Previously on Wainy Days...

The New Year just started, but the latest season of Wainy Days is almost over! Next Monday, January 9, 2012, is the Season Finale!

I know, right?!

Here's a quick recap to get you all caught up:

• *David went on a date with Kelly (Erinn Hayes)-- a theater critic for the New York Times(!), but she had a thing for David's next-door neighbor, a TV star named "Chez," played by Ken Marino


• *David met Arielle (Lizzy Caplan), who was reading a book called "Rosewood Junction" that David pretended to know all about.


• *At the suggestion of a co-worker at the sweatshop (Jorma Taccone), David tries to find "Rosewood Junction" as a book-on-tape so he'll know all about it before his date with Arielle! The nice old lady who runs the bookstore has an interesting relationship with her landlord (Steven Weber)


• *David got his book-on-tape, but he needs Zandy's Walkman to listen to it, and she left her Walkman (seriously?!) at her ex-boyfriend's (Thomas Lennon), who happens to be a BIG Derek Jeter fan...


• *David goes on his date with Arielle, but she wants to talk about more than just "Rosewood Junction!" Go figure.

Which brings us to this week's episode, in which everyone meets again... at a dramatic reading of TV dialogue by Ken Marino.

You're caught up now. Don't say you don't know what's going on because it would be a lie. Next thing you know you'll be saying that you know what "Rosewood Junction" is about:

Nice try, guys. Nice try.

---

Your Wainy Wait Is Almost Over! Watch This.

We have David Wain, Erinn Hayes, Lizzy Caplan, Ken Marino, Jorma Taccone, Zandy Hartig, Steven Weber and a BRAND NEW SEASON of the award-winning Wainy Days starting on December 5th!

Color us super excited! Even if it's a weird color! Like purple or teal! Who would want to be purple or teal?!
But if that's the color of excited, then that's what we want to be! We're THAT excited!

---

Josh Gad to host SNL?

---

Harry Shearer - Found Objects - Diane Sawyer

Harry Shearer was the first artist signed to My Damn Channel when we launched four years ago in 2007.

Harry first encountered satellite news feeds when he worked at SNL. He's fascinated with the contents of videos that you normally never get to see and we call these clips: Found Objects.

We just uploaded a new Found Object on My Damn Channel, Diane Sawyer: "I Have Nothing."

Here's the link.

Harry writes, "Diane Sawyer is on the scene after a tornado has ripped through Joplin, anchoring a live broadcast from the city. But it's not easy for her."

He adds, "This is a portrait of a fly-in anchor covering a disaster. Diane may be Diane, but this is pretty much what you get when you send high-priced anchor talent into a place where everything has fallen apart and nothing works. The quote, 'I have nothing,' of course, should more appropriately be coming from a tornado victim.'"

---

Hall Pass Pass

The new Farrelley Bros. comedy Hall Pass was the #1 movie in the country last week, and much of the credit can be placed on the broad, heartland-handsome shoulders of co-star Jason Sudeikis.  Not surprising, as the man’s talents are legion: one-time Blue Man Group wannabe, dater of Hollywood starlets, George Wendt’s nephew, etc.  And don’t sleep on SNL, where he portrays a wide variety of characters ranging from the pathetic to the nettlesome, including one-half of both Jon Bovi, the world’s worst Bon Jovi tribute band, and the titular “Two A-Holes.”

But by far, Sudeikis’s most daunting role to date has been as none other than our very own David Wain, wherein attacks the role of My Damn Channel’s favorite lovelorn man-child with the kind of method intensity not seen since Ben Kingsley cinched up his cloth diaper to play mankind’s other great savior, Mahatma Ghandi.  Maybe this Believer article was the key to his research.  Then again, maybe there’s a little David Wain in all of us (gross).

---

Portlandia is so funny it killed Jack LaLanne

Too soon? You're right. It is too soon to tell if Portlandia is going to be THAT funny. But based on it's premier episode, it's got the potential to be a killer show.

And yes, fitness legend Jack LaLanne did die (shown here doing FINGERTIP PUSH-UPS!). The man was a tank, and @MarylandMudflap has tweeted a fitting eulogy.

"Jack LaLanne will carry his own casket at his funeral."

---

Big Love from the Big Easy

'On assignment' in New Orleans for My Damn Channel.

If you're a resident here, you have our maximum respect and thanks for giving the rest of us one of the most magical places on earth. If you've visited, keep coming back. If you've never been...make it happen captain. You'll find warm souls, inspired sounds, the finest food, drink, fun and good times you can experience.

We lead with laffs at My Damn Channel. But there's more than comedy beneath your fingertips. This is why Harry Shearer was the first artist we asked to trust us to let him reach you without one drop of Hollywood execu-nonsense in the way.

Harry has lived in New Orleans for over a decade, shuttling from here to LA and the rest of his working world. From The Simpsons, to Spinal Tap, to SNL, to Le Show on NPR, Huffington Post, comedy albums, music, music videos, and more - Harry Shearer is an artist who never stops creating, entertaining, living and giving.

Harry has created many of the most-viewed, most-talked about videos on My Damn Channel. He has two projects in the works that you'll see next.

On June 4th, you'll see "Deaf Boys." Here's a sneak preview along with a note about the original song and short film to come.

This August, Harry will release a documentary feature film he's directed about the city he loves. "The Big UnEasy"  opens on the 5th anniversary of Katrina to tell the story about the un-natural disaster that nearly destroyed New Orleans. The film details why the levees broke, why the city is still in danger, and why Congress and The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is putting more cities like New Orleans at risk.

Harry will share news and videos about the making of his film over the summer. We presented a series of videos back in 2007, on the 2nd anniversary of Katrina called "Crescent City Stories."

http://www.MyDamnChannel.com/HarryShearer
http://twitter.com/letwits
http://www.HarryShearer.com

---

Name-Dropping Like It's Hot

At My Damn Channel, we like celebrities and we like hilarious things.  

And then we realized... there are CELEBRITIES who like celebrities and hilarious things.  If we could get celebrities like MacGruber and SNL stars Will Forte and Kristen Wiig to read, say, the ridiculous AUTOBIOGRAPHIES of celebrities like Tommy Lee and Tiger Woods, it would probably be AWESOME. 

Then we met a man named Eugene Pack and he made all of our celebrity dreams come true.

Witness the celebrity trailer now.

And we were right.  It is celebrity awesome and celebrity hilarious.  New celebrity episodes will be on My Damn Channel every Wednesday beginning May 19th. 

Thank you.  You're welcome.  Celebrity. 

---

PROCRAST-ERRIFIC

Dobrow's Procrast-errific Web Video Destination

Media Reviews for Media People: My Damn Channel

By Larry Dobrow

Published: May 08, 2008

I spend 37 hours per day in front of the computer and have the attention span of a sugared-up first-grader, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I inhale a staggering amount of online video. Indeed, as I craft my masterworks of Western thought and struggle to locate that elusive mot juste ("luftmensch"? "jecoral"?), web video serves as the default procrastination apparatus. Mostly my wanderings lead to Springsteen clips, which I then forward to my similarly Jer-Z-fied pals. We've wasted 7,250 hours on low-res 1978 versions of "Prove It All Night" alone.



So no, I don't have a single regular supplier for my video fix, and I'm probably like the vast majority of web monkeys in that regard. For texty information and illumination and whatnot, there are 15 or so sites I'll check out every day. For video, I unthinkingly go wherever my idiot friends point me.


Happily, I've found a procrast-errific web-video destination in My Damn Channel, a better-realized version of the astronomically hyped, Ferrell-and-Apatow-backed Funny or Die. That's not a slap at Funny or Die, so much as an endorsement of the more comically consistent My Damn Channel. It's all well and good that the Ian Zierings and John Mayers of the world have chosen Funny or Die as their preferred venue for gentle image-tweaking, but such lazy bits pale next to the goodies tucked away in each of My Damn Channel's, uh, channels.


Where Funny or Die throws up a bunch of clips and calls it an afternoon, My Damn Channel showcases a range of distinct personalities. Funnyfolk like David Wain, Harry Shearer and Andy Milonakis get online mini-laboratories to call their own, and use them for everything from low-concept weirdness to wry political commentary. No one channel is like the next, though each shares a twitchy, absurdist comic sensibility that should resonate with fans of Andy Samberg's SNL Digital Shorts, "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" and anything involving alumni from MTV's "The State."


My Damn Channel has justly been lauded for the passive-aggressive (and educational!) comic gold that is "You Suck at Photoshop" series and Wain's vigorously quirky "Wainy Days" quest to find his fictional self a gal. The site's less-hyped content -- especially the soap opera spoof "Horrible People" and the self-explanatory "Cookin' With Coolio" -- similarly revels in its own silliness, especially the former's asides about how "a waxed ***hole is a window to the soul."


I also dig Grace, the gal who, for lack of a better way to put it, serves as My Damn Channel's hostess and hype woman. She has the Sarah Silverman I'm-adorable-so-I-can-get-away-with-saying-stuff-about-Hitler-and-weed thing down pat, but doesn't overplay the gimmick -- which makes it all the more rewarding when she sweetly intones "be nice to your mother, because you f*cked up her baby hole." Her presence keeps My Damn Channel from feeling like a guys-only clubhouse, a fate that Funny or Die hasn't been able to avoid.


My Damn Channel even pulls off the nifty trick of being entertaining in its advertising. Don Was' music channel boasts Lincoln as a primary sponsor, for example, but also tapes performances in the grungy "grand showroom of our sponsor, The Furniture Outlet, located in North Hollywood, California, at 13054 Sherman Way ... c'mon down for some great music and some great bargains on love seats and bedroom sets!" A bunch of brands that appeal to homebound drones like me -- iTunes, Wolfgang's Vault, National Geographic Channel -- have been in heavy ad rotation of late, as have web mainstays like Match.com and Peapod. They're all easy fits, just as cellphone tchotchkes and other portable media devices would be. Ads for new movies or records would probably get lost amid all the content, though.


The two potential worries here for marketers? One, that few of the clips are safe for work; and two, that almost none of the humor here is linear, meaning that devotees of Jay Leno and "Two and a Half Men" will furrow their brows in a futile attempt to grasp the punch lines.


In the end, you can easily lose yourself for 45 minutes at a time at My Damn Channel -- in fact, I kinda just now did, courtesy of the Lori McKenna and Jackshit clips on the Don Was channel. I've yet to feel a comparable pull to any other web-video destination not named YouTube, and YouTube's clip quality and smallish viewing window seem primitive nowadays when compared to MDC, Funny or Die, Hulu and the like. If you can visit My Damn Channel without meandering around for awhile, I applaud your self-discipline.

---

49 MILLION MORE HUMANS GET 'MY DAMN CHANNEL'

Dailymotion Features Exclusive Debut of My Damn Channel's Bedtime Stories Dailymotion, the world's largest independent video sharing site, and My Damn Channel, the entertainment studio and new media platform, today announced a partnership that will bring My Damn Channel's original, professionally-produced episodic video content to Dailymotion's audience of over 49 million users worldwide. New York, NY (PRWEB) March 11, 2008 - Dailymotion, the world's largest independent video sharing site, and My Damn Channel, the entertainment studio and new media platform, today announced a partnership that will bring My Damn Channel's original, professionally-produced episodic video content to Dailymotion's audience of over 49 million users worldwide. Beginning Tuesday, March 11, 2008, Dailymotion will host an exclusive premiere episode of My Damn Channel's newest web series, "Bedtime Stories." Written and co-directed by Steve Kerper, whose previous work includes infamous sketches such as "Raging Bullwinkle" for HBO's "Hardcore TV," each episode of "Bedtime Stories" will offer a provocative retelling of a traditional children's story. The show stars web video cult personality and one-time pole vault medalist Grace Helbig and features illustrations by Asterisk (Saturday Night Live's "TV Funhouse"). In addition to the exclusive "Bedtime Stories" premiere, Dailymotion will now feature My Damn Channel's original comedy and music videos including "Horrible People," a soap opera with an evil, comedic twist written and directed by A. D. Miles ("Wet Hot American Summer"); "Cookin' with Coolio," a production of Dead Crow Pictures featuring hip-hop star Coolio creating his favorite "funkalicious" dishes and "Wainy Days," an hilarious, fictionalized account of comedian David Wain's ("The State," "The Ten") search for romance. My Damn Channel artists also include Harry Shearer, Andy Milonakis, Big Fat Brain ("You Suck at Photoshop") and Don Was. Content from My Damn Channel will be programmed by Dailymotion's creative managers into the site's channels alongside licensed videos from Dailymotion's Official users as well as original videos from the Motionmaker program. This curatorial strategy enables Dailymotion to deliver the highest-quality viewing experience by providing content in a manner that is user-friendly and easy-to-navigate. "We're excited to partner with My Damn Channel, a company that shares our dedication to bringing the freshest and most creative entertainment to the largest audience possible," said Danny Passman, Dailymotion's senior creative director. "We are also elated that they have chosen our site for the premiere of 'Bedtime Stories,' and are confident that our high-quality viewing experience and global audience makes Dailymotion the perfect platform for this debut." "Dailymotion adds massive global reach and effective promotion for our talent and our original videos," said Rob Barnett, Founder & CEO of My Damn Channel. "We found solid partners at Dailymotion to help fuel our mission to rewrite old media rules by allowing major artists to reach tens of millions of fans without any corporate interference." About Dailymotion: A top 30 website worldwide (source: Alexa), Dailymotion is the world's largest independent video entertainment website (source: Alexa; comScore, December 2007). Every day, over 15,000 new videos are uploaded into Dailymotion's global network of localized video entertainment sites, where the site's creative directors turn the user-generated and licensed content into high-quality entertainment for its 50-plus million monthly unique users. In January 2008, Dailymotion registered approximately 800 million video views across its global network. The site's Motionmaker program is designed to identify and encourage the most creative users on Dailymotion. Using the most advanced technology for both users and content creators, Dailymotion provides high-quality video in a fast, easy-to-use Web site that also automatically filters infringing material. Dailymotion's mission is to provide the best possible entertainment experience for users and the best marketing opportunities for advertisers, while respecting content protection. For more information, please visit http://www.dailymotion.com. About My Damn Channel: My Damn Channel is an entertainment studio and new media platform created to empower filmmakers, actors, comedians and musicians to co-produce, distribute and monetize original, episodic video content. Programming is created for the My Damn Channel site (http://www.MyDamnChannel.com/) and for distribution on today's most heavily- trafficked online communities and social networks including YouTube (www.YouTube.com/MyDamnChannel), MySpace, Dailymotion, and others. My Damn Channel gives its artists creative control and produces a diverse array of programming from talent including Harry Shearer, Andy Milonakis, David Wain, Don Was, Coolio, A.D. Miles, Steve Kerper and Big Fat Brain ("You Suck at Photoshop"). My Damn Channel is supported by an advertising revenue model, and by licensing the studio's entire portfolio of content across all forms of digital distribution, including online, mobile, VOD and DVD. ###

---