WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO “DUMB COMEDY”? And How Do We Bring It Back For Zero Dollars? On "Hobby" by Alexandra Bianco
Fortunately, I’m in the majority of comedy enthusiasts when I say I miss gritty, low-budget TV shows with absurd characters that aren’t bogged down by what executives call “a compelling engine.” Now, don’t get me wrong: engines are a crucial part of serial storytelling, and while an engine can anchor a show, it can also weigh it down. Especially when the show is a comedy.
And I am about to be so real and vulnerable right now it’s not even funny… I’ve rewatched The Office countless times, and it wasn’t because of some mind-blowing cliffhanger or to see how long it took Jim and Pam to bang; it was to visit Prison Mike in the clink, rewatch Andy’s phone ringing while on stage in Sweeney Todd, or bear witness to Ryan’s proposal to Kelly on a horse. The heart of the show came from these iconically quirky characters dealing with the insanity that arose from their mundane jobs and lives. The same goes for shows like Parks and Recreation, Broad City, Workaholics, Pen15, and others.
There is a unique comfort in shows with a whole lot of heart that follow the funny. Especially now, I’m constantly craving low-stakes situations. I get at least five NY Times notifications on my Apple Watch each day about brain-dead politicians voting to take away my rights, how I can’t eat any vegetables without having diarrhea for six weeks straight, or how billionaires want to replace all of their employees with AI. Like!! Whut!! I need a break, but I don’t want to doomscroll!! Give me some dumb TV to make me laugh!! WAHHHHH!!!
Now, before you come after me for sitting around, whining like a baby with terminal colic about the “good old days” of comedy… What if… I told you that… because I missed the quality of these shows so much… I made my own?
Boom. Yeah. Mic drop.
…
Super shout-out to my partner-in-crime, my muse, the Abbi to my Ilana, and the love of my life in every lifetime: Makena Reynolds. All of the projects that we’ve collaborated on have been, lovingly, the dumbest fucking comedy imaginable. From improv class to sketch shows to plays, we always come up with characters that are so so so dumb and put them in insane situations. And, after Makena sent me an Instagram Reel of a girl hobby horsing for the 8th time in less than three months, I knew that this was the perfect thing for us to lean into.
I immediately grabbed my computer, opened Final Draft, and wrote: Horsey (what is now Episode 104 of our stupid comedy show):
Of course, the first draft was too long and complicated, but there’s nothing better than turning a shitty first draft into something you’re actually proud of. And when you have a collaborator you trust, it doesn’t matter how many typos are in your draft, or even in your text messages about it.
And what started out as a single script sent via text started to snowball:
All of a sudden, this wasn’t just a riff on Hobby Horsing. It was also an opportunity to write about Hobby DOGGING, too??? Are you effing kidding me??? Someone get Comedy Central on the line STAT!
Makena and I called each other that day and talked through what we were making, which would become HOBBY, a web series following a uniquely hobby-obsessed character in every episode. And although we weren’t clear on exactly what was happening yet, we were chomping at the bit to figure it out.
And then we started to hone in on what we wanted to make. And we were moving quickly:
It was starting to feel like we were actually going to do this thing, so I texted Louie Visone, who would eventually become our executive producer and fearless cameraman. We needed someone like him for the show and, thankfully, he was up to the task.
It was no surprise to me that Louie immediately understood our tone and what we were trying to achieve. And if that’s not a testament to the power of young comedians who love to make dumb comedy, I don’t know what is. Literally, thank God for Best in Show and thank God for Louie Visone.
A week or two later, Louie and I met up in Bryant Park to do test shoots. However, what was supposed to be simply fooling around with the camera and lavs turned into improvising our pilot episode, Stalkie.
It was all coming together really quickly. And when I say that it was “coming together,” we were honestly flying by the seat of our pants. We mapped out our season, which would come to feature people-watching, food collecting, coffee addiction, hobby horsing & hobby dogging (obvi), doll collecting, Santa-worshipping, and scrapbooking.
Obviously, we wanted to do a lot. At first I suggested that we only shoot four episodes since it was more “doable,” but Makena was adamant that we could pull off eight. She was right.
However, in order to make our days as quick and painless as possible, we would need to use two cameras. I mean, we couldn’t pay anyone and didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. Thankfully, I had already met this bomb ass camera chick at work named Jane Turlington. And it went like:
And, in an instant, our show wasn’t just an idea. It was very real. It wasn’t just text messages between Makena and me about different weird hobbies we could feature, punch-ups & drafting, and who we knew that we could cast; we had a team.
But we were still missing who would become the literal GOAT of the entire season: our editor.
Now, if you’ve made it this far, you can tell that I am truly the luckiest fucking slut in the entire world (the only thing that would make me luckier is if Mel Brooks was my grandfather): I have talented friends who are down to make stuff, even when it’s fast and loose and even when it’s for zero dollars.
I am really lucky in another way, too: I work for a fabulous TV Show called Elsbeth (airing on CBS Thursday nights at 9 pm - watch!!!), which is chock full of some of the nicest and most talented folks around. At our Season 3 wrap party, I bonded with an Assistant Editor who told me she made the blooper reels for our past wrap parties when she was still the Edit Room Assistant. My ears perked up: the blooper reels were funny as hell; she did that??? She edited that??? What if…
I mentioned our web series to gauge her interest in a really casual and chill way, and not at all in an insane way. She seemed to think it was funny, or maybe she was just humoring me because she felt bad. Nevertheless, I texted her the following week.
I cannot even begin to communicate the pure ecstasy I felt when Robyn told me that she would officially come on as our editor. And we literally could not have done HOBBY without her. Throughout filming, Robyn was a resource, reviewing dailies and giving us notes on how we could be better on set.
Each episode (except for Horsey, and one pickup for Stalkie) was shot in a single day in only a few hours. Leading up to every shoot, Makena and I raced against the clock, adding last-minute finishing touches to scripts and begging our talented friends to be in our show. Sometimes we paid our people in Cliff Bars, other times we gave them inflatable hobby horses that we had left over from 104, and the rest of the time we got Dunkin'.
Throughout the shoot, we faced funny, flirty new obstacles every episode. Some highlights include: My mom’s kitchen flooded while filming her talking head in Horsey; Makena dropped a computer on her ankle at work, so she was physically unable to attend the shoot one day; Louie fell down a Queens Subway station flight of stairs, endowing him with a boot and crutches when shooting the last two episodes; we only had two lavs total for the entire shoot; we only had four actual dolls to dress the set in Dolly that I bought using my credit card points; our boom was too big for our camera so we had to punch in while editing; we worked around cats (O.C.) on three episodes (Foodie, Hobbie, and Scrappy) - Louie is allergic to cats btw - and two dogs (O.C.) for two episodes (Horsey and Coffee); and we shot next to an active construction site in Doggy.
And even after the shoot wrapped, we still had much to do. And Robyn Farley was my North Star: we spent countless hours on the phone, FaceTime, Zoom, and in person at her apartment going through the cuts together. And even after months of editing, Robyn helped me discover new things about each episode every single day.
And now, our final episode is available for streaming tonight on YouTube at 10 pm EST. And although we’ve been in Social Media Promo Hell, at least now our friends, family, and situationships get to see what we’ve been working on for the past 6 months. And all I can say is that I am really, truly, unequivocally so grateful for this show, this experience, and all of the people that it took to make it happen.
My name is Alexandra Bianco, and my hobby is making dumb gritty stupid silly fucking comedy with my friends.
HOBBY is a web series following a uniquely hobby-obsessed character in every episode. Over the course of our 8-episode series, we have people-watchers, food collectors, coffee addicts, hobby horsers, hobby doggers, doll collectors, Santa-worshippers, and scrapbookers.
