KATEY RICH: So start by telling me about “Teen Homicide.”
JESS LANE: “Teen Homicide” is a five-minute comedic TV show pilot that me and Jon Golbe [’06] and Jordan Fish [’06] made for this competition called Channel 102. Channel 102 is like a monthly competitive film festival specifically for five-minute long TV shows. They usually wind up being parodies of television shows. You can see the episode and all of the other stuff at channel102.net
KR: What is this show about?
JL: It’s about two teenagers, twin brother and sister, who are hired by the police department to be a special unit to investigate teens who have been murdered. And they’re also in a rock band!
KR: Awesome!
JL: Alex Kestner [’06] wrote a really awesome theme song and lots of music that pretty much makes the show a million times better.
KR: So you guys got a great response at your first two screenings.
JL: Yeah. The audience went crazy. It was so much different from just sitting down and watching it on a little screen on your computer, alone. It’s like when you’re at the film series, for example, and you feel like you’re having a really great experience watching it with a crowd.
KR: Have people started recognizing you from the show?
JL: Not at Wes. I’ve had people who were only kind of my friends come up to me and say that they saw the show. When I’m hanging out at comedy clubs in New York City, I get approached by real strangers.
KR: What about people from the other shows?
JL: Actually I was asked to play a small part in another one of the prime time shows—Ron Chipley, Notary Public. Most of the shows are made by big-time improvisers at the UCB Theater. The “Shutterbugs” guys have spoken to both me and Jon about how much they like our show. Aziz Ansari is a standup comedian who just taped a performance for Premium Blend. And Rob Huebel is also known as Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man.
KR: Who is that?
JL: You know! The guy who used to be in those commercials before movies that tell you to turn off your cell phone.
KR: Is it weird working with your ex-boyfriend on “Teen Homicide”?
JL: It’s been kind of challenging, but I think it would be challenging to work with him even if he wasn’t my ex-boyfriend. We both have the same sense of humor, so in the end I really love what we’re doing together. Jon’s going to kill me when he reads this.
KR: What about episode three of Teen Homicide?
JL: All I can say is “Battle of the Bands!”
KR: So how about this other video project?
JL: Rene Wachner-Solomon [’07], who I am in Desperate Measures with, approached me over the summer while we were living in Brooklyn that he would also like to be doing video sketches and writing. We got together a group of kids and are going to take advantage of all of the funny and talented comedians and film students here on campus and make some funny videos that are nice to look at. We might have a screening this semester or at the end of the year and maybe submit some more stuff to 102.
KR: Do you want to go into a career in comedy?
JL: Yeah. Working on Teen Homicide was my first attempt at writing, which has now become a feasible goal. I usually am just an improviser or performer.
Can we talk about the fact that my career was almost jump-started by that movie thing I almost did?
KR: Yes. Tell me about it.
JL: I ran into my improv instructor randomly on the subway one day and he told me to audition for this movie he was casting.
KR: What was the movie about?
JL: It is a mock-rockumentary about a real band from Norway called Hurrah Torpedo. The thing about this band is that they are famous for a video of them on the Internet in which they cover “Total Eclipse of the Heart” using an industrial size freezer, a stovetop, lots of pots and pans, and a big thing for smashing stuff. I would have driven across the country with them in a Ford Fusion. I was looking forward to being their best friend. If you see this video, you would understand why.
KR: And you didn’t get the part?
JL: They changed their idea for the character. Originally I was supposed to be a dorky girl in her early 20’s who looked like she was 12, but they decided that they wanted to make the character edgier and older. It was really the best thing that I could hope for, because there were a lot of things I wanted to do this semester here at school. I would have had to take off this semester to do this film. I had been holding off on buying a bed until I heard back from the movie people, and I just got one today.
KR: I saw your old sleeping cushion. It was sad. How is the new bed?
JL: It’s great. It’s perfect. It’s a full-size bed.
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