Day: March 12, 2010

The Friars Club has announced a contest that help take your sketch and improv teams to the next level of your careers, you know, the kind of level that could make you big enough in show business to be invited to become members of The Friars Club! To make it happen for you, they're going to reward one sketch group and one improv team $10,000 apiece to make their dream short film. You don't need to be in New York to enter. But here's what you do need to know… The basics: Submit a demo of your show to the Friars Club, postmarked by May 1. Five improv and five sketch finalists will be chosen to compete June 25-26 in a live showcase showdown at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC. Then the winners have three months to make their films, which will premiere at the 2010 Friars Club Comedy Film Festival, coming Sept. 23-26. The details: $30 application fee if postmarked by April 1, $40 by May 1, and late submissions by May 10 for $50. Fee must be in U.S. dollars (talking to you, Euros!). Also include at least two copies of your demo on DVD in NTSC format, plus an electronic image of your group photo and/or logo. If it's not in English, you've got to include subtitles. Only one entry per team. Time limit:...

Remember how Seth MacFarlane decided to extend his animated brand of comedy into YouTube shorts? Well, he's at it again, but this time he's in cahoots with the people from Priceline. Which means, William Shatner? Shatner has done animated comedy before. What do you mean you don't remember "The Gavones"?!? Ahem. This deal partners up Priceline.com, its "Priceline Negotiator" character and Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, all through Media Rights Capital (MRC). The series of four shorts showed up this week on a new Cavalcade Hulu channel, the pre-existing YouTube space, Priceline and other content providers. Here's the latest one that showed up yesterday, which opens with an animated Priceline ad voiced by Shatner, followed by a short about a gay knight. Pretty much what you'd expect. Roll it! Here's a quote from the release sent my way: “MRC has been thrilled with the success of Cavalcade. Our goal is to grow the audience and build on that success through our second partnership with Priceline,” said Modi Wiczyk, Co-CEO of Media Rights Capital. “Seth is one of America’s most brilliant creators and the Priceline Negotiator character has become synonymous with pop culture. Our integrated entertainment partnership allows us to deliver new content and allows Seth to do what he does best.” Previously: I wrote this in 2008 about MacFarlane on the...