Super Fun Time with Art and Jay!
Today you'll get an interview with the stars of our show Jay Gerig aka Blimpy (left) and Art Hsu aka Giggles (right)!
Jay's credits include the indie films In the Event of a Zombie Apocalypse, City of Fragments and The Five Birds of Texas, California. While Art's credits include films Crank 2: High Voltage, The FP and the web series SanFranLand.
We join the interview already in progress...
Art Hsu: Tandem interview.
Jay Gerig: Tandem interview!
JG: Can we pose for a suburban gothic/urban gothic or whatever that is? Somebody give me a pitchfork.
Ivory Floyd: Just to get a bit of background for folks who don’t know, what brought you both to Bozos in the first place?
JG: For me it was Noboru Ito (our director). He’d been talking about when he started working with you on the writing and the scripts, I don’t know exactly sure how that teamed up, but he was talking about it and telling me about the project and it sounded really, really funny and so mostly just him telling me that “oh, I’m working on this thing with-“. I hadn’t met you at the time and I really enjoyed the concept.
AH: And my reply would be, you did fool! (*laughs and points at Ivory*) Remember that? Remember calling me and asking me-
AH: Oh I’m sorry. (*pause*) I think it was totally you! (*laughs*) We did a play called Big Fat Clown: A Love Story several years ago with a great little theater company called Three of A Kind that Ivory and I were both members of, he as a writer and I as an actor.
And I don’t know exactly when it was, but at some point during rehearsals or during the run, we discussed how this might be a good idea to adapt into a web series, because every party the clowns went to could naturally lend itself to being a different episode.
And sure enough, several years passed, and out of blue Ivory got back in touch with me and said he was going ahead with this crazy idea.
So he asked me if I would want to reprise my role as Giggles, and I was very glad to receive that offer and happy to accept it.
IF: Sweet! Art what’s the biggest difference between playing Giggles in the web series versus Giggles on stage?
AH: The biggest difference I would say is the luxury of being able to try different things during the course of shooting. Because we can experiment with different options and take a joke in one direction, and then take it in a another direction if a take doesn’t work.
Also, I like the permanent nature of screen work. On stage, you rehearse of several months, perform what you rehearsed for several months, and then poof, it’s gone. On screen, the performance gets captured, and it can be viewed again and again. There’s something nice about having the character you prepare captured for posterity, especially in the digital age.
IF: Jay, was there anything specific that you did for yourself to prepare for this role?
JG: What’s funny is I actually had read an article probably a year ago about how actors like Richard Dreyfuss and Robert De Niro try to pick an animal that their character is and I have this cat that is really dingy. She gets stuck in the blinds in our window and stuff.
JG: She’s a calico cat named Montly and I actually just sat and watched her going around the room and I tried to channel my cat Montly for the character of Blimpy. Just to have that kind of bright-eyed dinginess.
IF: Art, you’re playing a bitter alcoholic and Jay you’re playing an oblivious new guy. How much of yourself do you put into that?
AH: Probably more so than I should admit during this interview (*laughs*).
But it’s an interesting character to tap into because he essentially doesn’t have too many boundaries as far as what he thinks is right and wrong and y’know, Giggles kind of does what he likes to do. He’s kind of, I wouldn’t even say he accepts who he is…he just is who he is!
So it's nice to be that kind of free as a character, take things as they come and not worry about things too much in the gist that , "Just go to parties, be a clown, and handle your bizness." It's a fun universe to tap into.
IF: And Jay what about you?
JG: Some of me is definitely in there. I’m sure people that know me will watch this and laugh. There’s a certain…definitely for the character you play up the innocence, the really childlike aspect of it, but just as far as just being in the moment and reacting specifically to whatever’s in front of you right then, there’s definitely a lot of me in there.
IF: What’s been your favorite moment about filming?
JG: Several jump to mind right off. I loved interacting with all of our guest stars! I kept saying that on set. Our guest stars were all amazing and they were all really fun and they really added dynamic to it, so that when you stepped on set, there was always a new variable to react to and they all brought it. They all were really, really fantastic and it was just fun to play with them.
That’s not really a moment, more of an aspect. Filming the Proof of Concept was really fun because it was just kind of winging it. We just kind of showed up and had fun and just did “Well what about this? Maybe we’ll try that!”, and again just playing. Just having fun with it and that was a blast.
AH: Yeah, I’m having difficulty thinking of one moment as well!
AH: Y’know? It’s very, very kind of blended in as far as the different scenes and the characters and it’s like we’re actually living this experience. I don’t know, I can’t…I’m having difficulty answering that question. ALL OF THEM! That’s my answer! All of it!
JG: EVERY! SINGLE! MOMENT!
AH: Every second! (*both laughing*)
JG: Muthafucka! (*both laughing*)
IF: What directions would you like to see these characters go in?
AH: I would love to see more of these guys’ private lives. So what they’re doing when they’re not on the clock and what they’re doing before they clock in.
Because y’know, they show up at the parties and they’re there and that’s what we’re experiencing in Season One, but I’d like to see where they live perhaps and where they maybe go out and socialize and maybe some things on the town that they do. I think there’s material there that we can maybe tap into a bit (*laughs*).
JG: I’d like to see Blimpy come into his own a bit I guess. I don’t know, he’s super enthusiastic, so confidence isn’t exactly…he’s not lacking in confidence for the most part, he’s all in whatever he’s doing, but just a certain aspect of seeing him kind of get his feet underneath him y’know?
Really becoming a clown and really owning it and yeah, just growing. Character growth! As a person!
IF: Teddy is your arm getting tired?
(*Teddy Aguilar, our Sound Mixer, has been recording by holding boom mic the whole time*)
Teddy Aguilar: Naw, it’s cool.
IF: Aight, cool. (*both laugh*)
IF: We love our crew, so we want them to be comfortable.
JG: You’re breaking the forth wall, stop it!
IF: Anything you want to say to folks who are learning about Bozos for the first time?
AH: We really, really appreciate you even being exposed to what we’re trying to do here. (*Jay laughs*)
AH: Don’t take it too seriously.
JG: (*laughing*) Give us a chance! Don’t tell my Grandma.
AH: Don’t tell Jay’s grandma. And that we really, really love you from the bottom of our hearts.
IF: Alright, cool. Thanks guys!
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Our sizzle reel's down for the moment, but you can learn more about Bozos by checking out our IndieGoGo page at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bozos
Be sure to tell Jay's grandma.
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