News

NSFW in the Toronto Star

2008-06-19T09:28:00.001-07:00

NSFW is discussed in today's Toronto Star. Read the article here.

Viral video star drops in on Rivoli show

Jun 19, 2008 04:30 AM
BRUCE DEMARA
ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER

Live from Los Angeles, actor Jerry O'Connell, along with actor/comic pal Jerry Minor, will be beaming in for a live special appearance at the Rivoli's Sketch Comedy Lounge on Tuesday night.

Co-hosts Tal Zimmerman and Jared Sales, who along with a guest panel, lampoon the best (or worst) Internet "viral" videos, have snagged a guest appearance by the Hollywood actor for their monthly NSFW (Not Safe For Work) Show.

Panelists on Tuesday include Tyler Stewart from Barenaked Ladies and Marc Hickox of Rent-A-Goalie.

Hickox, who recently moved to La La Land, persuaded pals O'Connell and Minor to drop in via Skype link, an online video/telephone system, that will allow them to add their own acerbic comments and interact with the audience.

O'Connell and Minor have become viral-video heroes with their parody earlier this year of actor/Scientologist Tom Cruise, with O'Connell in the lead spoofing role, Minor directing and Hickox providing the music.

"He (Hickox) is going to be in town next week so he asked if he could be a guest on the show and he asked if Jerry O'Connell could join in via Skype. They're all buddies in Los Angeles and Marc Hickox is a fan of the NSFW show," said show co-producer Zoë Randall.

"So Jerry O'Connell and Jerry Minor are going to hang out and sit in front of their screen at home (in L.A.) and watch all the videos with us and we'll be able to see them and talk to them. They'll be broadcast from another screen on stage.

Zimmerman and Sales – both members of sketch troupe The Sketchersons – developed the concept for NSFW.

"It's a unique show in our community. There's nobody else doing anything quite like it. It's really interactive and it's really just a lot of fun," Randall said.

"It's like we're sitting around in somebody's basement with all the funniest people that we know, laughing at the computer screen."

The phenomenon of viral videos has turned some people into instant stars, and comedians have taken notice.

Canadian comic Russell Peters – who regularly sells out the Air Canada Centre when he's in town – did very little conventional marketing but won a vast audience through his own viral appearances, Randall noted.

Jerry O"Connell and Jerry Minor added to NSFW!

2008-06-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

We just added Jerry O'Connell and Jerry Minor who will appear live via webcam from L.A. to NSFW on Tuesday, June 24th. The two Jerries will join our already amazing lineup of Marc Hickox (Heino!) and Tyler Stewart (Barenaked Ladies). So it's safe to assume that you won't want to miss this show. Also the Toronto Star will be running 2 pieces on the show in the next month, one this upcoming Thursday and a larger article in July for our anniversary show! Stay Tuned...

NSFW
The Rivoli - 334 Queen St. W
Tuesday, June 24th
Doors at 8:30/Show at 9pm sharp!

Admission is Pay What You Can!

The SketchCOMedy Lounge is sponsored by The Comedy Network
and Produced by the lovely Zoe Randall!

http://www.thesketchcomedylounge.com

Lots of stuff happening in the Summer 08'!

2008-06-12T04:32:00.000-07:00

This summer, in between heaping plates of BBQ and spirited games of marbles, lots of exciting plans are being made.. There is some stuff that's happening that Jared can announce right now, like how next week he's going into production on a new music video for FuzzyLogic Recordings artist Prairie Cat. The video is for the song "Just Cuz", the first single from the upcoming Prairie Cat album. The new video should be up on the web by the last week of June.

Looking ahead to the end of June, Jared and Tal welcome Barenaked Ladies' drummer and the always hilarious Tyler Stewart and former Second City mainstager Marc Hickox to NSFW at the Rivoli. They are also working hard on confirming another very special guest who will appear live via webcam from Los Angeles, check back to this site next week for more info... In July, NSFW will celebrate it's 1 year anniversary at the Rivoli, and the boys along with the show's producer Zoe Randall are already lining up what looks to be an amazing celebration.

Jared will also be unveiling a new powerpoint presentation at the RIvoli on July 16th at the Alt Dot comedy lounge (every Monday at the Rivoli! 9pm!)

Everydave Life will be screening numerous times during the Just For Laughs comedy festival at the end of July. The film is in competition for the festival's jury prize. Production will also begin later in the summer on 13 episodes of Everydave Life. The episodes will be available at Funnyordie.com in the fall.

Jared will also has tentative plans to direct another 3 music videos. More info coming soon...

And last but not least, Jaredsales.com v8.0 launches on June 17th. The new site will feature lots of new bells and whistles including high quality quicktime copies of Jared's films., a daily video blog and more...

June NSFW feat. Tyler Stewart (Barenaked Ladies) and Marc Hickox!

2008-06-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

Join us as Tal and Jared deconstruct their favourite viral videos with this months extra special panel including Tyler Stewart from the Barenaked Ladies and Former Second City comic Marc Hickox. We are also working on having a very special guest appear live from L.A. via webcam....stay tuned for more info.

In the meantime go over to http://nsfw.jaredsales.com

Produced by Zoe Randall for Diamonfield Entertainment

Sponsored by The Comedy Network

Interact with the show! Bring your cell phones, blackberries, and laptops (The RIvoli offers free wifi) to submit your comments/questions and win prizes!

Jared in Now Magazine

2008-05-21T18:07:00.001-07:00

Jared has been featured in Now Magazine's "Funniest People in T.O." issue.

The article can be read HERE

THE COMEDY ISSUE

Today’s comics need to go viral
BY GLENN SUMI

Years ago, Canadian stand-ups needed a Comedy Now special to catapult their careers to that next level. These days you need a viral video. Russell Peters’s already booming career went insane thanks to on line excerpts from his stand-up act. (So did Dane Cook’s, so there’s no accounting for taste.) Add social networking sites, and, sans pricey market research, you know exactly who and where your fans are.

What’s great is that comics whose work doesn’t quite fit into the typical stand-???up model are making things click.

Renée Percy is a terrific sketch performer and writer for the soon-???to-???be-???defunct Air Farce, but she never thought that one day she’d be known as the “poo lady.” That’s thanks to the viral video she made where she plays a woman who inadvertently wraps up her business (long story – just click on the vid) and leaves it for a guy she’s just slept with.

She estimates the video has had 5.5 million hits.

“People recognize me – and not just perverts,” she says about the video’s success. She even thinks the notoriety may have worked in her favour when she was pitching her new animated series, Nunchucks, about a pair of undercover Ninja nuns.

“Plus, I’m currently in an Imodium commercial. Really. I don’t know if that’s related.”

For several years, Jared Sales was producing smart videos and tech-???related bits in small clubs. Now his work’s being seen by more people than he’s ever performed to combined, thanks to his prizewinning www.funnyordie.com video Everydave Life, about two roommates (Sales’s fellow Sketchersons members Gary Rideout Jr. and Pat Thornton) who drunkenly agree to star in a reality show, then regret it afterwards.

Sales has been tapped to direct 13 episodes of that fake reality show for the Will Ferrell site.

He also co-???hosts, with Tal Zimerman, one of the most unusual video-???related comedy shows in the city. The Rivoli’s monthly NSFW (Not Safe For Work) night screens a couple of ??dozen viral videos and features a panel of guests riffing about them.

“We wanted the show to be like you’re sitting in someone’s basement watching these videos,” he says. “What some might think is hilarious others might find revolting. It gets a strong reaction either way.”

This month’s show, on Tuesday (May 27), guest stars Seán Cullen and movie critic Richard Crouse, so expect a showdown. Sales also encourages audience members to bring their laptops and cellphones to the Rivoli, which is WiFi-?ready.

Imagine a show that actually encourages you to turn on your phone.

“We want you to text-?message or e-?mail responses,” he says. “It’s part of the show.”

NFSW - May 27, 2008 w/Sean Cullen and Richard Crouse!

2008-05-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

Don't miss the May edition of NSFW w/ very special guests Sean Cullen (The Tonight Show, MadTV, Just For Laughs) and film reviewer Richard Crouse. These two together are incredible and you won't want to miss. Plus Tal and Jared host as usual!

NSFW - May 27, 2008
Doors at 8:30/Show at 9
Pay What You Can

Asia

2008-04-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

Jared is in Asia for the next two weeks. Check out his photoblog which is updated daily. Check out the gallery here.

New Ferris Bueller Trailer Remix Now Online

2008-04-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this is the last Ferris Bueller related thing I will ever do. This is something I've been thinking about since I saw this in theatres when I was 6 and was scared of Principal Rooney. After I got over that, it became a movie that I watched over and over again obsessively. As I got older, I always wondered what it was about that movie that scared me, so I started to look at everything as "scary" to see if I could pick up anything. I present to you, "Bueller":

Acting With Aja feat. on YouTube and MySpace this week...

2008-04-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

Aja Featured on the frontpage of Funny or Die...

2008-03-26T04:04:00.000-07:00

Acting with Aja is featured today on Funny or Die, check it out. Funny or Die

The Gravity Wave at the Great Hall on April 1st

2008-03-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

This show is no joke.. On April 1st at the Great Hall, The Gravity Wave unveils a feature length film by Ken Farrell and Dylan Reibling.

Jared is also deep in post production on two new music videos for "Emirates" and "Princess" and both will premiere at this show. (along with the never before seen "Over") Jared will also be performing live during the halftime show. Here's the posting from the Gravity Wave's Website:

UPDATE: THIS SHOW IS NOW SOLD OUT! WHO KNOWS, YOU MAY GET LUCKY AT THE DOOR?

free party*

APRIL 1, 2008

*for club members ONLY

to join club:

freepartyclub@thegravitywave.com

(please include your name and how many

tickets you want when you join free party club)

free party details:

April 1, 2008

The Great Hall

1087 Queen St. W

Doors 8 PM

A Film By Dylan Reibling and The Gravity Wave Stage Band

and The Free Party Dancers 10 PM

Kids and Explosions 11 PM

ColorBarKids 12 AM (Volunteer apreciation dance party - Conversation room)

Acting with Aja the Video of the Day on YouTube

2008-03-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

Today, Acting with Aja was the video of the day on YouTube. If you haven't seen the video yet, check it out HERE on YouTube or HERE for download.

New Video Now Online - Acting with Aja

2008-03-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

A new video that Jared made for last night's edition of "The Loner Show", is now online HERE

Or just watch this:

Robot Ponies Featured on YouTube

2008-03-14T09:59:00.001-07:00

Robot Ponies is now a featured video on YouTube. Check it out here... LINK

ADHDHDTV (New Video)

2008-01-28T23:01:00.000-08:00

A new video I made with Norm Sousa from the Sketchersons.

DOWNLOAD ON THE JARED SALES PODCAST HERE.

New Sean Schau Video

2008-01-26T12:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a new video collaboration between Jared and Sean Cullen that debuted at the Sean Schau this week at the Drake Hotel. There is no Sean Schau in February, but the Schau returns again in March.

Robot Ponies in The Toronto Star

2008-01-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

Toronto Star music columnist John Sakamoto put the video for Robot Ponies on his weekly "The Anti-Hit List" in the number six position. Here is the quoted text:

6. LAURA BARRETT

"Robot Ponies" (video)

This suitably idiosyncratic visual interpretation of the best-known song by Toronto singer-songwriter/thumb-piano player Barrett imbeds a variety of determinedly quotidian scenes – dialing a phone, pouring a cup of tea – in microfiche pages of the Russian newspaper Pravda. The resulting contrast between the audio and the imagery only serves to throw the song's eccentricity into even sharper relief. (From Ursula, tinyurl.com/2j3qlc)

Read the full article here.

Robot Ponies on Myspace

2008-01-23T22:01:00.000-08:00

Oxi Wife Clean Video #1 on YouTube Mobile

2008-01-15T18:34:00.000-08:00

Jared's collaboration with fellow Sketchersons member Andy Hull, entitled Oxi Wife Clean was the number one most viewed video on mobile phones on YouTube on Tuesday, January 15. You can watch that video HERE.

Bootleg Bill Featured on the front page of myspace.com

2008-01-05T10:33:00.002-08:00

Now Magazine Picks NSFW as #3 Show of 2007 + Bootleg Bill featured on YouTube.com

2007-12-27T20:33:00.000-08:00

Now Magazine's Glenn Sumi picked the Jared Sales and Tal Zimerman helmed NSFW as the number 3 show of 2007. Read the article HERE the clips has also been pasted below. The Sean Schau with Sean Cullen, which Jared contributes new videos for every month, also appears on the list in the number 2 spot. Special thanks to amazing Zoe Randall who produces both of these fun shows!

Jared's most recent video, Bootleg Bill's Bargain Basement Bootlegs has appeared several times this week on the front page of youtube.com Click here to check out the video.

Bootleg Bill's... Featured on Funnyordie.com

2007-12-14T20:37:00.000-08:00

Bootleg Bill's Bargain Basement Bootlegs is now featured on Funnyordie.com click here to check it out!

Tons of New Videos!

2007-12-14T15:10:00.000-08:00

Right before Jared went on break for the holidays, he finished a ton of new videos. These four new videos can now be seen on the video page. Happy Holidays!

Uncle Ray's House featured on funnyordie.com

2007-12-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

The video Jared made with fellow Sketchersons member Tal Zimerman was featured on Funnyordie.com. If you haven't seen the video yet, check it out here.

Robot Ponies Now Online

2007-11-29T04:47:00.000-08:00

Jared's video collaboration with for the amazing Laura Barrett track "Robot Ponies" is now available on Youtube. Click HERE or watch above.