Chad Wys

We are going through a slow but hopefully beautiful redesign of Serial Optimist, which is why you aren’t seeing much content. This will be done before the week is up, and thanks for your patience. See you in a few days! Hugs and love, SO.

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We love comedian, producer, and the all around lovely Abbey Londer. She is that rare being that creates for the sake of creating, for pure enjoyment, for everyone to have fun, for a community. Insert RIOT – LA’s Alternative Comedy Festival. You will learn all about it in our interview with Abbey, but she sums it up so perfectly with this: “We love to laugh. And we love comedy. We love performing it. We love watching it. And more than anything we love the community that revolves around it.” What started out as an idea is turning into a reality. With truly the best comedians on board, and a Kickstarter that is SO close to hitting its goal (back it up!), and with a love of laughter being the driving force, RIOT is all things Serial Optimist loves. Read on to learn more about the festival, Abbey, and of course, for plenty of smiles.

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Serial Optimist: Hey Abbey! How are you? We are so excited to talk about your amazing festival which we will get to shortly, but tell us a little bit about yourself: Where are you from, what is it exactly that you do, and when did your love of comedy begin?

Abbey Londer: I’m great! How are you? Thanks for doing this! I’m originally from metro Detroit, a small town called Oxford—and after high school I headed off to Columbia College to study theatre in Chicago.

That’s where I really got my feet wet with comedy. I was always in love with comedy for as long as I can remember to be honest, but I think my love affair really took off at Second City–which is where I started taking improv classes. I also went through a special Comedy Studies program Columbia offered through Second City, and then from there I branched off to other theatres like The Annoyance and iO. I love that city and the comedy community there is still very near and dear to me.

When I moved to Los Angeles in 2009, I decided I wanted to try something new and kind of on a whim tried stand up and right away I was hooked. It was in the fall of 2009 that I produced my first show, which ended up becoming a bi-weekly show that ran for a year. Producing comedy shows quickly became something I realized I had a bit of a knack for–but I particularly became infatuated with the East side scene and downtown LA. I started putting up shows in more eclectic venues, including one in a huge loading dock in industrial downtown that not only had stand up but a photo booth, a ping pong table, a DJ, an art exhibition–and the entire thing was free! I also did a show called Neighbors that was literally throwing stones from my apartment in an outdoor patio of this awesome vintage clothing store called The Warehouse–also free. It’s not about making money for me, it’s always been about the bridge between comedy and community that I love—and that’s what lead to RIOT.

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RIOT

Click here to view the embedded video.

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SO: RIOT – LA’s Alternative Comedy Festival. Just an awesome concept and idea. How did this festival and idea come about?

Abbey: Originally I thought of the idea about a year ago. I had just showcased for Montreal and with festivals on my mind I just kind of wondered why something like that didn’t exist here. It was right after that in April of 2011 that I produced The Loading Dock show in industrial downtown when I realized I wanted to pursue this idea a bit further. I mean LA is just so saturated with all of these amazing comedians, but what’s also incredible is that these comedians are performing in all of these alternative venues; i.e., warehouses, Chinese restaurants, rooftops, backyards, patios, movie theaters, basements–even houses!

Each and every show has it’s own uniqueness about it, but each one also brought this awesome sense of community. I talk about making this a celebration of comedy in the Kickstarter, because that’s what all of these shows do. So I thought, why not make that bridge between comedy and community a celebration in the biggest way possible—a festival!

It wasn’t until the end of the summer that I brought the idea to a few friends, Jeff Wattenhofer and Chris Register, both of whom were completely on board.

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Matt Braunger

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SO: So many great comedians are involved, how did you get such a great group all on board for the festival? Was it a challenge or was it something everyone wanted?

Abbey: I’m very fortunate with everyone who jumped in to be a part of this. Many of the comedians in the video I was lucky enough to have relationships with from shows I’d produced or performed in. Also, we actually shot the video at Funny or Die’s new studios, which was a major help. It was sort of a snowball effect really. Once we had ten people or so on board, it was easier to get more and more. Bob Odenkirk was an earlier name that got added to the list, and once he was on board a lot of other big names did too, like Thomas Lennon, Patton Oswalt, Megan Mullally etc…I think comedians were excited to be a part of this because they were excited about the idea itself and agreed that this is something that LA really does need.

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Megan Mullally, Martin Starr, & Kumail Nanjiani

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SO: The Kickstarter page to make RIOT happen has been everywhere. How excited, or even surprised are you at the response it’s getting? With nine days to go you are SO close to hitting the goal!

Abbey: We’re all THRILLED at RIOT to see the response we’ve had from the Kickstarter. And yes, we are definitely a little surprised. We expected our friends and the comedy community to be excited but we didn’t expect such an overwhelming amount of public support. It’s getting down to crunch time and we’re getting super close to our goal and everyone is getting excited. People have really spoken about how much they think this city does indeed need this, and I think the most awesome part is to see everyone work together to make it happen.

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Todd Glass & Marc Maron

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SO: What is the ultimate goal and what will be the ultimate reward for you and everyone involved, if this festival happens?

Abbey: The ultimate goal here is not just for me, it’s for everyone. If this festival happens Los Angeles will finally have a chance to shed some major light on its underground comedy scene that so desperately deserves to be seen. It’s a chance to bring many facets of a community together–and to really create an outlet for comedians and comedy lovers in an extraordinary way.

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SO Note: Follow Abbey @abbeylonder, RIOT LA @RiotLA, and get all over the Kickstarter page to help make RIOT a reality!

Hello

In November, filmmaker Julian Klepper and crew, shot 2/3rds of a pilot Klepper wrote and directed called “Hey There Stranger“. It’s about a sweet yet captious dreamer who falls into a dark depression after his girlfriend of six months breaks up with him. Sounds like a bummer right? Wrong. It’s a funny, slightly dark (dim?), honest, serious, but not too serious show about wanting to connect but not quite knowing how. It also comes across as very personal, or more passionate; you can tell this something Klepper has put his whole heart into. Money is being raised to finish the pilot on Kickstarter, and is oh SO close to hitting its goal. Read on for a great interview with Julian, and to learn more about “Hey There Stranger”.

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Serial Optimist: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from, where are you now, and what lead to you ultimately deciding to create the project “Hey There Stranger”?

Julian Klepper: I’m Julian Klepper. I like world history and juice. I prefer liquids to solids. I also think most people are cute. I hail from Pittsburgh proper, but I live in the Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn now and work at a nonprofit in Harlem teaching film to high schoolers.

A couple of years back, a lot of my friends got involved in online dating and I found it fascinating. About 2% of the time they would go on dates that they actually enjoyed but they kept on doing it. People (me included) so badly want to be loved that they’ll venture into strange dates with random people just to entertain the possibility finding love. Side note: people never talk to each on the phone before they set up an Internet date. Call me ‘90s but I find that strange. Side side note: I have seen some really crappy people that I know in real life on okcupid and if you didn’t know them, based on their profile you would think they’d be a great person to go on a date with. On the other hand, I have seen some amazing people, filled with love and vigor that don’t get noticed online only because they look like an ewok. I’m sorry, what was the question? The show evolved into a series based around my strange friends and I trying to find love and not get arrested.

SO: What is the premise and story of “Hey There Stranger”?

Julian: Julian, a sweet yet captious dreamer, falls into a dark depression after his girlfriend of six months (his longest relationship) breaks up with him. After spending three weeks apart from his clingy friends, Signy and Troy, he haggardly comes to the realization that he wants to be a father and his friends are only impeding his progress. Signy and Troy attempt to rescue him from despair only to find Julian struggling with a severely bruised ego and a strange addiction to Adderall and jungle juice. Although resistant at first, Julian slowly lets Signy and Troy convince him to use a new online dating website to find his baby mama…. It’s a funny serious show, or maybe a serious funny show, about wanting so badly to connect but not quite knowing how.

SO: What are you hoping “Hey There Stranger” to become? It’s referred to as a “film and video project”, so are shooting this as a short, or something that will turn into a web series, or something else?

Julian: I want this to be a television series. I outlined two seasons and wrote a couple episodes. This is just the pilot, and should end up running about 30 minutes. Because I come from a film background, I wrote it as just one really long film that fits within the television format. I plan on entering it into festivals and pitching it around to stations. I know I should, but I don’t like to think that far into the future. I just focused on creating something honest.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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SO: From the trailer, “Hey There Stranger” looks compelling on different levels. It’s dark, sad, funny, beautiful, honest, and just intriguing. How personal of a project is this for you? How much of the character Julian is the actual Julian?

Julian: I always feel like there are a thousand different versions of myself. I think the Julian in the show is about 50% like one of those thousand. So that’s, what, .0005 percent like me. No, that doesn’t make sense, because of the thousand versions of me; they all share some basic similarities. So one version of me wouldn’t be 1/1000^th of me. Okay, I lost myself. Identity is complex.

SO: Did you want to stay away from labels like “dramedy”, and is there a specific theme you have for the overall tone of the show?

Julian: I don’t like labels like that but sure, you can call it that. I just wanted to create a universe where inherently funny people had to deal with the sad truths of life. Unlike a situational comedy, I wanted it to be a comedy show with situational sadness.

SO: In regards to the show, you say that “It is a drama with a lot of comedy, and the comedy comes from people who dare to take anything in their lives seriously.” Can you elaborate a little on what you mean by that?

Julian: I don’t take much seriously, expect for the things I truly care about (art, my family, my job, liquids, etc.)… But all other things, I say fuck it. I am an old school cut up; I find most things are primed for a silly comment. My friends are like that too, and I wanted my characters (some of whom are as based on friends) to espouse such silly sentiments. I also think it creates tension when you have a character who dares to say fuck it to something that 99% of the world takes seriously. I’m into tension.

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SO: What have you found to be the most challenging thing about shooting and creating your own film, and what have you found to be the most rewarding at this point?

Julian: I was the writer, director, star– in the future I only wan to do two of those three. It was way to hard not being able to be behind the camera. I had to trust me as an actor but luckily I knew the character pretty well.

SO: Who are your inspirations in television?

Julian: One of the shows I most want to write like is “Louie“, which is so earnest and just occasionally funny. I love that combination. I hate it when comedy is forced, any actually funny person can see through it. I also love “Eastbound & Down“, that show is so much fun. They bring great filmmaking to television, which is rare. But I notice it.

SO: Your Kickstarter page is almost 65% funded, that’s awesome! But we need people to make sure it hits that 100% mark. You have some unique and very cool rewards for people who pledge. Can you tell us a little bit about the art, and other rewards, and what happens if you hit your goal?

Julian: I collect photographs of people I don’t know and use them as inspiration for writing poems, stories, and making art. I’m going to create pieces of art with my entire collection for any donors.

I had a party to create art for the film and we made some really fun pieces and those are going to go out to donors of the film.

I once wanted to start a company that made wake up calls to people to really get their mornings GOING, but I never did. So I figured I could just offer my services in exchange for donations.

If we hit the goals, we can film the last third of the pilot and do all the postproduction fun stuff. I’m excited about the possibilities. I think it’s going to be awesome.

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SO Note: To learn more about “Hey There Stranger” and to donate to the project, visit the Kickstarter page here.

Coffee table must

The Velvet Cell continues to produce beautiful independent books for photography. They believe that the book is the most intimate way of interacting with photographs. It shows, as the quality and content of each book is fantastic. Their new release is stunning. Psychic Hearts by London based photographer Sandra Croft allows you to escape into a  hazy dream world, and that’s not by accident. Read on for an interview with Sandra, and a look at the pages of Psychic Hearts.

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Serial Optimist: What makes you take out your camera and press the shutter button?

Sandra Croft: I’m interested in the dreaminess that comes from a certain quality of light, and looking for these moments where imperfection and imbalance make for a perfect image. Usually it’s not a single feeling, but the overall stillness and isolation that emerges when you see the familiar from an unfamiliar perspective – a fleeting, delicate place that’s a mix or reality and fantasy. I’m always looking for that.

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SO: What is photography to you? 

Sandra: I use photography to both a means of communicating escapism with visual language and as a way to figure out what is meaningful to me about the experiences of life. I’m always dreaming of other places, a kind of ongoing escapism. In reality, there’s no escaping anything in life – even if you fly all the way to Thailand you’ll still find that person inside longing to escape. So I think I’ve created this realm in my photos where there can be an eternal escape from reality through any era and all places. There are never any intentions, plans, tactics, except for the opposite maybe: it just happens. The idea is to stop aiming and let intuition guide you to a place capable of transforming everyday existence into a something strange and romantic.

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SO: How does photography relate to other passions you have?

Sandra: It’s instilled in me a true sense of my own philosophical mobility – that I can stylistically move from one position to another, that I do not have to be true or faithful, or believe in any of the work as being an answer to anything. It’s always astonishing to me how artists make their breakthrough in our culture, how they impose their vision on the world. I work in music now, but in graduate school I was training to be a designer and that that was one of the things that always mystified me about the ‘art game’. In music I find myself confronted with exactly those same questions, and in many ways the aesthetic approaches I’ve learnt from photography come into play in a very intricate manner towards deciphering and understanding the odd processes by which art exerts its power in our time.

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SO Note: Visit The Velvet Cell for more information and to purchase Psychic Hearts.

Pretty Boy

Jack Azar is a Lebanese-American born artist from Santa Barbara, California. Jack experienced a moment of self-awakening in 2002 – an already existing reality emerging with the aid of scissors and glue. Referred to as “Azar Bizarre,” his art is an ensemble of familiar images taken from familiar sources, collecting and reconstructing them to create a unique kind of art. As a result, magazines have become a valuable contributor for his creativity. Read on for more about Azar Bizarre and his work.

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The artwork takes his audience on a curious adventure, a similar journey encountered while creating the work itself. The message behind each piece has the tendency to stir up people’s emotions, causing them to get closer and observe the work more thoughtfully. As a result, the viewer encounters a refreshing perspective, interrupting the predictable wont of everyday life. Jack says, “My work is a reinvention of preexisting elements combined to make up a fantasy, whimsical distortion of reality. Welcome to my world.”

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“Since my education is in apparel manufacturing, I enjoy working with fashion magazines to create an interpretation of my own understanding of what beauty is. Accentuating body features such as the lips and eyes, integrating accessories and body parts in abnormal scale are a few ways I achieve this.” -Jack

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“If my artwork were a movie, I would be the director, casting images that I felt had potential. Every time I flip through magazines, I independently hear images whisper with desperation, “Jack, please – discover me!” Liberating these images into a world of my own is a motivation to pursue my calling as an artist.” -Jack

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SO Note: All images are owned by Jack Azar and cannot be reproduced. For more of Jack’s work visit his site jackazar.com.

"Missed Connection"

SO many great comedy series are hitting the web, as you can see here, and another hilariously amazing gem is “Missed Connection” from writer, comedian, and actor Freddi Scheib. “Missed Connection” comes from a personal place, but you wouldn’t know it because it’s so relatable, in a beautifully absurd way. With a stellar cast that includes New York’s finest (comedians), and witty sharp writing from Scheib, “Missed Connection” is no doubt en route to being an online watch-the-newest-episode-as-soon-as-it-hits favorite. Read on for a truly laugh out loud interview with Freddi and some “Missed Connection” episodes.

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Serial Optimist: First off, tell us a little about yourself. What makes you laugh, what’s one of your favorite hobbies, and what is one of your favorite things about NYC? Triple question question. That’s right!

Freddi Scheib: Ah! This is just like an online dating profile! I’ve gotten so good at these! Prepare to be blown away by my ability to appear interesting by creating an air of quirkiness and mysteriousness while remaining relatable and NOT PSYCHO (I have found that this is a key element to success). Here we go:

Hello! I am a person, more specifically: a girl (who is does not currently have any restraining orders out against her). I am equally likely to laugh at visceral physical humor (like two guys slapping each other with fish) as I am with cerebral character interactions or wordplay. I particularly enjoy misanthropic characters. I recently watched all of Black Books (BBC) and Bernard Black is a perfect example. He owns a bookshop, but he hates customers. I also love book title jokes. There are never enough of those. As far as hobbies go, I like to choreograph 90′s hip-hop videos. To the untrained eye, it might look like I’m just dancing around my living room in my underwear, but I’m not. I’m an artist. Are you intrigued yet? My favorite thing about NYC is its citizen’s willingness to provide such positive feedback on my choreography efforts. I only have blinds on half of my windows.

SO: You literally just made me laugh out loud. You also founded the production company Shafted Writers in 2010, what was, and is the main goal for that? 

Freddi: To show the world my kick-ass self-choreographed 90′s hip-hop videos! After Ice-T wrote me a personal letter telling me to please stop, I decided to focus on what had become my whole life in college. People that I had come up with in Hammerkatz at NYU were breaking off into sub-groups, shooting videos, and doing shows, but none of them wanted me in their sketch group. At the time I felt like I couldn’t write without a group. There is a powerful sense of camaraderie and good-natured rebellion that is nurtured by sitting around a table at 11pm on a Monday night sharing bits and scrambling to put on a show every month that will make people laugh (whether they want to or not!). It’s a drug that can’t be mimicked in a solo situation. When you write by yourself there’s no bounce board to reaffirm that you are funny and no one to keep you motivated except yourself. On my own I have zero will power. I can’t even finish this se

I wanted to start a company for everyone who was like me, anyone who knew that they had really good ideas and were motivated to work hard, but felt “shafted” by the comedy world. I wouldn’t tie anyone down to a fixed group and we’d just do everything on a project basis. It turned out to be the best way to meet awesome people (pretty much everyone on the “Missed Connection” crew has become my best friend). I also think the content benefited because we never made something just because we felt pressured to make something.

SO: How much has your involvement in UCB helped shape your career, or helped develop it?

Freddi: I owe everything to UCB. I learned how to write comedy from a document of mythical proportions known as the “Hammerkatz Writer’s Guide” by D.C. Pierson. This word document broke down sketch writing in terms of UCB’s Improv ideology. Taking classes there sharpened my writing skills, I pulled almost my entire cast and crew from the community, and because UCB is a haven for artistic intellectuals who are completely socially inept (myself included) it even provided inspiration for the many awkward dating moments in “Missed Connection”.

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Pilot

Click here to view the embedded video.

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SO: Where did the concept for “Missed Connection” come from? How did the idea come about?

Freddi: I had produced a few sketches and wanted to take on a more complex project. Around November 2010 began the crappiest period of my life since 6th grade when David Rosenblume (name changed to protect the innocent) kissed me while playing Truth or Dare and then told everyone that I had bit his tongue. I got dumped, my uncle passed away, I got laid off, my roommate decided to move out because my dog was annoying, I was rejected for advanced study at UCB, I found out I could never eat cupcakes again #girlcomedywriterproblems.

I’m a relationship girl and I had spent the last 4 years of my life in two serious relationships, so through it all I was desperately trying to find that connection again. I kept encountering a huge disconnect between what I expected of the dating process (a complicated mess that I still don’t understand) and what these guys wanted. It was a little depressing and embarrassing but mostly absurd, so I started writing little scenes based on various situations or character traits I had experienced. After a couple weeks I started piecing it together as a series and developing main characters.

SO: Tell us a little about the cast, and how fun it has been for you all to collaborate together. 

Freddi: So much fun! In the early stages the cast and crew came together through a series of fateful encounters. I ran into Johnny McNulty on the G train. I stapled the script to his arm to make sure he wouldn’t forget to read it. Not only was he invaluable in punching up the jokes and creating a larger story arc, but he also ended up playing the Bruce Willis guy. Morgan Evans was on an improv team with a friend of mine at the job from which I was fired. After assuring me that he “wasn’t into romance things,” he agreed to direct it. I had already met Mike Cheslik at numerous NYU comedy parties and he came on board as our AD.

Cast-wise, I wrote Bek Markas’ part specifically for him. We were both fired from being the sailer and the nurse in Times Square (from the TIME magazine picture). He’s such a goof ball that I wanted to show the world. David Rysdahl, who plays Thomas Riley (named after my first cat), I called in from Actors Access. It turned out later that we had almost met twice before (real Missed Connection stuff). After the first read through in the audition room Morgan and I knew he had booked it. Morgan even wrote A+ on his resume. The rest of the cast was either friends of mine or Morgan’s from UCB or NYU. The shoot itself was abnormally fun. Most sets make you want to hang yourself from a c-stand, but as our sound man Bobb Barito said, “it was the best set I’ve EVER been on.” So I’ll stop boring you now with how awesome we are.

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Episode 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

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SO: Web comedy series are really starting to develop into quality programming. Not just one of gag videos or spoofs, but truly good sitcom material videos. What is the main goal when creating a web series, and what do you hope to come from it?

Freddi: The main goal was to create a quality show that would spread joy and laughter by giving sad people someone whose life is clearly worse than their own (mine) to feel sorry for. The ulterior motive of course was to get myself a job writing Television. This is something that I love to do, I think I’m pretty good at it, and to be able to make people laugh on a national or even international scale would be a dream come true. NBC are you getting this? I also can’t waitress for shit and am completely unemployable in any other field.

SO: What were the biggest challenges in creating and shooting “Missed Connection”?

Freddi: Since the series has come out, every single guy that I’ve been out with or have been interested in has expressed their concern that I will write an episode about them. I guess I should have seen this coming, but it’s still super annoying. Obviously I draw from real life experiences, but it’s a bit presumptuous to assume that you are interesting enough to warrant your own episode. And if I do write about you it will be in a very removed and heightened way that will make it unrecognizable to you. Except for what happened between me and Jimmy Goodman. That was verbatim. And yes Jimmy it’s about YOU.

SO: How many more episodes do you have planned, and where does it go from here?

Freddi: There are a total of 8 episodes in the first season. We’ve thrown around a bunch of Season 2 ideas and I’m excited to get the band back together. The series gets weirder and weirder as it goes on in Season 1, so I expect Season 2 to be pretty crazy, but still maintain our signature tightrope walk of heartfelt hilarity.

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SO Note: Check out all episodes of “Missed Connection” here, and follow Freddi on Twitter @FreddiScheib.

TV

What started of as a bit of fun, making cartoons and postcards, evolved into creating well-balanced and sometimes humorous snapshots of a forgotten world bursting with color and filled with images of yesteryear. Belgian collage artist and illustrator Sammy Slabbinck’s love of old photographs and vintage magazines are the basis for most of his creations. Read on for more of his work.

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SO Note: For more of Sammy’s work, visit his site at fiftyways.be and his Flickr here.

Julie Klausner

Julie Klausner is the kind of person who was born with that special talent of putting words together perfectly. The comedy writer and performer, podcaster, and author is a multi-threat of funny. Her popular podcast “How Was Your Week“, which Rolling Stone and GQ both named as one of the best in existence, has become a can’t miss listen with each new episode. Her book I Don’t Care About Your Band has had an impact like no other since its release in 2010, and continues to grow in popularity daily. I mean really Julie, settle down with all that talent! I could go on and on about all her other accomplishments, how funny she is, and how looking at cute animal pictures together sounds a little too dreamy, but I’ll just let the interview speak for itself. Read on to get to know Julie a little better, and of course, for plenty of smiles.

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Serial Optimist: Hey Julie! How are you? What are doing at this exact moment as you respond to this interview, what are you drinking, your surroundings and what not?

Julie Klausner: I’m okay. A little chilly, honestly. I am watching New York One. Drinking nothing, as I am at the computer! What am I, setting myself for a spill? I am not. I’m a hero.

SO: So many people know you for being a hilarious and brilliant writer, your podcast, twitter, and various other avenues. Did this happen organically? What was your plan at say, 18 years of age, did you always know you wanted to be in comedy?

Julie: Thank you, first of all, for the kind compliments. I’ve always been a huge fan of comedy—I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do besides as many things as possible. There was no master plan and there still is not. I make a living as a writer, and I write a lot of different things. I love performing and I love doing my podcast, but I’d continue to do it for free if I had to. I think everything happens organically, besides the production of some snack foods.

SO: When would you say your first “big break” was?

Julie: I can tell you that my first staff-writing job was for The Big Gay Sketch Show—I was hired with Jackie Clarke, and that was a big deal for me. But “big break”? I’m not sure. That sounds awfully “A Star is Born.” I can tell you that getting an essay into the New York Times’ Modern Love column helped my agent sell my book. That was a big deal as well.

SO: Your much loved and popular book I Don’t Care About Your Band, which I’ve read and is truly LOL to the max, still seems as popular today as it was when first released. Why do you think that is, and why do you think so many people relate?

Julie: That is, again, very kind of you to say. I put everything into that book and was completely honest, which I think comes across. I was terrified to reveal myself and put myself out there as much as I did, but in retrospect, I think it’s scarier to write a cheap version of a memoir that gave people more of an impression of a person you’d like to be. Some people hold back when they have an opportunity to show off who they are. They don’t show all their flaws, or they candycoat, or they magnify things that aren’t so weird as their quirks. I went full retard, and I was absolutely so scared at the time, but I really do think it paid off in terms of how people appreciate it, and connect to the material. I also think it’s harder to be funny when you’re not saying something you don’t totally mean.

SO: What would you say the most challenging part about being a writer is?

Julie: Just sitting down and getting started, and then working on it until you’re finished is and I think will always be the hardest part of writing. Clocking the hours and not going crazy in your own company. Not giving into bullying thoughts. Not getting stuck on the first quarter of the page. Editing is easy once you have words down. Getting words down is always excruciating. Going on the Internet and looking at stuff is so much more appealing.

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SO: Your podcast “How Was Your Week” is a blast. I believe you’re on episode 45, when you started at 1, did you think it would go this far? How did you come up with the concept, and how, if at all, as it progressed as you do more and more?

Julie: Thanks! I would love to keep going with the show for as long as I’m physically able. Originally the concept of “How Was Your Week” came from the literal implications of the title. I thought asking guests how their week was would be an innovative interview technique. That went out the window after I talked to Joe Mande in an interview I’ve since scrapped—He had a boring week that week and was on the road or something, and I figured out it would be better instead to talk to people about a topic—like, in Joe’s case, his history of family pets—than to be, like, “WHAT DID YOU DO THURSDAY AFTERNOON???” That framing device also dates interviews I might want to keep for a future date. So now it’s just a reasonably catchy title. But I still use it to structure my opening monologue—I look back on my own week and talk about what went on and what interests me or makes me angry from the past 7 days.

SO: You have big things coming up, correct me if I’m wrong on these, but Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are producing your book for HBO, which will star Lizzy Caplan. First of all, how super excited are you for that, and where is it at in the development stage? Has it been officially picked up?

Julie: No, that’s on hold. The project is not dead, but the IDCAYB TV show might go forward with a different group of people attached. We’re still figuring out how to package it right now.

SO: You also will be writing and exec producing for an upcoming NBC show, what are the details on that project?

Julie: I just handed in my script for a network pilot based on a book called Apocalipstick, by Sue Margolis. It’s very exciting! I think the script is good. Now we wait to hear to see whether NBC wants to make a pilot out of it.

SO: Who are some of your most favorite people to follow on Twitter?

Julie: Besides my IRL friends (Billy Eichner, Jake Fogelnest, Tom Scharpling, Ted Leo, Patton Oswalt, Jon Daly), I deeply enjoy the tweet stylings of Katie Notopolous. Jon Daly, Jon Hendren, aka @fart, @jonnonaarch, who goes by “The Morally Corruptible Faye Resnick” on Tumblr), Boy George, who’s on a raw diet now, Jackee Harry, because she’s wonderful and she hashtags certain random words in her tweets. @iamenidcoleslaw is great, @WeirdHorse, Mario Lopez. Many others. I’m forgetting a million people. Possibly one billion.

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SO: What everyday things in life make you smile?

Julie: Dogs and cats doing stuff. Eddie Pepitone, Andy Kindler or John Mulaney’s standup. Friends’ emails. Really good gossip.

SO: Tell us anything else you have going on this year that we should look out for, because you just can’t get enough of you, truly!

Julie: How Was Your Week Live! This is the second installation of our live show at The Bell House, and it’s going to be a barnburner. We have guests Sandra Bernhard and Tom Scharpling, plus an exciting third guest I can’t announce just yet, plus, as always, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists will be there to play a live, full-length version of the How Was Your Week theme song, in addition to other wonderful musical things (“songs”). We are also excited to welcome TWO sponsors—Pretzel Crisps and Peanut Chews! Both of those fine products will be at hand on February 2 at the Bell House. Tickets are still available, which is fucking psychotic. You should buy some!

SO: Oh I will! Thanks Julie!

Julie: Thank YOU!

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SO Note: Follow Julie on Twitter @julieklausner, and MAKE SURE to get your tickets for the much buzzed about How Was Your Week Live Show, coming up Feb. 2nd. You can get tickets here.

Abbi & Ilana of Broad City

You know when you get into a band before anyone else, read a book before it’s a bestseller or watch a TV show before everyone else catches on in its third season? You never lose that connection to it, as if you were somehow a part of its success. Well, it’s your lucky day because we know five web series that are on the brink of big-time, but are enough under-the-radar that you can feel in-the-know. These are not your typical one-off gags, online pranks or random clips. These series play like, and may one day be, sitcoms. Watching them now guarantees you can later claim you “totally know it was gonna be huge.” So plug those earphones in, sit back and blow off work today. Try not to laugh too loud, though; your co-workers will be disappointed when they stroll over to find you aren’t watching a funny kitten video.

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‘Broad City’

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It’s easiest to describe “Broad City” as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” crossed with “Sex and the City”. Creators and stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer explore their 20s–-career, interpersonal skills, friendship, identity–in a stoner chick way, but also in a real way. Writers often exaggerate New York for comedy, but these ladies find the humor in reality. “Broad City” is now in development with FX for a TV version with Amy Poehler as executive producer.

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‘Made With Love’

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Series creators Matt Ruby and Brooke Van Poppelen play Gideon Schwartz and Vanessa Schwartz, a married couple whose love for each other is as strong as a wet noodle and gets more and more slippery with each recipe they so enthusiastically Make With Love.

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‘I Hate Being Single’

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“Get it on paper, tell your friends, get people together, film it, edit it and put it out there. Then you see the rewards,” says actor/comedian Rob Michael Hugel. He created “I Hate Being Single” from observational humor like Woody Allen and Seinfeld. The show follows Rob, who is a lonely twentysomething who was recently dumped and dreads single life in Brooklyn.

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‘Very Mary-Kate’

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“Very Mary-Kate” is written by comedian Elaine Carroll and directed by Sam Reich. They’ve already produced upwards of 50 episodes at 90 seconds each. The series now resides on College Humor, and has built a strong following. Taking facts she already knew, such asMary-Kate Olsen’s use of a bodyguard and taking classes at NYU, Carroll crafted a web series that “started filling in the blanks” in a hilarious way. It’s the unofficial biography of Mary-Kate Olsen.

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‘It Gets Betterish’

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Written by and starring Eliot Glazer and Brent Sullivan, “It Gets Betterish” takes the “It Gets Better” campaign, which tries to support young gay people, and puts an overdramatic, hilarious spin on it. Or as they put it, “It’s just a comedy about Eliot and Brent, two gay weirdos drowning in a sea of fierceness.”

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The Milestone

Patrick Gookin is a 28-year-old photographer based in Los Angeles. His photographs are product of experiences, though he “thinks that it’s my camera that pushes experiences to places and depths where I likely wouldn’t end up were I to travel in any other way. One can’t exist without the other and this is why I am constantly drawn the medium.” A side project for Patrick is a blog where he posts images daily accompanied by short poetry written by longtime friend Gabe Rothschild. Check it out here, and check out more photos from Patrick after the jump.

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SO Note: All images owned by Patrick Gookin and cannot be reproduced. For more of his work visit his site here.