(this is a hidden post for members of The BASIC only. Please don’t share.)
January 16, 2014
Hey everyone,
Hope January has been treating you well so far.
In my last email I mentioned The Year of Yumor and the three things I was going to try to do more of this year. Here’s a little more info on one of those three things, The Weekly Schnoz.
(Over the next week or two I’ll write more about my new podcast and the infancy of my stand-up career.)
1. The Weekly Schnoz
Last year I did six of these episodes and they went okay. If you watch them through chronologically, you’ll notice some changes that happened along the way as I was figuring out what worked and what didn’t.
I started off trying to write as many funny news jokes as I could, but a few episodes in I realized that the funnier stuff (to me) was when I was yelling at someone off camera. I also realized that the bar is pretty high for funny mock newscasts. I can never be SNL Weekend Update or The Onion or Ron Burgundy. And while those sources all heavily influence what I’m doing, I want to consciously break out from that mold.
Those ideas led to what happened in the last episode of Season 1. I quit my job and walked off the set, promising to redefine news with a home-brewed newscast out of my basement. Now that I’m actually writing stuff for this season, I’ve had a few fun ideas bubble up that I really like. These might not all make the final cut, but I wanted to share them anyway:
1. I’m going to start playing a character instead of myself. I’m the furthest thing from a trained actor, but even I was having trouble figuring out exactly who to be in this show. Was I a bumbling, cocky doofus like Ron Burgundy? Was I a snarky, pleasant fun guy like Seth Meyers? I couldn’t figure it out. And it didn’t help that I was signing on as ‘Bryan Allain’, either. Was I playing me as I would give the news or not?
I’m thinking the beginning of Season 2 will start with a reveal that Bryan Allain was just a stage name, and then I’ll reveal who I ‘really’ am. This will allow me to really create a character that I can play, and it will also help me plan out an arc for Season 2 that will (hopefully) tie the episodes together.
2. The show will be more than just news. Delivering punchlines from a desk can be funny (and sometimes not funny), but I think it’s playing it a little too safe for me. I have no problem acting like a complete moron on camera, so why not go for it?
I’m still trying to come up with ideas that get me out from behind the desk…so we’ll see what happens. All I know is that I got really inspired reading “Live From New York” last month, and it made me want to be a little more daring in my humor. I’m obviously not going to try and create my own version of SNL, but I do want to take some of the risks they did in the early years of the show.
3. I might add in another on-camera character to the mix. I’ve got a beanie, a thick pair of glasses, and a fake beard here on my desk that are just screaming to be worn. I’m thinking they will belong to the camera guy I hire to film the show, Logan Ramsfoot. I don’t know if this will actually work on camera, but I’ll probably give it a try.
4. I want to spend more time producing the show. Last year I would churn out an episode in 4-6 hours. That included writing, recording, and editing…often in the same day. This year I want to spend more time on the script to try and take it up a level…we’ll see if I actually follow through on that.
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So yeah, all of these ideas are still very much a work in progress, but it’s what I have in mind to attempt to take things to another level with this new season. I promised the first episode in January and I’m kind of running out of time. Better get back to it…
Next time I write I’ll share more about the SchnozCast that will be launching very soon. Thanks so much for helping me decide on the artwork. Image #1 was the consensus choice, and just yesterday I received the finished artwork from Kevin Keigley at Noble Fox Creative.
You guys are the first to see it, which I guess makes it a BASIC exclusive:
(If you need any artwork done, look up Kevin at Noble Fox)
If you have a question or thought or whatever, email me or comment at bryanallain.com. I’d be honored to respond.
Thanks so much for reading and being a part of this journey. More coming soon…
Bryan