Break a Leg

The LA Times has written a great article about Internet TV and has both mentioned Break a Leg and included a picture of it in the article's head.

It's great news for us -- it's mainstream media and as the article itself says, we've struggled a bit with hitting the mainstream (maybe we're too edgy, hip and nebbish? Who knows, really.)

Anyway, you can read the awesome article here:

The LA Times Writes About Break a Leg 

Here's the quote about the show:

Some good stuff gets lost in the crowd too. "Break a Leg," an edgy and entertaining comedy on blip.tv, should have a bigger audience. It's the story of a young writer-director, David Penn (played in best meta fashion by the show's real co-writer-director, Yuri Baranovsky), engaged in a difficult and possibly fatal quest to get his sitcom made. Despite appearing on blip.tv, Metacafe, YouTube and iTunes, the show has not appeared on the mainstream radar.

So, who wants to make us appear on the mainstream radar?

Yuri, always meta-fashionable. 

Ciao, Amigos.

So, a little more about our guest star for the Halloween minisode.

Kamau is a prominent comedian here in the Bay Area (and around the country, too), whenever Dave Chappelle's in town, he'll get Kamau (and Kamau's friend, Kevin Avery) to open for him. Kamau and Kevin also have their own radio show where they review movies and interview celebrities [when are we going to be on your radio show, Kamau?!]

Kamau is also doing a show here in SF at the Shelton theater. I pasted the description of the show and his bio below:

The W. Kamau Bell Curve
The show designed to end racism in about an hour.

Bring a friend of a different race and your friend
gets in for free!

JUST LIKE MOTLEY CRUE and skinny jeans, racism is making a comeback in America. Every time you turn around, a white celebrity is talking about un-white people in ways that haven't been popular since Martin Luther King had a dream. Well, W. Kamau Bell is mad as hell and he's not going smile politely anymore as his un-black friends go, "Was what Imus said really THAT big a deal?" "The W. Kamau Bell Curve" is one part diatribe, one part manifesto, and several parts funny. And it wouldn't exist without Sarah Silverman's "Jesus is Magic", Michael Richards' "N Word Blowout", Don Imus' "Nappy Headed Hos", Rosie O'Donnell's "Ching ching chong ching...", and the next dumbass, uninformed celebrity who says something incredibly and unapologetically racist.

BAY AREA GUITAR PHENOM PAUL E. HUNT and his funk-rock-soul band Conjure opens each show and will feature different guest musicians each night.

AS A STAND-UP COMIC, W. KAMAU BELL has frequently opened for Dave Chappelle in San Francisco and around the country. He has appeared on TV on Comedy Central and Comics Unleashed. Locally, Kamau has been profiled in The San Francisco Chronicle on three different occasions, including not ironically during Black History Month. The SF Weekly called him, "certainly
funny", although he was more excited that they called him "handsome". He is most proud of being the leader of The Solo Performance Workshop at The Shelton Theater, where he is also an Artist in Residence.

WHAT:
The W. Kamau Bell Curve
With house band Conjure featuring Paul E. Hunt

WHEN
Oct 18, Thur, 8:00 CD release party for ONE NIGht
ONLY: W. Kamau Bell's new stand-up comedy CD
Nov 15, Thur, 8:00
Dec 13, Thur, 8:00
Jan 24, Thur, 8:00

WHERE:
The Shelton Theater
533 Sutter (nr. Powell)
San Francisco

Show Kamau some support, guys, and add him on his MySpace, right here.

And don't forget to check out the final act of Episode 3, coming this monday!

-Yuri

Hey, guys.

Just wanted to write up a quick blog and tell you guys that we should be getting some sort of mention in this Sunday's LA Times (so keep an eye out if you live there -- we'll try to scan it and post it when we have it ourselves.).

Backstage East and West should both be doing a thing on us (coming in a couple of weeks) and there's a few more things that we're waiting to pan out.

Also, we were lucky enough to cast an up-and-coming comedian in the Halloween minisode. I'll write more about him tomorrow when I can focus more on a blog, but his name is W. Kamau Bell, he's been on Comedy Central, he has his own radio show on Live 105.3 and he's one of Dave Chappelle's favorite openers.

He's also, obviously, damn hilarious.

More on him tomorrow.

Oh, and, do you guys like that little chat window? We're considering making it part of the actual site, so let me know if that's something you guys would enjoy.

Goodnight --

-Yuri

I added a little chat program below -- anyone can pick a nickname and talk to one another. The crew and I will be in and out -- right now, this is just a test. If it's fun and/or amusing, we may find some more fun uses for it.

For now, enjoy getting to know each other.

Dear Network TV,

Okay. We think we're ready. We've shot three episodes, we've gotten better, no one has been impaled by a boom pole or an errant light -- we're doing okay. We think we're ready to be on TV now.

Don't get me wrong -- we like the Internet. It's fun, it gives us a chance to talk to you, the fans directly, and there's no limitations, no one telling us what to do. We like it.

But we also like TV.

Okay, okay, let's compromise. Let's put Break a Leg on TV and then put minisodes on the Internet. We've got loads of ideas -- we can develop a whole world using the Net. Hell, we can make Groommates for the Internet. The point is, it'll be new and hip -- and everyone will say, "Gee, Fox/NBC/CBS/TBS/Comedy Central/Cooking Channel, you sure are hip -- you picked up an internet sitcom and are creating a whole world for the show on the internet, how new and exciting and different!"

So, there's that. There's everyone thinking you're outrageously cool.

There's also that we're pretty funny. And just think -- if we make Break a Leg with no money, what we can make with SOME money. Seriously, any money. We just want to be able to cover boom pole-related injuries.

So, again, we're ready. Our actors, our crew -- we feel we've gone through the proper development. We've worked 12 hour days, we've fought horrible conditions and we've risked our lives (well, maybe) for shoots. We're ready to bring this kind of commitment to a network. Any network. I'm pretty sure Francesca Scala and Amber Turnipseed can make a killer pie.

My email is Yuri@breakaleg.tv and my brother's email is Vlad@breakaleg.tv -- now you have no excuse, you can just click it and say hi.

Hell, let me make it easier for you, just copy and paste this into the body of the email:

"Dear Break a Leg,

My name is ___________ and I am the Senior VP of ____________. We've been watching you for _____ and think you're ready for primetime. We are offering you $_______________________________________ to create new episodes of Break a Leg on our channel, channel __. We'd also like to add that you're all surprisingly attractive and by hiring you, we realize how ridiculously cool we'd look to the outside world.

Thank you for taking this time and reading our email. We look forward to producing your show soon.

Love,

__________________

VP of _________

---

See? Now you've not only picked up a great show, you've also saved some precious time. We live to please.

Love,
Yuri Baranovsky
Employee of _________