme examples of that effort. Heartbreak, obsession, rage, delusion, loneliness, insanity... funny stuff!

It's another weird little piece, and yes, the filming process was just as strange, if not more so. It was literally just Zach following me around with the camera while I did creepy stuff with some confused dog that isn't even mine. He kept nervously shaking his head and saying "What the fuck are we doing?" I got a little excited every time he asked that, because in my artistic experience, that question is always followed by a really unusual answer. 

I just about never know what I'm doing with these things, but as a result, the end product always surprises me. As long as that keeps happening, I'll stay happy, because that means I'm continually making new discoveries.