This space hasn’t been updated in a while because so much is happening!   “Well then Jared, isn’t that a perfect to time to update this space?”, you ask?  Yes, it is.

Music videos galore!  Two new music videos have been shot, one for Maylee Todd and one for the Bluegrass trio, “The Good Lovelies”.  

Over on Jared’s YouTube, you can check out several videos which aren’t yet featured on jaredsales.com…  

Also coming very soon, a brand new jaredsales.com!

More big news in the works as well… keep checking back.

Q107 has selected the Andy Hull written (and starring) and Jared Sales directed short, Oxi Wife Clean as one of the top 10 finalists for their “Funniest Video in Canada” contest…

UPDATE:  Oxi Wife Clean Wins!

Listen in at 6 a.m. this Friday to hear the results!

Jerry O’Connell and Marc Hickox will be appearing for a 2nd time on this month’s NSFW @ The Rivoli.  They will be appearing via webcam, but you don’t want to miss this as we have a very special surprise lined up.

The show happens April 28, 2009 at the Rivoli - 334 Queen St. W - Toronto, Ontario  Doors at 8:30/Show at 9.  Hosted by Jared Sales and Tal Zimerman.  Sponsored by The Comedy Network and MyspaceVIDEO.  Produced by Diamondfield Entertainment.

Some new shots by Lauren Hammersley of Jared are now available in the picture section.  Also available are some Jared taken shots from the past few editions of Sunday Night Live at the Comedy Bar.

Jared recently sat down with Yuk Yuk’s founder Mark Breslin to talk about the internet and it’s future in comedy.  Here’s the article which was published in this month’s issue of the Village Post. http://postcitymagazines.com/2009-01/story_200901_ComicStripped.php

Will the Internet replace comedy clubs?

Monthly show at The Rivoli showcases killer online comedians

IT’S A NEW year, and so my thoughts naturally gravitate to the future. “Where is comedy going?” is a question I’m often asked, and although there’s no one definitive answer, the Internet is a good place to start.

Thanks to the Internet, Bill Maher and the local emcee at the Anytown Chuckle Hut now have equal access to a distribution channel. Talent scouts no longer have to do much more than point and click. There are no “discoveries.” It’s all out there for anyone to see, amateur or professional.

But it’s not just stand-up comics posting their acts on the Web. Comedians are now making their own short films on portable cameras, doing their own editing, and uploading them onto the Internet.

A few years ago, I asked a producer at the Aspen Comedy Festival if he was going to the stand-up showcases. He told me there was no need. Since no industry bigwig is interested in the relatively nonlucrative live market, why not bypass the process entirely and just watch what funny people are posting on the Web?

So comedy clubs, at least in L.A. and New York, are no longer the front door of the business. It’s YouTube.

You can find almost anything you want by typing in a few key words. Now that the resolution issue has been improved, any comic can be seen and have work passed on by excited consumers. Russell Peters has claimed this is how his fame exploded all over the globe.

With this in mind, I talked to Jared Sales, a local guru of Internet comedy who teaches at the Humber School of Comedy. Sales, 28, has a cool, Brooklyn hipster look that makes him an appropriate poster boy for the Internet-comedy movement.

“YouTube has produced more comedy in the past three months than all the U.S. networks in the history of television,” says Sales.

I remind him that most of it is junk, and he doesn’t disagree. But this is where portals like “Funny or Die” come in, which tend to act as filters letting only the very best through. And Sales makes the point that Internet comedy tends to be quirky, which trickles up to mainstream media and encourages a Judd Apatow or Will Ferrell to take greater comedic risks.

But I have two major beefs with the new medium. One, that it only encourages short pieces of comedy, and two, that almost all of the humour tends to be slapstick.

Jared thinks “people’s attention spans haven’t adapted to the medium yet.” A fair reminder that the technology is still new. But I still think the medium works against creators of long-form programming where the audience is taken on a journey that involves character and story arcs that stick in your mind and touch your soul.

But what of the economics of all of this? Even Sales admits that “you could get a million hits on YouTube and only make a couple of hundred dollars.” But the model might be that you get discovered on YouTube and then hired by old media such as network television. Or, suggests Sales, direct sponsorship of popular Internet shows is a possibility, hearkening back to the early days of TV when companies would sponsor entire shows.

In the meantime, it’s not deterring any comics under 30 from picking up that camera.

If you want evidence, go to one of Jared Sales “NSFW” (Not Safe For Work) shows at the Rivoli the last Tuesday of every month. He picks 25 funny new videos off the Web and shows them, complete with a panel of comics who dissect them. It’s a fun evening, and it’s live because nothing will replace a bunch of strangers in a room sharing a good laugh.

Post City Magazines’ humour columnist, Mark Breslin, is the founder and owner of the Canada-wide Yuk Yuk’s chain of comedy clubs. The former comedian and TV producer is also the author of several books, including Control Freaked.

Jared is debuting three new videos (one for himself, as well as for Norm Sousa and Daryn McIntyre.) at tonight’s four year anniversary edition of the Loner Show.  Over forty of Toronto’s best comics will each be performing one minute monologues.  The Rivoli - 9pm. Hosted by Brian Barlow.

(click for larger image)

Joining the ranks of Bruce Springsteen, Lily Allen and Kanye West, the Jared Sales directed video for Prairie Cat’s Just Cuz is featured this week at music.myspace.com

Jared’s picture is the myspace.ca featured photo today.  Tonight’s installment of NSFW is also featured on the frontpage. Here is a screenshot in case you missed it (click for larger image)…

There is a new video in the video player on the main page called, “H’Alana”.  It was made with Alana Johnston and Gary Rideout Jr. for the Toronto Sketchfest 48 Hour Film Challenge.

A new album of pictures by Lauren Hammersley is now available in the photos section.

To celebrate the grand opening of Comedy Bar (945b Bloor St. W), Jared will be providing a live recap with pictures, quotes, overheard conversations and more on Friday, November 7, 2008.

Stay Tuned…

Jared and Tal will be performing a mini-NSFW this Tuesday as a goodbye to NSFW and SketchLounge/AltDot Comedy Lounge producer extradionaire Zoe Randall. Come join Jared and Tal, plus great acts like The Imponderables, Laurie Elliott, Mark Forward and more as they wish Zoe the best!

the Rivoli - 334 Queen St. W

Tuesday, November 4

9pm/PWYC