Friday, February 13, 2009

Whiskey...and then some

It all started a little over a year ago. I was at a sushi party, meaning that I was in the middle of learning just how hard it is to make a Philadelphia Roll, (word to the wise: when you think you have enough cream cheese, add another tub and then you’re close) when a girl of much adorableness that I would come to know and love and call Alli approached me and asked if I’d be willing to audition for a web-series called Hell Froze Over.

Skeptical, but already hooked by the title, I agreed, expecting that not much would come of it but at the very least I’d get some more audition experience. Little did I know.

Soon enough, I was auditioning in front of a video recorder in Alli’s living room (not as dirty as it sounds) and trying not to laugh at how hilarious the script was. And the writer/director was telling me that “the guys in New York” had to see the tape before anything else was decided. I nodded, trying to look like I had any idea what that meant, and kept reading and giggling between lines.

Several weeks later, I was offered the part, and several weeks after that, I found myself freezing on a crisp Friday morning, wearing a halter top and jeans eight sizes too big and having a gun pointed at me, having the time of my life as we shot the very first episode, Whiskey.

Welcome to Hell Froze Over.

The people I met that day, and have gotten the chance to work with since, have utterly spoiled me. I feel very sorry for you if, in my future acting career, I am acting opposite you and you are not hilarious and hot and a pretty darn nifty human being to boot, because that’s what I’ve worked with on pretty much every episode. At some point I started to wonder if there was some secret factory cranking out awesome people, and Misplaced Planet, the motley crew of writers, directors, actors, and film-makers that was putting on this crazy show, had an employee working there or knew a secret password that granted them access to borrow these wonderfully awesome people for a weekend of shooting.

At this point, you might be rolling your eyes, thinking, “suck-up” and feeling fairly confident that surely I met someone, ANYONE, while shooting the first season of this web-series that annoyed me to no end, that made the shoot difficult, that I would have preferred not to work with. Just one person, maybe?

Nope. Sorry to say. I have yet to meet one person yet that I haven’t just absolutely flipped out about and wanted to take home to my mom and introduce them as my new best friend forever. I’m telling you, I think it’s just as weird as you do. I keep waiting for the punch line, or the social experiment to end. It’s just…weird.

But in the end, I will take what I can get, and what I got was ten episodes of hilarity and memories that I will hold on to for a very long time.

I tell you this, not because I want to explain the episodes in depth, (they don’t really need an explanation) but because I want you to know how much I love what I’m doing when I work with these people, every chance that I get. And I hope that love comes across on the screen, whether it’s with that fantastic girl playing my roommate Brooke or the many, many wonderful guys (and girls) that I get to hit on, flirt with, aim guns at, make out with, or wrestle during threesomes, and as I’m covered in their blood, peeing in their closets, or slapping them with meat, I’m having the time of my life.

So. With a small little introduction, I give you the pilot, "Whiskey", which airs today on HellFrozeOver.tv, and "Mustache", which airs on Monday.

I don’t think I ever stopped laughing, from the very first shot to the very last, on the set of "Whiskey." I got to carry around hot dogs for half a day, and if you pay close attention to the few opening lines of the episode, the actress playing Brooke (the wonderfully talented and extremely hot Diana) and I improvised those lines based off Diana mishearing me while I was defending having a black eye.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I also spent a good couple hours, um…in a car. Yeah. Let’s just say that.

So enjoy "Whiskey", and when you’re done, have a good weekend, come back on Monday, and watch the hilarity unfold of…"Mustache."

"Mustache" is, quite honestly, one of my favorite episodes. Oh sure, they are all hilarious in very different ways, but the irony of the date, the body-issues lesson that we don’t After-School-Special beat over your head, and the one-liner that you will be quoting for perhaps the next ten years of your life all combined to make the episode, in my humble opinion, quite a kick ass one.

I also can’t tell you how many times during the shoot Garrett, the actor playing my date in the episode, cracked me up to the point of tears. I had no idea a mustache, or an actor, could be that funny. Apparently, I was wrong.

Everyone, enjoy. And don’t forget to check in with Jody’s blog on a weekly basis to get her take on the dates. Should be a good time, had by all.

2 comments:

Khaled KEM said...

Thanks for the Whiskey..I will definitely watch it and tell you what I think?

Anonymous said...

My favorite line: "You're a one person telephone game."

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