Honest Living

In one month, I debut the first pilot I’ve produced since college, Honest Living.  I couldn’t have done it without my hilarious co-stars, Dennis Rooney and Tim Thompson.  And, of course, our director John Trueson, who not only a great at directing, but also the best person to calm me down when I act all crazy and shit.  And Terry Radigan, who’s original music brings it to another level.

Honest Living is about two petty con artists, Kate (Palminteri) and Chris (Rooney), who happily live in their world of scams and dishonesty.  Kate’s half brother, Jake (Thompson) who is mentally unstable is released from prison and returns home to live with Kate and Chris.

Behind the Scenes:

When I wrote Honest Living, I was working in real estate.  I was a particularly terrible sales person, and I was failing.  I needed a new job.  I needed to make money.  I didn’t realize just how awful the economy was until I started really searching for an adult job.  I was getting discouraged.  There were all these ways to make a lot more (easy) money, if only I were a shittier person and didn’t care about doing wrong by other people.  And that’s how Honest Living was conceived.  I thought, “hey, what if I created a character that completely lacked empathy, and looked up to the Jordan Belfort’s and Nigerian Prince’s of the world?”

The first scene of Honest Living, Kate and Chris are ‘spirit exterminators,’ though the actual problem is a squirrel in the attic.  This scene is actually based on a short story I wrote back in college.

My favorite part about creating a character, is conceiving their back story.  What made them who they are?  Some of Kate’s upbringing is revealed in the pilot, but much of her back story I created soley for me.  For example, Kate is the youngest of three accidents.  Her father is a wanted con artist by criminals and the law.  When she was born, her parents were going to give her up for adoption, but as a baby, she never cried.  She just layed there.  Her parents found it too difficult to give up a baby that didn’t cry.  The doctors said there was something wrong with her.  There’s something in her wiring that doesn’t allow her to process fear.  Her parents (her father in particular) saw this as a blessing.

Creating and writing sitcoms is the reason I got into doing stand-up.  Of course, I’ve fallen in love with stand-up, but writing is still my first love.  Producing a film is far more work than you can possibly imagine (unless of course you’ve done it).  There’s an added difficulty when you have virtually no budget to work with.  When you see an “independent film,” you can figure their budget was two or three million.  That’s considered a low budget movie in Hollywood.

I hate 90% of anything I write.  But I’m proud of this project and I’m really excited to see how people react to it.

Honest Living will premiere at McGuire’s Comedy Club, May 25th at 7pm.  Tickets are $15.  Most of the proceeds will go towards covering some of the costs for the film.   I paid them in tacos.

Here’s a link to buy tickets:  http://tickets.mcguirescomedy.com/show.cfm?id=297419

Hope to see you there! 🙂