Welcome To The Comedy For The Internet Blog
By Danny Neely
Well howdy there, and welcome to the Comedy For The Internet blog! Mosey on in and make yourself comfortable. This here blog is a place where you can find information about the team behind Comedy For The Internet, the projects we’re working on, and how you can support what we’re doing, partner.
A Quick Bit About Me
My wife Sarah (you may know her from her appearances in Improv Practice as the character “Sarah”) and I moved to Dallas in the summer of 2015, and we didn’t know anyone. Like, at all. We started hanging out at a local theater called the Dallas Comedy House, and that’s where we met many amazing performers who quickly became amazing friends. We all created and collaborated together on stage for years. (The Improv Practice troupe is actually a real-life improv troupe called “Warm Milk!”)
Meanwhile…
I started working as a freelancer on commercial productions, building on the (passionate-if-not-limited) video production skillset I acquired from creating parody music videos with my friend in high school. Commercial productions are where I met Roger Ricardo, the Executive Producer at CFTI. We had success working on commercial campaigns for businesses in the DFW area, and we wanted to use that skillset on creative projects that we found rewarding.
Those Creative Projects Would Eventually Materialize Into Comedy For The Internet
Comedy For The Internet started as a loose idea in 2019. At that time, it didn’t even have a name. I began producing sketches with Roger on the weekends. We wanted to create a platform to showcase the talent that we have in Dallas. (Seriously, there are so many great artists here.) We shot sketches like Mud Run With My Son and the first episode of Improv Practice not knowing exactly where they’d end up, but we knew we liked working with our friends.
The idea of CFTI started as a passion project. With the arrival of the pandemic, it became a creative refuge. I started shooting short bits at home, just to distract myself from the fact that I could no longer do the creative thing I loved most with my incredible, talented friends. (I recorded all the dialogue for the David Mamet Masterclass trailer as a voice memo on my phone in Sarah’s closet because I didn’t have an actual microphone.)
In April 2020, Roger and I decided to launch the platform, since it seemed like the pandemic was going to last for a while. (Remember “Two weeks and we’ll be through it?”) We started posting sketches that we had created pre-pandemic, along with our (literal) homemade bits.
As the weeks turned into months, we carefully started to expand our circle. We began masking up to meet with our friends, like Sallie, Bonnie, John, Collin, RaShaad, and Monica to shoot more projects. Creating together again felt amazing, but even just getting to see the faces of these beautiful friends was itself a life-force.
Then we got the news
Dallas Comedy House was our creative clubhouse. A place that became home for Sarah and me in a city where we didn’t know anyone. It’s where our team became friends, and also became family? It’s a thing when you do improv. People call it a cult, and it kind of is. But it’s like a cult of positivity that changes your life for the better! (Okay, so that’s what everyone who joins a cult says.)
But seriously, improv is cool (and dorky)! It brought us together and taught us all how to be positive and collaborate.
Like most places, Dallas Comedy House had to close during the start of the pandemic. The theater had just opened up a beautiful new space less than a year prior, and now it was dormant. Unlike a lot of places in Texas, DCH didn’t get to reopen a couple months later. At the end of July 2020, it closed its doors for good.
Our creative home was gone. Suddenly, the work we were doing for CFTI wasn’t just an immediate way to collaborate with each other, it was our future.
We started putting even more time and energy into Comedy For The Internet. We worked with more talented filmmakers and artists like Paris (director of the Facebook sketch), Patrick, and Austin. We called in favors to shoot at friends’ law offices and theaters. We looped in more friends to write, like Raye. We bought wigs and makeup. We shot reels and Tik Toks. My sister made us CFTI sweatshirts for Christmas. We made Animal Facts.
Hearing people say that the Animal Facts videos make their day or that they would watch an Animal Facts movie, or (most importantly) they want to dress as the Animal Facts Woman for Halloween, is completely surreal and validating for everyone involved. We all started performing and creating because it’s something we genuinely love to do. To create something that generates this type of response is icing on the cake.
This has been a crazy, year-and-a-half-long journey, and we're just getting started!
If you’re wondering how you can support what we’re doing with Comedy For The Internet…
Reading this blog is a great start! Sharing our videos with your friends and family is also super helpful. We’ve got a merch store set up with shirts (new design coming soon!), and we’re launching a live show on Thursday, September 2nd.
As part of our larger goals, we want to work with other awesome creators from across the world, and those creators can only do what they do with a strong support system. Help us build up the next generation of amazing performers, writers, and filmmakers that are already in our neighborhoods. Feel free to reach out to hello@comedyfortheinternet.com if you have an idea or concept that you think is worth making!
Thank you for the support you’ve shown Comedy For The Internet so far. I can’t wait for you to see all the awesome projects we have coming!
Danny Neely
CEO, Comedy For The Internet Inc.
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