05: Safety Geeks: SVI - Interview with its creators
-We call this our Law & Order Shot, SAFETY GEEKS: SVI
Safety Geeks: SVI from the creators and stars of Invention with Brian Forbes, David Beeler (Reginald Syngen-Smithe) & Tom Konkle (Budwin W. Yaker). Also starring Brittney Powell (Dr. Randi Minky), Benton Jennings (Manservant Hopkins) and Mary Cseh (Sparky Van Der Graaf). The first episode introduces the main characters, as well as starts the story arc that continues through the following episodes. The comedic style of this web series is well written and brilliantly acted out. This series is also by far the most ingenious one, with its use of special effects.
-“Nothing to see here, folks.” SAFETY GEEKS: SVI, Ep 3
Jeff: I am honored to have a Q&A session with the creators and stars of Safety Geeks: SVI, Tom Konkle & David Beeler. Would like to start off with by saying, I truly love this series, and thank you for the opportunity to have this Q&A.
TOM: First off, thank you Jeff for your supportive comments and genuine love for the series. That is why we made it.
DAVE: Absolutely, we are honored to have the opportunity to chat with you and thanks so much for the kind words
Jeff: At what age did you both realize that being an actor was what you wanted to do for a living? Or has writing and performing comedy always been your first love?
T: I kind of always knew I was different, and meant to be performing or creating things. I denied it a few times, sidetracked myself, talked myself into other things briefly, but it always came back to what I really loved doing. I tried on a lot of hats as a kid as I would pretend to be people, jobs and characters. As an only child, in fact, I made many audio tapes of the 3 and 4 year old me doing all the voices on a fake radio show entertaining myself for hours which I still have one copy of my dad kept. I remember when my dad bought me my first Super 8 and I started making all kinds of films, often acting in them as well as directing and then I made videos as I grew older. I liked to perform and even operate the cassette deck, camera or the means of producing what I performed. So, I am doing the same things now as then by acting, writing, directing and producing as an adult.
I think the real shift came when I realized I liked the idea of being a scientist only to make monsters, build experiments and travel to space. An archaeologist to fight Nazis. A detective to bumble and do pratfalls, and be different people in my imagination as part of some story in my head, not because I wanted to do that job all day for real.
I liked the story of these people, these jobs, these adventures much more than the real jobs. And though I think I was a smart boy and could have been those things (some people thought I would be or wished I had done for the stability LOL) my passion was in performing— from puppet shows for the other kids, doing a haunted forest not on Halloween (that was too obvious for me) but in June… And then to the stage for years and doing films in film school before really studying the craft of acting.
Come to think of it, I knew I wanted to be an actor the first time I played Stan Laurel in a slapstick sketch for a school talent show and got laughs and the rush. I loved the craft and discipline of sketch and have spend a great deal of my life doing it. But I love other genres too. Science fiction, westerns, action, film noir, martial arts movies, all of it I am a connoisseur of, and you would know looking at my collections of DVDs and books.
The thrill of entertaining people, of telling a story or creating your vision is so powerful for me it is all I wanted to do for a job. I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker the first time I got back my first reel of Super 8 film and projected it on the wall of my room and saw that “ribbon of dreams” showing the world as I saw it and watching myself perform something I came up with for the first time.
I remember seeing Peter Seller’s Pink Panther films with my dad in the theater and laughing and watching how it made my dad laugh and I set out to make him laugh like that at my antics.
My mom was also real supportive making costumes, huge props, taking me to activities, my writing and shows I was in, whatever I needed my mom was amazing and got into what I was doing to like it was her own project. I told them, I think I was ten that I was leaving and moving to LA, my mom said, “Well, it looks like we’re going to be spending a lot of time in airports,” and she was right. I did drive out the day after I graduated, dug in and refused to leave until I got into the business.
My dad was supportive when I was younger and all along the way with advice, humor and money even though he didnt have a lot of it, he always made me come first and helped how he could even if he didn’t understand it all; I was living the life of an artist after all! I recently helped move them out here to be closer and its nice to have them out here, in my life. Writing and performing are as much a part of me as breathing, my closest friendships are built around doing those things. Some guys get together to go out on the town drinking, but my closest friends and I get together to make creative things instead, just as I did when I was young — friendships forged on working on something together. As with any craft, it has been a life long learning process and of honing my abilities testing what I could do, often with the work being the only reward. It’s very much that in the first half of my life, I was trying to decide what to put into my work and the second half I am deciding what to leave out.
D: I was 15 when I had finally settled into acting as a career choice, having vacillated from the age of 12 between becoming an aeronautical engineer and working for NASA (after a stint as a fighter pilot), or going into entertainment in some form. I loved making my classmates laugh. When I was in fifth grade, one day my Mom came home and used my full name. You know, when a parent uses your full name, it ain’t good…
Mom: “David Christian Beeler, I need to talk to you.”
David: My mind started racing, “What did I get caught doing?” (Notice it wasn’t “What did I do?” but “What did I get caught doing?”)
Mom: “I got a call from your teachers today.”
David: Change gears: “What did I get caught doing at school?”
Mom: “Your teachers are worried about you.”
David: I thought, “My grades are good. What is this about?”
Mom: “They think something might be wrong with your brain.”
David: “What?”
Mom: “Your teachers think you may have some sort of equilibrium problem. You keep bumping into things, falling over chairs, walking into doors. Now I need to know, is something wrong, or are you just clowning around?” I’m busted and I don’t know how to answer. “…Well?”
David: Somewhat sheepishly, “I was just joshin’. Trying to make people laugh.” So, I blame my teachers that I don’t have Jim Carrey’s career today….
But probably the defining moment for me was when I was about 10 years old. I made a mustache out of some black craft hair my Mom had (she was always doing artsy-craftsy things). I dug some old toy six-shooters out of my toy box, shoved them in the waistband of my mint-green two-toned pajamas, found the double-stick tape, adhered that ’stache on my lip, got my step-dad’s black cowboy hat and aviator sunglasses and wandered into my parent’s bedroom where they were lying on the bed. They looked at me and started to chuckle when I drew my guns and exclaimed, “Freeze or I’ll blow your balls off!” Well, they laughed their asses off that I would come up with that. And they said, “Do more!” So, I did. And kind of never really stopped.
Jeff: Can you explain the time you two first met and acted together?
-A favorite of ours, “Fame Laid Bare” performed
live at The Santa Monica Playhouse
D: Well, Tom and I were both in County lockup…. No, actually, it was doing a British sketch review.
T: I was lucky enough to meet my business partner and other half of our comedy team, Dave Beeler in 1999. He has subsequently become my true best male friend in this world. We were connected by a play producer and mutual friend named Joe Dunn, who was putting together a revival in LA of Beyond the Fringe. Beyond the Fringe was a British sketch review that changed the face of modern comedy and was co-written by and starred Peter Cook, who was not only a major influence on me, but whose characters I had already been doing. I contacted Joe with my interest in doing the play. Joe said there is a guy you need to meet named David Beeler who he was thinking of for the Dudley Moore parts to my Peter Cook roles. Dave and I were instantly compatible and it has been an organic and frankly, fun and interesting, set of experiences, heartbreak, work and adventures since then. Neither of us would have ever had them if we didn’t meet and decide to do this as a team.
D: I had done improv at LA Connection and a group of us left there to join forces with some folks leaving The Groundlings, one of whom was Joe Dunn. Well, I had this character I was developing called Glenn Lawn, the less successful brother of Forest, who was an out of work undertaker who’d taken to nipping the formaldehyde as he was broke and couldn’t afford to go to the pub. I’d just moved back to the States, having lived for a decade in England and I thought I’d make him a South Londoner as I’d been there for a number of years. Well, the result of all this was everyone said, “Oh, that’s a great Dudley Moore!” Well, Dudley did Dudley, so I was going to drop it, but the guy leading our improv group talked me into doing it anyway. Joe Dunn saw me do that character and thought I was “the guy” to do Dudley’s parts in “Beyond the Fringe.” I met Tom over at Joe’s for a read-through and Joe kept saying, “I think you’re going to like this guy, Tom.”
After “Beyond the Fringe,” Tom kept saying, there’s this show that Dudley Moore and Peter Cook did on Broadway called “Good Evening.” We should do that. I said, “Sure.” A week or so later, Tom calls very excited, “OK. I’ve got us a theatre, we’re doing “Good Evening” as part of the NoHo Arts Festival!”
And that sort of sealed the deal. Inspired by Cook & Moore, we then began to write our own stuff. I joined Tom’s sketch troupe, McFwap and we just kept doing more.
Jeff: What lead you two into the world of web series?
D: The fame and money.
T: Well, we came at it without knowing we were preparing for it. We are doing a two man sketch show and were filming the live sketches multi-camera to have a record of the show. But, at that time what did you do with 7 minutes of something? You couldn’t put it on television. It was like a short film you could pretty much do festivals or sketch compilations, but the audience was harder to find. We met a few people who ,although they didn’t come through with projects as promised, did opened the world of web shows and programming to us, and there are a few very flaky people I would like to thank for that!
I work as a professional actor, writer and director, so I called in some favors with Dave and on a lean budget we shot some “one off” videos for the web to get out feet wet. I think two of the earliest things we put up were the “Prostate PSA” video with Hal Burley and the genie video called “Man’s One Wish”, you will have to look for those. They are still out there which is also the beauty of the internet. Some clips from live shows followed along with short film versions of some of our sketches from our British comedy team persona Dave and Tom. Web series lets me draw together all my disciplines and present them with less filtering to go through or toes to step on.
D: As a matter of fact, the success of “Prostate PSA”, began to lead us away from live performing and into working comedy on camera. We got something like 50,000 views in the three months of having it out and we realized that more people had seen that than all of our combined audiences doing live sketch in small 99 seat theaters, clubs or even sketch fests around the country. We caught a glimpse of the potential. We liked.
T: We would still like to do a classic British comedy team sketch show on the web like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore with “Not Only But Also” or Smith and Jones did in the UK with “Alias Smith & Jones”. A show where we can disappear into characters and create absurd, smart sketches with perhaps a funny musical guest. We know lots from our years touring and performing live. We then developed the series we have out now while also writing a feature script called EMT’s which we plan to get made, and writing another TV script that would make a great vehicle for Dave and I. We formed Pith-e Productions (we always used to say let’s make this tight and funny and “pithy” which is where the production company name came from.
D: Although you’ll note, it’s “Pith-e” We knew we were going into new media and so we liked the idea of the “e” as in e-commerce.
Jeff: What is the premise of Invention with Brian Forbes?
-Brian Forbes and Sir Reginald Bo-Hey No
T: Invention with Brian Forbes grew out of the chemistry we had playing these two characters onstage. It’s a simple premise: an uptight host (Dave) of a science and innovation show has one perpetual guest whose ideas are wonderfully silly and illogical (Tom). Dave and I enjoy the simplicity of two people sitting saying funny things. We can have fun with our comic chemistry with Invention which has made the show become “the little web series that could”, in that it keeps quietly winning awards, new fans and great reviews. We do not have to put nearly the post work, or PR and advertising into it that we do in something ambitious like Safety Geeks. And yet, it continues to find new people who like it and it’s a great show. No sponsor, or financier, have been smart or aware enough of its potential to realize that it would be a great show to be associated with, as a sponsor, advertiser or financier. The CEO of KoldCast TV , David Samuels is a huge fan of Invention with Brian Forbes. It follows the precept of Pith-e Productions which is “silly comedy for smart people” which is a group that is greatly under-served in traditional media.
Jeff: How was it to act solely in front of a camera, instead of an audience?
T: Well, on camera it’s much more controlled, and in spurts so you have to maintain energy and know the beats for the audience that isn’t there. You do your thing and you just know. This takes work. The audience is often the crew and they cannot laugh, but after a take you can see if you nailed it. Any good performer has a bit of an internal barometer that tells you how it’s coming off. Your fellow actors and crew, if they are good and supportive, help with that too, and it’s all about making each other be funny for an audience. Ultimately, it’s for a later audience, once it’s tightened and polished with all elements helping serve a story. You are doing it first for yourself and then the audience. Live onstage you get immediate feedback, and it can shape your performance; however, in front of the camera you are presenting your best foot forward, giving the pieces of your best performance controlled and presented in the form you wish it to be seen. Then it’s fixed and you live or die on that!
D: There is something immediate and electric about performing live, and I love it. However, I’ve grown to really, really, love working in front of the camera. I actually think it’s a harder medium to do really well. There are many more technical considerations to juggle while keeping your focus on playing the character and “mining” the funny from the script. The camera is like an unblinking lie detector; for example, if you’re not coming from a truthful place in your acting (which of course is paradoxical, you’re pretending) the camera will find you out and people won’t buy it.
But one of the great things about working with Tom is that we have a great chemistry together and whether we’re working in front of an audience, or in front of the camera, I know that he’s got my back and we become a funnier sum than either of our parts.
Jeff: Now, to the series at hand… What is the premise of Safety Geeks SVI?
-One of Dave’s favorite stills from SAFETY GEEKS : SVI ”Let’s Blend!” exclaims Budwin as we descend from Safety One, EP 3
D&T: Safety Geeks: SVI is about a semi-elite team of frankly bizarre and/or inept members who, unasked, show up to investigate strange Darwin Award-type accidents or safety violations. Usually they do end up solving the crime, but not with making things more chaotic, funny or more dangerous. It’s also about the relationships of these strong iconic characters to each other and the world, the infighting, romances, friendships and outside struggles they have. A lot of which you will see in season two of Safety Geeks which will be more episodic and less long story arch and the characters develop in new ways, including their arch rival Sgt. Herbert.
D: I like to say, “Imagine Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, from The Pink Panther, as a team of people trying to make the world safe but causing havoc and destruction instead. Add in some Python and Adult Swim sensibilities and that’s SAFETY GEEKS: SVI.
Jeff: I love the characters in this series. The performers seem like a perfect fit for them. Was it easy to find the other actors that fit well with the type of comedy you two were going for in this series?
T: We love the characters too. We were on the fence for a moment as to who would play Reginald, because Dave and I both do funny British characters and physical comedy. But then Budwin felt like a right fit for me and once I saw how brilliant and funny Dave was as Reginald I knew that was the right configuration and that I should play Budwin. I think Brittney Powell was manna from heaven for me. I met her staring at her face in profile at an audition and thinking this woman is the most perfect, beautiful woman I have ever seen with the elegant way she carried herself, her voice, and her humor. She is all that, while still being accessible and funny and twisted like me. This beautiful, smart, funny woman became fast friends with me. To her credit, she pursued me as much as I pursued her. Brittney and I just love each other, trust and count on each other. She is a dream to be in business. I hope we will always be in all those things together, equally. She is family and perfect for me. Personality and interest-wise, we match nicely and for any part I write for an actress, she is my go to girl. Brittney helps immensely with what I do. I think she is the only person who can play Dr. Randi.
D: We found Benton Jennings when we were casting for our promo for Geeks. He came in, auditioned and just got it. He nailed the humor and dignity with quiet loathing, but also with tremendous heart. We’d wanted a slightly older man to be Hopkins, but with a little make-up and Benton’s inhabiting Hopkins, it was done. Of course Hopkins has been with Reg since Reg was born, so we look forward to exploring their relationship and history as we move into season 2 and hopefully beyond.
T: Liz Paulson, our casting director, is a real pro and a fan of me as an actor. She was kind enough to offer to cast the show. We first chatted on Facebook ( I use Social Media to include people in the process of making the shows and update the postings). She asked to cast it and I was honored. She brought us great people in addition to people we sought out. Offering her space, time, incredible casting associate Christen Cracchiolo and resources; I really appreciate Liz for that.
D: We produced the show under a SAG contract, and we were very fortunate to not only have Liz casting, but to have access to her database of fine actors; such as Mary Cseh, Steve Tom, Miss Laura Hayes, Jim Woods, Mark Teich, Ransford Doherty and Frank Payne. You can sometimes see somewhat inconsistent acting in web series, and we are very proud of the talent level of all our actors, except that Beeler guy…. He’s well, he tries, doesn’t he?
T: The best thing I can say about the cast is that Dave and I would perform all the characters and their voices, over and over, out loud to each other as we were writing, for months. Were we to draw the characters, we would have drawn the real people, the actors, who are in our cast as these characters.
Jeff: Can we expect more scenes with Mary Cseh “Sparky”, or even Benton Jennings “Manservant Hopkins”? (Not to give anything away… But after you watch the second episode, you will understand this next part) Or is one of them permanently toast?
T: Oh, Mary Cseh and Benton Jennings are back in season one, and even more in season two. Now that we are getting to know them as people and know their “voices” as the characters, we can develop them and push them more and give them much more silly, wonderful concepts to be part of in season two. There are some great surprises and funny scenes coming up with Sparky and Manservant Hopkins in both seasons. Wait til you see the new episode coming out now, and see what Hopkins and Sparky are doing back at P.O.S.H. control when Randi calls! Both of them are terrific actors, committed to characters and professionals. They are an asset to anyone who hires them.
Jeff: From Inventions to Safety Geeks : SVI, that is a totally different change of style. With an active computer generated background, explosions and massive injuries. What sparked the creativeness into that direction?
D&T: We wanted to basically do something that looked different. That was in essence live action animation, but with the style, the strange rules of physics and edginess of something you’d see animated on Adult Swim programming. I love Adult Swim and Monty Python, so the look and feel right down to the editing is influenced by what I like.
D: Compared to the chamber music of Invention, Safety Geeks is a symphony. It was wonderfully fun in the writing to open up our imaginations without concern for how we would do it. We just went for what we thought would be funny or move the story forward. Of course, as we moved into production the “how to do it” had to be answered, and shifted around a bit as we explored various ways we might do things like having a private Lear jet that can wipe out a parking lot or how we could impale a guy on a wall with a fork lift. And miraculously, the people who could answer those questions show up. I believe that was partly out of our commitment to just do it, to go forward even when we didn’t know how it would work. The courage to entertain ambiguity, to put it out there when there is no clear path, is at the heart of the creative process, another form of the blank page. But when you commit and move forward taking it one step at a time, the path unfolds, the questions get answered and you move forward.
T: It’s been a huge learning curve for Safety Geeks with true artists in post-production like, Thor Melsted and Mike Smith. They are giving us computer images from the eyes of poets who are technical craftsman and the show owes them much. Roger Tonry, our director, was amazingly supportive and got what we were doing. Roger is a laugher, which helps SO much on set. Roger would shake his head at one of my screwy ideas and go with it — he has the type of personality I get along with creatively in that he is laid back, is easy to work with, knows lighting and brought equipment, his talent and crew which made it possible. He understands staging and has the confidence to let things happen, be flexible and direct us in a style that let the tone and vision shine through, much to Roger Tonry’s credit. The crew was amazing, they are listed on the daveandtom.com site. They deserve to work for your production and be paid handsomely. You should seek them out and hire them because the time and work they gave to this is proves that you would gain an amazing asset to your production by hiring the people who worked on this show. I would recommend them for any paying gig in the business.
Jeff: with the detail in the CG, filming and editing. How long does an episode normally take from filming to posting on the web?
T: It normally takes three full weeks. I do the editing for performance and storytelling, often creating additional moments with the editing that weren’t there before out of the green screen footage. Then, I lock a non-composited version of it and get it to Thor and Mike while I do sound and music. I can sometime do this quickly since I act in it. I remember which takes worked at the time and I have a radar for that, so I’m usually right about it. So I can go right to those takes in the edit, the script is in my head already as is the tone and story and I also note the weird extra stuff and expressions and things that I know I can twist and drop into the cut. I oversee compositing and effects with Thor and Mike, we all integrate our work into timeline.
While they are rendering shots I have looked at with them and perfected together, I am doing music and sound mix. All the elements come together, the KoldCast.TV logos go on as they are our loyal sponsors on season one and then we watch the show go from an intricate puzzle to hopefully a smooth flow of a story with performance, effects, and music working together. It’s a small talented team of close friends I get to work with on each of the 12 episodes and it works beautifully.
A shout out to my frequent musical collaborator Michael Sherwood who is a genius, funny and I love doing songs with him; for example, the theme song to Safety Geeks “Won’t Get Fooled..Once More.” I hope to do more with Michael Sherwood soon.
Jeff: How many more episodes remain for this season, and will there be a second season?
D: Season one will be a total of 12 episodes. The last one is scheduled to drop in early December.
T: There will be a season two, we are expanding our representation team to make that happen in the area of a new media agent to represent us and reaching out to sponsors and to KoldCast.TV. Episode 9 is a fun episode about Dr. Randi and is surprisingly ambitious on the technical side due to layers of compositing, releasing the first week in October. The big finish will have action, surprises and more in these last few ones as the story builds full steam to the finale.
Jeff: Are there any other projects that you and David are working on?
T: Yes, several projects are currently in the works in addition to the two we have out now. More on that in a bit when things are finalized, perhaps we can get together again for another interview and talk about them. We hope to do some new series with KoldCast.TV some films and who knows….
Jeff: Sadly, I missed seeing your booth at San Diego ComicCon 2009, any possibility you all will be at one next year?
T: We all loved being there. Those were our people.
D: We had a blast and really enjoyed meeting some of our fans face to face.
T: Our public appearance agent Emily Daniel of Tri-Booking is great, and will start really working on our appearances. If anyone would like to meet the cast, have us talk, sign and appear please contact her or us.
Jeff: With recognition by ITV Fest, the Emmys and a certain gaming console… Do you feel web series will have get attention from major studios? Or do you feel the creative control scares them off?
-Dave and Tom on the red carpet at The Streamy Awards
T: It’s a weird time. It’s a wild west, but becoming corporate civilization fast. The window is closing for independent productions and artists to truly reach a mass audience. Of course, everyone wants creative control, from the creator of the show to the advertiser, so that needs to be sorted out. I think it’s a bit like the radio, TV, movie relationships of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s right now with both sides sizing each other up and not getting how they fit yet and who’s a threat. Everyone seems to want to be in either media for different reasons: traditional media wants to keep and expand the audience while web series seek a way to actually make a profit so we can do more. Perhaps if it doesn’t become an A-list star and producing “insiders only” affair, we can all have a creative place on the web.
D: I think the new media and traditional media will merge, so that all TV, movies, games and other forms of entertainment yet to be made will be distributed via the web. When that happens there will be heap-um big shake ups. Tom and I are both very determined, and consider ourselves fortunate to be building our brand so that we can be firmly established and ride the transitions into the future. We love creating comedy and making people laugh. The fact that the internet allows us to do that on a global level is both unprecedented, rewarding and …. well, cool.
Jeff: Finally, any advice for aspiring comedians, writers or future web series creators?
-A still from “Good Night,” “The Christ & Co.” Sketch, our nod to Vaudville
T: Do. Create. Don’t wait for permission to do what you love to do.
D: Ditto on Tom. Carpe Diem. I couldn’t have said it better.
Jeff: Thank you so much for this Q&A. Looking forward to watching more episodes and future projects.
D&T: Thanks to “Web Series 2 Watch” and Jeff Elwell for taking the time to chat with us.
To watch Dave & Tom’s witty and brilliant episodes:
Invention with Brian Forbes
http://www.daveandtom.com/invention.html
Safety Geeks: SVI
http://www.daveandtom.com/safetygeeks.html
Archaeology of Comedy
Posted 10/01/2009
