The essence of comedic shorts which were the key to much of the earlier vision of Hollywood has faded over the years. A continuing trend at many film festivals is that the shorts are stylish but inherently dramatic. When one sees a comedy short in the format, it is a breath of fresh air. Not that these other films are not good. It is just a nice change of pace and a chance to laugh. Gary Anthony Williams, who many know from his roles on "Boston Legal" and Cartoon Network's "The Boondocks", has helped found a new festival that celebrates the form of comedy film shorts and in doing so is creating a new and diverse outlet for filmmakers. The LA Comedy Shorts Festival runs from March 5-8 in Downtown LA with a bevy of great shorts, parties and networking. Williams took some time out just before the festival's launch to talk of its creation.How did you get involved?The reason I got involved...I was sitting in a theater with a friend of mine...we co-wrote a movie called "I Own You: The Short Comedy Movie". We were at a couple film festivals [with it] and almost every one we went to, [our short] would be paired with some very dramatic movie. There was one block that we were in at a film festival where all the films were really great but we were literally the only one where nobody died or had a miscarriage. Just a lot of death. And then our comedy would come on. We were sitting in the theater one day and I said, "We should have a comedy film festival...a short comedy film festival!" Short comedy films where you know that they are going to get their due and you don't have to worry about seeing a kid with an arrow in his skull. That is where the idea came from. I said it that day. And a couple months later, I said "Let's really do it". And that was last June. And now it's March.This programming is really unique since filmmakers and buyers don't usually get to see these kind of films en masse.It has been amazing. [There used to be a] couple of film festivals that dealt with comedy. They're all gone now. So this is probably right now, the biggest outlet, at least in North American, for the short comedy films. The one that was in Aspen is gone now. People kind of found us. Once we hooked up with The Onion and especially "Funny Or Die", that's when people really found us. And then Atomic Wedgie and Atom.com [came on] as well.The key to any film festival is community and comedy has a big one. Did your connections as a working film and tv actor make it easier?It makes all the difference in the world. And the good thing is that because of my industry hook-ups, the first people I start calling were my managers at Bender Spink asking them, "Will you take meetings with the winners of my film festival?" Then I went to a company called Generate who does "The Chocolate News" (on Comedy Central) and they said "Absolutely we will!" There hasn't been one company yet that went "No we won't!" because they want the product. They want to meet the new people. They want to get working relationships with great filmmakers that they don't even know of yet.So how did this festival come together in terms of logistics and what criteria was set for programming?We started out...once we went live with everything...we went with Without A Box and started advertising in The Onion as well. We got in 600 films, all comedies and also the [entries for the] scriptwriting competition. We set a criteria for ourselves of what it had to be. One of the biggest things was the funny factor. And then it goes straight down [in] what you look for in a film: editing, story, acting, character, music, sound design, the whole deal. The three of us: me, Jeannie Roshar and Ryan Higman, the other two festival founders...we watched all 600 films. It was a grueling task sometimes but [with about] 1 in 10 you would find something where you're like "People have to see this!" So we had the parameters set for what we were looking for. But especially with our first year, number one was you gotta be really funny and something people want to see. We didn't want to water anything down and put anything we would consider iffy in. It had to make us laugh. That was it.You also have some great venues for both the screenings and the after parties.[Our screenings] are in Downtown LA at the Downtown Independent Theater. In the first two months, we realized how big the festival was going to be. We [already] had a theater in Hollywood...the Acme Comedy Theater...and we had to move. It just got too big. The Downtown Independent Theater contacted us. We went down there and looked at it. It is an amazing theater...totally refurbished. It used to be the Imaginasian Theater. It seats about 250, stadium seating with a couple luxury seats. We started looking around at the neighborhood and talked to several different venues. One is the J Lounge and that is where the Opening Night Party is going to be. It will be a Miracle Berry party. The Miracle Berry is a tiny little fruit you dissolve in your mouth for two minutes. And after that, for about an hour, everything bitter and sour tastes sweet. Literally if you eat a lemon, it is like you're tasting lemonade. It is amazing. So we're having this big party where they're sponsoring about 400 of their Miracle BerrIes which are usually about 4 bucks a pop. They are just giving them to us. On Friday night (March 6th) we are having a party at the VIP Luck Lounge at the Lucky Strike Bowling Alley which is also downtown at the new LA Live. [The VIP Area] is separated from the rest of the bowling alley with four private lanes. That is being sponsored by the Digital College Network. Saturday night is the Atomic Wedgie party and that will be held at the Garden In The Sky at the Kyoto Grand Hotel which is our sponsor hotel. It is amazing. You go up a couple floors in this hotel and there is this beautiful Japanese garden with a little river running through it. Just incredible. Closing night is back in Hollywood at Cinespace. Adam Corolla will be hosting that. We will be giving the Commie Award to Bobcat Goldthwait who has a new movie out...two movies actually...both played at Sundance [this year]. And a lot of great celebrities are coming. Mark Hamill, he's a buddy of mine...he's going to present an award. [From] the animated world, Aaron McGruder who created "The Boondocks" will be there. Amazing people coming out to show their support...especially in a first year situation.What was the biggest challenge of putting together a first year festival?The one lucky thing we had is that I worked in the industry. We were able to get my friends onboard who were more recognizable. We were able to get them immediately usually with a phone call. Even those who couldn't, they drew their support for it. Getting sponsors set up the first year was very tough until basically The Onion and "Funny Or Die" came on. Then everybody started coming on. That was a big challenge. Also we had been to several film festivals with my short film but to really understand that [film festival world], you really don't know exactly what you don't know. That was the hurdle. [I was really] watching other film festivals like the San Diego Independent Film Festival which I love...really watching them and seeing what they're doing as well as talking to other film festivals. We are also part of the International Film Festival Summit. WIth going there, the beautiful thing is that everybody is willing to help. And when the [other film festivals] heard what we were doing, because it is such a niche thing...they came to us saying, "We'd like to run your block of winners at our film festival." This festival is providing so many outlets for the filmmaker. I mean they can get meetings with Generate, BenderSpink, Atom, Atomic Wedgie, Funny Or Die. [As a winner, they will have] meetings at all of them. We're basically giving the filmmaker enough stuff to shoot their next short for free. They are literally getting free editing, free sound, free music, free camera and free crew. They can shoot their next film for free and get meetings with people who can truly 100% help them in the industry.That is cool. It sounds like you guys are actually giving a chance to up and comers.We also have a couple crazy panels. One is called "Famous People Talking About Shit". It has Sean Astin, Regina King, Laraine Newman (from the old SNL), Aisha Tyler and Mindy Sterling from the "Austin Powers" movies. Just some panels from people who are doing it in the industry, especially from the actor side. We have a writing panel called "Writing A Winning Comedy Script". I called Fax Bahr and Adam Smull who created "Mad TV". Those guys said immediately "Yeah...we'll help you". Then other people like Linwood Boomer who did "Malcolm In The Middle" told me: "I love doing panels". So many people working in the industry, who know what its all about, who can tell people how to skip a step to get to where they're going instead of kind of running and chasing your tail [are coming]. So many people are lending a hand.And you are giving the festival award: "The Commie" to comedian Bobcat Goldthwait. I remember about 15 years ago going to the premiere of his directorial effort "Shakes The Clown" at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival which was after his success in the "Police Academy" movies.I think alot of people don't realize...a lot of people know Bobcat Goldthwait's name. You might remember "Shakes The Clown" or seen him doing stand up and say "Yah...that's the guy with the weird voice and the crazy hair" which is all true but then there is this other side to him that is also part of him. He's a writer which a lot of people don't know. He's written for Jimmy Kimmel for years. He's in with the whole Adam Corolla line-up of comedians. He's been writing for years for other people. He is sort of the man behind-the-scenes writing for these guys who you consider really funny guys. He has definitely added so much to their careers that people don't even realize. He's got two movies [right now]. One is called "Home Movies" which he did with Tom Kenney, that's the guy who's done "Spongebob Squarepants". There's the one he's done which is the short and then the full length which also showed at Sundance [this year]. He's still writing, directing and still performing. To give him this award, we had to pull him off the road. He's still out every week still doing his stand up. He's never stopped. He's just moved from one thing to another. Backing other people with their careers as a writer and directing and yet he's still out there on the road performing. He has not stopped. [The man] is constantly there, producing new stuff and helping people out. Somebody has got to recognize it. When the two other founders saw his films up at Sundance, they were like, "Gary! You got to see this...it's hilarious!" We were kicking around names of who we wanted to get. The guys who are out in front all the time that everybody sees is easy to give an award to. Let's give it to somebody who is making other people funny [as well as] himself. People hadn't even thought about [that with him] for a little while. You got to recognize that. That's where it comes from.That kind of recognition and encouragement is many times what makes great material but it is also finding the new voices.There is one thing that was told to me. We were talking to the guys over from Mosaic who handle Will Ferrell and those guys. We said, "Will you guys take a meeting with the winners?" and like I said, [they were like] "Absolutely". People say they want meetings with the winners. But we want to give them the option to meet with people who aren't just the winners. People are coming there...these big production companies...these online companies. Brillstein Grey is also coming. These people are saying "We want to meet the new guy in comedy. What films do you have there? We want to meet these people". They are literally looking for the opportunity to meet the filmmakers that are coming. Nothing could be better than that. My film festival partner Jeannie Roshar said, "I wish we had this when we were starting out with our film" which is absolutely true. You've got a bunch of people sponsoring this thing whose sole purpose is to get in touch with filmmakers, writers and the comedy industry and help them with their career by helping themselves. [You] can't ask for better.
