This Los Angeles-based sketch comedy series is one of the best in production. It stars Clay Flaten, who is the director and co-writer, MacKinlee Waddell (actress) from ABC’s Good Christian Bitches, and guest stars Harrison Houde from Fox 2000’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Produced by multi-award-winning filmmaker Ethan Paisley and featured in Occhi Magazine, Dumpcake Comedy is a sketch comedy that is made for YouTube. It focuses on the adventures of fictional best friends, Buck (Clay Flaten) and Violet (Mackinlee Waddell).
The series promises to provide comedy in a fresh and exciting way. We were so intrigued with the production that we chatted with the creators Clay Flaten and Lauren LaSalle, and director Ruby Monette Meadow, and producer Ethan Paisley. Check out the interview below.
We’re excited to speak with you about Dumpcake Comedy. It’s already receiving quite a few accolades. Congrats! Let’s talk about the production. What inspired it?
Ethan Paisley: Hi there! Dumpcake Comedy was created long before I stepped in as a producer. It was originally called LeBlegh, and the content was similar to sketches today that star both Clay Flaten and MacKinlee Waddell. Since I discovered the videos, the team and I are working on rebranding the channel to boost YouTube engagements and hopefully become more attractive to comedy festivals and networks.
We love the series and can definitely see the YouTube Channel growing. Did you come across any budget challenges during production?
Ethan Paisley: Part of what we do now plays a large part in when we hunt for financing during the 2019 pilot season. Financing comes with proof-of-concept, and I like to think we are still in that phase. No need to worry about money at this stage, I hope!
How do you choose the material to use for the series, while under a limited budget?
Clay Flaten: The material used in the sketches are mostly drawn from conversations and jokes we’ve had with our friends. Various bits we’ll do with each other that makes us laugh, like for example the “hoeing your b” line from “Rumors” (which basically means being a slut), was just a joke we had with our friends that we thought other people may find funny. We’ll take a certain joke we like and write a whole sketch around it. Some sketches though simply start with an image, like Violet doing her makeup in front of the mirror, and then, by train of thought, are written with no clear end to what we want the sketch to be until we see something taking form.
What a fantastic idea! It proves how good conversation and become great dialogue. So, tell us. What do you hope to accomplish with the web series?
Clay Flaten: We want to use this web series mainly as a platform so people can see our comedy and get to know our sense of humor. We love to see how people respond to it and which sketches people most resonate with and find funny. Our ultimate goal is just to make people laugh, and create something that people want to watch over and over again because they have a favorite line from it or something that makes them laugh every time. Eventually, we hope to have our comedy on a network or streaming service so we can reach more people, do bigger projects, and obviously make some money.
YouTube does provide an awesome platform for new series, especially when attracting talent. When choosing talent, what did you look for?
Clay Flaten: When we are choosing talent, we really just look for actors who know who will be able to deliver the lines the way we want them to. It sounds obvious, but when we write our sketches, we write them will such a vision in mind for how each joke is delivered, down to the timing of it all, so we use people that are able to bring that joke from the page to the screen just as we imagined it. Again though, most jokes start in real life with our friends, so we mainly use our friends in our sketches since the joke that made us laugh so much started with them anyways. We also have extremely talented friends, ha.
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Since some of the dialogue derives from real-life jokes made by your friends, you must have quite a few hilarious scenes in Dumpcake Comedy. What is your favorite scene or scenes, thus far?
Lauren LaSalle: One of my favorite scenes to shoot was the outside parts of Funeral. When Tess walked down the hill in costume, we knew that the sketch would come together as we imagined. Also, the dance routine in Cult was hilarious to film.
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How can fans-to-be gain access to the series?
Lauren LaSalle: Our content is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAekCEXoRJ1bEWvujf7MKA, but follow us on Instagram @dumpcakecomedy for clips and updates! All of our team has social media, too!
Follow the talent here:
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Thank you for sharing the links! So, what has been your favorite experience in producing the series?
Ethan Paisley: It’s hard to put my finger on my favorite shoot from the series, but it would probably have to be when we were shooting WORK CRUSH. I’m used to being so focused on set that I miss out on all of the candid moments that make the shoot great. This time, the set was so relaxed and the material was so funny it was impossible not to laugh through the whole thing. It’s the talent that makes you want to come back and shoot every week.
When looking back on the series’ production, what resonated with you the most and why?
Ruby Monette-Meadow: Especially compared to other projects I’ve been a part of, this production was very relaxed and fun, which is essential in getting those comedic juices flowing. Since we mostly pull cast and crew from our network of friends, it ends up feeling like a prolific hang sesh. We’re lucky to have a variety of personalities working on set, and I think that energy shows in the finished product.
What has been your biggest takeaways and experience producing Dumpcake Comedy?
Ethan Paisley: My biggest takeaway would be that learning to remove emotion from the set makes the shoot smoother and the product more successful. I’m usually so wrapped up in my own nerves when I shoot, and that’s a form of emotion. Because I stepped into this expecting things to be funny and more run-of-the-gun, the final product is up there with the funniest material I’ve been part of working on.
If you had to do it all over again, would you still choose to make the series? Would you do anything differently?
Ethan Paisley: That’s the question we asked ourselves when we decided to all begin working together. We feel like before jumping into anything with significant finance or talent attached, we have to start with what we have and grow on YouTube. Then slowly we will be able to build enough traction to achieve wider distribution as an episodic series.
Do you have anything else you would like to share about the series, upcoming projects, and the production?
Ruby Monette-Meadow: We’re excited to expand the world that Buck (Clay Flaten) and Violet (MacKinlee Waddell) live in, introduce new characters, and play with form in the next season. Also I’m hoping to launch some merchandise in the near future!
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Again, we had a fantastic time speaking with the cast and crew of Dumpcake Comedy. We highly recommend you check out the series and follow them on Instagram.
Connect with Dumpcake Comedy:
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8954082/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dumpcakecomedy/
Visit Dumpcake Comedy YouTube Channel.
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