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Interview: Being a superhero after a famous thumbs-up

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Ron

I am Iron Man

Online is such a crowded place that even if you’ve got a great show, it still isn’t easy getting people’s attention. But every once in a while, a series is so brilliant that it cuts through the noise and sends a signal to some of the industry’s most elite personalities.

That is what Brian Godleski and his cast mates on Avengers Assemble, a superheroes-meets-The Office spoof,  did when they got the attention of legendary film critic, Roger Ebert.

Avengers Assemble is a series posted on YouTube that features the Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk et al), sitting around a boardroom table throwing around their egos and trying to one-up each other while discussing how they are going to use their super-powers to solve the world’s most pressing issues.

Gen2.tv did a review of the show after coming across it on Roger Ebert’s blog, where it garnered praise.

We were fortunate enough to catch-up with Godleski, one of the creative forces behind Avengers Assemble, who also plays Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) on the show.

Gen2.tv: Avengers Assemble seems to be a comment on many things all at once. That said, what is the most absurd to you: politics? office dynamics? superheroes?

Brian Godleski: I’d say it’s a combination of the three.  When I originally came up with the idea, it was basically superheroes (mainly the Avengers) arguing over politics.  As I went through the re-write process on what would become the first episode (Health Care), it became clear we had a fun idea.  Since the Avengers do work in an office (Avengers Tower), it only made sense to me that there would have to be some sort of office rhetoric going on that people are familiar with.  I think we’ve found a fun perspective that’s unique and different in the super hero world, and it gets more absurd the second you put these guys in costume and use their real names.

Gen2.tv: Is there anything the Avengers can’t handle?

Brian Godleski: They’re still the Avengers, so I’d imagine they’re Earth’s mightiest heroes for a reason. That being said, it’s fun to explore what all the heroes are like when interacting with their colleagues and we add in a healthy dose of bureaucracy.

Gen2.tv: What was life like before Roger Ebert linked to your show? After?

Brian Godleski: It’s still pretty much the same now as before.  I wouldn’t call us famous or anything, but I think we’ve done a heck of a job with this web series and promoting it.  It’s been a total team effort, from Chris Burns working so hard on the production to Matt Cornwell doing a great job with his edits (and both guys are stellar in their respective roles as Hawkeye and Thor, as well as contributing their ideas on future episodes and re-writes).  It’s a tremendous honor that Mr. Ebert took the time to watch our series and comment so positively on it, but that goes back to Chris being tenacious and getting it in front of him.  Overall, I’d say interest in the series has risen nicely, and we hope it continues.

Gen2.tv: What is next for Avengers Assemble? For Brian?

Brian Godleski: I’m in the process of writing more episodes (stay tuned to see what else we have in store).  Our goal is to do this professionally, and while we may not be able to do it with the Avengers, we’d love the opportunity to show what we can do on a bigger stage.  I’m an actor by trade, but I learned how to write sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade and the PIT here in New York from some awesome teachers, in addition to continuing my studies as an actor at the Esper Studio.  I’d love nothing more than to write/produce/act in more projects with Matt and Chris and everyone else involved because these guys are all my friends, and when you get right down to it, I’d love nothing more than for this to be my job alongside all my friends.

Gen2.tv: Thanks Brian for your time, we really appreciate it. We love the show!

Brian Godleski : Thanks so much!!

Filed under: Interviews | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Johnny Raikou: Dressed up with nowhere to go

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Ron

You take couple of wannabe superheroes, add some comic thought-bubbles, a couple of laughs and mix them together with crazy haircuts and some really spectacular productions values and you get…well.. not much, unfortunately.

I recently tuned into Johnny Raikou, a superhero spoof series that seemed to have lived and died for about 30 seconds sometime in 2009.

The premise was pretty simple, dim-witted loner Johnny Raikou (Jonathan Hance), and his sidekick friend, Friend, (Portis Hershey) are aspiring superheroes for hire. No one takes them seriously until a middle-aged john, feeling guilty after scoring with a human trafficked prostitute, calls on Raikou and friend, Friend, to bust the place up.

En route, they find and consume superpower enhancing “Boba”, which is in old cups in the gutter because…ummm… forget it, I didn’t understand the whole Boba plot line.

Actually, I didn’t understand a lot about this series. There are thee shows in total, each lasting between 2 to 3 minutes; far to short to cram in character, plot, dialog and action. The whole thing feels rushed and even in the 7-odd minutes the entire series takes, you get the sense no one really knows where it is going or why they showed up to begin with.

It is as if the entire production team all just ran out of something…time, money, ideas..I don’t know. But all of a sudden it ends and you’re left wondering if you could have done something better with those seven minutes.

A real stand-out, however, is the entire design of the show. Johnny Raikou excels at creating a dark and tense mood of an LA underbelly. The characters, with their crazy haircuts, are visually arresting and the hyper-real sets are reminiscent of stylized action comic movies like The Crow or even Sin City. However, all of these stylistic victories are in conflict with whatever it is the series is trying to accomplish.

More style than substance…Leave It!

Johnny Raikou can be found on Koldcast.

Filed under: Comedy, Leave It | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

The lighter side of global jihad

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Ron

Here’s a simple enough premise:  A couple of twenty-something “lads” go about town devising schemes to have their way with a multitude of voracious virgins.  Sounds normal enough. The twist? The only way to get to the girls is by…. suicide bombings.

Living with the Infidels is a celebrated and scorned comedy about two brothers who are part of a bumbling jihadist cell in Bradford, England, which must be in the British boondocks because you often wonder what is harder to understand, the jihadist mentality or the folksy accents.

But while the English English may seem foreign, the characters’ motivations are universal.  The desire for virginal nookie has driven many a man to do outlandish things and when it comes to crazy, jihadism happily does not fail with its promise of 72 virgins in Paradise for every martyr.

Offensive? You bet. Hysterical? Totally!

Living with the Infidels raises above the din of other webTV shows (or mainstream TV shows for that matter) because of its comedic daring and it willingness to tackle the very sensitive issue of Muslim alienation in the West.

The show is played for laughs and tries to play with cultural alienation, rather than directly comment on it. Once you you set aside the fact they are plotting global jihad, you find the main characters off-beat and likeable.

Rezza (San Shella) would probably much rather sit around and wire up his iPod than wire up an explosive and has his eye on the decidedly non-virginal upstairs neighbor “Ample” Abi (Annie Cooper).

Abdul (Naveed Choudhry) is a computer geek and more a warlord on multiplayer online games than in a multinational terrorist organization. Besides, he is so nervous around girls just the thought of being surrounded by demanding virgins may seem more hell than heaven to him.

There is only one cartoony character is the appropriately named Psycho Ali (Abhin Galeya) who is played as a crazy comic foil to the rest of the gang.

Indeed, probably the most unhinged character is local-girl Jot (Meryl Fernandes), who gets turned on by jewelry made of human parts while gaining very un-virginal access to Abdul’s parts in the definite stand-out episode “The Box”.

As a package, the writing is fliud, the acting is great and the overall production values are top notch. Director Aasaf Ainapore keeps a tight rein on things and doesn’t make his characters or the storyline do unnatural things. He knows he has a clever premise and a curious audience who is along for the ride so the last thing he would want is to force the comedy and have the whole thing blow up in his face.

If you come across the show, I say Stream It!

Living with the Infidels is a production of The System Predicts and can be found on Koldcast.

Filed under: Comedy, Stream It | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Behind the scenes of the sub-conscious

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Ron

I’ve seen a lot of webTV shows and obviously, I like to review some of my favorites (and not-so-favorites) here but the best one out there thus far is Coma, Period.

I like it for a bunch of reasons. The initial reasons are the conventional ones why you would like any show, interesting plot, clever writing, engaging character, decent production values.

Then there are there are the unconventional reasons; the reasons that make Coma, Period interesting as an example of the emerging class of web-streamed programming such as its inventive premise, its psychologically spare settings, and its off-beat tone. The show is both experimental and accessible at the same time, which is what I think shows exploring a new medium like web-based TV should be doing.

So it was fun to come across an article that gave a behind-the-scenes look at the filming and design of Coma, Period. Writer/director Rick Castaneda sets up the article talking about the opportunity and the challenges of doing something as new as creating a TV series set inside someone’s head:

Rick Castaneda (Writer/Director): When I first came up with the idea to create a web series that took place entirely inside someone’s head, the value was immediate — I could do anything I wanted. Here was my main character, Dan Humford, who had a car crash and ended up in a coma. We’ve given him the white space of his subconscious, and are letting him interact with all of his deepest desires, the nightmares, and random thoughts that he’s had. If we wanted to, we could bring in a T-Rex, and have them talk about their feelings. That’s how wide open the show is. I brought in Lawrence to sound design really early — actually at the script level — because I knew that with such a blank white space, with nothing to look at, sound would be more important than ever.

Infinite possibility was the first problem we had in sound designing the series — we could really make the inside of Dan’s head sound like anything we wanted to. This wasn’t a park — which you’ve been to, and you know how it sounds. This is the inside of a person’s head. What does that sound like? A desert? A conch shell?

 

Filed under: Comedy, Stream It | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Super laughs at super problems

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Ron

Looking around, I don’t much hope for a great breakthrough at the Cancun climate conference. It is hard to believe that some of the brightest minds of our time, meeting around the table in one of the brightest locales in the world, can’t make progress on such a critical challenge as climate change.

But hey, even if you are one of those head-in-the-sand types who don’t think climate change is real, there are still a lot of other issues that intelligent people huddled in conference rooms still can’t solve: the sucky economy,  unemployment, healthcare, the Middle East … I could go on but I may lose all will to finish this post.

It is pretty clear we live in difficult times and are facing crises that no meetings of mere mortals can solve. So as always, when humanity faces an existential threat, there is only one group who can save us.

Right… Superheroes!

There isn’t a single bug-eyed monster or green tentacled alien that hasn’t been swiftly dispatched by a superhero at one time or another. But we need them now to stop wasting their time on anti-matter things and other things that don’t matter, and focus on the real problems… like immigration reform.

Fortunately, the Avengers are on it.

The Avengers Assemble is a super-witty, superhero series featuring Iron Man Tony  Stark (Brian Godleski ) , the much maligned Ms Marvel (Miracole Burns), the Elizabethan Scandinavian Thor (Matthew Conrwell)  and the hyper-hormonal Hawkeye (Chris Burns) among other heroes.

In each episode, we catch the superheroes in-between their super-villain ass-kicking as they sit in a mundane conference room and debate the world’s greatest problems. In the world of Avengers Assemble, a heroic act now equals getting a word in edge-wise to layer petty bickering on-top of a discussion about…say… the BP oil spill.

Human existential challenges warped by the inane office politics of a handful of select super-egos. It is all very funny and it would be a lot more so if it wasn’t so sadly true.

The Avengers Assemble is both a clever parody of the superhero genre but of what currently passes for intelligent discussion.

I initially found the episodes via Roger Ebert but can explore the entire Avengers Assemble world on their website.

The Avengers have about as much chance of solving global issues as anyone else, but they’ll be much funnier as they try to do it. Verdict? Stream It!

Filed under: Comedy, Stream It | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Checking out A.S.S.

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Ron

An undercover secret agent has to infiltrate a high-school and stop a nefarious plot that, if successful, could jeopardize the entire world. Yes, that sounds like a crazy rerun of 21 Jump Street (wow… I just dated myself) but it is in fact the plot to the fantastically fantastic Agents of Secret Stuff, the collaboration between YouTube wunderkinds  Ryan Higa and Wong Fu Productions.

Aiden was brought up in to be an Agent of Secret Stuff (A.S.S.) and  has basically spent his life playing first person shooters….for real. For his latest assignment, he must pose as a regular high school kid and protect the lovely Taylor from an assassination attempt by the SINS (Society Involving Not-so-good Stuff). If he succeeds, he will finally be awarded his H.O.LE. (I actually forgot what that stands for, but it doesn’t really matter, suffice it to say it is some sort of important goal.)

So yes, while the film’s first gags are silly acronyms, it gets a lot better and fast. While many Hollywood films would fill two hours wallowing in a couple of lowest-common-denominator acronym jokes, Agents of Secret Stuff quickly launches into a clever, charming, well-written, completely addictive super-spy adventure.

Agents of Secret Stuff is such a complete package, it is hard to say what is better, the writing, the performances or the overall directing.

Ryan Higa clearly has a gift for comedic acting and is perfect as Aiden, the out-of-place super-secret-agent. He delivers his lines effortlessly all  while punctuating them with physical comedy that can be both subtle and slapstick but is always hilarious. Arden Cho, who plays Taylor, has her own gift for comedy but also brings out her character’s tougher traits when they are called for.

The directing, shooting and editing are brilliant. You never feel like you’re watching a low (or no) budget flick and the whole production is so polished it shines. The scenes are set-up in a clever way that keeps the tone and the pace of the movie flowing.

And finally, while the writing does veer to some high-school humor (not that I mind, I’m just being a curmudgeon) there are ton of really stand out lines. Quips on spy-talk, unicorns and training-wheels will all surely be added to the locker-room canon in short order.

So yes,  this is definitely a Stream It and with  the 2,435,594 views Agents of Secret Stuff has gotten thus far, my guess is we will be getting a lot more ASS.

Agents of Secret Stuff is a co-production of Ryan Higa and Wong Fu Production and can be seen on YouTube.

Filed under: Comedy, Stream It | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Building Muscle

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Ron

You learn a lot by watching WebTV, and one of those things is that you don’t want to piss-off Mark Worman. Mark runs a chop shop in Oregon and throws around attitude in a way the Car Talk guys could never imagine.

But Mark doesn’t run just any kind of chop shop. He’s got a mission in life, a purpose. The only cars Mark works on have names like “Charger” or the legendary “’Cuda”.

He likes his cars like he likes his arms, with a bit of muscle.

Graveyard Carz is a reality show about Mark Worman’s obsession to find dead old muscle cars and bring them back to life “OE”, which stands for original equipment.

Mark won’t restore a muscle car using contemporary or replica parts. He will scour the Earth, scorch it if he must, to find the original part that will help restore one of his American classics. (Woman helper Royal Yoakum finds the whole OE focus a bit “anal”.)

The show is slick, funny and even for someone who doesn’t know a thing about cars (“present!”), it is fun to dive into Worman’s muscle-mania and understand why he finds these cars so fascinating.

Yeah, it looks and feels like a lot of other crazy-car-repair shows out there on regular TV, but it works. The production values are great, the dialog is snappy and the focus on a classic era in American car manufacturing feels both nostalgic and yet relevant given the current pathetic state of the American automobile industry.

Graveyard Carz is also an ambitious operation as each show clocks in over 40 min… well above what is the norm for other webTV shows

Even if you don’t like car or car shows, I still suggest you check out Graveyard Carz and Stream It!

You can find Graveyard Carz  on KoldCast


Filed under: Reality, Stream It | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

The word on a World Without Women

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Ron

It breaks my heart to write this post because I had high hopes when I started watching this show.

One day, uber-dudes Looie (Louis Palma) and Jer (Jeremy Hill), along with the rest of the world, wake up to find all the women gone. Not gone shopping. Not gone to get their hair done… just straight up gone.

Their stuff is still here. Everyone remembers talking to them last night (except for Looie and Jer, who were too drunk/stoned to remember much). But now, all the women are nowhere to be found.

And now a world of men has to get by in a World without Women

And so starts what had the potential to be a really funny, quirky show. Great idea, great set-up but the execution is mediocre at best.

Sure, there are a couple of really laugh-out-loud lines in the first few episodes but for the most part we just follow Looie

and Jer stumble through predicable problems of a woman-less dude. (Who is going to cook for us? What is going to happen to the strip-clubs?)

The production values are strong (sounds and lighting), the acting is OK, but the direction is way off (in episode three “Blue Boobs” – need I say more- a simple conversation between Looie and Jer is shot from a million different angles so you can’t figure out where anything, or anyone is.)

I bailed after three episodes so I never found out what happened to all the women. If anyone out there knows (and if you can promise me the later episodes get better), ping me and I may tune back in.

But until that time, if you like foul-mouthed dude humor, you may like World without Women. But otherwise, I’d say Leave It!

World without Women is produced by 40AWeek and you can catch it on KoldCast

Filed under: Comedy, Leave It | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Over Infected

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Ron

If you like low-brow humor with a touch of a southern swampy feel, then you’d probably get a kick out of Infected, the very early talk show hosted by Martin Sargent (and by early, I mean 2007-2008, which is the Jurassic Period for webTV.)

I give a lot of credit to the Martin and his team for being early to webTV and they are clearly having fun on set. But the truth is that their brand of humor and topics doesn’t really appeal to me.

It doesn’t look like they Infected has done anything recently but I often like to comb the archives to see what I’ve missed.

If you like to do the same and are into poopoo humor with the standard (read: clichéd) “I married my sister”-brand of southern commentary, you may like Infected.

But if not, I would say Leave It!

You can catch the archives of Infected on Revision3

 

Filed under: Bizarre, Leave It | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

The totally rad show “The Totally Rad Show”

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Ron

I have to admit, I really didn’t have any intention of seeing the new Danny Boyle movie “127 Hours” until I checked out the review on The Totally Rad Show. Online TV is filled with a ton of geek and pop-culture review shows but “The Totally Rad Show” stand out above the rest.

What is great about the show is that the hosts,  Alex Albrecht, Jeff Cannata, and Dan Trachtenberg are real, they don’t put on the “geekier than thou” airs that you find on other geek culture shows and that is so tiresome.

Also, the show also doesn’t bombard you with fast-talk and hyperactive editing. The hosts take time to connect with each other and the audience so you really get into what they are saying.

Finally, the show has better production values than others I’ve checked out and the innovative use of graphics and exploding fists (love that!) keeps things moving along, nicely.

So back to 127 Hours, which was the subject of the last show I checked out, and the guys definitely gave it three thumbs up. Alex, Jeff and Dan talked intelligently about the feel and emotions of the movie and you really got the sense you were getting sage pop-culture advice from guys who knew their stuff and could talk about it maturely.

If I have one complaint about that episode, and “TRS” in general is that it can run a bit long; 12 minutes to talk about one movie does drag a bit.  Bringing the show under 10 minutes I think would improve things immensely.

One other critique I have is from an earlier show “VS.”,  when the boys pitted movies head-to-head and called out which they would see if they could only watch one. I totally disagree with the consensus view on “Juno” vs “300” and “Lion King” vs “Life of Brian”.

C’mon guys, seriously…. What were you thinking with those recommendations???? I won’t be a spoiler and say what their consensus view was, but suffice it to say I would have definitely gone the other way in both match-ups.

Despite these differences, The Totally Rad Show gets a totally rad Stream It!

You can catch The Totally Rad Show on Revision3

Filed under: Geek, Stream It | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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