Reid Levin is a New York City writer, actor and comedian who is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia in his hometown of Denver, CO.
Reid writes and acts in sketch comedy videos and performs with Better Than The Machine around the country. He is a regular contributor to the humor website Smosh.com. Reid is also the co-creator of the NBC comedy webseries The Guys in 3A.
Reid acts in commercials and films, and has lent his voice to several cartoons.
Since my last entry, I’ve missed several topics I wish I’d blogged about. Knowing full well from prior experience that if I gave each of these many topics their own posts, I would quickly feel overwhelmed and, just as quickly, give up. So I decided to write about each of these many topics in one entry I’ve dubbed a “twitlog.” Aware of my propensity for verbose verbiage, I decided to treat each story as a Twitter post by limiting each of them to 140 characters. Onward!
-Last Vid: Bobby Fitzsimmons (of screen & stage) vlogs. Los: great! But whycome so few hits for funny video? I want to play Bobby’s cousin.
-New Vid: Crazy lady thinks cat is her son; boyfriend aghast. YT Comedy Spotlight! Moms Day dedication: to all moms, not just the crazy ones.
-New “Give A Shit” lyrics: Earthquakes, volcanoes and the oil spill/My candidate still says, “Drill, Baby, Drill!”
Whew, okay I think that does it. This turned out to be a fun challenge. Maybe I’ll wind up making more of these. We’ll see how I feel about it a few days out. At any rate, I enjoyed doing this enough to create a new category for these things (’cause you know, this entry wasn’t already in enough categories).
For the record, “twitlog” is a double portmanteau, and I love me some portmanteaus. First, of course, there’s the Twitter-weblog combination, which is an apt description of all these Twitter-style stories in my blog. Second is the more self-derisive combination of “twit” and “log”; with the “twit” being myself, and this effort being the only “log” of what happened in the unintended space between more frequent and detailed blog posts.
Thursday April 22nd 2010, 1:01 am
Filed under: Word Nerd
Who came up with this whole glass half-empty or half-full concept? As far as I am concerned, this metaphor is old and boring; frankly, it has exhausted its usefulness. Why, kids today are hardly even aware of its existence, let alone where they stand on the issue of how much water is in the glass. I don’t want to get beat to the punch here like we did with that whole “dead horse” fiasco. Let’s just go ahead do away with this stodgy old figure of speech and roll out a new hipper, edgier, sexier metaphor. Something cool the kids will pick up on. I’ve got it! From now on, there is no glass, there is no water. From now on, you see the situation as half-clothed, while I see it as half-naked. Genius!
–Reid.
P.S. Maybe we should go with “nekkid” instead of “naked”; kids just love misspelling things these days!
Two Better Than The Machine videos for the price of… two videos! What a steal! I missed posting and analyzing last week’s video here in my blog so I’ll show it off with this week’s video! Hooray!
Last week’s video, “Prank Calls,” shows off Matt Gallo’s amazing crank calling skills. We even managed to get a microphone into the room of the person he called! Wowzers!
In this week’s video, “A Videophone Hello,” I got to phone in my performance. Videophone it in, that is! Hiyo!
And if you didn’t like that logline, well then, here’s another one just for you: In this week’s video, “A Videophone Hello,” I get to experience instantaneous modern communication without the use of my semaphore flags! What a time to be alive!
The interstitial videos continued unabated last week and on into this week, which caused some confusion, as the they do, rather explicitly, advertise new videos in February and it is now, scientifically speaking, February. To anyone who is confused: we didn’t say when in February we’d switch over from the sketch comedy videos that advertise new sketch comedy videos in February to February’s new sketch comedy videos that do not advertise new videos in February. Thus, scientifically speaking, we won’t be in breach of contract for at least another couple of weeks. Phew!
These two videos were shot at the beginning of a single Better Than The Machine meeting at Pace. I wanted Paul and Matt to be in them, since we’d released Carlos and Christina videos the two previous weeks. I especially wanted Paul to be in something so that people would be reminded of his existance, which is good to remind people of every know and again. When “Prank Calls” was being shot, they shut off the video feed with me, so I don’t know what they were doing out there.
I do know, however, that both Ballard and I had ideas for me appearing in a video on the computer screen (which is how I attend meetings). My idea was more complicated and homoerotic, so we did Ballard’s idea–which is to say we did Ballard’s idea because it was easier, not because it was less homoerotic. All of us have now been in these interstitials. On the Xbox, I think we’d get a medal for that. Or something. I don’t have an Xbox.
Here is an interesting fact: if you watch “Prank Calls” on YouTube.com, there’s a big ad covering me up for most of the video. I’m just doing my part for the team. Remember that, the team.
The big reason for making these interstitials was that they were quick and easy, and could be thrown together while we hopefully buckled down and worked harder on other videos. It’s been an interesting experiment. There has been a lot of writing, scheduling and some shooting, but I feel like without, at the very least, a second editor available in NYC (to say nothing of another full time director), it puts a tremendous strain on Ballard. It was hard for Paul and I when the two of us were directing and editing videos full time, and I am thus both very impressed and very thankful for Ballard’s tenacity.
We may go back to full videos next week, but I’m not making any promises! There is still another unreleased interstitial with Carlos and Christina, and we could probably make more if we wanted to, so don’t push us! We’ll do it! Maybe!
–Reid.
P.S. I have found a staggering number of words missing from Firefox’s dictionary, the latest of which is “analyses,” the plural form of “analysis.” It’s true.
The more I read about you today, the less I wish I knew about your personal life. I have always maintained that I like most artists for their art, and that knowing about artists’ personal lives–be they actors, painters, musicians, or writers–only serves to muddy things up. I have learned that you were many things, Sir, but rest assured, you were never a phony.
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for a grammar revolution! This revolution will not be won with guns and aero-planes, but with a spin on a classic comedy routine. English Majors, Word Nerds and Grammar Nazis: this one’s for you. Step right up and watch folks, no need to be afraid; you’ll either feel really smart or really confused–either way, you’ve got nothing to lose!
This sketch was written by me and was directed and edited by Ballard. We shot it one night while I was in NYC earlier this month.
I’m very happy with how it turned out. When I wrote this (with the somewhat confusing title “Vaudeville Grammarians”), I had Matt and myself in mind to play the two characters. I consider the two of us kindred Word Nerd spirits. I don’t know if the term “Word Nerd” already exists–but if it doesn’t, here’s one on me, English language. When I say “Word Nerd,” I mean that, for instance, I really like the “gay bar” line at the end of the sketch. It’s a homosexual homonym. So… yeah. Word Nerd.
Matt plays Lou in this sketch and I play Alex. These names are direct references to Louis “Lou” Costello and William Alexander “Bud” Abbott, respectively. The popular Abbott and Costello Vaudeville duo is probably best known for the routine that this sketch pays homage to: Who’s On First?
We shot this in Ballard’s apartment. It was originally to take place in a bar, but a) we’ve had a lot of bar scenes this year and b) we didn’t have access to a bar. It didn’t really matter anyway. Ballard shot from only two angles, which served the sketch very well. I’m trying to pickup on lessons from Ballard so I can start directing some things again soon. I would’ve covered this thing all over the place. Two shots, up shots, down shots, spinning shots, outside shots, shots galore! We would’ve been there all night. Needless to say, I’m glad I did not direct this sketch.
Like I said, we filmed this when I was out in New York earlier this month. It’s the second of three videos we shot. Unless there’s some unforeseen amazing new video that pops up out of the woodwork this week, the third of these Reid videos will be released next Monday. My biggest regret with these three videos is that I waited to get a haircut until after my trip. My extreme shagginess is most apparent in the next video. I felt like a lion! But I don’t know if lions should necessarily be doing sketch comedy.
Actually, I was showing this and the next video to my dad tonight, and while I was queuing up the next video, the first frame of it appeared in QuickTime. My dad responded to the image on the screen with equal parts revulsion and horror. “What is this all about?” he asked. As my shaggy visage was the only thing on screen at that moment, I could only assume he meant, “You look like the bum that sits outside my office who wears really nice Broncos gear and begs for change.” Except, I don’t have any nice Broncos gear.
Oh well. As my dad put it, I’ll have all week to worry about the next video. So I’ll do my best to prepare for the ruthless taunts of anonymous 14 year old Internet bullies. I just have to keep telling myself that they’ll get their comeuppance soon enough, soon enough. I can’t say how, but soon. The plans are already underway. There’s nothing you can do to stop us from turning the tables! Now you will finally die, Mr. Bond! Mwa ha ha ha! Mwa ha ha!
◦—-◦Later, that same night.◦—-◦
Excuse me, hoooo. I’m sorry, I’ve gotta catch my breath. Now where was I? I think I might have gone a little overly megalomaniacal there; the evil laughter just started and didn’t stop until I passed out. I’m just so damn excited for the upcoming comeuppance giving.
Make sure to check http://bttm.net next week for our last video of the decade! It’s another one I wrote, and more so with it than the video this week, Ballard “encouraged me” (with that adorable puppy dog look he knows I can’t resist and also with his brass knuckles) to make some revisions. It’s got a message and it’s very silly. I mean, the message isn’t silly, but the video is. At the very least, you’ll get to see, in beautiful high definition, why I needed a haircut and some beard corralling last week.