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THE UNDRAWN - BATMAN CAN SUCK MY C*CK

The Undrawn Comedy Webseries -- Screw Supercop Yes. You've read the title of this article correctly, dear reader. It does imply that the Dark Knight can orally lubricate a piece of poultry. But are you wondering to yourself why this phrase was uttered in the first place? Plus why it's associated with the aforementioned comedic web-series? Then come hither, my friend, and check out this conversation I had with its director, Jeff, only the other day, whilst choking our respective chickens.


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1) What are your own origins, Jeff? Plus what path did you take in life prior to getting to where you are today?   This question begs to be answered like I'm retelling my standard biographical slug in the spirit of a superhero origin story, so here goes:

Jeffrey P. Nesker was born and bred in Toronto, Canada, a city both fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. A city of 2 million souls, looking for those brave enough to tell their stories on the world stage. When he was only five years old, his parents "let" him watch 'Jaws' and 'Poltergeist', which both scared and emotionally scarred the crap out of him, leaving an almost transcendental respect for the awesome power of the movies. He knew filmmaking was his calling, so he focused on the arts in high school, then went off to film school to continue his education. He's still learning today, at the school of hard knocks. He's made a few award winning shorts and web-series, worked as editor on more projects than he can name offhand, and moonlit as on-set Script Supervision/Continuity on still more films. Every day promises to be more exciting, and stressful, than the last. The adventure continues. Onward and upward.

The Undrawn Comedy Webseries -- Logo
2) How did the ‘Undrawn’ web-series come about? And how did you cast your great actors?   True Story -- 'The Undrawn' began with a "meet-cute" of sorts. Open on the closing night party of the Toronto-based 'ReelHeART International Film Festival', a few summers ago. Jason and Brett Butler, potty-mouthed enfant terribles of the Toronto Indie Film Scene, had a film at the fest, as did I. They had heard about me -- liked what they saw -- and pitched me the series over a few Bourbon Sours. I had also heard of them, of course, and was excited both by the concept of the show (I'm a huge genre nerd) and the chance to test myself as a director of someone else's script, and a comedy script, to boot. Not just any comedy script mind you. But the kind of filthy, in-the-red, take no prisoners style of comedy that the Butler brothers have made into their personal brand.

The idea was that by embracing what makes us different, and bringing those differences to bear on the series, that we would end up with something better than the sum of it's parts. I would bring the measured, intellectual approach that I'd like to think I bring to all my work, and the Butlers would bring the pain. 

The Undrawn Comedy Webseries -- Sexy Hoes
With respect to casting I need to begin with a big shout out to Ashley Bowes, our fearless casting director, who, like myself, really went on a journey throughout casting the series. While the Butlers owned this sort of material, Ashley and I both had our reservations about how far to take it -- especially at the outset -- when we were sending out casting notices for "older, cracked out sluts"! We both learned to trust the material as the audition process continued, and people came out in droves, really connecting with the concept. It cancelled out our fear and charged our batteries and really made the series what it is.

Casting this series was one of the easiest casting processes I've ever experienced. It was kismet -- everyone who ended up in the show really, really, wanted to be there, and it was clear, even in the early auditions, that we had our guys. 

Once we had our cast, we went out and shot a series of individual monologues, to establish our characters, and a brief "super-teaser" to flesh out their relationships and give an overall feel for the series. Response was excellent, so we parlayed that into a successful, albeit draining, kickstarter campaign. 

Possessing some real coin now, we went back into the fray, and with an insanely ambitious shooting schedule of five days, we shot all six episodes of the first season that we are proud to unveil now.

Ricky Gervais & Patrick Stewart
3) In your own words how would you describe this series?   Well, we like to say, rather simply, that 'The Undrawn' is like 'The Office' meets 'X-Men', but I'll go into some more detail.

Our series exists in an alternate universe where it's perfectly normal to have superpowers of all shapes and stripes. If you're on the tall side, you play some B-ball, and if you have special abilities, well, you have two choices. Go anarchist and stir up the shit, or play the straight and narrow and hopefully be of some service to society, while also enjoying the perks -- fame, fortune, and movie franchise deals. It's a competitive field, this "superhero game", and Supercorp is one of the bigger players. Operating out of mammoth skyscraper in the middle of the city, a talent agency and a police force all rolled into one.

The series follows the exploits of six also-rans at Supercorp, wannabe heroes with questionable powers, toiling away on the lower floors of Supercorp Tower, under the ever watchful eye of The Boss, The inept middle-manager assigned to them.

Watch them try, and often fail spectacularly, to grab that brass ring, and -- oh yeah -- maybe save some lives or whatever.




4) If your flick omitted a smell, what odour would it be and why?   Honestly? This question tickles me because a bit part of my experience with 'The Undrawn' has been coming to terms with the filth. Screening it for shocked family and friends, doing Q & A's and trying to ignore pulled faces and death stares. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this isn't a show for everybody. It requires both a sense of humour and a strong stomach. But we wouldn't have it any other way.

So, all that being said, it would smell like you'd imagine Led Zeppelin's hotel room stank after a gig at Madison Square Garden. Fumes like a 2-day hangover. It would reek of B.O. and stale urine, or a sheet covered in stale, dry semen. Perhaps a used tampon? Yeah, it's that dirty.

5) If you could get a known celebrity – either living or dead – to promote your production, who would you chose, and why would you want this particular person?   Orson Welles, circa this clip:




The Undrawn Comedy Webseries -- Batman Laughing6) Have you had any acknowledgement from the press or media?   As you can image, a concept like this will certainly attract attention.

As we've just begun our proper roll-out, it’s still very much in the early stages here, we are aggressively promoting the series and plan on submitting it to several festivals, both genre, web-series heavy, and traditional.

It has to be said, though -- For such a young series, we've managed some real accolades. Here are some highlights:
  • We previewed the series to great acclaim at the recent 'Bootleg Film Festival' in Edinburgh, Scotland. Those Scots really took to our brand of perverse humor.
  • We were invited to pitch the series at the recent 'Banff World Media Festival' in Banff, Alberta, as part of the 'Bell New Media Fellowship Program'. It was a tremendous opportunity and has really upped our visibility.
  • We've inked a deal with 'AuxMode Media' to re-release this season in a big way on the Interwebs. AuxMode is an exciting new company devoted to promoting and fostering new cutting edge Canadian content, with an emphasis on comedy, so we feel it’s a match made in heaven.

The train has only just left the station, but it sure promises to be a wild ride.

The Undrawn Comedy Webseries -- Sexy Woman7) What were the main obstacles you had to contend with?   There’s the old proverb – “Nothing worth doing is ever easy”, and that certainly applies to our series.

We've had to deal with fearful agents, sudden casting changes, and the assorted pitfalls of a crazy ambitious shoot and post-production schedule – again, we shot six episodes in only five days! With no permits. Ahh, guerilla filmmaking.

8) If ‘Undrawn’ had a motto, what do you think it would be?   “Kryptonite not required”, or “Batman can suck my c*ck!”.

Quack-Quack! So there you have it, indie fans. My mate Jeff and his cracking new webseries, 'The Undrawn'. Now you know what you have to do next, right? Click-Click! Tweet-Tweet! Face-Face! And Watch-Watch! Go on. Shift-Shift. You know you want to. 

THE UNDRAWN - BATMAN CAN SUCK MY C*CK THE UNDRAWN - BATMAN CAN SUCK MY C*CK Reviewed by David Andrews on September 13, 2013 Rating: 5
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