thechrisgethardshow:

I’m hoping that you’ll subscribe to The Chris Gethard Show video podcast. A lot of thoughts on why we think you should are below. Before we get into that, some relevant info -

If you get your podcasts through iTunes, you can go directly to http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-chris-gethard-show/id446647559

If you get your podcasts through other means, use this rss feed - http://feeds.feedburner.com/tcgshow

If you are a fan of the show and enjoy the podcast, please feel free to leave comments on iTunes, etc. This will help us gain momentum as we enter this exciting but intimidating new world.

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We are fifteen weeks in on The Chris Gethard Show on public access. That’s roughly four months of live television we’ve made ourselves. Four months of learning as we go. Four months of sometimes swimming, sometimes sinking. Four months of doing some stuff that’s been super fun and enjoyable, as well as a bunch of stuff that went nowhere and failed publicly.

All of us at the show are very proud to announce that we’re making all fifteen of our past episodes and all of our future episodes available as a video podcast. We’re hoping you’ll take the time to subscribe to our show and receive all of our future episodes downloaded straight into your old iTunes once a week. Honestly, the main reason we hope you sign up – the show is funny. We’d like to think it’s funny and unique and weird and there’s nothing quite like it. On top of that though -

Here’s some of the technical reasons we hope you’ll subscribe:

- For the first time, internet viewers will get our show in full TV quality. Up until now, we’ve streamed and archived our episodes via UStream. UStream is a great service, and our live streaming will continue with them. But we’ve now archived our episodes in full TV quality, as opposed to having our archives remain at the quality of the live stream. This means you can watch them without squinting at your computer screen – you can now watch them in full quality on your computer, tv, ipad, whatever you want. We’re excited to put our best foot forward and hope you’ll take a chance on enjoying it.

Beyond the technical stuff, I’d like to get into the mentality and philosophy behind the show and hope that speaking on this stuff might further compel you to get on board, to support the movement we’re going for here. This stuff will feel a little pretentious, a little melodramatic, but I don’t care. If you read it and agree with it, I hope you’ll sign up, support, and enjoy the work we’re doing -

- This show is a conscious choice to do something very different. That’s a choice really coming from the hearts of everyone involved with it. I can say for certain that all of us involved in the show see it as a safe haven to be odd kids, to embrace and try ideas that come from the weird parts of our brains. This show is very much created by kids who grew up and still often feel like the oddballs. We’re hoping that there’s a world of kids who feel the same way out there, who might identify and sympathize with those feelings, who might see our little call in comedy show as reflective of the parts of their personalities that feel outside of the norm, the parts of them that feel like fucking nerds and losers and weirdos, but that still feel creative, smart, and funny. I personally have spent a lot of time embracing those parts of myself as the best parts of myself. And I think everyone in the cast and crew of this show feels like they’re putting those sides of themselves forward as well. And I just have to believe that anyone finding this writing is someone who has that side of themselves at the forefront. Our show aims to push those weirdo creative kid buttons in your brain. If you want to have those buttons pushed, or you support the pushing of those buttons in general, please do subscribe to our podcast.

On a personal level, I can say that I’ve had a very odd past couple of years. I’ve been doing comedy for well over a third of my adult life. All types of comedy too, improv, sketch, stand up, you name it. But what I’ve found over time is that I’m best at being a weirdo. That’s my greatest skill. I’m a good comedic actor; I’m definitely not the best comedic actor. I’m a good writer; I have to work very, very hard to write work that matches the level of people I see as natural writers. But what I do think I’m among the best at is being myself, owning it, and thinking up and executing events and comedic pieces that embrace that. Basically, I’m very good at being a weird, kind of sad guy. It’s taken me many years – pretty much my whole life – to recognize that as an asset and a strength and not a drawback. But it is the attitude that has lead to the creation of this show and all the events we’ve stage with it both at the UCB Theater and on public access television.

To put all the cards on the table – last year I was in a sitcom on Comedy Central called Big Lake. It was a great experience, an overwhelming experience, a life altering experience. But ultimately, the show failed. It hasn’t been easy.

Now, the smart bet would have been – move to Los Angeles. Audition for shows. Take the momentum created from getting a bigger break than anyone expected and try to translate it into more acting gigs, more contacts, more networking.

I opted not to do that. In my gut, I know that what I really want to do is avoid the mess of networking and playing those games and try to do stuff that’s creative and artistic and reflective of my sensibilities. Los Angeles will always be there. But for now, New York feels like a very alive place, a place where a lot of the people still around are the oddballs, the people who build off of the fucked up, sometimes harsh, sometimes cold, always interesting and strange place that New York City is. l’m happy to be one of the people riding that wave.

So for now, I’ve got money from the tv show that will let me live for another year, maybe more if I’m smart. And I’m back to teaching occasional improv classes and auditioning for commercials. Some people might look at this as backwards momentum – those were activities I left behind after being the lead of a tv show. But to me, these are choices I’m making because I really believe in what we’re building here. I believe that carving out a playground for weirdos – both the comedians in the show, the people who call in, the people who participate in our dumb Twitter events, all of the weirdos – is worth doing. I think it’s the thing that will be most creatively satisfying – even if it’s not making me any money or furthering any “fame” i might have been able to garner if I headed further into the Hollywood track the Comedy Central show might have opened some doors to – and that the creative satisfaction is worth those sacrifices.

I’m an odd dude. I’ve got odd ideas. Even at 31, I often feel it, let alone when I was 15. I’m hoping that our show can be the best it can be, and that if we hit that stride, all the people out there who feel similar will find it to be not just a show they can enjoy and identify with, but a playground they can find ways to have fun it. One of the good things about being told “what you’re doing will never be bought by a network” is knowing that this allows us to really embrace the do it ourselves ethos, and the internet, to figure out how to involve the people finding the show in the show, and most of all to say “Ok. Since what we’re doing is a pipe dream anyway, what are all the crazy things we’d want to see in a TV show if we were allowed to run wild with one?” We might as well go for broke with this thing if our only option is to do it ourselves.

I won’t lie about it – the dream is that we make this thing good and that some badass production company finds it and goes “We want to put our weight behind this. We want to help you find a cool cable network that will take a chance on putting this on their airwaves.” But that just seems so unlikely, so we don’t need to worry about how to make it right for tv. We don’t need to worry about how to please executives or cater this thing to anyone else’s tastes. This is punk rock television; we’re going to do it our way. By subscribing to our podcast, you’ll be signing up to be a part of that movement, you’ll be lending a vote of support to the fact that we’re even going for this.

At the end of the day, I look at all of my heroes in comedy, and they’re all people who took a chance on doing their own thing. Andy Kaufman. David Letterman. Howard Stern. The Upright Citizens Brigade. Jackass. These are all people who found a way in while still doing their own thing. It’s unlikely, but not impossible, that I might be able to find a way to do so as well. So before I have a mortgage or family or any of that stuff, I’m going to take the next chunk of my life and put as much work as I can into this public access thing and I’m going to give it as honest an effort as I can.

This wound up being way longer than I thought it would, but I think that’s ok. I needed to get that off my chest. And I think that explains the vision of everyone working on this show. If you think it sounds like a funny show you’d enjoy, sign up. If you think it sounds like it comes from a mentality you’d like to support, sign up. We’ll deliver fresh content unlike anything else out there once a week. All we can ask for is your support. Take a chance on us and we might just be able to make this thing work.

Thanks,

Gethard

DONE.