On Tuesday, March 25, 2014, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), Tío Louie, the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA), and the New York Chapter of the United Latino Professionals of New York (ULP-NY) presented the March edition of the Prime Latino Media Salón. This particular edition took place at the tapas bistro bar Alquimia, located in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan just a few blocks away from Times Square. This month's theme was "Urban Latino Comedians in Webseries".
The evening started out, as is the Prime Latino Media Salón custom of a relaxed social atmosphere where one can easily network in the room among actors, filmmakers and other multimedia-makers. The program then started with the master of ceremonies, Louis Perego Moreno (more commonly known as Tío Louie) interviewed the team behind the webseries "Studio Heads"– Michael Díaz (also known as viral video sensation Juan Bago), Jaime Fernández and Anthony Palmini.
The trio, who also perform individually and together with the Room 28 sketch comedy troupe, spoke on how their webseries– described as a mix of a reality television series and "The Office"– began. They were working on several projects at this recording studio and decided to create a webseries about three performers who run and work at a recording studio (but have no idea what they are doing). Their characters (named Juan, Jaime and Ant, respectively) are exaggerations of who they really are. (They assured those in attendance that they are way more competent than their online personas.) Their first season of six episodes is complete and can be seen on Remezcla.
After another networking break, Tío Louie introduced the duo known as The Comedy Girls– Jesenia and Jenni Ruiza. They are the team behind the webseries "Becoming Ricardo" and the recent "Latino Stereotypes For Dummies (#StillNoLatinas)" viral video highlighting the lack of Latina representation in the cast and staff of the long-running NBC series "Saturday Night Live".The dynamic duo, who also do standup comedy and improvisation, spoke on the desire to create a webseries with the desire to get it to network one day. They have currently completed the first half of their first season (which also stars Sofía Rodríguez and Lisa Vélez-Mello) and are currently fundraising for the second half. Both of The Comedy Girls emphasized the importance of training when it comes to comedy and improvisation.
Also mentioned during the evening was "Henry - A Web Series", written and directed by Alain Alfaro and starring Fernández in the title role (and with Díaz guest starring in the first webisode) and "Latino Stereotypes For Dummies (#StillNoLatinas)", the "open letter" video to "Saturday Night Live" founder Lorne Michaels which has gone viral and received a lot of notice for The Comedy Girls.The evening ended with music and further networking and reconnecting with people. Special thanks to the owner and staff of Alquimia for all of their work ensuring a fantastic evening was enjoyed by all in attendance.
[Photos on this blog by Alphabeta Photography. To see more photos of this event, click here.]