I just looked at the buttons above and realized that they feature TWO cancelled shows. Mind Of Mencia and Chocolate News were cancelled, as well as Root Of All Evil. These were three Comedy Central shows I art directed and now is the first time since 2005 that I am 100 percent Comedy Central free!
Once I get the logos for the TWO shows I am doing right now I will ask Tea to switch them out.
I don’t know if you knew it or not but before KISS took their makeup off in the 80’s they were actually four black guys under costumes and greasepaint!
Black KISS in their dressing room circa mid 1970
This was such a fun sketch to Production Design. The script called for a super run down front yard, a 70’s era dressing room for black KISS and to build a concert stage to match the original Gene Simmons concert footage. Of course we had to tweak the look of the KISS logo because, even though Comedy Central was OK with claiming KISS was a bunch of black guys before removing their makeup in the 80’s, using the real logo is a no-no.
Click here to watch KISS My Ass
Josh, Shane, Dalton and Nandor built the tank and canon to match the KISS stage in the 70’s and the KISS lights in the background are the lights from the ‘Black Daddy’ sketch, just painted black and reformatted. As always, they pulled it together in a few hours the day before the shoot.
DAG as black Gene
We shot the exteriors in Sylmar on probably the hottest day of the summer and the stage and dressing room at the Henry Fonda in Hollywood on the same day as 3 other scripts. Those were two intense days, but we spent some money we didn’t have, made some magic happen and everyone was happy. Except for Jim Ziegler when he got the bill.
New Yorkers love David Alan Grier
Last December we did this pilot for Comedy Central, started shooting the series this summer and now it is airing and is getting great ratings. For this I am happy, the show is really funny, everyone on the show is great to work with, David Alan Grier is a genius and the entire art department is the most talented group of people I have ever met.
Two thirds of the Chocolate News art department
Candleabra competing in a tranny pageant
‘Maya’ recites poetry for Obama and McCainNext Wednesday we are shooting a ‘day after the election’ show that will air that night on Comedy Central, or you can check out clips and other random madness at comedycentral.com
The other show I wrapped this week was The Chocolate News. TCN is a pilot for Comedy Central and was created, written and stars the brilliant David Alan Grier (you remember him from In Living Color). The show is a spoof of news magazine shows like 20/20 and Primetime Live but with a very black point of view. We shot thirty seven scenes in three days, those of you in the business know that’s pretty insane, but DAG is so much fun to be around we barely noticed the hectic pace. Here are some pictures I took on set.
Troy is only 10 years old so we built him a nice bedroom…
but don’t make little Troy mad…
because he will kick the shit out of your set…
Here Josh and Shane model the special couch they made…
and here it is in use…
And finally, meet Phat Man, he was kind enough to perform for some elementary school kids…
The Chocolate News is a pilot, which means who knows what will happen. I hope it gets picked up because I can’t even begin to describe how funny David Alan Grier is in his crazy costumes. Phat Man was unreal, I could barely keep it together while they were shooting it. I wonder if there if it would help to light a chocolate candle?
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Don’t you want to add more buttons instead of taking ones away? How are you going to know where you’ve been?