Four cool projects just 4 U

check out this stuff my friends and I have been up to!!!!

Dearest TWIRLERS,

Here’s an update on some projects!!!!!

First, a short I shot in the Spring of 2023 just released! Chakras For Sale is the story of four rock musicians caught in the timeless artistic struggle between maintaining their integrity and selling out for a check. Readers of this newsletter should know where I typically fall in that debate, so when the director (now dear friend) Punya pitched me on playing a self-righteous guitarist in a mediocre rock band for his upcoming short film, I was so jazzed about it. Phillip Seymour Hoffman talks about creating a character by understanding your similarities and differences, and learning how to play all of it honestly. This character and I were more similar than different, so the role did not require a lot of stretching, besides in the learning of the guitar solos and all the other musical parts we play in the film. That gave me a lot of room to “act” less and “be” more. I love how the result turned out, and my extended family is so hype that I’m passable on the sitar now.

When I sent the short to my family, my grandma texted me individually to say that she loved my character because of his bold sense of integrity. My mother mentioned, totally separately, that she related to my character’s nature to be led by his moral compass. It was trippy to consider that a philosophy of my grandmother’s could have been taught to my mother, and thus to me, and thus brought to this character, who exists in a totally made up reality, telling a story that could transmit its ideas to however many people end up watching it. Art, or the communication of ideas through creative action and technology, is constantly making me freak out.

Probably the most special thing about this short is that the people I met on that set have ended up becoming integral members of my community in Los Angeles. A lot of us had moved to LA fairly recently, and since then have all worked together in different capacities. I’ve shot at least five other shorts since with different combinations of these team members. That really contrasts the way these kinds of projects typically go, where you spend a ton of time with a group of people all united on realizing a difficult creative goal together, yet after it’s done you might never see each other again. That didn’t happen with this group, and that’s really special to me. Hope you like the movie.

The second project is my friend Isaiah’s EP: Type Beat TV. Isaiah’s one of my best friends out here, and I’m so inspired by the sheer scope of his talent and work ethic. Not to take any credit for his recent accomplishments in music, but at his birthday party last August, we did karaoke together and I realized that he had one of the most incredible voices I’d ever heard!!! Since then, we’ve been jamming and messing around with music a good amount. He’s helped me with some music for Richie Gets Money, which I’ll start shipping out to you guys soon…

This year, he started posting more comedy music to his social media channels, and after making a few full songs, got inspired to bust out a 6-song EP, which you can listen to here. The music is as funny as it is GOOD. Experiencing the project was so rewarding, given that our friendship has involved countless hours of musing about comedy and music, musical comedy, comedic music, everything in between and outside of those categories. I got to help out with the EP in a few ways, by acting on some of the skits that appear at the beginning of the EP, playing some instruments for the videos, and letting the team turn my bedroom into band practice for the day.

One of the biggest bonding elements in my friendship with Isaiah (and Maria, who is also featured in the music video) is that we come from the theatre, and thus have an extreme passion for cross-genre and multimedia storytelling. His EP is fun to listen to and takes the listener on a journey through a narrative that Isaiah cooked up for this release. It’s a uniquely theatrical piece of musical storytelling that I recommend everyone check out, and I’m honored to have been a part of!!!

In addition to all of those, The Prospect, a feature film I shot in August of 2023, just had three sold out screenings at the Phoenix Film Festival. I still haven’t seen the movie, so it’s hard to conceive of this fact as a real one. The idea that across the U.S., a film that I led has been experienced by multiple fully packed auditoriums is unbelievable. I can’t wait to see it!!! If anyone reading this is in MICHIGAN, my home state, on Saturday, April 12th, the film will have its Midwest premiere at the Capital City Film Festival in Lansing. Find tickets here!

Finally, soon I’ll be releasing “Reborn,” the interactive, choose-your-own-adventure graphic novel I wrote and illustrated with my friend Brandon. It’s an incredibly unique project that we’re still figuring out how to release, just because there don’t exist a lot of obvious examples of how to market a project like this. Trailblazing is hard!!!! But when we come up with a plan to release, you all will be the first to know.

Thanks for reading this quick ole thing, and I hope you check out those projects I listed above!!!