Saucy Media

I've Been Working!

2010-04-10T00:27:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since I posted and that's for good reason: I've been at work! I love doing development work for TV, and my current gig is full on. I'll get back to blogging when I get a second to breathe - in the meantime, check out the archive! There's lots of good stuff in there.

Happy Free Speech 2010!

2010-01-02T12:17:00.005-05:00

Happy 2010, fellow comedy lovers and patriots! We're ringing in the new year with another Kathy Griffin attention-getting non-scandal - if you haven't heard, while co-hosting New Years' rockin' eve in Times Square with the adorable Anderson Cooper, she referred to the dumb balloon boy, whose name is Falcon, as "Fuckin'". How NOT a big deal is this?

I'm a fan of Kathy Griffin, and I admire her willingness to tweak convention whenever possible. I hate nothing more than when media outlets like the New York Times gets all priggish and says stuff like "We're not able to print what she said here, but..." I'm not in elementary school! Tell me what the person said! Isn't that what free speech is about? When are we going to get over our fear of curse words? Words are words are words, as far as I'm concerned. Who are we protecting? The children? What are the children doing reading the New York Times or staying up until midnight watching CNN? Go to bed!

To me, what's worse is the puritanical AP headline: "Kathy Griffin Makes Another Vulgar Quip on CNN". "Vulgar" is such a condemning word when applied to a woman. First, it sounds like "vulva," a word nobody likes. Second, it's like saying she's not feminine, not a lady. Oooh, how vulgar. How base and classless. Fuck 'em, Kathy. I find your devil-may-care approach to censorship and convention refreshing and I want more of it. Bring on the fuckin' decade!

Smack The Pony!

2010-01-01T13:51:00.009-05:00

And they say women don't care for sketch comedy. Tell that to Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan and Sally Phillips, stars and creators of Smack The Pony, the Emmy-winning sketch comedy show that ran for four seasons from 1999-2003 on Channel 4 in the UK. A friend in acquisitions for IFC and the Sundance Channel recently hipped me to the show, which I promptly Googled the hell out of.

What I discovered was a sketch show that feels like the next generation of chick-centric comedy - a scripted sister to Oxygen's old prank show Girls Behaving Badly, or a series version of the amazing female-oriented SNL ad parodies like the classic Annuale. The show mines dating, friendship, work, beauty, fashion, sex and competition for comic effect. And it's not muggy or broad, for the most part, just dead on funny and relatable.

This isn't the dude-centric Apatow-esque comedy all the networks covet, but a little something for the ladies. I can see a similar format succeeding on Oxygen (if they ever get over Campus Ladies and try scripted comedy again), or even on the new Lifetime where execs are experimenting with sitcoms like Sherri and Rita Rocks. This feels fresher than those shows, even though it's 10 years old at this point. Can someone say "format sale"?

Check out the clips and let me know what you think!

In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play

2010-01-01T13:29:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I saw In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play by Sarah Ruhl on Broadway. For the most part (ignoring the overlong second act and wonky ending), it was great fun - an exploration of Victorian morality and sexuality played out in the home of a doctor whose specialty was treating "hysterical" women by administering vibrations - under a sheet, over the underthings - to their most sensitive of lady parts.

The acting was mainly great (stars Michael Cerveris, Laura Benati, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Maria Dizzia), but it's the subject matter that fascinates. How is it possible that the Victorians, with their love of all things electrical and their fear of the flesh, didn't associate the pleasurable paroxysms of the "hysterics" with sex? The play puzzles this question out against scenes of giggling, conspiratorial sexual exploration among women whose knowledge of their own bodies - and indeed of the world itself - are more girlish than grown-up.

Ruhl's play sings in the moments that most deeply delve into the primal, physical mysteries and miracles of women's lives - orgasm, nursing, childbirth - that are too seldom explored in film or on the stage, perhaps because they are messy, confusing, animal things. Many thanks to Sarah Ruhl for her smart, compassionate work and for bringing these elemental themes onto the stage and into the light.

New Fox Sketch Show - With Ladies!

2009-12-04T09:22:00.010-05:00

Per Cynopsis, FOX has a new sketch pilot in the works. They're calling it Inside Jokes and it will be produced by Merv Griffin Entertainment and EP'd by Entourage's Kevin Connolly, with Cameron Bender hosting the pilot. Other EPS (and there are as many as there are cast members): Ted Brunetti, Ron Ward and John Moffitt). The stars: Mary Scheer (top photo), Jay Phillips, Carrie Wiita (middle), Paul Schackman and Lauren Rose Lewis (bottom).

Interesting that people never give up on the sketch format - it looks like this show will feature quick pops of comedy - they're saying 30-45 short segments in the 1/2 hr. Seems like a lot, but also seems calculated to appeal the YouTube attention span.

Also, I find it interesting the way shows like this are cast - what was the calculus behind picking the people they picked (three white chicks, a white guy and a black guy)? New hit shows like Sunny came with pre-built ensembles who already know they have chemistry together. Even SNL has that with the Lonely Island guys. That seems like the wave of the future, since so many people are out there online making shorts and proof of concept tapes on their own. Plus, great utility players like Darrell Hammond on SNL or most of the cast of MADtv haven't really popped outside the frame of a readymade show. Curious to see if this show will make it to air and feel like a fresh new approach to sketch.

Drew's Directorial Debut

2009-09-26T15:48:00.004-04:00

The Times today had a really lovely piece about Drew Barrymore on the eve of her directorial debut with the Ellen Page roller-derby starrer Whip It! Clearly the world can use more movies like the ones her Flower Films creates, "movies celebrating female friendship, sass and self-empowerment," since, as I was pleasantly astounded to read, “feature films produced by Flower have a combined box-office total of over 1 billion dollars.”

Drew's producing touch has brought box office magic to flicks like Charlie's Angels and Never Been Kissed, but she seems to only be getting started telling funny, female stories. Somehow, she seems to have managed to retain some sort of honest, alternative-leaning sprit, despite life lived under Hollywood klieg lights.

From her bad-girl youth to her riot-grrrl-esque performances on David Letterman's desk to now, she has evolved into a bona fide, all-grows-up artist. Even though I wasn't in E.T. at age 6 or rehab at 12, I've always related to her journey, feeling that it paralleled, in some small way, my own personal and professional evolution from rebel teen to self-possessed woman on a showbiz mission. My favorite quote from the article:

“People say, ‘Did you always want to direct?’ or ‘Do you think you’ll ever direct again?’ I’m always very polite about it,” she said, adding, with good-natured defiance, “Do you really think I haven’t been preparing for this my whole life? And I’m just going to try it once and then never do it again? It baffles me. And then I just think, ‘Oh God, they just don’t know me.’ ”

Julie Klausner's Memoir: I Don't Care About Your Band

2009-09-26T13:38:00.006-04:00

I recently finished Julie Klausner's painfully honest and very very funny memoir, I Don't Care About Your Band, which details her romantic and sexual misaventures with a series of hip/unavailable/brooding/sexy/dysfunctional/creative NYC men, and her journey towards mustering the self-esteem to finally go after guys who are actually available and interested. Who among us can't relate to that? Julie, a multi-talented performer and former writer for LOGO's Big Gay Sketch Show has a sharp, sassy pen and the willingness to go there with details both dirty and emotional. Really nice work.

Lennon Parham in CBS' Accidentally on Purpose

2009-09-26T13:28:00.004-04:00

Just wanted to give a shout-out to brilliant comic actress (and UCB NY alum) Lennon Parham, who's making her well-deserved network TV debut this fall as Jenna Elfman's sister in the new show Accidentally on Purpose. It's awesome to see someone so deserving (and genuinely lovely) have this kind of success. Plus, it's a great lesson for all the performers out there toiling away on one-woman shows in basement theaters and Fringe Festivals across the nation that good things come to those who hone their craft, earn their chops and develop a specific comedic point of view. Congrats Lennon!

"The Broadroom" should be "The Bored-Room"

2009-09-11T08:59:00.005-04:00

Candace "Sex & The City" Bushnell's latest foray into scripted programming is called The Broadroom, a branded entertainment web series sponsored by Maybelline. I have no problem with branded entertainment - the money's got to come from somewhere and sponsors are the reason television exists in the first place, so that's not my issue with this show. I was a fan of Suave and Sprint's crowd-sourced storytelling show In The Motherhood before it up-rezzed to ABC, so there's proof that if the writing and performances are good, this kind of thing can be done well.

The problem with The Broadroom is that it's boring and not funny. While Carrie et. al. spoke to something deep in the cultural subconscious of single women on SATC, these ladies - each representative of a different all-white marketing-defined demographic - are neither zeitgeisty nor aspirational-fabulous.

With a cast including Jennie Garth, Mary McCann, Talia Balsam and Jennifer Esposito, they clearly spent a pretty penny on this show and the performances are fine (the makeup looks great), but after one episode, I don't know what the show is about, really. I applaud Maybelline's marketing department for taking a risk on this project and for attempting to tell stories that appeal to women outside the coveted 18-34 demo, but from a story perspective, I'm afraid this show has nothing to say.

For whatever dumb reason, the video is not embeddable, so if you're curious, the show can be found here.

Enlightened on HBO

2009-09-08T12:01:00.002-04:00

HBO's doing a pilot of a comedy starring Laura Dern tentatively titled Enlightened. The show is about a self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening prompting her to change her life for the better, which causes more upheaval in her life. Director Mike White (School of Rock) created this project with/for Dern. The realm of spirituality and self-help is ripe for the parodying. I hope this goes!

Whip It!

2009-07-16T13:15:00.003-04:00

Sorry it's been so long between posts, fans - life's been good but super busy and ye olde blog has fallen by the wayside. But when I saw the trailer for "Whip It," Drew Barrymore's directorial debut about roller derby chicks (starring the fabulous Ellen Page), I had to post it. What do you think?

Entertainment Weekly's 25 Funniest Actresses In Hollywood

2009-04-12T17:21:00.005-04:00

Well, it's a good start but by no means diverse or comprehensive. They say:

Anna Farris
Tina Fey
Jane Lynch
Amy Poehler
Jaime Pressly
Kristen Wiig
Allison Janney
Isla Fisher
Jane Krakowski
Octavia Spencer
Ari Graynor
Sarah Silverman
Wanda Sykes
Emily Blunt
Kristen Schaal
Mindy Kaling
Rashida Jones
Leslie Mann
Emma Stone
Elizabeth Banks
Sarah Burns
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Nicole Sullivan
Maya Rudolph
Cheryl Hines

Who else do you think deserves to be on this list?

Thunderant

2008-12-20T13:02:00.003-05:00

Under-sung SNL genius Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein make funny, intimate little videos under the name Thunderant. This one will be familiar to all of the humorless feminists out there (and the people who love them):

Prop 8: The Musical

2008-12-03T13:24:00.003-05:00

Another entry in the "using your power for good" category -- holy star-studded musical theater activism, Batman - check this shit out:

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Eve Ensler Presents Offensive Women This Weekend!

2008-12-02T17:11:00.006-05:00

The time has finally come! The show I've been co-producing with Julie Goldman for over a year is blowing up big time with the help of Eve Ensler (the only person to whom I've ever written a fan letter - and she wrote me back!). With Eve's backing, we've taken the show from the funky Slipper Room to the funky (but much bigger) Zipper Factory Theatre for a two-night-only engagement that features some of my favorite funny ladies.

For those who think "funny" and "feminist" don't belong in the same sentence, I submit into evidence the following video featuring the show's own Rachel Feinstein:

Here's more about how to get tickets, who's on the show, and like that:

EVE ENSLER & JULIE GOLDMAN PRESENT...
OFFENSIVE WOMEN: TALK IS DANGEROUS
A no-holds-barred, rock-n-roll comedy show featuring the next generation of outspoken, outrageous women comedians!

Friday December 5th @ 8pm
Saturday December 6th @ 8pm

TWO NIGHTS ONLY!

Presented by EVE ENSLER (founder of V-Day and creator of The Vagina Monologues) and JULIE GOLDMAN (co-star of LOGO's Big Gay Sketch Show), this show is guaranteed to be a balls-out comedy throw-down. No subject is off-limits and these hysterical ladies are guaranteed to ruffle some feathers saying the dangerous sh*#t you think but are SO not supposed to say out loud.

With live music by The Totally Offensive Band, host Julie Goldman, comedians Rachel Feinstein, Kate Rigg, Betsy Salkind and Shazia Mirza (all the way from the U.K.), plus the dirty R&B stylings of Wendy Ho and the antics of burlesque superstars The Wau Wau Sisters, put on your party dress and pull up your big girl pants - it's going to be one incredibly funny night.

Produced by Julie Goldman, Erin Keating and Eve Ensler
Directed by Virginia Scott

@ The Zipper Factory Theatre
336 West 37th St. (between 8th and 9th Aves.)

Tickets are $28 at thezipperfactory.com
or call 212-352-3101

This is the perfect "girls night out" for people who think "girls nights out" are lame! Bring your posse and have dinner and drinks before or after the show at The Zipper Factory Tavern! Call 212-695-4600 for reservations.

More about the performers:

Julie Goldman – HOST - co-star of LOGO's Big Gay Sketch Show

Rachel Feinstein - opens for Sarah Silverman, Comedy Central's Premium Blend

Wendy Ho - The Gospel According to Ho, "Bitch I Stole Your Purse" (LOGO's #1 funniest video of 2008)

Shazia Mirza - NBC's Last Comic Standing, BBC's Have I Got News For You, CBS' 60 Minutes

Kate Rigg - NBC's Late Friday, Comedy Central's Women In Comedy, Vh1's Awesomely Bad...

Betsy Salkind - The "Squirrel Lady" from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, former writer for Roseanne

The Wau Wau Sisters - Jimmy Kimmel Live!, John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, The World Famous Spiegeltent

More details at www.offensivewomen.com!

Old School Comedy

2008-12-01T08:39:00.006-05:00

Even though comedy retrospectives never manage to rate (even on Comedy Central), the comedy gods still see fit to keep them coming, and I for one an thrilled. I caught a great doc this weekend called Hail Sid Caesar: The Golden Age of Comedy that told the story of Your Show of Shows and the comedy writing dream team that made up its staff: Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, and other brilliant dudes who dominated the scripted comedy business for the next 50 years. It was great to see - and still find laughs in - clips of Caesar and Imogene Coca (who you might remember as the grandmother from National Lampoon's Vacation films) doing all sorts of proto-sitcom scenes and the first-ever television parodies. Amazingly prescient stuff, considering the show ran in the very early days of TV (1950 - 1954), and TV was only invented in 1945.

This January, PBS will be airing a six-hour series hosted by Billy Crystal called Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America. The series is co-produced by Thirteen/WNET and Ghost Light Films, each episode spotlights a different American comedy genre and will include interviews from more than 90 comedians, writers, producers and historians including Rosanne Barr, Carol Burnett, Sid Caesar, George Carlin and Chris Rock and many more. Sounds right up my alley.

Here's Carl Reiner and Sid Caesar doing his spaced out Jazz guy, Progress Hornsby. It's over 50 years old and it still feels fresh:

Smart Girls at the Party

2008-12-01T08:19:00.003-05:00

From the "using your power for good" department: ON Networks launched its latest show Smart Girls at the Party about "people who are changing the world by being themselves." The people in question are talented young girls, and the series features Amy Poehler interviewing her young subjects Larry King style. Amy created the show with her friend Meredith Walker, former senior producer for Nickelodeon's Nick News, and former head of talent for SNL. Watching this adorable, empowering show literally moved me to tears. To quote Poehler, "You hear that? That's the sound of something awesome!" In a counter-intuitive marketing move, Mattel's Barbie is the show's sponsor.

Check out this interview with 10 year-old writer Cameron K. - I dare you not to love it!

Monty Python on YouTube

2008-11-20T10:10:00.006-05:00

I wouldn't be a card-carrying comedy geek if I didn't get all giddy about the news that Monty Python has entered the digital age with their own YouTube channel, which features a ton of clips, outtakes, and interviews. While they're better known for dressing up as women than working with them, these geniuses (geni?) have influenced every comedian since time immemorial. Just a flesh wound? I fart in your your general direction? The lumberjack song? Every sperm is sacred? Not laughing yet? Then I dare you not to giggle at the Python classic Ministry of Silly Walks:

Cusack it to Me!

2008-11-18T09:08:00.005-05:00

The inimitable Joan Cusack has a project in the pipeline for NBC, per The Hollywood Reporter. She is developing a comedy about psychiatry based on her own idea in collaboration with the network and Universal Media Studios. John Markus (from The Larry Sanders Show) will write and executive produce while Cusack produces with Julie Yen.

I loved her recent performance in Nicole Holofcener's Friends With Money, and of course her classic roles in Working Girl and Sixteen Candles. To me, Joan is living proof that being a one-of-a-kind is the best way for funny women to have life-long careers in comedy.

Two New Ladies Join SNL

2008-11-12T18:53:00.005-05:00

SNL has jumped to fill the post-election, post-Tina-Fey-moonlighting-as-Sarah-Palin, Amy-Poehler-leaving-to-have-a-baby void by casting two new female LA-based comedians, both of whom will make their debut this Saturday night. The comics are:

21 year-old Abby Elliott, daughter of comedian Chris Elliot, whose list of credits is short but you may have heard her as Hipster Girl on King of the Hill or seen her in The Midnight Show at UCB LA. Here's a reel of her doing a bunch o characters:

Groundlings mainstager Michaela Watkins, who you may have seen on The New Adventures of Old Christine. This clip of her as Arianna Huffington tickled me:

Mazel Tov to both Abby and Michaela - I can't wait to see them both shine!

EconWomen

2008-11-06T08:41:00.007-05:00

In the midst of election craziness last week I went to the EconWomen conference, a half-day event put on by the folks behind PaidContent about "the economics of women-centric digital media". I went to hear mainly about what's happening with video in the content-created-specifically-for women-online space and how that might effect or support the mission (and eventual business plan) of Saucy Media. In addition to video, there were panels on advertising, deals and community building, along with Q&A's with folks who publish several leading women's publications both online and off.

To use businessspeak, here's the topline takeaway (er, the stuff I found interesting and relevant presented in a delightfully easy-to-digest format). Lots of business stuff below that I'll try to parse for how it's relevant to Saucy Media's mission of celebrating and creating comedy for, by and about women.

WHY DO WOMEN LOVE THE INTERNET?

Per Wenda Harris Millard, President, Media and Co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the internet is a medium "made for women," who are by nature "interactive." In this recession, women are using it to "seek the comfort of home".

Saucy Says: The "comfort of home" angle may be a bit of a biased perspective - to my mind, recession or not, women are looking for all sorts of things online, from information to entertainment and so much in between.

SELLING ADVERTISING IS THE ONLY WAY PEOPLE ARE MONETIZING ONLINE CONTENT:

Per Millard, Web ad sales will match print magazine ad sales by 2010. Cathie Black, President of Hearst Magazines, said that Hearst makes $100 million in ad sales online annually. The web presents a huge opportunity for intelligent integrated marketing that is context and content specific. But one thing stopping sites from monetizing content, especially video, is that 53% of women found any video advertising disruptive. Advertising is, by nature, intrusive, but when it disrupts your experience it's doing more harm than good.

WHAT'S BLOGGING GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Per Lisa Stone, CEO and Cofounder of BlogHer, BlogHer arose as a response to women who wanted to justify (through income from ad sales) to their husbands and partners why they were spending so much time writing blogs. There are 2 currencies for women who blog: revenue and recognition. Women want to participate online - they love social media and like to be asked for their opinions and contributions (even in the service of evaluating or promoting products).

Saucy Says: I love this idea, that women who create content (like, um, me) are happy to be compensated for their efforts by more than just monetary means. I think this is true for content creators who make video as well for whom hits and comments are almost as good as hard cash money.

WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO WOMEN'S PRINT MAGAZINES?

Per Cathie Black of Hearst, it's hard for magazines to compete with the multimedia nature of the web. Cosmo does well online because it is such a successful, massive brand. Visually-driven print magazines will survive but most text-heavy publications will have to go online

For her part, Tina Brown, Cofounder and Editor in Chief, The Daily Beast (former Editrix of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and the short-lived Talk Magazine) says that she loves the Web's ability to be relevant and responsive up-to-the-minute and that she's "finally found a medium that's commensurate with my attention span!"

Saucy Says: That print magazines are going online and will be looking for more multimedia can only be a good thing for female-oriented comedy. I have long thought that funny videos could be a smart supplement (and potential traffic-driver) for women's magazine sites.

Also, Tina Brown was awesome - sharp and sassy, dressed in all black (wearing a gorgeous buttery leather jacket), I related to her excitement about the possibilities of the web to contribute in real-time to the cultural dialogue and her impatience with the limitations of other media.

SHOULD WOMEN'S CONTENT SITES GO MASS OR NICHE?

Per Dana Settle, Partner, Greycroft Partners, for women's companies, it's probably better to be niche-y and very cost aware in order to get venture capital funding. Many of these women's sites, like SheKnows and TheKnot/The Nest/The Bump, wowOwow, approach content for women via segments that are relevant to "Life Stages": college, single, wedding, home buying, pregnancy, parenting, empty nest, retirement, etc.

Some of the execs asked the question "does personality scale?" They seemed to think that it's not a smart idea to build a site around a single person's voice (like Dooce.com or PerezHilton.com) but rather, magazine-style, to find voices to populate a site and fill in content areas.

Saucy Says: The "Life Stages" conversation was interesting to me and made me think of that punk song by The Godfathers that goes "Birth! School! Work! Death!" I know that women are obsessed, and rightfully so, with whatever's right in front of them in their lives, and that we're more driven by time because of fertility and the limited number of childbearing years we have. But I also think it underestimates women to think that they aren't also united by sensibility and intellectual/cultural interests as well. For a mass audience strategy I think Life Stages is probably right on, but for a niche audience, as I imagine Saucy's will be (educated, affluent, culturally-engaged women 18-34) it seems more like a targeting approach to parody than one to build a business model on. Or maybe I just don't like being reduced to a "stage."

HOW MANY PEOPLE WATCHED TINA FEY'S SARAH PALIN SKETCHES ONLINE?

Tina Fey's Sarah Palin videos exceeded online what the viewership numbers were on TV. These clips spike in popularity within 48 hours, but have a long tail: the 5 week total for all 5 Tina/Sarah vids was that they were screened 40 Million times.

Saucy Says: Fuckin' A.

WHAT ARE WOMEN'S ORIENTED SITES DOING WITH ONLINE VIDEO?

Many publications think about "use cases" when deciding whether or not to use video: if women are looking for entertainment, video is a must. If they're looking for information (e.g. searching), it's optional. But...iVillage has 2000 pieces of evergreen, service-oriented video and CondeNet distributes their "quite beautiful" videos to sites where their audience lives, like Hulu and their channel on YouTube, plus has deals with viewers/devices like Adobe's video viewer, Verizon's VCast mobile and Sony's Bravia.

The Knot finds that its viewers love the branded advertiser-financed video they present, but it's too labor intensive for them to create and it "doesn't scale." UGC wedding videos, which are usually professionally shot, cost little for The Knot to clean up and post, and generally do well. DIY cooking shows and home tours do well on The Nest.

Saucy Says: We're all about entertainment here, and I see a lot of opportunity for all kinds of video, from branded entertainment to service-oriented fare, to use comedy to drive viewership and up the entertainment factor for pieces that might otherwise be dry or precious. I'll bet the most successful UGC fare is either funny or super upscale.

HOW DOES THE iPHONE PLAY INTO ALL OF THIS?

The iPhone has become a tool for transferring site content -- if your iPhone app is gorgeous, it can help drive ad sales across the board. CondeNet's content is on 160,000 iPhones. Also, the geolocational nature of the iPhone can serve specific advertisers, like realtors.

Saucy Says: Women can be funny in any area code!

WHAT ARE WOMEN LOOKING FOR ONLINE IN TERMS OF COMMUNITY?

A community site for women, e.g. wowOwow, Yahoo's Shine, Disney Online, Dooce.com, NY Times' Motherlode blog, must have personality and voice. Women respond to warmth and are looking for connection and an "I know you" vibe. Women's online communities are self-correcting -- editors shouldn't censor anything. The audience itself will enforce appropriateness of communication. Besides, a little controversy online is fun for women.

Saucy Says: Amen. Comedy is great for stoking discussion, creating buzz and building a tone or voice for a site. Plus, ain't nothing like a joke to get people all riled up.

So that's the haps. I know I geek out a bit on this stuff, but I hope you've found it interesting and perhaps a bit inspiring that there is so much room and demand for online content geared to women. It's only a matter of time until it gets Saucy.

Strike.tv is Unleashed!

2008-10-29T10:14:00.012-04:00

Strike.TV, which I've written about before as one of the few benefits of writers having down time and creative angst during the WGA strike earlier this year, has come out of beta. That means you too can have the pleasure of watching Kristen Wiig and Aasif Mandvi's adorable tech support romance Global Warming, or Mindy Kaling and Lester Lewis' House Poor or the painful-but-true Joe and Kate written by Kate Purdy. There are these and plenty of other shows already up on the site - some soaps, some dramas and a couple other comedies.

My understanding is that the criteria for participating in Strike.TV, at least at this phase in the game, is that artists be members of the WGA or DGA. This is a bummer for the novices and newbies out there who might want to contribute, but it does tend to guarantee that Strike.TV series have a certain level of polish, and I love to see these pros paving the way for what is sure to be (at a later date to be named once the revenue model is worked out) a game changing era for all writers, directors, producers and other folks who are passionate about the future of scripted programming.

Interesting to me that these funny, charming, independently produced web series seem to have lots of women in key creative roles, and have a different texture from commercial fare - they're no less crisp or professional, but they feel more honest and organic. Kudos to the creative and business minds behind Strike.TV, and chalk this one up to "good things that come from shaking up the status quo."

CEO Peter Hyoguchi's blog post about the genesis of Strike.TV is worth a read for folks interested in independent media and the future of scripted programming - I loved its combination of cynicism and idealism so much I posted the whole thing:

It was just shy of a year ago when I was picketing on a strike line at Disney when a casual idea popped into my head. Hey – why don't us screenwriters create a website where we could produce and stream our own original shows? We could call it "StrikeTV". Why the hell not? Sounds simple and easy to do, right? Well, it's a year later, many dedicated and talented people came together, pooled resources, donated elbow grease and burned the midnight oil. It was far from simple or easy but Strike.TV is here.

In total, Strike.TV has forty new web series created by the writers of The Office, The Daily Show, Die Hard, Robot Chicken, Malcolm in the Middle, The Black Stallion, Star Trek, Top Gun, Farscape, Prairie Home Companion, Newhart, Knight Rider, Friends, General Hospital, The Six Million Dollar Man, Child's Play and many, many more. To date, this is the largest collection of original Hollywood produced content ever created for an Internet audience.

The writer's strike helped but there was much more happening to make Strike.TV possible. 2007 was a perfect storm. New electronic inventions were unleashed setting off the largest tectonic shift Hollywood has ever known. Looking back at the history of motion pictures, there's nothing really to compare it to. Even the advent of sound, color or television are eclipsed. Making movies has always been reserved for the very rich. The term "silver screen" comes from the fact that film is actually made from silver - a precious medal. At a hundred dollars a minute for 35 millimeter film, only the super elite can afford to make movies. Until now.

Working as a screenwriter in the film industry is much like the game of musical chairs. There are only a handful of scripted TV shows in production at any one time, and the same goes for feature films. In fact, only 5% of Hollywood professionals are working at any one time. Most of the time, we are going round in circles trying to find a chair before the music stops. Movies and TV shows cost millions of dollars and there are only so many slots. Until now.

I'm used to spending six months to a year writing a TV pilot or feature spec script, then six months shopping it hoping someone will like it enough to buy it. And even if that happens, that doesn't mean it will get made. Not to mention the notes. And there's a lot of 'em. Your personal story about kids who play Dungeons and Dragons might resemble High School Musical meets Saw by the time you're done with that process. But that's fine cause they most likely won't go into production anyhow. That's because 90% of the screenplays purchased by the studios and networks never get made.

Strike.TV represents the opportunity for creators in Hollywood, many of whom are insanely talented, to tell their stories totally unchanged and unaltered. Their vision exactly realized for the audience. A first in Hollywood history. And because they don't have to make back X amount to pay the huge costs the networks and studios need to cover their vast overhead, these shows can be as odd-ball, strange and as niche as they want to be. They don't have to make millions of dollars. They don't have to appeal to Everyone. A smaller audience who really digs it is enough to support the show. And the coolest thing of all, Strike.TV's shows are totally free. No cable bill. No movie ticket. No video rental charge.

Strike.TV works in a new economic model that is still being tested. Ad-supported entertainment. The reality is there's nothing new about it. Shows in the Golden Age of TV like Kraft Television Theater, Ford Theater, Goodyear Television Playhouse and others were funded directly from Madison Avenue. History repeats itself. Right now, the Internet is where television was before its first hit. Cynics were saying TV is a fad. A gimmick. There's no money to be made in TV. Then Howdy Doody became the first smash hit and a whole economy was created around TV. We now are standing on ground zero of the Golden Age of the Internet. We are pre-Howdy Doody. And of course there will be a hit Internet show. And that show will be a Global phenomenon. A new economy will be created around original web shows. There will be modest niche hits and out-of-the-ballpark mega-hit shows. They're all coming. And who knows, you might be watching them on Strike.TV.

Warmly,
Peter Hyoguchi
10/27/2008

Ok, so that's the manifesto. Go to the site, see the content for yourself and let me know what you think!

P.S. Special thanks to Erica Reitman from Dear Famous Asshole for the heads up on the launch!

Hysterical Festival Redux

2008-10-21T10:14:00.010-04:00

The first-ever Hysterical Festival wrapped up this weekend and I think it was a big success. Here's the math: 4 nights, 4 venues, 20 shows and 70 performers, most of whom are up-and-comers from the NYC comedy scene. I went to three shows and a panel discussion, all of which were top notch. Here's what I saw (panel details will be in another post):

The fest's opening show was hosted by Michelle Buteau and featured comedian Claudia Cogan, funny/sexy hula-hooper Miss Saturn, actor/comedian Livia Scott and the brilliant musical improv stylings of I Eat Pandas (Eliza Skinner and Glennis McMurray). I'm totally into the variety show format, so I loved seeing everything from Livia as a cancer-causing Chicken McNugget to the Pandas' improvised mini-musical about alienated teen campers on the same show.

I also saw Margot Leitman and Giulia Rozzi's dirty storytelling show Stripped Stories, which I've seen before but am always happy to go to. I mean, who doesn't want to hear all the nasty details about other people's sex lives? Performers included writer Adrianne Frost, playwright and former sex worker Erin Markey, UCB-er Megan Neuringer and the rockstar singer/actor Bridget Everett doing a number from At Least It's Pink, one of my favorite one-woman shows ever.

On the last night of the fest I had the infinite pleasure of seeing Maria Bamford up close and personal. I'd seen her on the Comedians of Comedy lineup at Irving Plaza, but it was a real treat to see her headline. Her show was 45 minutes of masterful crazy, with dozens of characters and voices and a dark sensibility that seems somehow so right for the times we're living in. Bamford is touchingly honest about her own frailty, which she twists and contorts for our enjoyment. In one bit, she's rejected as a volunteer for a Big Sister program, but when the organizers learn she's a comedian, they ask her to perform for their benefit. Wounded, she squeaks out her interpetation of the painful situation in character as a trained circus orangutan: "Dirty monkey not ok. But dirty monkey dance..." Priceless.

Opening for Bamford were the sweet and brainy Lisa Delarios and my friend and favorite comic/singer/performance artist, the one-of-a-kind Adira Amram, who rocked the house in her trademark leotard and headband. Whenever she sings her song "I Get High," about smoking pot with her Mom, I remember why I started Saucy Media and why I am a champion for funny women everywhere: because when honesty, comedy and total self-expression meet, I literally have an out of body experience where I'm laughing and moved and inspired to tell the radical truth about everything and encourage everyone around me to be their most authentic selves and everything feels blissful and totally right with the world. Weird, I know, but it's the truth, and I thank Adira for reminding me of it whenever she gets up on stage.

Fox's "The Skinny" and 15 Gigs

2008-10-21T09:49:00.004-04:00

Fox TV Studios has launched a new digital unit, 15 Gigs, which per Cynopsis is "a think-tank of creative types encouraged to develop original content for the web." This brain trust has spawned 13 eps of their first online series The Skinny: Fat Free News, helmed by Mike Gibbons, EP of Fox's "Talkshow With Spike Feresten."

The series stars comedians Nadine Rajabi and Natasha Leggero who are both appealing, but the series' angle - Natasha goes to look for a rich husband at a nursing home; Nadine interviews Bar Mitzvah organizers to learn about the nasty under-the-table behavior that occurs at the blessed events - is a little tried-and-true for my taste. Other than the newsy girltalk at the top of the eps, the content definitely lands in the hot-girls-saying-dirty-things-boys-will-like category. Here's hoping the bar gets raised a leetle bit as the series progresses. What do you think?

Pregnant Poehler Pops Palin

2008-10-20T09:36:00.002-04:00

Ok, I'm sure you've seen this, but gawd damn does it take some cohones (or some crazy pregnant lady hormones) to perform this rap while Sarah Palin is sitting right next to you. Not to mention the fact that it's so totally groundbreaking to see a pregnant comedian going about her job like the pro she is with no mention of the fact that she's about to pop. Helps that Poehler is funnier than ever...

Calling all Jerri Blank fans!

2008-10-15T16:42:00.005-04:00

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the inimitable Amy Sedaris has signed a deal with 20th Century Fox TV to create, write and star in a single-camera (think Arrested Development) comedy series project. She'll write the script with Paul Dinello (who comedy geeks might remember as Geoffrey Jellineck, the art teacher from Strangers with Candy), and Dinello will direct. David Letterman's Worldwide Pants, where Sedaris has a first-look deal, will co-produce, and the comedians, who will start shopping the top-secret idea in the coming weeks, hope the series will land at Comedy Central.

I'm such a massive fan of Sedaris in all her incarnations: oddball hostess with the mostest, the world's most charming talk show guest, or one half of The Talent Family, the theatre company she had with brother and fellow genius David.

One of my favorite NYC theatre experiences was seeing Amy, David, David Rakoff, Jackie Hoffman and Chuck Coggins in a Talent Family show called The Book of Liz (directed by David's long-suffering beau Hugh Hamrick). An ancient summary / review of the play from CurtainUp.com follows. If her show with Dinello is anywhere near as good, the might actually be a God.

Brother Nathaniel Brightbee (Rakoff), a sanctimonious new arrival in Cluster Haven, an Amish-like community (known as the Squeamish), upsets the prevailing simplicity of life. Reverend Tollhouse (Coggins) is intimidated by the holier-than-thou competition, and lets Brightbee take over the cheese-ball making operation that is their economic lifeblood. This doesn't sit well with Sister Elizabeth Donderstock (Sedaris) who, after all, invented the secret recipe that makes the Cluster Haven cheese balls and whose reign over the process has never before been interfered with by anything more serious than the incessant kibbitzing of Sister Constance Butterworth (Hoffman). Now Liz has been demoted to harvesting chives. (She complains to the Reverend, "I don't have the temperement for chiving.")

Frustrated, Liz runs away from Cluster Haven and, of the side of the road, meets a person dressed up as Mr. Peanut (actually a Ukrainian woman named Oxana (Hoffman)). Liz moves in with Oxana and her husband, Yvon (Rakoff) and they find her a job at a Pilgrim-themed restaurant (where the serve things like "I hate the English muffins"). The staff, including a pair of pricelessly real gay men (Rakoff and Coggins) and some AA members, are fuel for an almost endless stream of laughs. Jackie Hoffman's appearance in this scene as the "sophisticated visitor" (from New York, natch) almost gave me a heart attack.

Liz flourishes (she commutes to work on a llama, incidentally) until the decide to change the ambiance and want her to wear a revealing uniform, contrary to her strict religious beliefs. Meanwhile, things at Cluster Haven are not so hot, since Brother Brightbee's cheese balls seem to be missing something. Before they're through, Liz will return, everyone will live happily ever after and Hoffman will sing us one helluva hilarious song (about cheese balls, of course).

Wordplay, farce, thousands of quick costume changes and Amy Sedaris as a super-sweaty, cheeseball making Amish girl on her own kind of Rumspringa -- ok, maybe you had to be there, but it was pure Sedaris genius.

Bee + Jones = A Recipe for Laughs

2008-10-15T09:26:00.002-04:00

Great to see good things happening for the one and only regular female Daily Show correspondent, the under-rated Samantha Bee. She and her hubby (and fellow Daily Show fake journalist) Jason Jones just got a deal to create and write a script for CBS about a celebrity chef (to be played by Jones) and the women who run his life (one of whom will be Bee). They also each got a talent holding deal with CBS and TV studio CBS Paramount.

I'm a big fan of Gordon Ramsey's tough love freak-outs on Kitchen Nightmares, and I've recently been obsessed with Anthony Bourdain's food/travel show No Reservations (it's one of the few travel shows that actually makes me feel like I'm the one who's travelling). Plus, I love to loathe Rachel Ray. This is a ripe genre for parody, and if done right, could spell greater success for the funny pair.

In the meantime, here's a comedy/cooking classic: Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child from Season 4 of SNL:

Rachel Getting Married, Me Crying

2008-10-13T22:30:00.007-04:00

Warning: Rachel Getting Married ain't no comedy. Sure, there are some laughs, but I'm taking this time out from writing about funny fare to celebrate a film that moved me with its enormous heart and humanity.

I've never been an Anne Hathaway fan. Don't get me wrong, I think she's talented and I liked her a lot in The Devil Wears Prada, but I've never been like, "Oooh! Anne Hathaway's in this one - I've got to go see it!" After seeing Jonathan Demme's brilliant Rachel Getting Married, in which Hathaway stars as a self-obsessed, barely recovering addict who gets out of her umpteenth rehab for 24 hours to attend her older sister's wedding, I may have to change my tune.

As with all great works of art, this film is the product of a magical alchemy. In this case, a moving and truly wonderful script (by Jenny Lumet, daughter of director Sidney Lumet, granddaughter of singer Lena Horne) met director Jonathan Demme (helmer of nearly 40 films including Silence of the Lambs and one of my all-time favorites, Something Wild).

Demme then cast Hathaway as the rough-edged Kim, Rosemarie Dewitt as her sister who's finally getting her own day in the sun, Bill Irwin as their tender-hearted Dad, Debra Winger (who should be in EVERYTHING) as their brittle, distant mother and TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe as Rachel's rock-solid fiance. Add to that an intimate hand-held shooting style, self-assured pacing, emotionally honest performances, a soundtrack worthy of its own music festival, a bohemian wedding you wish you were invited to and a color-blind/rainbow nation vision of love and community and voila: instant classic.

There is nothing facile about Rachel Getting Married: the wedding brings out deep-seated pain, anger and blame over a tragedy that has split the family apart. People behave badly, act selfishly, show their wounds and ultimately allow the power of love to help them heal. There is not one false emotional note in the film, and when Hathaway's character reaches her breaking point, you're right there with her no matter how irrational her behavior may seem.

I'm adding Rachel Getting Married to my list of dramatic favorites, alongside You Can Count on Me, The Visitor, The Squid and the Whale and The Savages - small, personal movies that tell the whole emotional truth, no matter how messy.

The Hysterical Festival - October 15-18 in NYC!

2008-10-11T11:02:00.005-04:00

The Hysterical Festival launches this week!

"Showcasing the wide range of ways in which women are funny, we aim to both entertain and break new ground for female comedic artists. The Festival runs at Comix Comedy Club, The Zipper Theater, The Tank (@ DCTV) & Tribeca Film Center, and will include work by cutting-edge stand-up comedians, world-renowned burlesque performers, award-winning improv and sketch groups, seasoned solo performers, writers and filmmakers, as well as a panel discussion co-sponsored by New York Women in Film and Television as part of our aim enrich and expand our local community of female humorists."

I am an advisor to the fest and I believe whole-heartedly in its mission (obviously!). Desiree Burch, the event's founder and driving force, is a whip-smart and tremendously talented lady - her candid and wonderfully salacious one-woman show 52 Man Pickup was developed at Ars Nova and was one of the critical hits of this summer's New York International Fringe Festival.

Get thee to the festival to see the likes of Maria Bamford, Lizz Winstead, World Famous *BOB* and so many more talented funny women! Schedule is here. More coverage to come!

Fox Takes a Stab at AbFab

2008-10-08T08:54:00.007-04:00

In yet another coming-to-America format makeover (see: NBC's The Office, Kath & Kim, the failed Coupling, HBO's Little Britain USA), FOX has put a Yankee take on Jennifer Saunders' classic comedy series Absolutely Fabulous into development. I am a HUGE fan of the British series, which is packed with a brand of unrepentant bad behavior, brutal emotional honesty and larger-than-life female characters you never see on American TV. Even Roseanne always ended with a moral lesson -- AbFab's Patsy and Edina would eat her for lunch (with a few martinis on the side, sweetie darling!).

Casting the right actresses and nailing the tone will be the hardest part of translating this iconic series, which will be set in L.A., for American TV. While I'm not terribly confident that even the awesome team of SNL writer Christine Zander and veteran comedy EP's Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development) , Eric and Kim Tannenbaum (Two and a Half Men, Notes from the Underbelly), the BBC's Ian Moffet and Saunders herself will be able to translate the broad, bright and brutal comedy of the British series into something that U.S. audiences (let alone networks) will accept , I applaud them for trying and will keep you posted on their efforts. In the meantime, some good fun from Season 5 (continued here):

Tina Brown's The Daily Beast

2008-10-06T09:52:00.003-04:00

Legendary editrix Tina Brown has launched her newest endeavor, The Daily Beast, a Barry Diller-backed online news mag named after the newspaper in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop (I didn't catch the reference either - guess I'm officially ineligible for the literati). It's not a comedy site, of course, but Brown is a powerhouse, and this hilarious vid caught my eye:

Yamara Taylor's Google Content Network Deal

2008-10-06T09:37:00.005-04:00

Google Content Network, the search juggernaut's content distribution service that launched with Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy series (a deal for which he was reportedly paid millions for 50 2-minute episodes and additional shorts tied to advertiser brands), has joined with Codeblack Interactive to commission a new original series by Boondocks head writer Yamara Taylor that will be syndicated across thousands of African American-targeted sites. Google's service is tied to their AdSense advertising system, which targets key audiences across the web.

For your pleasure, the scathing indictment of BET that appeared in The Boondocks a few months back is below. If Yamara Taylor was in charge when this aired, she is one fearless writer and I'm looking forward to seeing what she lets rip on her own series!

Dog-gone-it, Tina Fey!

2008-10-05T10:46:00.004-04:00

SNL's political coverage has never been more relevant, and Tina Fey's star just continues to rise. I'd be remiss if I didn't post this gem from last night. Jason Sudekis always makes me laugh (especially with those amazing chicklet teeth!), and Queen Latifah also rocked it.

Flying Solo on MyLifetime.com

2008-10-01T15:26:00.006-04:00

Proctor and Gamble Productions held a competition among female college seniors interested in media to find the protagonist/stars of a new online reality/doc series called Flying Solo which is airing (screening? streaming?) on MyLifetime.com. The show is about about young women who are just starting out in post-collegiate life and "the challenges and success they face with their newfound independence."

It's not a comedy series, but it's plenty entertaining, and what I like about it is that it reflects a more authentic take on young women's lives than the proliferation of glossy girls who young women are meant to admire/envy/love to hate/aspire to be on shows like Gossip Girl, The Hills, 90210, America's Next Top Model and the like. Plus, it's first person, so you get to hear about the girls' experiences in their own voices (as opposed to sexy dialogue written by a bunch of jaded TV writers). Yes, I watch that crap too and sometimes enjoy it, but I'm not the target audience and I have a little bit of distance. As a young teenager (before I discovered punk music) my bedroom walls were covered with pictures of beautiful waifs from fashion magazines, never mind the fact that I struggled with some major body image issues. If I were prime CW-bait today, I know I would use those shows to feed my burgeoning self-loathing in just the same way. This show, like WE's High School Confidential, aspires to provide a realistic antidote.

The two Solo winners, Hannah Friedman and Blaire Byhower, tell their own stories through a combination of first-person self-produced video and the help of a professional crew. Hannah's writing a teenage memoir (she's a Yale grad who already has a book deal), and Blaire is an aspiring reality TV producer. Of course for some reason you can't embed the video (when will the network sites ever learn?!), so here's Hannah's first ep, and Blaire's too.

The series premiered at the New York Television Festival last month. More on that soon.

The Women of SNL

2008-09-28T13:44:00.005-04:00

This season, the election has caused SNL to put funny women front and center, and as a result, the show is more buzzworthy than at any time in the past 10 years. Lorne Michaels is making my job so easy! Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton and Katie Couric (and Kristin Wiig as Judy Grimes and just about anyone else) - the confluence of women, poltics and comedy is a comedic goldmine. It's so great to see these pros get the recognition they deserve. You've probably already seen these, but for the record...

Sarah Silverman in The Great Schlep

2008-09-26T11:20:00.006-04:00

As frustrating and terrifying as this election season has been, it has had one totally unexpected positive result: it has made me love Sarah Silverman. Back in the day, I laughed my ass off at her one-woman show Jesus is Magic, but her Comedy Central show (and association with Jimmy Kimmel) have rubbed me the wrong way. Her latest works of comedic conscience (like the piece she did from the RNC with Shoot the Messenger) has shown a new side to her talent and channelled her powerful snark in a brilliant new direction. My mother (who forwards me all things Jewish) just sent me this video. That's a sure sign that it's gone viral, just like they planned.

Illeana Douglas in Ikea's Easy to Assemble

2008-09-26T10:37:00.006-04:00

In one of the kookiest pieces of online branded entertainment ever, Illeana Douglas has created, writes and and stars in Easy to Assemble, a oddball comedy series that takes place in an Ikea store (and is funded by the Swedish retailer). As the LA Times Webscout blog reports, the show "plays in the vein of HBO’s “The Comeback” and “Extras,” finding comedy in the small and large humiliations of the acting life, especially after 40." From a Saucy Media perspective, it's fascinating to watch Douglas both re-invigorate her career and talk, if only indirectly, about her experience as a mid-career actress in Hollywood by creating this series. I love to see people make unexpected and empowered moves like this, especially when the content (and context) is so idiosyncratic. By growing her career beyond acting, she has opened up more opportunities for herself creatively and professionally and actually has a chance to inject her authentic point of view into the material. More stars should be so enterprising!

The best part of the vid below (Episode 1) is the abstract middle section that is sort of a surrealist music video for the song "Apples and Fish." With a who's who of guest stars, including the brilliant Jane Lynch (who makes a cameo below), Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr., I definitely plan to keep tuning in.

Lisa Kudrow in Web Therapy

2008-09-24T12:32:00.006-04:00

Interesting and exciting to see a new crop of scripted, narrative web series that are beautifully shot (aka expensive), advertiser-funded and clearly targeting a female audience using comedy: Lisa Kudrow will be starring in a Lexus-funded series called Web Therapy in which she plays a shrink who conducts dubiously helpful 3-minute therapy sessions. Her clients will include Bob Balaban, Jane Lynch, Rashida Jones, Tim Bagley and other stars.

Lexus' L Studio site, where the shows will run, is also planning a scripted series called Puppy Love from Sex and The City showrunner Amy B. Harris. The site was produced by Intelligent Life Productions and Team One advertising. Interesting that Lexus has chosen to keep their originals on a single site rather than syndicating them out across the web where they would find a wider audience - if I was running the show, I'd at least do some partnerships with relevant vid sites to get the word out (and return on my investment via eyeballs).

Kudrow is in rare wry form in the first episode (here). Sorry, embedding isn't working.

Niecy Nash in the New York Times

2008-09-20T11:48:00.007-04:00

I've been a fan of the sassy, loud, color-coordinated comedy of Niecy Nash since I first saw her on Reno 911! (the improv-based Comedy Central hit that's now in syndication). When she landed the hosting role on Clean House, I got hooked on that too, and it's now the top rated show on the Style channel. Come this fall, you'll be able to find her in a third show, Fox's sitcom Do Not Disturb in which she plays the den mother to a staff of misfits at a boutique hotel. I saw bits of the show at the Fox upfront and thought it isn't terribly brilliant or groundbreaking, she shines in it. Even if this show isn't a hit, I predict that network tv will keep trying to develop a vehicle that showcases her talent.

Today's New York Times has a big piece about her that talks about her rough upbringing in South Central L.A. and all that's she's overcome to arrive at her current success. The Times is uncharacteristically blunt in its condemnation of television's institutional bias:

“Do Not Disturb” is one of the few new network shows this season with an African-American actor in a lead role, and it is one of a handful of such shows on network television at all.
“I have no idea why that is,” Ms. Nash said. “I would like to think that television would be representative of the world we live in.”

Mr. [Abraham] Higginbotham [who created Do Not Disturb for Nash], who gained acclaim as a writer on “Arrested Development” before taking on producing roles on “Will & Grace” and “Back to You,” is less circumspect. “The television business is racist,” he said. “It’s homophobic, and it’s sexist. Let’s not pretend it’s not. Even in this town I hear it all the time, from people who never in a million years would think they are that way. And that’s why Niecy Nash hasn’t had a network television show.”

Higginbottom refers to Nash's role on the show as a "ghetto fabulous Mary Poppins character in a world of privelege and elitism and spoiled 20-somethings." Just the antidote we need in this Super Sweet Sixteen, I Wanna Be Paris Hilton's New BFF, Gossip Girl, 90210 tv culture.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

2008-09-12T15:52:00.010-04:00

When I first read about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the independently produced and financed web-musical created by tv cult hero Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse) during the WGA strike last winter, I loved the idea (Go web-based scripted entertainment! Go Buffy guy! Go creative people making what they want to make and not asking the corporate powers that be for permission!), but I didn't think I'd actually like the superhero-themed storyline.

Boy was I wrong. I watched the free first episode today (a full season pass is available on iTunes for $3.99), and fell in love with Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Felicia Day as his love interest and Nathan Fillion as the sleazy, shallow Captain Hammer. Because you see, Saucy Media readers, Dr. Horrible is a musical. A musical about a super low-rent villain that features great songs, a love story and lot of laughs thanks to the clever script by the brothers Whedon (Joss, Jed and Zack) and Maurissa Tancharoen. And it looks much better than most made-for-the-Web fare, since Whedon ponied up a "low six figure" budget and hired all his TV production friends to make it.

The show's success, according to Whedon, has less to do with the fact that the Internet is packed with superhero fans (and Whedon-lovers): it has to do with what the director calls "The Silly." In the LA Times, Whedon said: “The things that have hit on the Internet have almost all had that quality. From 'Star Wars' kid, to 'The Landlord,' to 1,500 prisoners doing 'Thriller.' Not just the I-made-it-myself aesthetic, but the truly, transcendently goofy. The absurd (which is important to me, as an Absurdist) is part of the Internet’s identity.”

Here's to The Silly, and to original comedy on the web turning a profit: between iTunes and merch, Whedon expects the series “will go into the black within the first year.”

Check out the first episode here:

AOL Kinda Launches Lemondrop

2008-09-11T10:48:00.007-04:00

AOL has just stealthily launched Lemondrop, a sassy new site for young women that "aims to reflect the irreverent, informed way we really talk to one another. We know that you can dissect celebrity baby daddies and undiscovered designers, and still have room to discuss news, technology and kittens. Lemondrop is a place where you can care equally about "America's Next Top Model" and America's next top president."

The site is the female companion to AOL's guy-oriented Asylum, and its light, slightly irreverent tone bodes well for its success among women with a sense of humor who need something fun to look at over their lunch break. Initial posts include Are Men More in Touch with Their Feelings than Women?, Handling a Facebook Request from an Office Random and Naked Conversationalists at the Gym. Not high comedic art, but it's a decent companion to sites like Jezebel on the entertainment front, Apartment Therapy on the design side and Cute Overload on the "obsessed with kittens" tip. I'll take that over CosmoGirl or Better Homes & Gardens anyday.

An international rollout of the site is planned for Winter 2009.

In The Motherhood

2008-09-08T16:38:00.004-04:00

In The Motherhood is an interesting new media story in addition to being comedy created for a female audience. The sitcom, which actually isn't bad, started as a web-based branded entertainment project produced by Mindshare and financed by Suave and Sprint. When the show moves to ABC, it will be only the second to make the web-to-broadcast-series jump, following on the heels of quarterlife, which was a worthy experiment in independent television from the creators of Thirtysomething that failed when it was upgraded to NBC (though perhaps it would have done better on the CW). Online, Motherhood derived many of its storylines from suggestions from its web audience, which is said to have numbered up to 15 million (though whether that number refers to views, viewers, number of pages loaded or what, we'll never know).

ABC has ordered 13 eps of In the Motherhood, hoping that its take on the pitfalls of parenting will attract a wide female audience. But part of what made the web series work was that it featured TV stars Leah Remini, Chelsea Handler and Jenny McCarthy -- it remains to be seen whether deals can be struck to bring those actresses along to TV.

Offensive Women in Bitch Magazine

2008-09-06T09:23:00.004-04:00

Julie Goldman's Offensive Women, the all-lady standup show I co-produce, is on fire this Fall, and we're gearing up for a really big show in December at The Zipper Factory Theatre. This summer Julie and comedian Kate Rigg did a phone interview with one another for Bitch Magazine, and the transcript of that filthy and hysterical conversation is the centerpiece of their current issue (the theme of which, appropriately enough, is "Loud"). Look for it on newsstands at independent booksellers everywhere. A good quote:

The whole point of this is that we do have edgy points of view. The framework for Offensive Women is about celebrating us having irreverent perspectives, which is what comedy is supposed to be about anyway. We're not supposed to get up onstage and uphold the status quo. - Julie Goldman

There's another great article in the mag written by Abby Paige (who I used to perform sketch comedy with as part of San Francisco's Killing My Lobster), about women and laughter that's also worth a read. She analyzes the way that female laughter is interpreted in language and the media. Ever thought about the difference between a giggle, a titter, a cackle and a chortle? She points out that even descriptions of the way women laugh ("real, out-loud, head-back, mouth-open-to-expose-the-full-horseshoe-of-lovely-teeth, involuntary, full, and deep-throated mirth" - that one from Christopher "Why Women Aren't Funny" Hitchens) can be pretty dang loaded.

Candied Peanuts and Personal Mythology

2008-09-05T17:11:00.014-04:00

I had drinks last night with a producer friend I really admire: she runs a feature film production company where she develops smart indie films with amazing talent, and actually gets them made. She's also recently co-written a screenplay that has a fun, flirty, contemporary story, a flawless structure and amazing commercial potential. I would bet my DVD collection that her movie will get made and make her and her writing partner a hot commodity.

Every time I talk to her, I leave inspired. Last night we talked about how exciting it is when you're doing work that puts you "in the zone", that place where you're comfortable and happy and using all the best parts of your talent to play at the very top of your game. The trick, once you recognize what puts you in the zone, is to figure out a way to get paid to stay there. Both of us feel like our careers, though we're already doing work we are thrilled to get paid to do, are edging us closer and closer to that place where cash and authentic creativity meet, and it's both exciting and frustrating to be able to smell it but not quite taste it yet. I hope for both of our sakes that when we're both making buckets of money doing exactly what it is we've dreamed of, it's not like those candy-coated nuts they sell on the street in New York, which smell amazing but seem to lose their flavor when you put them in your mouth.

Maybe it's Fall fashion season (which always makes me desperate for a whole new wardrobe, a stylist and a personal trainer), but I've also been thinking a lot about presentation and how an artist is, even outside of the work she does, a branded commodity. When you walk into a room to sell your project, whether you're a comic, a writer, a producer or an executive, everything about you should represent your brand. People hire - and buy female-oriented comedy programming from - people they want to be around, people whose energy is attractive, people whose mythology they find compelling.

I love this idea of a personal mythology, and there are some great personal myths in Hollywood: Jim Carrey tells the story that in his salad days, he wrote himself a check for $10 Million "For Services Rendered," which he carried around in his pocket until he became rich. Someone told me that the director M. Night Shyamalan spent hours and hours crafting his bio to reflect the mythology of a boy genius, someone supernaturally gifted. Jewel slept in her van, survived on carrots and peanut butter, and played in local coffeehouses until she got a record deal. And on and on.

My "To Do" list for this weekend: Work on my myth. Get new clothes. Stay in the zone.

Saucy Producer to Watch: Kerry Kohansky Roberts

2008-09-05T16:24:00.009-04:00

Variety came out with their "Top 10 Producers to Watch" list yesterday, and when I read it I had a flashback to their "Top 10 Comics to Watch" list from this Spring: both featured only one talented lady. Hmmm, I wonder if it's company policy or if they really believe there just aren't that many non-starlet women to watch in all of Hollywoodland. Sigh. Maybe the universe just wanted to send me a reminder of why I write the Saucy Media blog...

The producer on their list was 33 year-old Kerry Kohansky Roberts, the force behind the upcoming Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, which she developed as VP at Depth of Field, the company behind features as diverse as In Good Company, The Golden Compass and the upcoming Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (based on the amazing book by Nick Flynn).

For anyone wondering what producers actually do, on Nick and Nora, she "found the book [by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan], hired the writer [Lorene Scafaria] and the director [Peter Sollett], and suggested actor Michael Cera well before his 'Juno' and 'Superbad' credits," among other things.

Her inspiration: "I've been most influenced by humanist comedies," Roberts says, referring to the likes of James Brooks, Hal Ashby, John Hughes and Rob Reiner's 1980s favorites. "Having said that," she adds, "I saw 'Amadeus' for the first time when I was 9 or 10 years old and it inspired me to understand how movies are made."

"My goal is to continue to find and harbor projects I believe in and make them happen," she says, "and be a good mom." Amen to that!

Here's the trailer for Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist, which looks really sweet:

More Election Funny

2008-09-05T11:47:00.006-04:00

I can't resist sharing some of the great up-to-the-minute political comedy vids that have popped up over the past few days. The funny ladies are churning them out like crazy this election season, and it's a thrill to see all the smart stuff they're coming up with.

This first one is from brilliant Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead's Wake Up World morning show series (which you can see live in NYC). Wake Up World stars Lizz and the wonderfully funny Baron Vaughn as hosts of the nation's only 6-hour morning show, and they're shooting live at the Republican National Convention this week. Here's their correspondent Emily Rackcheck with a bit of breaking news:

24/7, "the #1 infonewsment network on tv", is the parody news network where fake morning show Wake Up World is the flagship show. This important patriotic message from from the make-believe broadcaster puts Sarah Silverman's smug snark to great use:

More Sara Palin - this one from YouTube star parodist Lisa Nova, charmingly titled Is McCain Palin's Bitch?:

Exec with Comedy Chops to Run Lifetime

2008-09-04T13:33:00.003-04:00

Joann Alfano was just named EVP of Entertainment at Lifetime, which seems to bode well for the future of comedy at the leading (and often weepy) women's television network. Alfano has serious pedigree in the comedy space - she's an Emmy-winning producer who started her career as a publicist and rose through the ranks at NBC to become SVP of Comedy Development there before jumping ship to run Lorne Michaels' company Broadway Video. She was a creative driving force behind 30 Rock, Sons & Daughters, Scrubs, Will & Grace, and Fresh Prince of Bel Air, among other shows, and her production company, TV Tray Entertainment (which she started in 2007), had a first look deal at NBC Universal Media Studios.

Fingers crossed that her appointment will lend a fresh point of view to Lifetime, which is clearly trying to revitalize their brand with shows like Project Runway and How To Look Good Naked. I'll be saying mantras that Alfano will inspire her programming team to take a gamble on more female-centric comedy. After all, women like to laugh as well as cry.

Online Speed Dating

2008-09-03T17:13:00.005-04:00

Online video-based dating site SpeedDate just raised a $6 million second round. This is a new trend in Internet dating (see also: WooMe), where people do quickie video chats with potential future sweeties in order to assess their date-worthyness. Something about this idea makes me more anxious than the thought of meeting up in a Starbucks with some random dude you've already exchanged a few funny notes with. Maybe I'm not Gen Y enough to understand the appeal here, but even email seems more intimate than a quick how-do-you-do in a fishbowl webcam lens. And then there's the fact that up until now, those tiny little cams have only ever been used for nefarious (read: porny) purposes.

On the plus side, online speed dating is practically BEGGING for a smart parody sketch....

Sarah Palin, Gift to Comedians

2008-09-02T16:31:00.007-04:00

Oh how I love it when the world conspires to hand us jokes on a silver platter. I imagine the folks at The Daily Show are just as giddy with glee as I am about the selection of Alaska's Sarah Palin as Republican VP contender. I'm a Barak-er (big surprise there) but if I were a die-hard Hilary voter, boy would I be pissed that the Republicans were trying to fool me into voting for this reality show version of an impressive female politician. Pregnant teenage daughter? Hates polar bears? Just got a passport last year? Erin Brockovich's fashion sense? Come on people, you couldn't write a better parody candidate.

Defamer has already done a funny Liz Lemon vs. Sarah Palin bit, and there's a great fake blog at Welcome to the PalinDrome. Staking her claim with great speed and savvy, NYC comedian Sarah Benincasa is already starring as Palin in this hysterical vlog series. Enjoy!

Comedy Awards @ The 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

2008-08-27T16:33:00.015-04:00

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival (which, according to my affirmations, someone will be paying me to scout next year) is wrapping up and giving out their best of fest awards. The prestigious if.comedy award (formerly the Perrier Comedy Award) went to Irish comedian David O'Doherty for his show Let's Comedy. The other nominees were Rhod Gilbert for Rhod Gilbert and the Award-winning Mince Pie, Russell Kane for Gaping Flaws, and NYC's own delectable duo Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler for Double Down Hearts.

Sarah Millican won the "Best Newcomer" award for her first-ever solo show Sarah Millican's Not Nice about her recent divorce. Here she is doing some standup:

Runners up for the newbie prize included Pippa Evans and Mike Wozniak.

There is a special NIVEA Funny Women Fringe Award given every year, and this year's overall winner was standup Janey Godley. Here's her video blog from the fest (including a classically dirty bit with NYC's filthy lunatic genius Rick Shapiro):

There are also lady awards given out in specific catetgories, so here are more winners:

Best sketch, character or theatrical show – ‘The Angry Puppy’, an all female sketch show

Best newcomer – Pippa Evans in ‘Pippa Evans and Other Lonely People’

In the "it's an honor just to be nominated" category, the following gals were under consideration:

Standup:
Zoe Lyons
Shazia Mirza (we're hoping Shazia will do the big Offensive Women show in December!)
Fiona O’Loughlin
Josie Long
Lucy Porter
Karen Dunbar
Wendy Wason
Kerry Godliman
Susan Calman
Sarah Millican

Sketch/Character/Theatrical:
Nina Conti in Evolution
Issie Suttie in The Suttie Show
Adams and Rea
Girl & Dean
Isabel Fay in Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the House
Pam Ann in Terror at 41,000 ft
Alyssa Kyria in Woman of the Year

Specially Recommended:
Ginny Davies in Ten Days that Shook the Kitchen
Rosie Wilby in I Am Nesia
Bronya & Siony in The Rules of Drama and Suspense
The Boom Jennies in Shindig

Hamlet 2

2008-08-26T11:01:00.006-04:00

Last night I went to see Steve Coogan in Pam Brady's hysterical indie Hamlet 2, and serendipity struck: the random screening I chose (6:40pm on a Monday night) was the very one where Coogan himself was giving a talkback after the show! First things first -- the trailer:

The movie, which is not at all about Hamlet, is a quirky, foul-mouthed piss-take on the inspirational teacher genre (and references to Mr. Holland's Opus, Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets' Society, Lean on Me et. al. hilariously pepper the self-referential script). Coogan plays a delusional, self-obsessed Tucson high school acting teacher and failed actor who, when faced with imminent funding cuts that will eliminiate the school drama program, creates a show to end all shows that is wildly inappropriate but becomes a cause célèbre and a source of unlikely inspiration for cast and teacher alike.

At the talkback, Coogan said that he gets comedic inspiration from those awkward little moments in life, like when you have a long hug goodbye with someone and then find you're both walking in the same direction. When a kid in the audience asked what advice he'd give his 10 year-old self, looking back, he said that he'd tell himself that the things that make him different - the strange things about him - are also the things that make him special and will be the things that work for him as an actor. He talked about not fitting in with the scarf-wearing floppy-haired actors in acting school and finding his own path to comedy (see Alan Partridge, Saxondale, 24 Hour Party People, Tropic Thunder).

The movie featured performances by some notable ladies: Amy Poehler as pugilistic ACLU lawyer Cricket Feldstein, Catherine Keener as Coogan's miserable girlfriend and Elizabeth Shue as a charmingly down-to-earth Elizabeth Shue.

But the real leading lady here is writer Pam Brady, whose years spent in the trenches of provocation as a South Park writer/producer (she worked on the show and also wrote the screenplays with Matt Stone and Trey Parker for the features Team America: World Police and South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut) are on full frontal display here. You can sense the naughty glee with which she and co-writer Andrew Fleming must have written many of the more outrageous recurring jokes about balls and rape (it's funny in this context, I swear). I could just picture their faces when they were writing the scene in which Coogan's Dana Marschz (whose last name is totally unpronouncable) directs a stage version of Erin Brockovich, or the one in which Jesus says to Hamlet, while both are in a time machine, "I hope my Dad doesn't find out about this. He'll crucify me!"

Brady, who is working a rewrite for the feature remake of Dallas, will be making her directorial debut with the feature Senior Week written by Erica Rivinoja (currently in development at Paramount).

Target Women: Chick Flicks

2008-08-25T12:03:00.005-04:00

Awesome to discover Sarah Haskins' Current TV segment Target Women from the network's satirical news show infomania. Here she takes on a few upcoming chick flicks - all of which conveniently star the same sad-eyed handsome everyman as the chicks' knight in shining armor...

Willie Mae Rock Camp For Girls

2008-08-24T11:49:00.006-04:00

I couldn't resist posting about this very cool program in DUMBO, Brooklyn, where a friend of mine has been teaching this summer: The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, a week-long day camp that gives "girls the chance to learn how to play musical instruments, write songs, perform, learn about different types of music, and generally "rock out" in a supportive environment that fosters self-confidence, self-esteem, creativity, tolerance, and collaboration."

How much would I have LOVED this as a girl? If this lights you up and you find yourself envying a bunch of headbanging eight year-olds, it's not too late: they're also offering two Ladies Rock Camp weekends this year for former girls who want to get their rock on.

The New York program was inspired by the Portland Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls, which was the subject of the 2007 documentary Girls Rock! I dare you not to be moved by the trailer:

And the Thurber Prize Goes To...

2008-08-22T15:04:00.005-04:00

Former SNL writer Patricia Marx has been announced (alongside Larry Doyle and Simon Rich) as a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor for her novel Him Her Him Again the End of Him. The first girl on the Harvard Lampoon, Marx teaches sketch comedy at New York University. Not enrolled? She's also teaching a humor writing workshop at the 92nd St. Y this Fall.

Eliza Skinner's Karen In the Dorm

2008-08-22T11:11:00.002-04:00

It's friday, time for some funs. Check out this vid from the fiercely talented Eliza Skinner, based on a character from her one-woman show Eliza Skinner is Shameless:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

The Economics of Online Lady Media

2008-08-22T09:58:00.000-04:00

This is more of a note to self than my usual sassy blog posts, but for all those interested in the "economics of women-centric digital media," there's a new half-day conference called EconWomen that's being put on October 29th in NYC by the smart folks at paidcontent.org. I'm fascinated by big media's efforts to reach women online and why the online experiences they create so often fail to speak to the truth of our lives. (A quick glance at iVillage headlines today: All The Good Men Are Taken; Are You Wearing the Wrong Bra?; Debbie Phelps, Gold Medal Mom; Never Have A Bad Hair Day Again). I love astrology and celebrities as much as the next gal, but come on people, we can do better -- and dig deeper -- than this.

I think what's wrong here is that these sites are covering themselves (and justifying their massive costs to their parent companies) by playing it safe and following the tried-and-true conventions of women's magazines. What they're still missing is that the web today is both an entertainment medium and a forum for community and two-way communication, and sites that don't take both of those things into consideration are doomed to fail, no matter how niche-marketed or demographically appropriate they may be.

From a comedy and content perspective, I feel like there's massive potential for these sites to launch new talent and spawn a female-centric brand of funny programming - and that, my dears, is where Saucy Media comes in.

A Walking Female Buddy Comedy

2008-08-21T11:06:00.000-04:00

Interesting news from the comedy writing world: ABC Studios bought a script from writing partners Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith (top photo) and Karen McCullah Lutz for a potential autobiographical series about the duo's lives. Per the LA Times article on which the pitch was based, " "She's the sexy, horny one, and I'm the stunted adolescent," jokes Smith of a partnership that has even endured a stint in couples therapy...."We're like a walking female buddy comedy!""

I LOVE their writing process: the two write poolside -- taking notes on a yellow pad and acting out characters -- with champagne in hand, more inspired by a party vibe than a formal "let's meet at the office and bang this thing out" approach to scribery.

Seems to be working, since they are the ladies behind Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, Ella Enchanted and the upcoming The House Bunny (ok, not so psyched about the hook on that one, though Anna Farris is funny and I'm sure there's some sort of girl-empowering message, like in Legally Blonde, hidden under the Bunny ears...). They also did rewrites on Casey Wilson and June Raphael's Bride Wars, and Smith is producing the rollerderby pic Whip It! (written by Shauna Cross), which will be Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. Oh, and in their spare time they both publish fiction...

So for all you writers out there who think you need the stars to align in order to put pen to paper, this should be great inspiration to approach writing in any way that feels fun and inspires you to be creative. I've always wanted a writing partner (since I'm funnier when I talk) and I imagine that having a partner to collaborate with helps keep writing from feeling lonely, which is one of the main reasons it's a challenge for most people. Anyone interested in being the Smith to my Lutz?

National Lampoon Bums Me Out

2008-08-20T10:59:00.001-04:00

I just read a press release that National Lampoon, which has been making lots of investments in the "dudes online" space by infusing cash into such high-minded sites as collegehangover.com and Drunk University, has just aquired AllModelZone.com (tagline: "Where photographers and models REALLY gather!" No, I'm not kidding).

The reason for this acquisition? To put an "added focus on [the] female demographic"and scout for hotties to play roles in their upcoming films. Sigh. For the company that made Animal House and the classic goofy Chevy Chase Vacation movies, I want to expect more, but the classic comedy brand seems to be committed to going further down the Van Wilder road.

National Lampoon is all about frat humor, but even the American Pie franchise made room for female characters who were more than mannequins. The company's cable television network is piped into more than 600 universities with a collective enrollment of 4.9 million - that's a lot of influence on college kids (both male and female), and I'd love to see it used in a less simple-minded, sexist way. Not bloody likely, but a girl can dream...

The Cho Show

2008-08-13T16:27:00.001-04:00

Margaret Cho, one of the most daring, truth-telling, audacious and smokin' hot female comedians in the world (can you tell I'm an uber-fan?) is launching The Cho Show on VH1 on August 21st. I can't wait to see her Korean, tattooed, S&M-loving, little person assistant having, fag hag, sex-obsessed, self-love preaching self break through the negative noise and clutter of reality TV.

I've followed her career for years, and two of her live shows (one-woman show "I'm The One That I Want," which she subsequently shot as a feature film, and "The Sensuous Woman," an irreverent, freak-celebrating, dirty joyfest of a burlesque show) are branded on my brain as THINGS TO REMEMBER OF WHEN I THINK ABOUT MAKING ART. When we book the Offensive Women national tour, we want to play in every house The Sensuous Woman played in. Her audience is our audience, and her heart is my heart.

The show looks sensational (in all senses) and way fun. Check out the supertrailer here:

The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard

2008-08-07T11:10:00.000-04:00

When I was a development consultant for BBC America a few years back, I read and loved a script by a British TV writer named Sally Wainwright (who became one of my absolute favorite scribes for her smart ideas and compassionate, feminist point of view) for a great project called "The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard," a miniseries about a middle class grocery store manager who, improbably, becomes Prime Minister of the U.K. PBS ended up picking up and airing the project, which was beautifully executed, with the brilliant Jane Horrocks (AbFab's Bubble) in the lead role. After the last episode, I was sad to see the story end.

In a smart programming move, Lifetime has just approved a drama pilot based on the UK show called "The Amazing Mrs. Novak" about a supermarket manager who becomes governor of New Jersey. Here's hoping it does the original justice! Video trailer for the U.K. miniseries here.

So You Think You Can Roast?

2008-08-07T11:03:00.000-04:00

Venerable comedy boys club The Friars is gunning to take back the roasting mantle from Comedy Central (with whom it used to be in business) by launching a "So You Think You Can Roast" competition to find the next Jeffrey Ross. Of course we all know that Lisa Lampanelli is the next Jeffrey Ross, but maybe you (or someone you know) is the next Lisa Lampanelli. Application info (requesting a 90-second audition video of roast material aimed at any modern pop culture figure) is here. Roast on!

No Country for Old White Men @ Second City

2008-08-04T10:55:00.000-04:00

Just got back from a weekend in Chicago where I fulfilled a life-long (comedy dork) dream of seeing Second City live on the main stage. Their show, No Country for Old White Men was a yeoman's effort: smart, consistently funny, structurally sound (strong beginnings, middles and ends to the sketches, great blackouts and callbacks) and well performed by a strong and pretty evenly matched cast. The show was 2 full hours of sketch, plus a half hour of improv at the end - and the cast wasn't even sweating.

Their jokes were much more mainstream (read: accessible) than much of the absurd/obscure stuff I see here in NYC, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing to aim for when you're priming performers for a national audience. My faves in the cast were sharp redhead Emily Wilson, the loose and Horatio Sanz-ish Ithamar Enriquez and show stealing smarty-pants Brad Morris. Second City is where improv and sketch comedy began, so it got me all tingly to see the photos of former cast members that lined the lobby. So many brilliant people (including some of my lady comedy idols: Gilda Radner, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, Tina Fey - the list goes on...), have come through their doors and benefitted from their rigorous training - they're definitely doing something right.

Second City has recently made a deal with the ubiquitous MRC (Media Rights Capital) to create brand-funded shorts for the web. Their site, Second City's Quarantine, is set to launch this fall. Here's hoping it leads to great things.

Fat Girls Coming to HBO

2008-07-30T11:54:00.000-04:00

HBO (seemingly in competition with Showtime to see who can develop more female-oriented fare) has picked up Liza Palmer's "Conversations With the Fat Girl," "a novel about Maggie, who's dealing with the fact that former fellow fat girl Olivia is now less copious and getting hitched to a jerk."[Variety].

I haven't read the book and it remains to be seen whether this project will offer a nuanced or even positive take on weight and body image, but the subject of fat girls and love is one that's ripe for comedic storytelling beyond the fat suit. (For atrocities of this ilk, see ridiculous but well-intentioned Tyra Banks, and the hate crime that is Shallow Hal). Comedian Chelsea Handler did her own take on it after the Deal or No Deal girls' fat suit experiment reduced them to tears. Not sure it's terribly empowering (since it derives its comedy from the premise that guys being hot for fat chicks is only an option in a universe turned on its head), but's a start:

I Heart Mortified

2008-07-29T17:13:00.000-04:00

Mortified is a brilliant live show that takes place across the nation (NYC, LA, SF and other towns too) : it's "a comic excavation of the strange and extraordinary things we created as kids. Witness adults sharing their own adolescent journals, letters, poems, lyrics, home movies, stories and more." People get on stage and read or re-enact the amazing creations from their childhoods, and it's touching, personal, incredibly embarassing and totally hysterical. I have a drawerful of love letters I passed in school with my high school boyfriend that I'm dying to read in this show.

While it's not specifically chick-centric, Mortified is a great model for mining stories that tell the specific truths of women's lives. It's is also a smart example of an indie media success story: in addition to their live shows they have 2 books out (Mortified: Real Words, Real People, Real Pathetic and the new Mortified: Love Is A Battlefield), plus a fantastic web presence. Check out the video below, and check out Mortified when it comes to your city!

How To...

2008-07-29T12:09:00.001-04:00

There's a new kind of video site out there that I think is ripe territory for female-oriented comedy: the "How To" genre. Sites like Howcast , Howdini , Life 123 and Wonder How To could be an awesome showcase for some tongue-in-cheek content that speaks to the truths of women's experience. From "How to break up with someone via voicemail" and "How make time fly at your temp job" to "How to teach your son to be sensitive" and "How to jusify your terrible tattoo" (I could go on and on...), this is is fertile ground for advice that's both practical and hilarious.

Soccer Mom: The Movie

2008-07-25T12:22:00.001-04:00

I am pretty sure I'm not the target audience for Soccer Mom: The Movie, but it's fascinating to me to think about the women out there who are. I bump up against this all the time, living in NYC and thinking I'm a normal American, when the lives of most American women - with their homes (nope), cars (not since 1993) , kids (not yet) and all the attendant concerns and interests that those things bring are so foreign to me. Though I'm pretty sure the term "Soccer Mom" has jumped the shark, I imagine there is still an advertiser-friendly demographic to whom this film will be marketed, and a lot of kid-centric households to whom it will come across as sufficiently safe and sanitized for family viewing. That's all well and good, but am I wrong to long for something, well, more?

With the bouncy energy and bright colors of a sitcom and the plot structure of a classic Roman comedy of errors, Soccer Mom is about: "A compulsive soccer mom, [who], disguised as an Italian soccer star hired to coach her daughter's floundering soccer team, struggles frantically to keep her wacky masquerade going long enough to see the girls win the big tournament."

I'm all for mother/daughter bonding and Bend it Like Beckham-style girl power, but even if I was a Mom in middle America, I'd be craving entertainment that feels more specific and true to someone's actual life, if not mine. True, I grew up watching The Goodbye Girl and Taxi so my comedic sensibilities are tuned to a more melancholy frequency, but I'd trade that nuanced, not-so-sunny storytelling for a Netflix queue full of broad, uncontroversial wackiness any day.

Blogher Conference

2008-07-25T12:21:00.000-04:00

Big fan of uncensored female self-expression that I am, I'm all hot and bothered about women bloggers these days. The idea of thousands of women finding their voices through writing blogs, and thousands more finding a community of like minded thinkers through reading them, really gets me going. And from a programming/content development perspective, I really think blogs are a brilliant source of potential material, rich as they are with specific details and powerful points of view. I'm new to the blogosphere so I didn't know about this in advance, but Blogher held a big old conference of ladybloggers last week, and Melissa Silverstein from Women & Hollywood wrote about it on the Women's Media Center site. Some good quotes:

"... no matter how many mainstream sponsors it attracts, blogging still feels subversive. As [event founder] Lisa Stone says, blogging "rips the veil off the everyday lives of women that have been hidden for so long."...

"In a world where women still don't have parity in Congress, on TV, or in the newspaper columns, it’s a great feeling to know that women are harnessing this new technology to build communities. Who knows, maybe the next feminist revolution is already happening: you just need to go online to find it."

Brings a tear to my eye and gives me a little shot in the arm to keep pushing Saucy Media forward.

Wake Up and Smell The Movies

2008-07-25T11:46:00.000-04:00

A little Friday fun to be filed under "life imitating parody":

A new European company, Cinescent, promotes products in movie theatres by "pumping smells through the cinema's air-conditioning system to distribute a scent that covers other odors without being overpowering." [See AdAge] It may be effective marketing, but I can't help but think of John Waters' scentsational 1982 film Polyesther, my fave in the Waters oeuvre, which is shown in "Odorama", aka a scratch-and-sniff card with stickers you sniffed when instructed by corresponding numbers on the screen. Of course, in classic Waters style, the stickers stunk of body odor, skunk and other awesome grossness. "Odorama" itself was an homage to kitschy 1960's Smell-o-vision. Note to self: use this in a comedy feature one day.

Teri Garr Tells It Like It Is

2008-07-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

There's a great interview with Teri Garr (star of two of my favorite films of all time, Something Wild and Tootsie) in The Onion's A.V. Club. She cuts loose with really honest stuff about the films she's been in, the roles she's played and the sexim she faced in Hollywood. Very heartening to see the hundreds of positive comments about the interview. An excerpt, for your pleasure:

AVC: Mr. Mom is yet another role where your character is described as "long-suffering." Why do you think you've always been called upon to play that type?

TG: Oh God. Because I'm a long-suffering doormat in my own life, I guess. That's why I was always cast as that. And because they only write those parts for women. If there's ever a woman who's smart, funny, or witty, people are afraid of that, so they don't write that. They only write parts for women where they let everything be steamrolled over them, where they let people wipe their feet all over them. Those are the kind of parts I play, and the kind of parts that there are for me in this world. In this life.

AVC: Yet Mr. Mom was one of those early-'80s films that was all about "redefining gender roles."

TG: I know, and the same thing with Tootsie. It was about a man doing a woman's work, so they see it's really not that easy. Women are not taken seriously.

AVC: When they pitched Mr. Mom to you, did they play up the "message" angle, that you'd be playing a character who's redefining gender roles?

TG: No! They just told me it was about a guy who does the work that a woman does, because it's so easy. And I went, "Oh, yeah. Ha ha." It's so easy. All the women I know who stay home and take care of their kids, they go, "Oh yeah, this is easy." Hmm.

And here's the Mr. Mom trailer:

Kristen Schaal Groks "Cougars"

2008-07-23T14:40:00.000-04:00

Watch as adorable Daily Show "senior woman's issues commentator" (aka Flight of the Conchords' biggest fan, aka the only chick on The Daily Show) Kristen Schaal introduces Jon Stewart to a real live "cougar"...

Press for Offensive Women

2008-07-23T12:42:00.000-04:00

Nice little blog post on the NY Press site about tonight's Offensive Women show. Dig it here.

[title of show] Rocks Broadway!

2008-07-23T11:57:00.000-04:00

Being a thea-tah girl from way back, I embarassed my husband by singing "Dance: 10, Looks: 3" from A Chorus Line while waiting to outside the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway before [title of show]. I had wanted to see it back when it was getting little itty bitty buzz in the NYMF, and then when it was at The Vineyard, but it took until this brilliant musical about making a musical (improbably) hit Broadway for me to finally make it to the theatre.

In the meta-theatrical tradition of A Chorus Line and the Gen-X tradition of smart, potty-mouthed musical-loving-musicals like Urinetown and Avenue Q, [title of show] is a story about four artists following their dreams in the face of crappy day jobs, confidence-sucking vampires, improbable odds and everyone else's opinions. Anyone who's ever tried to make anything and anyone who's ever dreamed of being an artist (or dreamed of being anything at all), should relate to this scrappy, inventive and inspiring show.

The story in the show is the story of the show, from its conception and initial runs through up until their dreamed-about Broadway opening, to which the audience is witness. Clever doesn't begin to describe the brain-twisting way the script is written: when the foursome finally finishes writing the musical and puts in in an envelope with an application to the NYMF, Heidi Blickenstaff (who plays Heidi Blickenstaff in the show), asks: "Wait, if the script is finished and in that envelope, what are we doing talking?" At one point Hunter Bell loses 2 hours worth of writing on his computer and reveals the ghost in the machine when the script catches up to him and he repeats a line twice.

Though the book and music were written by the talented male leads, Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen respectively, I fell in love with the female stars (of course I did!). The gorgeous Heidi Blickenstaff, who will undoubtedly break out as a result of this show, has a real musical theatre voice, the cheekbones of Debra Monk and excellent comic timing. Susan Blackwell, whose limited singing voice is a running gag in the show, is a female comic type we don't see much these days: the dry, wry, knowing dame. I hope this exposure leads to great success for her as it will inevitably do for the rest of the cast.

I honestly don't remember when I've loved a show more. Crisp, fresh, contemporary writing; great songs; winning performances; surprisingly deep emotional resonance and about a dozen laughs per page. Go see this show. And in the meantime, watch the [title of show] show on YouTube - another point in the plot and the thing that actually drove the momentum for their Broadway run!

Movie Tidbits

2008-07-18T14:45:00.000-04:00

MGM has put a musical remake of 1983 new wave classic Valley Girl into their pipeline via Idealogy Inc.'s Sean Bailey and Matt Smith. Modern English's I'll Stop the World and Melt with You was my song with my first true love. And remember when Nicholas Cage was kind of hot? Given the success of Legally Blonde and Hairspray and Mamma Mia, How could this NOT be a hit?

Diablo Cody has been picked by Steven Spielberg to pen a second project (the first being Showtime's United States of Tara which will star the awesome Toni Collette and the sensitive girl's heartthrob John Corbett). The Spielberg feature is super top secret (sorry, I don't even have a logline for you), but it will follow on the heels of Cody's other projects, the grisly Jennifer's Body and her chick-centric response to Superbad, Girly Style, among other stuff. Cody is, as they say of outspoken women these days, "a polarizing figure," but when the credits rolled on Juno my first thought was: "I wish I made this movie," so you can kind of tell where I stand on the whole Diablo debate. I think she and all her Betty Page-hairdo'd, tattooed, used-to-be-a-stripper (for the sake of writing a book about it) midwestern indie badassness totally rocks.

The Internet's Next Top Model

2008-07-18T11:54:00.001-04:00

In broadband news, Vogue magazine is in production with IMG for a super expensive online reality series called Model.Live to air on its video site Vogue.tv. Apparently 12 seasons of America's Next Top Model has not sated our appetite for the travails of these gorgeous, shallow, dead-eyed creatures.

More fascinating to me is that the show is costing $3 million for 12 8-minute episodes (that's $31,000 per minute, for the slow of calculator). For context on the sticker price, Michael Eisner's web thriller Foreign Body had a $5,000/minute price tag (considered high at the time), and research firm Forrester reports that these days the average cost of a minute of web video is around $4,500.

To get at you cost-conscious, fashion loving ladies out there, Express is dropping a little more than $1 million to sponsor the series, and Vogue is guaranteeing the retailer 83.4 million views during three months on AOL's Bebo.com (the show will also run on Hulu and Veoh as well). That's quite a ratings guarantee.... Express funded a smaller video series with Ford Models last year that ran on the modeling agency's site and garnered two million hits. There's a lot of controversy about how "hits" are calculated with online video, but any way you slice it 83.4 million views is a steep hill to climb. For context, the web site for Fuse (the digital cable television network) only streams 1 million videos per month, and they're connected to a broadcast network and a recent $15 million advertising campaign... I've already seen print ads for Model.Live, so I'm guessing Conde Nast is throwing lots of promotional muscle behind this baby as well. "If you build it, they will come" is not often true online, despite every indie video-maker's viral fantasy.

Numbers like these go to show that the female-oriented content space is just starting to heat up. Saucy could sure do a lot with $31,000/minute....

'Llectuals

2008-07-17T17:15:00.000-04:00

Ok, this is the funniest video I've seen in a long time. Poykpak is my new favorite thing.

Mamma Mia!

2008-07-17T11:43:00.000-04:00

I went to a PGA screening of Mamma Mia last night. I went back and forth about whether or not to go, the conversation in my head going something like: "But it's going to be so schmaltzy!" "30 million people have seen the stage show..." "Those ABBA songs are just cobbled together arbitrarily and they won't add up to a cohesive storyline!" "But it's Meryl Streep..." "Sweet lord, not another wedding story..." "You have to see it...it's comedy for a female audience and that's what you're all about!"

I'm glad I went. Yes, it's schmaltzy. Yes, the songs are random. But the location is gorgeous, the singing is fun, the dance numbers are great and Meryl Streep manages to be totally emotionally authentic throughout the whole thing. Best of all, the movie shows 50-year old women as vibrant, fun-loving, agile and energetic, which I've found to be true in life but a real rarity on the screen. While the story itself is under-written, favoring instead the general emotion and exuberance of ABBA's music, the primary romance is between Streep and Pierce Brosnan's character, not between the beautiful young Amanda Seyfried and her beau, which is a welcome treat.

Mamma Mia is also about - and I may be stretching here, but what the hell - striking a balance between independence and love, which is an under-explored theme in women's entertainment (but again, not in our real lives). Plus, the underneath all the schmaltz, the mother-daughter relationship (which is almost a love story in itself) is the emotional heart of the film. Having grown up with a single mom, that's the part that really got me. Yes, I cried. So sue me.

Four Bruises, One Tear

2008-07-16T16:45:00.000-04:00

Lennon Parham's one-woman, many-character show She Tried to be Normal goes up at the UCB Theatre in LA tomorrow night. She's an out-and-out brilliant comedian and improviser. To wit: this video for her character Kitty O'Sullivan's country weeper Four Bruises, One Tear. Enjoy!

Lauren Zalaznick Loves Bloghers

2008-07-16T14:00:00.000-04:00

Lauren Zalaznick, NBC Universal's czarina of all things female (aka President, Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks), runs Oxygen, Bravo and iVillage (and her division has some sort of stake in Sugar Inc., home of PopSugar and GiggleSugar and all sorts of other themed-content Sugars).

Today it was announced that her group has invested $5 million in women's blog clearing house Blogher (where I coincidentally just listed this blog yesterday!), which I think is a brilliant move. From a content perspective, I think blogs a powerful force for the development of new creative voices and points of view (and from my perspective, a strong point of view is the foundation of any sort of comedy). From an ad-sales perspective, the perspective that drives all media, since blogs (or at least the ones that aren't just online diaries) tend to be oriented around a certain type of subject matter and attract a community of like-minded thinkers, they're a smart way to target potential consumers. Along the same lines, yesterday Procter & Gamble announced that they're inviting some of the top mom bloggers to their corporate HQ, citing them as "the new influencers."

I've heard Lauren speak and I'm so blown away by her - she started her career at Killer Films (Safe, Boys Don't Cry), then launched TRIO, the hippest TV network ever, before taking the reins at Bravo and ushering in the era of Project Runway and Real Housewives. When I heard her speak at the NYWIFT gala last year, she talked about how Safe and Real Housewives of Orange County are different takes on alienated, privileged women in southern California, but that while Todd Haynes' Safe was celebrated by the critics, the New York Times brutally panned Housewives. Lauren had the last laugh when Housewives became a hit, then a franchise. To me, she's a pop culture intellectual - someone who brings extraordinary awareness of culture and trends to bear on the popular media. She's totally on my mentor wish list.

The brand she is building could become one of the most powerful female-oriented forces in media, and it has the potential to foster some really smart, relevant storytelling beyond Tori & Dean and The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency. Here's hoping there's room for funny women - and all their honest, outrageous, angry, silly, personal stories - under that big old tent.

More Amy Poehler!

2008-07-16T11:55:00.000-04:00

UCB founder and SNL superstar Amy Poehler has just been cast in a series that was intially conceived as a spinoff to The Office but now is being called "a whole new series." It will air this winter on NBC behind The Office, which is a pretty sweet spot for a new show. As is obvious to anyone who's ever seen her, Amy is a comedy triple-threat of funny, fearless and gorgeous and it's exciting to watch her career grow. While I love her work on SNL, it's been an even bigger thrill to see her improvising live at UCB's long-running long-form show A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. 3000 (I worked on Bravo's A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. Improv special a few years back - now THAT would have been a great series.)

2 New Ladies on MADtv

2008-07-15T10:41:00.000-04:00

Additions to the cast of MADtv were announced today, in time for the show to start shooting their 14th (!) season. The crass and sometimes hysterical series has proved a sketch comedy mainstay, and while the show isn't known for helping talent break out into the mainstream, it has fostered the careers of a good number of funny ladies over the years.

The four new MADtv cast members are Erica Ash, Matt Braunger, Eric Price and Lauren Pritchard. Erica Ash has most recently been seen on LOGO's Big Gay Sketch Show, and Lauren Pritchard comes from the main company of improv theatre ComedySportz LA.

The new players join returning cast members Bobby Lee, Nicole Parker, Keegan-Michael Key, Crista Flanagan, Arden Myrin and Johnny Sanchez. Congratulations, ladies!

Fox to Writers: Show Us Your Stuff!

2008-07-15T09:53:00.000-04:00

Interesting piece in Variety today about FOX's year-round approach to programming development. What caught my eye was a new strategy for developing comedy (which mirrors the model I've been thinking/ writing/ talking about for Saucy):

"On the comedy front, [FOX Entertainment President Kevin] Reilly said he planned to hand out seed money to scribes to shoot their own YouTube-style videos before coming in to pitch their concepts. Exec added he was inspired by the comedic web shorts that some writers produced during the strike as well as the recent Sarah Silverman/Jimmy Kimmel "I'm F-ing Matt Damon/Ben Affleck" shorts.

"You want to shoot something before you come in? Don't sit on our couch and pitch us. Go shoot something and then pop it in the machine, even if it's not for air," Reilly said he plans to tell scribes. "We've got to do anything to mix it up."

That also includes changing the way sitcoms are pitched: Reilly and company plan to hear comedy pitches on the writers' turf -- in their offices, at their homes, at restaurants -- rather than the usual, sterile network office environment.

"A lot of confidence has left the creative space," Reilly said of the comedy marketplace. "I see really talented people coming in skittish, not knowing what to pitch or what will sell. And I see executives trying to figure out where is that nerve to hit. ... We're not giving up. Our comedy brand has been anemic for all our success. We're ready for our next 'Malcolm in the Middle.' ""

Nice to see some creative thinking in the comedy space. I foresee all that creative work the writers did for fun during the strike paying off in spades. See also: Strike TV.

Kath & Kim

2008-07-14T09:46:00.000-04:00

Based on the hit Aussie series of the same name, NBC will launch a U.S. adaptation of Kath & Kim this Fall. I saw a few preview promos last night and it looks pretty funny. Starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair as a dysfunctional mother/daughter duo, I have high hopes that this series will be able to walk the line that the American version of The Office has, putting a unique spin on a successful and brilliant existing comedy format.

The series is being directed by Paul Feig, who has a long track record of funny, directing episodes of 30 Rock, Weeds, Arrested Development and Freaks & Geeks. The showrunner, most of the writers and many of the producers on the show are women - a welcome change to standard sitcom operating procedure.

Fun fact: though Shannon and Blair are only 8 years apart in age, they play mother and daughter on the show. This is in keeping with the silly spirit of the Aussie original, in which the actresses playing the mother/daughter leads are actually the same age.

Variety's Disappointing Top 10

2008-07-11T15:18:00.000-04:00

Variety has come out with their annual "Top 10 Comics to Watch" list. Sadly - infuriatingly - there is only one female comic on the list, and she's already on SNL, so, um, presumably people are already watching her. She's the lovely and talented NYU/Tisch/UCB bred/Aspen-vetted Casey Wilson, who I first saw four or so years ago in the funny 2-person sketch show she did with her equally talented writing partner June Raphael called "Rode Hard and Put Away Wet". I'm thrilled for Casey, since she deserves the attention, but I'm beyond frustrated that she's the only funny gal who made the list.

It's maddening that funny women have so much further to go to be considered in the same light as boys who tell jokes. Why Variety, bastion of all things show-biz-journalism, insists on perpetuating the myth that women are only worthy of one spot on their influential, potentially career-making (or at the very least, meeting-getting) Top 10 list is a complete mystery to me. I'm not suggesting a quota system - affirmative action is not even necessary. Just maybe try scouting shows where women comedians are performing. That would be a start.

Between standup shows like Offensive Women, online video sites like Funny or Die and SuperDeluxe, theatres like UCB, Improv Olympic, The Groundlings, Second City and every freakin' Fringe Festival on the continent, it's not like the next generation of funny women "to watch" are all that hard to find. Variety just has to be willing to look for them.

Viva Vivienne Vyle

2008-07-11T14:54:00.000-04:00

Sundance Channel is launching a new Sunday Night comedy block anchored by Jennifer Saunders and Tanya Byron's dark BBC America comedy Vivienne Vyle, which stars the AbFab diva (and one of the goddesses on my personal comedy altar) as a brutally honest (and not terribly happy) talk show host. The BBC describes the show as "Ab Fab meets The Larry Sanders Show with quite a bit of Ricki Lake and Oprah thrown in." So brilliant to see her on the small screen again. YouTube clips of Episode 1 here.

Sex & The Capitol City

2008-07-11T14:44:00.000-04:00

HBO announced today that they'll be piloting a Sarah Jessica Parker-produced half-hour comedy called "Washingtonienne," based on the novel by Jessica "government is Hollywood for the Ugly" Cutler, who rose to fame by blogging about her sex life with real-life figures on the D.C. political scene.

SJP is a big supporter of female-oriented content (natch) - it's excellent to see her using her HBO muscle to get "lively, funny and agreeably in-your-face" material (according to the Washington Post) on the air.

Birds Eye View Film Festival

2008-07-10T16:57:00.000-04:00

The Birds Eye View Film Festival is a celebration of women filmmakers that takes place in London every spring. The 2008 festival focused on comedy:

In their words:

"There are some who say that women tend to make certain kinds of movies: a bit weepy, a little earnest, kinda intense. We pondered this, and acknowledge that women have excelled at some beautifully crafted, emotionally complex movies. But we also look around at each other and spy some side-splittingly funny sorts. Daft, quick-witted, dry, dappy... So why not on film? Think of Hollywood's greatest comics and a blaze of boys come to mind – the brilliant Jack Black, the unstoppable Woody Allen, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray… But who are the girls?

We thought, and looked, and started digging around in the dusty depths of the archives, and discovered that in in days gone by far more women were making the silver screen crackle with their comic brilliance. We're not quite sure what's happened. But we want things to change again. And so we're on the hunt for a new generation of comedy film writers, who can pen the characters we're craving. We've already got the likes of Meera Syal, Sally Phillips, Jessica Hynes, Jo Brand on side… So these retrospectives, celebrating the fabulously funny ladies from the beginning of cinema to the golden age of Hollywood, launch a new initiative for Birds Eye View: the BEV comedy film lab gets underway in 2008 – watch this space for a whole new era of girl-tastic giggles."

I'm excited to see what comes out of the BEV comedy film lab - I'll keep you posted on what develops!

Ronna & Beverly

2008-07-10T15:03:00.000-04:00

Other ladies I think are brilliant are Jessica Chafin and Jamie Dembo, a duo who perform as Jewish yentas Ronna & Beverly. In this episode, Ronna plans a wacky party for her son Jordan, a filmmaker who may or may not be gay. This will be particularly funny to those who've been through (or to) the Bat/Bar Mitzvah thing. The centerpieces at my Bat Mitzvah were telephones. My mother thought they were the cutest things ever.

More here.

The Jeannie Tate Show

2008-07-10T14:55:00.000-04:00

This show, directed beautifully by Maggie Carey, is one of my internet faves. I would love to work with her one day. In this episode, Jeannie Tate, American soccer mom extra-ordinaire, goes to Italy on vacation.

For more Head in the Oven productions, check out their YouTube site.

Shine is a Brummer

2008-07-10T14:41:00.001-04:00

I was checking out Yahoo's new lady site Shine today, hoping to find some content that was, at the very least, smart or funny or relevant. But disappointingly, though not shockingly, the site is full of dumb domestic stuff ("Get to know your mesclun mix: a visual guide to salad greens"), obvious career stuff ("Alternative, holistic, and integrated medicine is a great career choice for women"), silly parenting pieces ("Should disruptive kids be removed from flights?"), and tried-and-true celeb, fashion and style inanity ("Introducing the Brum, a bra for your bum").

Is this what women really want to spend their time looking at online? And by "women" I mean women 25-54, presumably white and affluent, the site's target demo. It's more generic than Redbook, more average than Parade. And where is the video? The site features not one iota of video content. Sort of shocking in this day and age.

Offensive Women Trailer

2008-07-08T14:35:00.001-04:00

We just finished making this trailer for Offensive Women, the monthly comedy show I co-produce with comedian Julie Goldman. It's hysterical and TOTALLY offensive, as it should be. There's room for all kinds of content under the Saucy Media tent - this project is all about women comics being as outrageous and uncensored as they wanna be. Think late night HBO or Showtime - edgy as all get out.

Watch and enjoy...but not at work. DEFINITELY not at work!

Pillow Fight Theatre Fest

2008-07-07T14:21:00.000-04:00

I'm always thrilled to find new chick-centric events on my own doorstep. My latest discovery (though I haven't seen any of the shows yet) is the Pillow Fight Theatre Festival running this month at The Green Room in NYC. I am taking myself to see the well-reviewed one-woman show BabyLove, which is directed by Julie Kramer (who also directed New Georges' reading of Wendy Weiner's brilliant and prescient play Hillary at The Public). You go, girls!

Are You My Mentor?

2008-07-03T14:06:00.000-04:00

I am a member of the PGA, and a few months ago I applied to be part of their mentorship program. In the intervening time, the Saucy Media idea has come into focus and my mentorship needs have gotten even clearer: I'm looking for guidance from someone who has experience writing business plans, raising funding and getting innovative companies off the ground. Fingers crossed that I find someone who fits that description or can bring something equally powerful to support the Saucy Media mission.

I joined the PGA last year through their New Media Council and I've been so impressed with the powerhouse producers I've met and the organization's programs and events. I aim to get more involved in the coming years, and I think Saucy will give me plenty of reasons to lean on the expertise of both peers and mentors there. At PGA events, I just love being surrounded by so many capable people. To me, that's what a producer really is: someone who's capable of dreaming up a great idea and building it into something tangible and real. Without producers, shit would never get done.

Bonnie Fuller Knows What Girls Like

2008-07-02T15:44:00.000-04:00

There's a huge article in the NY Times about magazine rainmaker Bonnie Fuller and her plans to develop a new web property for women. She's got a nasty reputation (which the article delights in detailing), but her track record for revamping lady mags and boosting circulation is super impressive. Now she's set to take on the Interwebs:

"After ginning up millions of dollars for the people she worked for — mostly men — she is the majority owner and chief executive of her new endeavor, and is almost robotically confident that her touch will extend to the Web. “It’s going to be media by, for and about women,” she says. “I’d really like to take advantage of all different forms of media including Web, mobile, blogging and discussion boards to communicate with women.”

It will be interesting to see how someone whose expertise is in one-way media (print on a page that's fantasy fodder and a guilty pleasure at the nail salon) will translate to today's dialogue-driven web. It will also be fascinating to see if there's room for a sense of humor in her new publication - one thought I've been having about a possible Saucy line of business is the idea of creating funny web video content as a complement to print magazine (or in this case, online) editorial content.

Glamour has dipped a toe into these waters, launching a short film festival with sponsoring partner Avon, and featuring Shayna Ferm's funny video "Walk of Shame" alongside magazine editorial about readers' own walk of shame stories. I wonder if Ms. Fuller's endeavor will eschew the sassy for the salacious or whether there's room for some funny alongside our schadenfreude.

Emmy Semifinalists: The Funny Ladies

2008-07-02T10:58:00.000-04:00

The short list for best actress in a TV comedy came out today. Can't say I watch all of these shows, but it's good to see some of my personal faves (Tina Fey, Mary-Louise Parker) on the list:

Christina Applegate, "Samantha Who?"
Marcia Cross, "Desperate Housewives"
America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty"
Tina Fey, "30 Rock"
Anna Friel, "Pushing Daisies"
Felicity Huffman, "Desperate Housewives"
Eva Longoria Parker, "Desperate Housewives"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "New Adventures of Old Christine"
Mary-Louise Parker, "Weeds"
Sarah Silverman, "The Sarah Silverman Program"

God is in the Details

2008-06-27T10:59:00.001-04:00

These ideas are tiny crystals or seeds of something:

- A man changes his shoes as the plane he's on begins its descent, trading his hip sneakers for a pair of old-fashioned brown leather laceups. After landing, closeup on his feet, wearing the shoes, as he takes his first step on solid ground. These were his father's shoes and it was his father's dream to return to the family homeland, but he died before he ever made the trip.

- Idea for a new reality show: "So You Think You Can Swim?"

- A buttoned-up businessman is standing in front of a modern glass office building. We pan up his body: sharp suit, expensive brief case, stylish tie -- and a very fresh, very obvious black eye.

- "Good on Paper" - great title for a romantic comedy.

Much To Learn, Young Grasshopper

2008-06-26T12:41:00.000-04:00

I had lunch with a mentor of mine yesterday, and it was a great reminder of why it's so essential to seek advice and counsel from wise, experienced friends. I gave her the Saucy Media pitch, and her insight really invigorated my belief in the idea of the Lab. She suggested I reach out to top media execs -- cold, if I have to -- and pitch the Lab as a project they could help fund. Her feeling is that smart creative execs are always looking for the next big something and that championing fresh ideas is what makes THEM look good. She said she's always taken meetings with everyone because she doesn't want to be "the person who turned down The Beatles." Yeah, it would suck to be that guy.

Her general sense was that I have nothing to lose and everything to gain by reaching up to the top and at the very least asking for advice. That seems scary, smart and beautifully audacious. I love it, and I'm so grateful for the support and encouragement.

Judy Gold and The Newlywed Game on GSN

2008-06-25T14:58:00.000-04:00

Judy Gold, who recently headlined Offensive Women, was just announced as the new host for the revival of "The Newlywed Game" on GSN. She's hysterical, and I can't wait to see how her dark sense of humor plays with the sweet newlywed contestants. Fingers crossed that she brings the phrase "making whoopie" back into circulation.

Oh Mama!

2008-06-25T10:26:00.000-04:00

NBC Universal-owned UK women's site iVillage UK has just greenlit what looks like a potentially cool project from Fremantle's new-media division FMX: it's called Parentshood, and it's and online comedy-drama series aimed at young mothers.

The series will run for 12 weeks and tell the story of five parents coming to terms with parenting. Content will come in the form of 25 to 30 short episodes a week and will be a mix of shortform video posts, blogs, photos and message boards.

Rebecca Miskin, general manager of iVillage UK, said: "The content is based around pregnancy and parenting and we believe there has been a dearth of quality content and a lack of inventory around the subject. So we believe we're fulfilling a need for the market."

From my own research I know that 40% of women 18-34 in the U.S. are Moms, and that parenting-related content is one of the key things that women use the Web for. I believe in Web-based programming -- after all, lots of folks are already sitting in front of the screen all day and they might as well have something fun to watch. The ad sales model for online video is still wonky and straight sponsorship seems to be the only viable revenue model at the moment, so I'm always excited when I see sites taking the gamble on relevant scripted content. Here's hoping it's actually funny!

I Heart Joy Nash

2008-06-24T13:50:00.000-04:00

I don't know how I missed her, but I just discovered gorgeous, outspoken YouTube star Joy Nash. She's a plus-sized sensation who's funny, charming, and clearly striking a chord - her video: A FAT RANT has been seen 1,274,825 times. More empowered sexyness her YouTube channel here.

Ok, Gross!

2008-06-24T11:21:00.000-04:00

File this under "ripe for parody" and "Lillian Vernon Catalog":

Macy's is introducing Skineez Skincarewear, a combination of cosmetics and textiles. The new line of women's body shapers is embedded with microcapsules that "continuously moisturize and smooth the skin while helping to reduce the appearance of cellulite." Available exclusively at Macy's and macys.com, the new line of body shaper products also comes with a bottle of Skintex skincare spray, to replenish the fabric after every six to 10 trips through the wash.

Amazing to me how marketers manage to find new ways to capitalize on our never-ending dissatisfaction with our bodies. This is literally lubed-up sausage casing. Greasy tubing. Creamy shorts. Ok, ok, I'll stop before it gets truly gross.