Savannah Frazier

“The early bird gets the worm” may sound trite, but nonunion actor Savannah Frazier can attest to the truth of that cliché after her experience at an open call for “From the Fire,” an hourlong oratorio dramatizing the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911.

Frazier arrived at Pearl Studios in Manhattan around 4 a.m. on May 3 to sign up to audition for the nonunion national tour of “Fiddler on the Roof.” She remembered reading in Back Stage that auditions for “From the Fire” were being held next door at Ripley-Grier Studios that afternoon, so she took advantage of the extra time before her “Fiddler” audition at 10 a.m. and made hers the first name on the sign-up sheet for “From the Fire.”

Frazier was just days away from graduating from the two-year conservatory program at New York’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy, where students are encouraged to audition in the morning before attending classes later that day. “I love auditioning,” she says, “even if it’s something that I know I’m not exactly right for. Maybe they’re not going to cast me, but I love to audition. It’s seriously one of my favorite things to do.”

The young actor was especially interested in “From the Fire,” because of its historical subject matter and the reputation of composer Elizabeth Swados. The show had a successful one-week run in April to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the event, but some roles were being recast after the project was accepted to the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Frazier impressed Swados enough to be cast as Alta, a character based on a 16-year-old seamstress who worked and died in the factory.

“I was excited to use the music and use Alta’s voice to really define her,” Frazier says. “I hope that I found the truth of her, because she was a real person. After I sang, [Swados] said, ‘That’s the first time I’ve heard my song sung the way I wanted to hear it sung.’ That was super exciting.”

“Savannah is very versatile, so we tried her out with several different roles,” says musical director Kris Kukul, who worked with actors at the callbacks. “She did well with all of them, but in the end no other actor matched Alta’s sense of ambition, practicality, and inner life quite like Savannah.”

Kukul was looking for strong singers who could portray immigrants in turn-of-the-century New York City and trusted that Frazier would be a good fit with the rest of the cast. “Savannah had all of those qualities,” he says. “She nailed it right away.”

This “Who Got the Part?” column was published in the Jan. 12-18, 2012 issue of Back Stage.

Colin Buckingham

Colin Buckingham arrived at Back Stage’s annual Actorfest NY event last year with copies of his headshot and résumé but only a vague idea of whom he might be able to give them to. When the hopeful young actor learned that casting director Barbara McNamara, who casts background performers for the NBC series “30 Rock,” was available for one-on-one “meet and greet” sessions in the afternoon, he immediately got in line for his chance to talk to her.

Buckingham, a nonunion actor and a sophomore in the undergraduate acting program at Pace University, says he’s been a fan of “30 Rock” since the first episode. When it was his turn to sit down for a precious few minutes with McNamara, he forced himself to be more outgoing and talkative than his normally shy personality allows.

“I talked to her about the show and how I’d been watching it for a long time, and how I really loved the witty humor,” Buckingham recalls. “She said, ‘We’d love to get you on “30 Rock,” ‘ and I did a double take. I thought I had misheard her, because I’d never done anything that big before.”

“Colin has a wonderful presence,” McNamara says. “When I met him, I knew I’d cast him on something one day. It was only a few weeks after Actorfest that a scene on ’30 Rock’ called for Santa’s helpers. He was exactly what the scene called for.” (The scene was part of the Season 5 episode “Chain Reaction of Mental Anguish,” which was shot in November and aired in December.)

But Buckingham, who has dwarfism, says he initially felt uncomfortable when he was offered the part. “When she called me and said that I would be playing an elf,” he says, “I kind of hesitated, because I didn’t want to do something that stereotypical.”

The background role was part of a flashback scene in which Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) remembers an embarrassing childhood moment: waiting in line to see Santa Claus. After speaking with director Ken Whittingham on set, Buckingham says, he felt more at ease, because Whittingham explained that rather than playing an elf, the actor would simply be playing a guy who hated his job at the mall.

Buckingham cites the work of Peter Dinklage—particularly his performance in “Elf,” opposite Will Ferrell—as an example of the possibilities he sees for his own career. “I have always had the perspective that I shouldn’t do anything differently than anyone else,” he says, adding that regardless of one’s gender, shape, size, or ethnicity, “stereotypes exist everywhere. It’s hard to break through them, and the actors that do are very good. They stand out because of their abilities, not their looks.”

When an actor doesn’t get cast, “it’s nothing personal,” McNamara says. “That’s what actors need to understand. Whether they’re background or reading for a part, it just comes down to who’s right for the role, who makes the most sense and looks most believable. At the end of the day, use what you have—and own it.”

Buckingham also attended the Grant Wilfley Casting open call at Actorfest NY and was later hired as an extra for the feature film “Men in Black 3.”

McNamara says she plans to participate in this year’s Actorfest NY, which will be held Sunday, Oct. 23. For more information, visit www.actorfest.com.

This “Who Got the Part?” column was published in the Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2011 issue of Back Stage.

“In a business that can often forget or ignore who actually gets things done and how, you guys have this night to always keep focused on the value of what you do,” host Nicole Sullivan told the nominees at the ceremony in Los Angeles. “Good casting is integral to having success in TV, film, and theater, and we are here to honor that.”

The term “Artios” is from the ancient Greek word meaning “perfectly fitted,” and the awards are presented for outstanding casting in theater, film, and television, based on originality, creativity, and the contribution of casting to the overall quality of the project.

“Casting directors are the unsung heroes of our business,” actor Michael Urie, who hosted the event in New York, told me before the ceremony. “They spend so much time and energy and work introducing artists to each other, and then they send them off into the world. They don’t get a lot of recognition, so I think it’s very cool that there’s a night for them, and I’m honored to be here. And I hope to get a job out of it.”

To begin the show, Urie told the attendees, “You are our champions, and I am honored to be kissing your ass.”

Award presenters in New York included Daniel Radcliffe, Bobby Cannavale, Alan Cumming, Mamie Gummer, Ben Walker, Lucy Liu, Rachel Griffiths, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jonathan Groff, Justin Bartha, Patina Miller, Hunter Parrish, Lily Rabe, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Brooke Shields. Mike Nichols presented the New York Apple Award to Whoopi Goldberg.

“I know how important casting directors are, because I was given birth to by one,” Radcliffe said before presenting an award.

Presenters in Los Angeles included Hailee Steinfeld, Octavia Spencer, and Darren Criss. The Los Angeles ceremony honored “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf with the Career Achievement Award, and Shaun Cassidy presented veteran casting director Meg Liberman (senior vice president of casting, CBS Television Studios) with the Hoyt Bowers Award. Upon accepting her award, Liberman said, “I think the most satisfying part of being a casting director is discovering new talent and giving them their first big break.”

Casting director Bernard Telsey (Telsey + Company), winner of two Artios Awards on Monday night, was proud of his fellow nominees and excited by the continued growth of CSA’s membership. He said that 15 percent of the membership in New York is new this year.

“Looking at the nominees, I noticed about five or seven new New York casting directors who got nominated,” Telsey said. “And now, in the last two years, we have regional theater nominations and we have Off-Broadway nominations, and those are cast by so many more casting directors. It gets more people involved and more people recognized, because the work that’s happening out there is just as good as the Broadway stuff.”

Independent casting director and CSA New York board member Megan Larche said that in addition to attracting new members, the Casting Society of America is striving to become a more unified community offering social outreach and mentorship. “We’re trying to do more intercommunity activities,” Larche said, “so we get to know each other not just as people on the phone or seeing each other at a showcase, but get to know each other as human beings too.”

Each year, the Artios Awards offers casting directors and actors the rare opportunity to interact outside the audition room. All the performers in attendance expressed their appreciation for the work that casting directors have done to keep them working, and in some cases to change their lives with a single role.

“I’ve gotten to know enough of these casting directors to know that whether you get the job or not is not personal, but your relationship with them is,” Urie said before the New York awards were handed out. “And they do care. I have to remind myself of that before every audition.”

The full list of winners and nominees is below (the winners are in bold).

BIG BUDGET FEATURE, DRAMA
“The Fighter,” Sheila Jaffe, Angela Peri (location casting)
“Inception,” John Papsidera
“The Social Network,” Laray Mayfield
“The Town,” Lora Kennedy, Carolyn Pickman (location casting)
“True Grit,” Ellen Chenoweth, Rachel Tenner, JoEdna Boldin (location casting)

BIG BUDGET FEATURE, COMEDY
“How Do You Know,” Francine Maisler, Lynn Kressel (location casting)
“Morning Glory,” Ellen Lewis*
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” Francine Maisler*
“Red,” Deborah Aquila, Tricia Wood, Craig Fincannon (location casting), Lisa Mae Fincannon (location casting), Robin D. Cook (location casting)
“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,” Jennifer Euston, Robin D. Cook*

FEATURE, STUDIO OR INDEPENDENT, DRAMA
“Animal Kingdom,” Kirsty McGregor
“Barney’s Version,” Pam Dixon, Nina Gold, Andrea Kenyon (location casting)*
“Black Swan,” Mary Vernieu
“The Conspirator,” Avy Kaufman, Jackie Burch (location casting)
“The King’s Speech,” Nina Gold

FEATURE, STUDIO OR INDEPENDENT, COMEDY
“Easy A,” Lisa Miller Katz
“I Love You Phillip Morris,” Bernard Telsey
“It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” Cindy Tolan
“The Kids Are All Right,” Laura Rosenthal, Liz Dean (Los Angeles casting)
“Soul Surfer,” Joey Paul Jensen*

LOW BUDGET FEATURE, DRAMA/COMEDY
“Blue Valentine,” Cindy Tolan, Richard Hicks (L.A. casting consultant), David Rubin (L.A. casting consultant)
“Kaboom,” Johanna Ray, Jenny Jue
“Lovely, Still,” Eyde Belasco*
“Night Catches Us,” Lois Drabkin*
“Winter’s Bone,” Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee*

ANIMATION FEATURE
“Alpha and Omega,” Bernie Van De Yacht
“Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole,” Kristy Carlson*
“Rio,” Christian Kaplan
“Tangled,” Jamie Sparer Roberts
“Toy Story 3,” Kevin Reher, Natalie Lyon

DAYTIME DRAMA SERIES
“All My Children,” Judy Blye Wilson
“Days of Our Lives,” Marnie Saitta
“General Hospital,” Mark Teschner

TELEVISION PILOT, DRAMA
“Boardwalk Empire,” Ellen Lewis
“Game of Thrones,” Nina Gold*
“The Killing,” Junie Lowry Johnson, Libby Goldstein, Stuart Aikins (location casting), Sean Cossey (location casting)
“Shameless,” John Frank Levey*
“The Walking Dead,” Sharon Bialy, Sherry Thomas, Lisa Mae Fincannon (location casting), Craig Fincannon (location casting)

TELEVISION PILOT, COMEDY
“The Big C,” Julie Tucker, Ross Meyerson
“Hot in Cleveland,” Collin Daniel, Brett Greenstein
“Mike & Molly,” Nikki Valko, Ken Miller
“Mr. Sunshine,” Francine Maisler
“Raising Hope,” Dava Waite Peaslee

TELEVISION SERIES, DRAMA
“Dexter,” Shawn Dawson
“The Good Wife,” Mark Saks
“Mad Men,” Carrie Audino, Laura Schiff
“Game of Thrones,” Nina Gold*
“In Treatment,” Junie Lowry-Johnson, Libby Goldstein, Julie Tucker (New York casting), Ross Meyerson (New York casting)

TELEVISION SERIES, COMEDY
“The Big C,” Julie Tucker, Ross Meyerson
“Community,” Dava Waite Peaslee
“Glee,” Robert J. Ulrich, Eric Dawson, Carol Kritzer
“Modern Family,” Jeff Greenberg
“Nurse Jackie,” Julie Tucker, Ross Meyerson

TELEVISION MOVIE/MINISERIES
“Cinema Verite,” Randi Hiller
“God in America,” Paul Fouquet, Elissa Myers
“Mildred Pierce,” Laura Rosenthal
“Marry Me,” Gillian O’Neill, Mark Fincannon (location casting), Sharon Fincannon (location casting)*
“Too Big To Fail,” Alexa L. Fogel, Christine Kromer

CHILDREN’S SERIES
“Hannah Montana,” Howard Meltzer, Carol Goldwasser
“iCarly,” Krisha Bullock
“The Suite Life on Deck,” Dana Gergely, Brandi Brice
“True Jackson, VP,” Harriet Greenspan
“Wizards of Waverly Place,” Ruth Lambert, Robert McGee

TELEVISION ANIMATION
“The Backyardigans,” Leslie Zaslower*
“Bubble Guppies,” Leslie Zaslower*
“Go Diego Go,” Leslie Zaslower*
“The Penguins of Madagascar,” Sarah Noonan, Meredith Layne
“Spongebob Squarepants,” Sarah Noonan*

SHORT FILM
“California Romanza,” Randi Hiller, Tamara-Lee Notcutt
“The Candy Shop,” Mark Fincannon
“Efrain,” Billy DaMota*
“Neighbors,” Robin Lippin
“Ollie Klublershturf vs. The Nazis,” Alyssa Weisberg
“Sodales,” Randi Hiller, Tamara-Lee Notcutt
“The Thief,” Randi Hiller, Tamara-Lee Notcutt
“Yearbook,” James Calleri

NEW YORK BROADWAY THEATER, DRAMA
“Jerusalem,” Jim Carnahan*
“Lombardi,” Laura Stanczyk
“The Normal Heart,” Bernard Telsey, Will Cantler
“That Championship Season,” Cindy Tolan
“War Horse,”  Daniel Swee

NEW YORK BROADWAY THEATER, COMEDY
“A Free Man of Color,” Daniel Swee
“Arcadia,” Jim Carnahan
“Good People,” David Caparelliotis
“La Bete,” Jim Carnahan*
“Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” Jim Carnahan, Carrie Gardner

NEW YORK BROADWAY THEATER, MUSICAL
“Anything Goes,” Jim Carnahan*
“The Book of Mormon,” Carrie Gardner
“Catch Me If You Can,” Bernard Telsey, Justin Huff, Craig Burns
“How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” Tara Rubin, Merri Sugarman, Eric Woodall, Laura Schutzel
“Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” Bernard Telsey

NEW YORK THEATER, COMEDY/MUSICAL
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Rachel Hoffman
“By The Way, Meet Vera Stark,” Mele Nagler
“The Grand Manner,” Daniel Swee
“Hairspray,” Craig Burns
“School for Lies,” James Calleri
“Tigers Be Still,” Carrie Gardner
“Trust,” Mele Nagler

NEW YORK THEATER, DRAMA
“Angels in America,” Will Cantler
“The Hallway Trilogy,” James Calleri
“Other Desert Cities,” Daniel Swee
“The Other Place,” Bernard Telsey, Will Cantler
“Three Sisters,” James Calleri

REGIONAL THEATER EAST
“A Delicate Balance,” Tara Rubin, Laura Schutzel, Eric Woodall, Merri Sugarman
“Antony and Cleopatra” Will Cantler
“Every Tongue Confess,” Alaine Alldaffer*
“Follies,” Laura Stanczyk
“Ruined,”  Tara Rubin, Eric Woodall, Merri Sugarman, Laura Schutzel*

REGIONAL THEATER WEST (tie)
“August: Osage County,” Samantha Barrie
“Circle Mirror Transformation,” Joanne DeNaut
“Leap of Faith,” Bernard Telsey, Justin Huff
“Little Miss Sunshine,” Bernard Telsey
“Tales of the City,” David Caparelliotis

LOS ANGELES THEATER
“The Cradle Will Rock,” Scott David, Erica Silverman
“Gigi,” Amy Lieberman
“Kiss Me, Kate,” Amy Lieberman
“Much Ado About Nothing,” Michael Donovan
“The Temperamentals,” Scott David, Erica Silverman

SPECIAL HONOREES

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dick Wolf

HOYT BOWERS AWARD
Meg Liberman

THE NEW YORK APPLE AWARD
Whoopi Goldberg

*Shared credit with non-CSA casting director(s)

This story was published online Sept. 27, 2011 at BackStage.com.

"Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film!" (left to right: Kurt Braunohler, Leo Allen, Rob Paravonian, Kristen Schaal, Liam McEneany, Victor Varnado, Christian Finnegan). Photo credit: Lindsay Aikman/Michael Priest Photography

Last night, Sketchfest NYC presented the New York premiere of Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film!, a documentary about the indie comedy scene in New York City and the long-running comedy show “Tell Your Friends!,” which is hosted each week by Liam McEneaney on the Lower East Side. McEneaney and director Victor Varnado (The Awkward Comedy Show) say their goal was to create a filmed document of the current comedy movement — like Woodstock or The Last Waltzdid for music — by combining live performances with insightful interviews and candid backstage footage to create an overall sense of the scene.

The film was shot at a live “Tell Your Friends!” show at The Bell House in Brooklyn last summer and features performances by Reggie Watts, Kurt Braunohler & Kristen Schaal, Christian Finnegan, Leo Allen, Rob Paravonian, and McEneaney. The documentary also includes interviews with comedians Janeane Garofalo, Jim Gaffigan, Colin Quinn, Marc Maron, Paul F. Tompkins, Eddie Brill, Wyatt Cenac, Hannibal Buress, and Kumail Nanjiani.

Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film! premiered at SXSW earlier this year, and has also screened at Just for Laughs in Montreal and Chicago, as well as other film festivals. Watch the trailer for the film below, then check out my video interviews with the creators and cast:

Venues such as rock clubs, coffee shops, bar basements, and the like now offer working comedians a chance to hone their skills and work on new material in ways they may not be able to accomplish at a traditional club with a cover charge and two-drink minimum (and different expectations from an audience). The romantically shot performance footage from The Bell House shows these artists at their absolute best, and should be an eye-opener for anyone who’s only been exposed to comedy club lineups or Comedy Central half-hour specials, but it’s the ongoing debate about the difference between “alternative” and “mainstream” — if there is any at all — that gives the film its unique purpose and point of view.

Finnegan, for example, contends that a comic will be able to improve their writing by experimenting at alternative venues and small rooms, but they won’t become a better performer until they can tame the comedy club crowd. Meanwhile, Colin Quinn argues that alternative comics may actually take their art more seriously than professional club comics. And Eddie Brill warns that comics who stay in the underground scene for too long without coming up for air at a club tend to be more interested in their own idiosyncracies than in pleasing an audience. Most of the other comics simply said that comedy is comedy, stage time is stage time, and it’s only the outsiders who feel the need to label any performer or venue “alternative.” (Or, as McEneaney says, “Alternative is mainstream.”)

Before the screening at the Paley Center, Liam McEneaney explained the origins of the film and the significance of the current comedy landscape:

Varnado, Braunohler, Schaal, Allen, Paravonian, and McEneaney shared their thoughts about the film and the term “alternative comedy”:

This story and videos were posted online Sept. 23, 2011 at Blog Stage.

The first episode of “Cop/Cop,” titled “Old Dogs,” premiered online this week, and another episode has been selected to debut at the Channel 101 program at this year’s New York Television Festival on Friday night in NYC. Channel 101 is a monthly series in which five-minute shows are screened for a live audience, who vote to “cancel” some series and “renew” others, new episodes of which are then presented as part of the new “prime time lineup” at the event the next month.

“I have not experienced a live situation, where people will laugh at something I’ve made,” Seglem says. “So my goal is just to have people laugh at it. That’s really all I can ask. It’d be nice to advance, but as long as people think it’s funny, I don’t care.”

Watch the first episode of “Cop/Cop” below, then read my Q&A with Seglem to learn more about his creative process, how he finds an audience for funny three-minute videos among so much competition online, and why all actors should take on the role of a casting director.

(Warning: Language and situations may be NSFW)

How did you get started acting in and creating your own web videos?

Jeremy Seglem: Initially, I met Tim Young, who’s my creative partner, through “Treading Water,” a web series which I was cast in while I was living in Philadelphia and came up here [to New York City] to shoot episodes. It was the first acting thing I’d ever done. I never had any acting or writing experience. I went to business school, so I wasn’t a theater kid.

So that was this collaborative thing, part scripted and part improvised. And then when I moved up to New York, I developed this idea for “Twilight with Steve Cooper,” which I had written all these scripts for, and I asked Tim to help direct it. And then that morphed into “Behind the Steve,” which was almost all improvised.

But it’s improvised within the plot and what we really want to get to. We have a box, and we work inside that. “30 Rock” is notorious for that, too. “We’ll start here and we want to get there, so do whatever you want to do in between.” And I think that makes organic, really funny stuff, when you just let people go.

I think that the hardest part of doing predominantly improvised web video – besides no one seeing it (laughs) – is the post-production aspect of it. You’re not having guys hitting the same lines every time.

The people we’re working with are really seriously talented improvisers, and they’re funny every single time. But because of that, they want to do something new every take. And you kind of have to rein them in, but you still have loads of funny stuff. But yeah, it does make it difficult to organize. I think that’s a good thing. It’s an embarrassment of riches, so to speak. It’s really like a journey. These are fun to make for that reason, because they end up differently than you think they will.

I really enjoyed making this one, and as tough as it was to put together, it is in my opinion the most flexible of all the projects I’ve done. You can come back with a thousand new ideas that will work in this world.

Within the past few years, you’ve transitioned from acting to writing to co-creating your own web series. What have you learned about the process?

That’s an interesting point. I think mostly, I just like to learn all of this stuff. And for me, acting kind of came easily, and I also took it for granted, and still take it for granted. I think a lot of actors do. When you get into writing and producing, you play God in a sense. It tapped into the control freak aspect of me. I really like being able to influence the entire piece. And that doesn’t mean I don’t like to act.

After your first videos for “Treading Water,” did you go to more auditions and act in other projects?

Jeremy Seglem

Yeah. I moved to New York after I graduated from business school, and I was like, “I’m gonna give acting a shot.” I used Actors Access, I used Back Stage, Craigslist, every sort of means to find auditions. I booked a few things, and I would occasionally get auditions for commercials. Mostly what I was getting were staged readings or other web series.

That’s something that really influenced me to get into creating my own videos. When you’re dealing with independent acting, there’s such a load of stuff out there that isn’t great, and it came to me that I can make better stuff myself, that I can be in.

Rather than just accept any gig you can to put it on your reel, you can be more selective and in control of your own destiny.

Right, exactly. That’s another thing that affected it. But I gave acting a shot in New York in the traditional sense, where I’d go to Equity open calls at 6 a.m. on 42nd Street and wait in line to read for some Broadway play that no one had any shot of getting. I did that for two or three years, until it just became clear to me that that was in vain, and since I’ve sort of let that go and gotten more into selling my own stuff, I think it’s worked out for me better than searching the internet for auditions at Ripley-Grier.

That entrepreneurial approach to creating your own work makes sense, considering you were a business major.

To be honest, I was actually a sports management major, at Temple University. It was entertaining. I had classes with dudes on the basketball team. But it was a joke.

Part of my motivation for going to business school was the fact that both my parents are artists, and I was like, “I don’t want to do anything creative. I want to do my own thing.” And it came full circle.

That’s funny because for most people, their parents are the ones urging them to get a practical job.

Yeah, exactly! (laughs)

Has your past experience as an actor affected how you find talent and cast your projects?

I’ve done auditions for all the projects we’ve had. It’s about knowing who’s right for the part. Particularly if you’ve written it yourself, or you’re engaged in the creative process, you know what you’re looking for and you know what you want. I can’t imagine being a casting director for “Spider-Man,” like, “I didn’t write this. I kind of know what they’re looking for, but I’m not on the same page…” I can’t imagine how that works and how that’s possible.

But we did casting for all the shows. We used Actors Access and Back Stage, Breakdown Services. I’ve got to say, that’s the most fun I’ve ever had doing anything theatrically related, is sitting behind a casting desk. I would recommend that any actor who wants to learn should do that. It’s unbelievable to look at people pour out this stuff in front of you, and you don’t have any nervousness about it, and you can see what works or what people do that doesn’t work.

Has that changed your approach to your own auditions?

Oh, absolutely. I look back and think, man, I can’t believe some stuff I did [in the audition room].

People come in and give hugs and stuff, and when you’re on the other side of the table, that comes off as weird and nervous. Sure, maybe it works for some people. I don’t know. Once again, all that matters is how well the person can act.

For the most part, the people we’ve cast have been supporting actors, so we’re looking for types, basically. For our main actors – for instance, Tyler Gilmore is a UCB grad and has been in almost all the projects we’ve done. He’s very funny, and he’s a great actor, and he can play multiple roles. We know what we have with him. He can be the lead, and then we just kind of have to fill in around that with casting other actors.

Does casting for chemistry become a concern, or do you just look for the best actor?

I think a lot of production companies and casting directors are looking for people who can be great improvisers. That, to me, is number one. We’ll have sides when somebody comes in, and then we’ll be like, “Hey, let’s do this off book.” You immediately can tell if someone can hang or not, by the way they’re either scared shitless by the prospect of having to improvise, or they embrace it. I think if you know how to improvise, you can have chemistry with anyone else who knows how to improvise.

So you’d recommend that any actor should have improv as part of their background?

Look at the acting process. You receive a script, and it has definitive lines, but as an actor your job is to look beyond those lines anyway. “Who is this person? What world do they live in? What’s their past, what’s their history?” So when you get into that, then you can start playing around with who they are. And I think that should be required  for an actor, to be able to morph into whatever is needed to play a character.

Did you take acting classes before moving to NYC?

I took an acting class on a lark freshman year of college, loved it, and then didn’t take another one until senior year. I only took two classes, and I really enjoyed them both. But I think I’m a very lazy actor. I don’t prepare like a lot of people do, and I don’t have the same passion. I like to make people laugh, and I like to be up in front of people, but it isn’t so much as an art for me as writing is or producing is. I take those much more seriously, I think, than I take acting.

What about your own improv background? Have you taken any improv classes?

When I moved up here, I got into the UCB scene, Upright Citizens Brigade. That’s sort of been the feeder system and the network of contacts of almost everyone I know in the acting industry in New York.

I took five classes. I got up to the advanced levels, and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It’s easily been the most influential thing I’ve done creatively, in terms of finding my voice and being able to branch out and meet people and try new things. I’ve taken acting classes in New York City, too, and they pale in comparison, I think, to what you learn and are capable of doing with improv. It’s just a different game.

Is that because the group setting of improv appeals to you more?

Yeah, and also, you don’t get a chance to fuck around in improv, as funny as it is.

I would actually think that’s all you do.

Well, yeah, it is, to an extent. But it’s survival of the fittest. You have to be good all the time. You can go to acting classes and be a schlub, and the acting coach will be like, “Oh, great job!,” because you’re paying them 200 bucks a week. Meanwhile, at UCB, if you don’t get laughs, you don’t get laughs. That’s why I love comedy. It’s an instant, visceral reaction to what you’re doing.

But when you’re creating comedy content for the web, you’re reaching anonymous viewers instead of seeing the reactions of a live audience. You don’t really know how people are feeling as they’re watching it.

It’s this strange medium that hasn’t really found its footing yet. And I don’t think that a lot of people, when they watch stuff online, watch it with the same intent and the same emotions that they do television or a stage play. If you go to a Harold improv night at UCB, and you watch people there, you’d laugh and it’s hysterical. But if you try to translate that into a television show, it wouldn’t make any sense. It wouldn’t work.

Do you just have to trust in yourselves, knowing that if you think something is funny, the viewers probably will, too?

Yeah, and I think that’s a source of much of my ego, is that I think I have a very definitive comedic voice. Comparatively speaking, I know shit about acting. But when it comes to comedy, I’m staunchly in control of my voice.

You also get affirmation from view counts and online comments, not to mention the fact that your videos have been posted on Funny or Die.

I think one benefit of going to business school is that I’m fine with reaching out to people, even people that I don’t know, and asking them to do something for me, which a lot of people in the creative world either don’t know how to do or don’t care to do.

It’s about tact, and it’s about grace, and it’s about finding the people who you’re supposed to asking things from. For Funny or Die, I researched – it sounds like I’m a stalker, a perv, “I looked up these guys’ names and found their emails” –but that’s basically what it was. I emailed them and said, “Hey, this is something I think you guys would think is funny, you want to feature it?” And sure enough, they did.

I don’t want to give away all my secrets, and I’m not even saying I’m successful by these standards yet, but I think if anyone really wants to get anything of theirs seen or wants to get their name out there, that’s all it takes. Find the people you need to find, and ask them. That’s it.

For a website like Funny or Die, I think a lot people might be intimidated. “I’m not friends with Will Ferrell or Judd Apatow, so why would anyone care about me?” But they do need new content.

That’s the fantastic thing about web video. Everybody needs good content. Funny or Die needs content, and they make their own, but they also need people to give them content.

Every time we launch a new series, I always worry if anyone’s gonna watch it. Unless you’re an established comedic presence, you have to do a lot of leg work.

I think another thing that people overlook is that there’s a serious amount of internet savvy required to get your stuff seen. I spend hundreds of hours doing things that are essentially hacking techniques to get people to look at stuff. And I’m not saying to cheat or anything like that, but Digg has ways that you can get stuff on their front page. Back when Digg was much bigger, we got on their front page twice. That was a huge achievement, but you needed to have this sort of underground connection.

I’ve heard that there were about 30 people who essentially controlled that site via their own networking, who you needed to get in touch with and become part of the group in order to get traction on Digg.

Yeah, exactly! You basically sit there IM-ing strangers, like, “Hey, can you Digg this?” It sounds really shady, but if you’re not established, you’re looking at these options of how you get your stuff out there.

Have you made these web series work for you financially?

We had this ad revenue deal with one company. For “Twilight with Steve Cooper,” we were on this website called KoldCast TV, and they do ad sharing. We got 150,000 views, and I’m like, “Man, that’s gonna be like $3,000!” And I got a check for $22. It was disheartening.

But web videos, you can’t monetize it. We spend a few thousand on all these projects we do, each of them. Long ago, I stopped thinking I could recoup my money on any of these projects. It’s more to build a portfolio, and hope that someone at Sony Pictures sees it and goes, “Let’s give those guys a million dollars and a three-picture deal.” (laughs) I think that’s the overall goal, as extreme as it may be.

“Cop/Cop” has been selected for the Channel 101:NY screening at the NYTVF on Fri., Sept. 23 at 8:30 p.m. at 92Y Tribeca in NYC.

This Q&A was published online Sept. 22, 2011 at Blog Stage and BackStage.com.

“Two years ago, I planned on killing myself in my garage. Now, I’m in my garage doing the best work I’ve ever done.”

This is how viewers are introduced to comedian and podcast host Marc Maron in his new independent comedy pilot, which premiered as part of the New York Television Festival‘s Primetime “Opening Night Comedy Extravaganza” last night in New York City. Presented with the eponymous working title Maron, the show opens with Maron speaking directly to the camera, sharing his neuroses with someone we’d assume is his therapist. But no — he’s just trying to connect with his cat’s veterinarian.

That type of straightforward, confessional comedy has been Maron’s trademark for more than two decades as a stand-up comic. Today, he reaches hundreds of thousands of listeners as the host of WTF with Marc Maron, a popular podcast — recorded in his garage at his home near L.A. that he calls the “cat ranch” — in which he engages comedians such as Robin Williams, Maria Bamford, Garry Shandling, Louis C.K., and more than 200 others in long-form conversations.

(“When I was going to a meeting at Fox [to pitch the pilot],” Maron revealed in a Q&A with the audience following the screening, “we were walking through the parking lot and Louis was driving out. He was just alone in his car, and he was like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ I said, ‘I’m meeting with Fox. We did a pilot presentation.’ He goes, ‘Really?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it’s called Louie Also.”)

Last night’s NYTVF screening was the first time that the public, or Maron himself, had seen the finished pilot.

“I was excited to see me,” Maron said of his on-screen performance. “There were moments that I was embarrassed for me, because of the vulnerability that I was putting forth, but I think that’s a good thing. If I’m embarrassing me because I’m looking at myself going, ‘Holy fuck! You’re so raw and weird,’ I think we’ve accomplished something.”

Listeners of WTF will recognize much of the themes and relationships in the TV presentation, which turns Maron’s comedic voice into a narrative about comedy and life that is based around fights with his girlfriend, a strained interaction with his father, and his duties hosting the podcast.

“I thought it was a show about second chances,” said co-writer Duncan Birmingham, who was already a fan of Maron’s comedy before joining the project. He added, “All of a sudden I got to be a real hardcore Marc Maron nerd. It was kind of like writing Marc Maron fan fiction.”

The pilot was made on a small budget with executive producers Denis Leary and Jim Serpico’s production company, Apostle (Rescue Me), at Maron’s house. Past podcast participant Ken Jeong appeared as his guest in the episode.

“Ken was hilarious,” Maron said, “because he was like, ‘I’ve always wanted to play myself!’ He was really excited about playing himself, and he was ecstatic to meet Ed Asner.” Asner was cast as Maron’s father, who has appeared on the WTF podcast a few times and whose bipolar disorder has been referenced repeatedly by Maron.

“I had to make Ed Asner coffee on that set,” Maron said. “True story. He was sitting in the living room, just sitting there waiting for something to be set up. I said, ‘Do you want coffee?,’ and he goes, ‘You gonna make me coffee?’ I said, ‘Yes, Ed, I’ll make you coffee.’ ‘Alright, I’ll have coffee.’ It was a great moment.”

Later, Maron quipped, “My dad’s probably a little more erratic than Ed Asner. There was a consistency to Ed Asner that was appealing. There was no risk of Ed Asner crying and saying, ‘I don’t want to live anymore.’ So we decided to go with Ed Asner.”

The cast also featured comics Seth Morris, W. Kamau Bell, and Sean Patton, with UCB’s Angela Trimbur as Maron’s girlfriend. Although he and the other actors worked from a script, much of the dialogue was improvised within the framework of the plot.

Marc Maron with his cat Monkey

“There was an immediacy to all the scenes,” Maron said. “That’s just the way I work. I’m not a classically trained actor – I know it’s hard to tell – so when I was doing it, I was definitely in it, and it would seem new every time.”

Sitting in the mostly supportive and enthusiastic crowd was comedian Robert Kelly, who asked Maron the final question of the night:

“How do you feel now,” Kelly asked, “from being at the point where you were gonna commit suicide, you were gonna kill yourself, at the lowest point of your career, where you had fame and then it all went away and you were a fucking nobody – now, to be here, have your podcast and all these people here laughing hysterically with you?”

“Well, Robert, I’m trying to enjoy it,” Maron said. “I’m extremely grateful. But this was very nerve wracking for me, because I’ve never experienced this. I’ve put my podcast out there, I can usually watch myself doing standup, but I’ve never had the experience of working with a bunch of people, acting in a situation like this, and handling all of that without freaking out. So this was a new experience. I was nervous, but I’m happy things are going better. I feel better. Is that alright?”

Read more about Marc Maron and WTF.

The NYTVF runs Sept. 20-24, 2011 in NYC. For more info about the festival, visit www.nytvf.com.

This story was published online Sept. 21, 2011 at Blog Stage and BackStage.com.

Eugene Mirman

The Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival is a joke.

At least, that’s how the annual event began four years ago, when Brooklyn-based standup comedian Eugene Mirman told fellow comics Mike Birbiglia and Julie Smith that it would be funny to name a comedy festival after himself because “it would be a ridiculous thing to do.”

Yet Smith took him seriously enough that she recruited Caroline Creaghead, her intern at The Onion, to help them make it happen. Together they launched the first Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival in 2008.

Creaghead had no experience producing or promoting comedy events, but she soon discovered that with a name like Eugene Mirman, performers would line up to participate. “He possesses an extremely warm vibe,” Creaghead says of Mirman, “and people just want to be around him, having fun. And that’s what he loves, is just people having a good time. It’s more about the experience that other people are having. That’s been a magical thing about the festival—it’s just like inviting people to a party.”

Many of alternative comedy’s icons and up-and-comers, such as Kristen Schaal, David Cross, Todd Barry, John Hodgman, Michael Showalter, Hannibal Buress, Janeane Garofalo, John Oliver, Jon Benjamin, and Reggie Watts, have since taken up residency at two Brooklyn venues, The Bell House and Union Hall, each year for a weekend in September. This year the lineup will also include John Mulaney, Kurt Braunohler, Tom Shillue, Jen Kirkman, Marc Maron, and many more.

Mirman and his cohorts understand and appreciate the unique symbiotic relationship between comedians and a live audience. Instead of focusing on becoming another exclusive setting for industry VIPs to discover and evaluate talent, the Mirman Festival is an inclusive event that simply seeks to entertain, by whatever means necessary. Mirman’s silly, absurdist, and almost childlike sense of humor is evident throughout each year’s programming, aided by the occasional sideshow spectacle, such as a dunk tank, a cotton candy machine, or a cookout.

“I always found it easier to start my own show than try to break into a club,” Mirman says. “If you can put on your own show and promote it and people come, then you’re still a comic. Our audiences are often very friendly. They won’t laugh if something’s not funny, but they’ll also be patient. And so as a result, it’s just really fun.”

Some highlights of the 2011 Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival include “An Evening of Science,” an opening-night event in which astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium and frequent “Daily Show” guest, will host an episode of his radio show “StarTalk” with help from Mirman, Schaal, and other comics; “The Archer Variety Hour and Panel,” featuring the cast and creators of the FX animated series “Archer;” and “The Talent Show Presents: The Drunk Show,” during which performers including Hodgman, Kirkman, and “This American Life” host Ira Glass will base an improv comedy show around drinking games as they are forced to get drunk in front of the audience.

“Eugene has been really supportive of our show from the beginning,” says Elna Baker, who co-hosts the monthly themed “Talent Show” with Kevin Townley at Littlefield in Brooklyn. “Because he liked the show, he asked us to do what we already do as part of the comedy festival. We’ve made him do some pretty ridiculous things, and he’s always been a good sport about it.”

To continue to expand the fest’s offerings without raising ticket prices, Mirman, Creaghead, and Smith launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter that raised more than $18,000 this summer. Donations from nearly 250 fans, along with larger contributions from supporters Comedy Central and Sub Pop Records, made it possible to bring to life what Mirman calls “demented dreams,” like a petting zoo and an “awkward party bus.” “We have a fantasy of making an ice cream truck limousine,” Mirman says, “but I think that maybe isn’t possible.”

“We wanted to take out a full-page ad in Variety to congratulate ourselves on the festival,” Creaghead says, “to make fun of that trope of the industry congratulating themselves, or I guess their clients. Needless to say, it was a little cost prohibitive for a one-note joke. I sent Eugene the price, and he came back with ‘Do they have a discount for people who are kidding?’ “

Mirman admits that the joke is now on him, because “we do keep producing [the festival]. It’s not like our goal is to one day be at Carnegie Hall. Our goal is just to do very fun, dumb things. And it’s so dumb.” He adds, “It’s always dangerous to think of an ironic thing, and then keep doing it.”

In addition to his successful solo career as a standup, Mirman has been integral in establishing a supportive community of comedians. He created and hosted several long-running New York comedy shows; toured with Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, and Marc Maron; and has been featured on television shows such as “Flight of the Conchords,” “Bob’s Burgers,” and “The Colbert Report.” Although it started as nothing more than a joke, his festival may be the purest example of Mirman’s comedic sensibility, presented with a little help from his friends.

“I think that if you put in specific effort, you’ll get out of it what you put into it,” Mirman says. “Meaning, if I want to audition for movies and try to get certain kinds of roles, I can work on that, or I can tour doing standup, or I can put on a fake comedy festival where we have a caviar-eating contest. And that happens to be what I enjoy doing, so I’m just going to do that.”

The Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival runs Sept. 15-18, 2011, at The Bell House and Union Hall in Brooklyn, N.Y. For more info and to purchase tickets, visit www.eugenemirman.com.

This story was published online Sept. 13, 2011 at BackStage.com.

Maria Bamford

You probably recognize stand-up comic Maria Bamford, even though you might not know it. That’s because Bamford — who has been on the verge of becoming a “household name” for the past decade — is best known for her ability to manipulate her voice and facial features to embody multiple characters, ranging from her friends and dysfunctional family to more general types.

In addition to various supporting roles in movies and TV series, Bamford was featured in the documentary The Comedians of Comedy with Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifiniakis, and Brian Posehn; has taped two half-hour Comedy Central Specials; and has recorded three stand-up albums (the latest, Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome, was released in 2009 and was named one of the “Best Comedy Albums of the Decade” by The A.V. Club). She has also put her transformative abilities to use as a voiceover artist, providing voices for animated series such as Ugly Americans, Home Movies, CatDog, Hey Arnold!, and more; the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time, in which Bamford plays multiple roles, is nominated for an Emmy award this year for “Outstanding Short-format Animated Program.”

About six years ago, Bamford used her unique metamorphosis skills to create a one-woman show titled Plan B, in which she faced her fear of having a nervous breakdown by imagining what it would be like to leave show business and move back into her parents’ attic in Duluth, Minnesota. The live show was then developed into a 20-episode web series called The Maria Bamford Show for the now-defunct website Super Deluxe in 2006. Bamford played about a dozen characters in the series, including her parents, her sister,  past high school acquaintances, and other Duluth locals, to entertain viewers with a surreal yet hilarious glimpse into the mind of this self-deprecating comic.

This week, while Bamford is part of the lineup at the annual Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, The Maria Bamford Show is being paired with the Maysles brothers’ 1975 documentary Grey Gardens for a screening at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC.

I spoke with Bamford about having her comedy paired with a documentary about the reclusive (and possibly mentally ill) Edith and “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, why customer service can be more difficult than comedy, how she determined that it was time to give up acting, and more. Read the Q&A below:

How do you feel about the pairing of your web series The Maria Bamford Show with Grey Gardens for this upcoming screening? Have you seen the film?

Maria Bamford: Oh, yes I have. (laughs) It’s interesting, because I think that is a documentary of somebody’s life who – it could be conceived like it’s untreated mental illness or something where the person doesn’t seen their own art form. Maybe their life is art. You know, they were doing whatever they were doing, and she’s singing and dancing and telling their story. So that is creativity. I guess mine was more self-conscious.

I did a one-person show because I always wanted to be on a sitcom, but then I thought, I don’t really enjoy acting, and I don’t think I would enjoy being on a sitcom because you sit around a lot. At least with my experience, even as just a guest star, I sat around by myself [on set]. So I didn’t enjoy it, and having somebody bossing me around. (laughs)

Sara Schaefer

Hails from: Midlothian, Va. Greener pasture: New York.

Accidental dream: Schaefer was auditioning to be a “Daily Show” correspondent when instead she landed a gig hosting “The DL,” a Web series for AOL. Then, when Jimmy Fallon succeeded Conan O’Brien on “Late Night,” she was hired as the show’s head blogger, thanks as much to her Web experience as her comedic chops. “It’s great to decide on the craziest, biggest dream you can imagine,” she says. “Whatever you get on the way is probably what you were looking for in the first place.” Award-winning nerd: Schaefer and “The Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Digital Experience” were recognized at the Creative Arts Emmys in 2009 and 2010. “I have the dorkiest Emmy you could possibly get,” she jokes about her two awards for “outstanding creative achievement in interactive media, nonfiction.” After more than two years at “Late Night,” Schaefer left this month to join the writing staff of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

Sara Schaefer is one of “10 Comics to Watch” in the June 2-8, 2011 “Spotlight on Comedy & Improv” issue of Back Stage.

Hannibal Buress

Hails from: Chicago. Greener pasture: New York.

Ride the train: Plenty of comics leave Middle America for one of the coasts early in their careers. So why did Buress choose New York over Los Angeles? “My driver’s license was suspended for parking tickets,” he says. “I didn’t have a driver’s license, so I couldn’t be in L.A.” Once he was in Gotham with MetroCard in hand, an appearance on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” led Buress to a season writing for “Saturday Night Live,” then a job as a scribe on “30 Rock.” Typecast as a bum? After only one season of working for Tina Fey, Buress already has a recurring role—as a homeless man. Usually, writers read for small roles before actors are cast later in the week, he says, but “I got a laugh the first time it was in the script. So they were like, ‘Let’s just have Hannibal do it.’ And then they kept writing it in.”

Hannibal Buress is one of “10 Comics to Watch” in the June 2-8, 2011 “Spotlight on Comedy & Improv” issue of Back Stage.