Break a Leg

Hey, ALL OF YOU!

You haven't heard from us in a bit but that's because we've been busy little bees. Specifically, we have a new show. More specifically, it's a reality show sponsored by 7-11 and a bunch of other companies (Nestle, Miller Lite, Planter's Peanuts and lots more).

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, oh NO, the Break a Leg guys sold to their soul to a convenience store!

Not so.

well, maybe a little? But generally, not so.

Here's the deal: the show is called the 7-11 Road Trip Rally (www.711roadtrip.com) -- it follows two teams as they race across the country, do challenges, and try to reach their main goal -- the INDY 500.

Here's an important piece of information you fans may love: Drew Lanning (Jimmy Scotch of Break a Leg fame) is our host and he is, as per usual, hilarious.

Here's another important piece of information: We were hired to make the show in our style. Meaning, this isn't going to be your usual MTV reality show, it's going to be bizarre and goofy, it's going to be funny and silly, it's going to be very, very us and we think you'll all love the hell out of it.

So, here's my request:

Watch the show: www.711roadtrip.com

Add the teams/Drew on Twitter: @followdrew, @711redteam, @711greenteam

Be as active as you were during Break a Leg, by telling your friends, tweeting/commenting on the site, etc.

And help us make sure this show does well! We're developing another show (a scripted show) that we're trying to get funding for and the success of this one is BIG toward getting that one funded.

So help us! Watch the show! Tell your friends, and most importantly, laugh uproariously!

As per usual -- thank you so, so much for being our fans for this long. I hope you continue with all that.

Love,
David Penn 

...Italy. That's right, boys and girls -- it took us a while to announce it but, here it is:

Break a Leg has been licensed by FOX Italy for play on their internet, mobile and TV channels. At least, theoretically. We have yet to find out where exactly it'll play, aside from their online space: www.floptv.tv -- but we hope that when this is all said and done that our names will be as popular in Italy as... wine and "Tony."

What does this mean for the show? Well, we hope it means a bigger audience. We hope it means massive success overseas. We hope it means FOX US will get horribly jealous and get us to make it or another show here in the States. But mostly it means the first season of Break a Leg will premiere in Italy, subtitled in Italian, sometime in the coming months.

I also think, at the sake of tooting my own horn (which makes the same sound a singing angel makes), that this is a great deal for web series as a whole. It gives networks a way to test how web series will do overseas with minimal risk and it lends even more credibility to our genre. You hear that, FOX US? Be hip, be cool, get Break a Leg on FOX now.

We've been lucky enough to get some press for the event and hope for more in the near future, so, here's a few write-ups/videos about the story:

1. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-15568-SF-Film-Industry-Examiner~y2010m2d23-SFbased-producers-score-landmark-webtoTV-deal

2. http://www.webseriesnetwork.com/profiles/blogs/acclaimed-web-series-break-a

3.

...more to come!

Hi all!

While we desperately search for someone good to do our DVDs, I've made a Blip.tv Break a Leg player that runs all of our episodes in order. Check it on our front page and sit and watch the entire run of the show, from Ep 1 to 17!

Enjoy!

Also, for some writing tips, read my blog over at: www.yuribaranovsky.com

Hope you're all still doing well! We'll have more news soon, I SWEAR.

Let me preface this by saying: I love Break A Leg and everyone involved in it.

Having said that, let me say this: Yuri, you suck.

I'm kidding, of course, but one of the most difficult things about working with these guys is timing, i.e., aligning schedules so that we can all b e in the same place at the same time so that we can get some work done.  It is a monumental task, I assure you.  Solar eclipses happen more frequently.  I have two examples to share with you today.

Number One: Earlier this summer, during the run of The Three Musketeers, some of the cast and crew had decided to go camping one weekend.  We had been planning this for months.  The plan was to do the show in Sebastopol on Friday night, then go out to Bodega afterwards, set up, and have fun, then do the show again on Saturday, go back out to Bodega, have more fun, break down camp on Sunday morning, and go do the show one more time.  This was the ONE weekend all year that I had planned to go camping.  For those of you who don't know: Bodega is about 2.5 hours from San Francisco.  Two days before this whole plan was to be implemented, I get a call from Yuri asking if I was available that weekend to shoot something that was supposed to make fun of Twitter.  The ONE weekend I planned to go camping, plus the fact that I had to do shows every night in Sebastopol, and he wants to know if I'm available.

No, I was not available.

Number Two:  Being an actor means that I frequently am involved in acting-related activities.  I know, it's crazy, but hear me out.  I am currently in a production of Picasso at Lapin Agile at Napa Valley College.  The show was written by Steve Martin in 1993 and is about a fictitious encounter between Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein in a bar in France in 1904.  It's pretty funny.  The show opened last Friday, which meant I was in tech rehearsal every evening, after having already worked for 8 hours every day at my regular job.  Also, this past weekend, I had auditions for various shows around the North Bay.  I was pretty booked.  But on the whole, my schedule is usually a little more forgiving than that.  So, it was, of course, on THIS weekend, when I had absolutely no time, that Yuri calls me and asks me if I'm available to do some voice over work.  I have been begging Yuri to let me do some voice over work almost the entire time we've been working together, and he calls on one of the very few weekends where I couldn't possibly make it work.

It's not like I don't try to make time.  In fact, a couple summers ago, I didn't audition for any shows and worked to leave my schedule open so that Yuri would be able to call on my at any time and I would show up wherever, ready to rock and/or roll.  Months went by and I never got the call.  Finally, a show comes along that I really want to do, so I got out for it and get cast.  As soon as I do, what happens?  I get a call asking if I'm available to shoot. 

Why, fate? Why?  Was it something I said?  Do I have to do that weird beef-dairy thing on Fridays or whatever?  Do I have to sacrifice a dozen virgin marmots?  What?  Help me out here!  Gimme a hint!  Throw me a bone! Gah!

Ok, rant over.  Back to your regularly scheduled Jenday.

I couldn't write a post here two weeks ago because I was at WAR!  And then I could have written a post last week, but didn't quite manage it because I was recovering...from WAR!

For those of you wondering what the hell I'm talking about: I am a member of the Society for a Creative Anachronism (SCA).  They have events that go on all the time, which are sort of like Renaissance Fairs, but much more involved.  For one, you're camping for days at a time in garb.  And for those of you who still have no idea what garb is: for me, it's shirts with big puffy sleeves, breaches - not pants, big hats with plumes, knee-high boots with the big bell that folds over, and a lot of leather goods.  And no, it's not some creepy fetish party...well, they have that, but that's not what I go for.

So, in the beginning of October every year, they have an event called Great Western War.  And it's called War because there are actually battles that go on.  The battles are usually fought to see who will be the next king in that area.  Except for one of our crew who just started participating in the battles, my friends and I don't go for the fighting.  We go for the camping, dressing like pirates, drinking copious amounts of booze, singing our lungs out, finding suitably friendly wenches (which is mostly just an activity that I partake in because everybody else seems to gotten themselves hitched...suckers), and generally engaging in many and various shenanigans.  It's fantastic.

Some of the highlights of this year's Great Western War as is follows:

- We captured the vessel of the Captain of the Royal Navy for our king's enemy and put him in the stocks.  We took pictures so we could present the proof to our king.  Good times.

- We stole an entire party.

- The Great Bacon Cook-off of Ought 9

- We reclaimed (and renamed) Consensual Clam Sex Island.

- Epic Tug-o-War battles.

- I taught the Middle Ages how to Walk Like An Egyptian

- Sword Dancing

- The Great Kabob Marathon

- The Haitian Rum Auction

- Bacon!

- And the usual singing, drinking, and debauching.  Actually, to call it "the usual" sort of cheapens it, because it's not usual, it's epic.  Basically imagine a party that doesn't end for a week.  At the end of it you're exhausted, scarred, bruised, burnt, blistered, and your kidneys hurt...but MAN what a ride.

Happy Jenday!