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The Circuit is MOJO HD’s very first online web show, joining roughly seventeen million other web shows that range from everything to tech shows, to cooking shows, to children shows, to full sitcoms, to full dramas, to bad shows, to shows about bad shows.

Aside from writing The Circuit, I — and by I, I mean Yuri Baranovsky, that writer dude — am also the co-creator and co-writer of another hit Internet show called, Break a Leg (www.breakaleg.tv — it’s funny, watch it, oh god yes, watch it!)

When we first made Break a Leg — roughly a year and a half ago — the hippest thing around was LonelyGirl and people were screaming that this was the future of media. This strange, interactive world, this independently-made, strangeness would replace shows like the West Wing and The Sopranos and would fill our entertainment world with, the analysts said, 3-5 minute episodes of people doing something stupid, funny, or a strange, surreal combination of both.

At the time, Break a Leg was one of the first longer-form, fully-written, Internet sitcoms — there’s still very few, but that arena has expanded (I heard Break a Leg is funny and well-crafted, by the way. You know how I know this? ‘Cause the Wall Street Journal said so! Oh, that’s right! Vanity, thy name is Me!)

Why am I telling you this? Because, after a year and a half (let’s call it two years, I’ve just recounted while writing this paragraph) of being in this business — and I use business loosely — I am here to lend advice to every new creator who has sat down with his friends and said — I’m going to become an Internet celebrity.

Here we go — Top Five Tips on Making An Internet Show a Hit.

1. Do something audacious. Eat a live rabbit. Catch a live rabbit. Do something to a live rabbit that people are horrified/amused/embarrassed by. Put it on YouTube and demand viewers to post rabbit-related video responses. Watch your niche, rabbit-loving audience expand into the mainstream.

2. Do something funny. Just remember, this is the Internet and the Internet audience is like the old Vietnam vet who has seen it all and really doesn’t care too much about anything. Plus, he’s anonymous and can throw racial epitaphs at you if he doesn’t like your video. One suggestion is to set someone on fire and then crack wise — this is internet video gold.

3. Do something short. See?

4. Do something adorable. Oh my god, is that a kitten falling asleep on top of a bear cub who is riding on a puppy that’s running through a field of daisies that are planted on a red balloon that’s being held by a tiny baby that is holding another, smaller kitten?! I love it — check this out family, friends, ex-lovers, ex-haters, ex-rabbits — it’s so cute.

5. Don’t listen to any tip but this one. Let’s be at least a little serious for a very quick moment. Take pride in your work. Be an artist. Create intelligent content. If it’s humor, use wit, use shock, use irony — sometimes use sex. Be funny. If it’s drama, be honest, strive for perfection, work hard — being on the Internet is not a free pass for poor quality. Get good actors. Get good writers. Get a good crew. Build your story, take yourself and your project seriously. If you have money, use it wisely, if you don’t, use everyone you’ve got to push the boundaries of what independent media is. Remember that this is art and always pushing forward, pushing on, getting better, growing, learning, pushing, fighting — this is the way to success. And, at the sake of being repetitive — the Internet is not a free pass for poor quality. Strive for perfection.

And if all that fails, put a kitten on a tiny bear cub that’s riding a puppy that’s running through a field of daisies that are planted on a red balloon that’d being held by a tiny baby that is holding another, smaller kitten and let fame finally flitter through your flowering finite alliterating life (it’s late and I ran out of F-words — but the effort was there.)

Hope you like this week’s episode!

-Yuri, who should probably not be writing at 2:26 AM as his blogs seem less like blogs and more like peyote-fueled adventures in language.

Podcast | RSS | Download

Visit our YouTube channel to see more clips and outtakes.

Podcast | RSS | Download

Visit our YouTube channel to see more clips and outtakes.

Podcast | RSS | Download

Visit our YouTube channel to see more clips and outtakes.

They live off a steady diet of Pop Rocks and Red Bull, which ensures speed and a vile hatred for their employers.
They are fast, mean and have a pension for revenge so careful what you say about the stories they dig up.
Just ask Yuri who had a gang of researchers track him down on the set of Break a Leg…not pretty. No, sir. Not pretty at all.

Aside from the monkeys, and our amazing writer-guys, we have Deepak: the best thing to happen to the web
since Al Gore invented it. (Seriously, he invented that shit, yo!)

Deepak is a true talent, amazing to watch and a pleasure to work with. What you don’t see are the countless hours of Deepak outtakes. We actually shoot for 8 hours straight to bring you an 8 minute show every week. The crew calls it torture - I call it method. And every week Deepak is up to the task. Whether it’s scripted or improv, interviewing a string theorist, a fictional pimp or stripping half naked to impersonate Sly Stallone…the guy is money. A-game every week.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, thanks, D-pizzle. Oh, and WATCH OUR DAMN SHOW!

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Some of you, while watching MOJO’s The Circuit, may think to yourselves — selves, how does this show get written? How does it get made? What is the process? How do these people work? What would Deepak look like if he was, say, an Asian woman?

Questions like these are why I’m here..

Hi. It’s me, Yuri, that writer guy, and I’m here to tell you about our process.

The first step to writing the script is the gathering of the news stories. We do this by sending out our crack team of hard-nosed reporters to go into often very dangerous places (one of our reporters had their ear bitten off by Brian Lam of Gizmodo not too long ago) just to get the kind of in-depth coverage you expect from The Circuit. Once the stories are gathered, I have Kai type them out and bathe me in them, so that I can really absorb the information. Absorption is an important process and it’s something that I recommend all writers do with whatever they’re writing about — especially if they’re writing about skin exfoliants.

Once I’m properly absorbed, we begin writing. Kai will write headlines, I will write headlines and sometimes, if we’re lucky, we manage to steal a few headlines from the Daily Show. We often do this word for word in hopes that Jon Stewart will personally come to the studio and bare-knuckle box Deepak. Once the headlines are written, the segments are laid out and Bad Links are badly linked, we send it over to the producers.

The Producers, Scott Broock, Emery Wells, Paul Iannacchino and Pat Carpenter, will then read the script and send back cryptic critiques. Often they will mysteriously say, “Who are you? Are you on the payroll?” or, “This is all garbage” and sometimes just, “Did you steal this from Jon Stewart?”

After chastising us, calling us horrible names and once, taking a small piece of Kai’s kidney, the Producers will give us actual script notes often following them up by telling us that they, “…need this in the next three minutes.” Luckily, we are professionals and manage to get them the changes within seconds.

The changes made, the script finalized, we do a reading. I live in San Francisco — the show shoots in New York, that means that most of the time, I am web-cammed into a swanky meeting room, pointed at Deepak and then forced to listen to him read the lines we wrote. Sometimes, I’ll yell angrily at him because he can’t see me and there’s a certain amount of protection that being inside a laptop offers. It’s not uncommon for Deepak to start with the headlines but end up in an Arnold impression — because he’s Deepak, and that’s how Deepak rolls. Once the reading is done, Deepak is forcibly dressed, made-up (Deepak actually IS an Asian woman before the make up, so the answer to the aforementioned question is this — he makes a gorgeous Asian woman) and sent to the studio to film his heart out.

Then the editors edit, the Producers approve, the episode goes up, you watch it, you read a very strange blog and voila — the week is over and we do it all again.

That said, I hope you enjoy this week’s show, it’s a fun one! Remember, if you like The Circuit, pass it on, tell your friends, tell your families, tell anyone who’ll listen and we will reward you. Oh yes we will.

Thanks for watching. And reading. If you have any questions for me or anyone else in the cast/crew — be sure to leave it here on the blog and we’ll answer it as soon as possible!

-Yuri, that writer guy who once saw Producer Paul Iannacchino eat an entire intern just because he wrote the wrong “there.”

This is Kai the show writer that isn’t named Yuri.

Comic-con was an absolute blast. The battle star panel was great and everything but it always strikes me as odd that they trot the actors out there to answer questions from die hard fans. The actors invariably end up saying “um… I don’t really know if they’re a cyclon, but its an honor work with everyone.” Also we should mention that Stan Lee was at that panel to officially announce he will be creating stories for Virgin’s new comics division.

Stan the man seemed pleased with the move and the ability to head hunt the best artists and writers for projects. He also asked the CEO of Virgin Comics (who introduced Mr. Lee) Sharad Devarajan for his very own Virgin private jet. Seems fair.

We got so much good stuff that we feel it behooves us to post a special Comic-Con wrap up video, so look for that in the near future.

As evidence that we really did talk to Orson Scott Card, I got a picture with him.
http://i32.tinypic.com/30k6ob5.jpg
We both have Goatees!

Here’s a picture of 5 of the 80 hot dog carts that lined up outside the Javitz convention center.
http://i32.tinypic.com/2q9dfer.jpg

I wanted to talk about the lightning experimentation story for a moment. The scientists were attempting to create plasma filaments to work as a lightning guide. While it appeared the clouds they hit experienced increased electrical activity (which was only slightly better than random chance) it will be a few years and a few more mega-joules of power in a laser before we’ll see a plasma filament strong enough to guide lightning to the ground, or military targets.

The idea of getting a laser to trigger a lightning strike was first conceived of in the 70’s but I guess Deepak can wait a little longer to get his hands on some sweet sweet heaven fire.

Anywho, stay tuned for EP4!

-xoxo
Kai