Splitsider

 
The Business
5

The Ugly Truth About Comedy and Talent Reps

by | December 11th, 2012

How often do you think about comedy on a given day? If you’re a reader of this site, chances are that it permeates a sizable chunk of your waking thoughts. Maybe you’re just a fanatic and love following your favorite performers or the general industry news. Perhaps you’re an aspiring comedian/entertainer yourself and enjoy the inspiration your heroes provide. The amount of mental resources we give to comedy may vary from person to person, but the one thing I can assure all of you is that nobody cares less about comedy than a talent agent.

Many come to Hollywood recognizing, but willfully ignoring the cliché that they will be making a name for themselves from the ground up. Gumption, hard work, and a little bit of luck are certainly vital equipment in the toolbox of a fledgling comedic actor, but too often it is assumed that once they reach the point of requiring an agent, the hard part is over, and these rainmakers will be able to steer them to the correct casting directors, showrunners, auteurs, etc. Unfortunately, I’m here to give you the sobering inside scoop. While I obviously don’t speak for all agents and managers, particularly at the more monolithic agencies, the brutal truth is that unless you’ve sought out and signed with an extremely specific and small subset of the available pool of talent representatives out there, you’re only wasting your valuable time attempting to bring comedy into your general meeting.

My experience in the business side of the industry spans multiple agencies and years and, during that time, I have had my optimism and earnestness wrung out of me like so many of my forbearers. So, please, use my cynical pearls here to steel yourself for what awaits you, should you choose to seek your fortune in the acting side of comedy. READ MORE

Year in Review
5

The 10 Funniest Video Games Of 2010

by | December 28th, 2010

Funny games are something of a rarity. There are lots of games that try to be funny, sure. But with games still in their infancy and many game writers just imitating their favorite movies and viral videos, humor in electronic media has a tendency to fall on its face and then slide into the seventh layer of Hell. Yes, “Double Rainbow” was funny. No, you don't need to slip it into your action adventure.

Yet 2010 was an amazing year for video games. New Super Mario, StarCraft, Fallout and Civilization games made this an expensive year for fans. And the explosion of the indie scene with successful games like Super Meat Boy and Minecraft changed the standard business model and made it one of the most important.

Fortunately, this massive, bloated year of games produced some amazing, hilarious titles. Games that either pushed interactive humor to new levels or, well, finally got it right. Here are those games. READ MORE

Classic Simpsons Week
1

Why Are There So Many Simpsons Video Games?

by | December 2nd, 2010

As fans of comedy, we often forget — or try to forget — that The Simpsons is a franchise as much as it is a source of humor. Bart dolls that say, “Eat my shorts!” don’t really explore the human condition and the Simpsons comforter I had on my bed under my Spider-Man pillow was less early postmodernism and more childhood commercialism.

Which is why it’s so hard to discuss The Simpsons video games: they exist somewhere between licensed toy and expansion on the humor of the series. They represent the nexus of the duality of The Simpsons franchise. Are they cheap knockoffs or unique interactive episodes? READ MORE

Older posts »
-->