Posted by: happyjoel | August 27, 2010

Shake Weight Jingle Contest Entry with Zach and Joel

First of all, I’m the proud owner of a shake weight, and my new arms are so strong that I can break things that it takes a strong person to break. Congratulations, me.

This is me and my buddy Zach Sherwin aka MC Mr Napkins. I wrote the music and choruses, he did all the verses, and together we dressed up and filmed ourselves shaking. I hope you enjoy it. Toodles.

Posted by: happyjoel | August 12, 2010

Singapore F1 Race is Super Awesome

Check it out, in honor of this year’s F1 Race in Singapore, they used parts of my winning contest video from last year combined with super high tech looking shots of the city, the race and parts of the trip my wife and I took and turned it into this excellent video.

If you go to only 1 Grand Prix race this year, let me fully recommend Singapore. Not only is the city awesome, but it’s the world’s only Night Race, making the racing particularly spectacular.

Finally! The best part of this new apartment my wife and I have moved into – the closet space! Finally my costumes can all have their own homes on hangars!

From right to left:
Penguin
Astronaut
Jean Jacket
Old Fashioned Doctor
New Fangled Doctor
18th century cape
Evil Tree
Prisoner
Clown
Future Man (or nuclear decontamination specialist)
White 1-piece Elvis jumpsuit
Shakespearian Actor
Roman Soldier
Roman Senator
Cowboy (with chaps!)
Blue 2-piece Elvis jumpsuit
Court Jester
Brown Robin Hood Style
Green Robin Hood Style
All rubber 2-piece suit
Green Felt Tuxedo
Beige Tux with Tails
Grey Dr. Evil Style Suit
White Suit
Pink Suit
Red Suit

Plus, all my armor, swords and battle ax, tons of props, and of course the hats which cannot all be pictured until I get a hat rack (turban, crown, legionnaire, knight and fez hats pictured.)

And there was still room for 6 regular shirts in the upper left hand corner!

Hooray new apartments!

Posted by: happyjoel | July 26, 2010

Putting Our Animated Pilot Out in the World

I know in the video contest world that I’m the rarity – most other folks out there who do a lot of video contests seem to ultimately have the goal of being a production company or advertising agency, and that’s great. But for me, the ultimate goal is and always has been to pursue my dream of making comedy for a living.

So for the past 8-10 months, video contests have taken a back seat to work on an animated pilot that my brother and I have been doing. We think the concept itself is funny (Noah’s Ark – the story of the man with the worst job in the history of the world, his all-powerful and annoying boss, and the shitting, fucking, complaining animals he has to take care of), but the more we talked about it, the more we realized that if we wanted to ever see this show on the air, we couldn’t just pitch an idea – we had to make it come to life so people could see how funny the idea actually was. So we started working.

Noah standing with a giraffe in a leather jacket on the Ark.

Noah (played by Marc Maron) counseling an over-sexed Giraffe (Fred Stoller)

Everything from the concept, to the script, to booking and scheduling (AMAZING) actors, booking studios, working with character and background illustrators and animators, the editing, even learning to animate the “mouth flap” myself so I could chip in more during the animation process – has been the hardest I’ve worked on anything in my life, and the same is true for my brother.

Last saturday, finally, it was done. It was burned on to DVD’s and over the past week, Stephen and I have been calling, writing, emailing and harassing everyone we can think of who might help us put it in the hands of an agent, manager, or development exec to bring this show to life. So far, the response has been wonderful from the folks who have seen it, (Check out this awesome blog about it from David Levy, author or Animation Development from Pitch to Production.) though that’s still a long way from getting it on the air.

There are also times when it’s been dropped off and I’m left agonizing for days without a response, wondering if they like it, if they can see it as a show, and, the main focus of anyone wanting to do comedy for a living – wondering what’s getting laughs.

Posted by: happyjoel | July 10, 2010

2nd Prize in the Kelley Blue Book Video Contest

I got second prize!

I was really excited yesterday to get the cash prize especially with a bun in the oven, and also a baby on the way.

I checked out the first prize winner, and sometimes it’s hard because you feel like you wanted the grand prize win, but I thought this dude’s entry was totally awesome and I was happy to take second place to him. Here’s his entry:

To see my second place entry, read this blog entry

Just got word from Audi that my “Urbine – a urine based urinal turbine” wasn’t quite up to scratch for the Audi contest to change the way we live with a new technological advance. Alas, looks like I’ll just be pishing on regular ol’ toilet cakes for the foreseeable future.

Here’s what they had to say:

Dear Joel,

Thank you for participating in The Tony Stark Innovation Challenge
presented by Stark Expo and Audi of America, Inc.  We were truly
impressed by the caliber of ideas shared by the community, and
your submission certainly ranked high, among the best.

While your video undoubtedly expressed bold-thinking demonstrating
the “better living through technology” philosophy, regrettably,
we have granted two other entrants the top prizes.  The decision
was difficult as many ideas showed the potential to change the
world as we now know it.

We thank you again for pushing the envelope of innovation and
fearlessly pursuing your passions.  We encourage you to continue
to challenge convention, take risks, and strive for progress every
day.  After all, we believe the world belongs to the brave.

To your continued journey,

The Stark Expo and Audi of America, Inc

It’s actually a pretty respectable letter considering my invention was a thing for peeing on.

Now Check out the winning video – it’s pretty impressive, and I’m totally cool with losing to this dude:

Posted by: happyjoel | July 7, 2010

I bought a fitness machine

Here I am using it.

For the Butterfinger Defense League contest, I created a new action superhero with all the powers that I actually have in my actual life. (sorry I can’t embed video from this site, you’ll have to click the link to be wowed by my superpowers).

Average Man

I also had the ability to juggle moderately well in there but had to remove it for time.

I went with the real cape, orange shirt for butterfingers, tights, sunglass goggles, and the only pair of brightly covered short underwear I own, thanks to my wife. They are of the non-fly variety, which I always thought doesn’t make sense, but know I know why they exist – in case you need to dress up like a superhero.

We were at a friends pool and I pulled out my speedo and writing ability to come up with this monster of a contest entry.

Stay Poolside with ING Mobile Banking

I really don’t see how it can lose. It’s got the orange ball in the corner that was required. It’s got the tag line. It’s got boobs and a dude in a speedo. And it mentions their product. Basically, it’s a shoe-in!

Posted by: happyjoel | June 25, 2010

“Are You Debit Smart?” Video Contest Entry Sexy

That’s right, I said sexy.

This video contest wants you to talk about why you use Debit Cards. I think I put together a pretty compelling argument right here.

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