Funny Business: Talking with Steve Gadlin
1/12/12, TribLocal, by Teme Ring
Pssst. C’mere. Want some insider tips? Fill your mouth with water (coffee works if you’re reading this over breakfast) and hold it until the end of this interview. This training will give you an advantage over the competition when “Don’t Spit the Water” returns to the Wilmette Theatre on Thursday, January 19th.
Tip two: buy your cat drawings now! On January 27th, demand may grow faster than a kitten when Steve Gadlin, creator and host of “Don’t Spit the Water,” appears on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” where a panel of millionaires awards sizable investments to deserving entrepreneurs. Gadlin will pitch www.iwanttodrawacatforyou.com where he “draws the cat that your describe.” The business has already been a Groupon sensation. Unfortunately, there’s no “insider tip three” because Gadlin wouldn’t tell us who won the purrrse on his episode of “Shark Tank.”
But you don’t have to wait until the 27th to see one of Chicago’s most innovative comedy impresarios. Next Thursday, Gadlin brings Chicago’s craziest live game show back to Wilmette. Contestants fill their cheeks with water as comedians engage in outrageous shtick to make them laugh, spit the water and lose. Gadlin achieved a long-held dream this past September when the “Don’t Spit the Water” television pilot aired on WCIU.
Gadlin is also the creator of “Impress These Apes”, a comedian talent competition, “The Nairobi Project”, a play returning for its three-quel this spring penned as always by a Kenyan e-mail spammer, and most recently, for two new ventures, “I Want to Write a Song for You” and “Two Film T-Shirts.” (“The only shirt that lets you show your appreciation for two films, not just one!”)
When it comes to show business, some are better at the “show”, some better at the “business”. TribLocal spoke with Gadlin to learn what it takes to succeed at both.
Q: What was it like to film “Don’t Spit the Water” for television?
A: It was a blast. It had been so long in the making for so many people.
Q: Did it feel like a dream come true?
A: Not so much as we were taping because it was a really long and slow day, but definitely when it aired a couple of months later. It was very surreal to watch.
Q: Will it be back on the air?
A: I hope so. We’ve talked about doing more and I’ve put together some budgets to show what that would cost. Right now, it’s not on the top of anybody’s to-do list. But I’m giving it a little time before I get too pushy about it.
What always happens with me is I’ll let something sit, then something will trigger in me and I’ll get really persistent and try to make something happen. It’s definitely an experience I want to repeat, so hopefully in 2012 we’ll start talking about doing more.
Q: What sort of challenges should contestants expect when “Don’t Spit the Water” returns to Wilmette?
A: We’re bringing in new comics and people who were a part of the show a long time ago and prepping for the possibility that we might get to do a bunch more of these. So there will be some interesting comics to go up against.
Q: How can audience members improve the odds of becoming a contestant?
A: We walk around before the show and sign people up. Some people take coaxing to put their name on the list and those are people we generally won’t bring on stage, but we fast-track the people who seem really enthusiastic. We want people who want to be up there and who look like they’re having fun.
Q: What’s the craziest thing a comedian has done to defeat a contestant?
A: When Ken Barnard did the show, I would always tell the contestants, “you have a safe word and that’s spitting the water” because I was scared of what he would do to get them to spit the water. He’d climb all over people. I would get really nervous any time I’d call him up because I was afraid of a lawsuit.
Q: How did you think of “Two Film T-Shirts”?
A: I thought it was a really dumb idea and those are the ones I like to follow through on. I decided the timing was right to put it together, so I talked to [filmmaker] Steve Delahoyde and he agreed to help out with the commercial. Everything kind of clicked.
It was an interesting experience because I had to learn about drop shipment and how to work with t-shirt providers. It hasn’t been very successful at all, but that’s been kind of the fun of it, too.
Q: A lot of people have ideas and dreams, but don’t take them any further. What advice do you have for figuring out those next steps?
A: Years ago, I was frustrated that I had all these ideas and never did anything about it. Not just me, but the people around me. The improv community was all about thinking up stuff, but your shows were always show-up-ten-minutes-before-and-make-stuff-up-onstage as you go along.
So I started with this project called “Silly Faces” thinking, if I’m going to think of something dumb, I’m just going to have to follow through with it and learn what I’m doing. I’ve had a lot more things flop than work. But it’s been fun and eventually, you look back and you’ve done all these crazy things and that’s kind of cool.
I’d say just get yourself underwater on it. Make it so you have to do something. If it’s a good idea, things will click into place. And also, for me, it’s been really easy because I’ve worked with a lot of great people who have skills that I don’t have.
Q: So you have to figure out who your team could be.
A: Yes. And you make your network as you do your stuff and find like-minded people. That’s the first step in making any of these things work.
Q: Which movies are on your “Two Film T-Shirt”?
A: Mine is “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” and “The Big Lebowski.” If it were a three film t-shirt, I’d probably throw “Waiting For Guffman” on there, but no one’s invented that yet.
Q: Has anyone ordered an unexpected combination like, “The Little Mermaid” and “The Exorcist”?
A: Yeah, that’s been kind of the game of it, too, people coming up with weird combos. Here’s one: “Troll 2” and “Showgirls”.
Q: When did you tape “Shark Tank”?
A: Two days after the “Don’t Spit the Water” pilot aired, I flew out to L.A. for a week. It was a whirlwind week because the pilot aired, we were working on “Apes” at the time, too, and then two days later, I’m out there.
Q: Wow. Do you ever take any down time or vacation?
A: Actually, that was my down time. I got out there and I didn’t have a wife and kids to worry about, so it was more vacation than work. I don’t know if I’ll ever have an experience like that again where somebody’s taking care of my food and housing and I don’t have to take care of anyone or put anyone to bed.
Q: I read that out of nine thousand applicants, only one hundred were chosen for the show. What is the secret to making it through?
A: I’m not sure. I’d sent them literally a two-sentence e-mail saying, “Hey, I draw these stick figure cats. Let me at ‘em.” I didn’t expect any response to it, but about a week later, they called me right before I was about to go on for an “Apes” show. They had me make a video and send it to them. I threw that together pretty quickly and then it was a month or two until I heard anything else. My assumption was, okay, this isn’t going to happen.
Then suddenly, these two producers were on the phone with me twice a week working through what the pitch was going to be. They kept telling me every step of the way, “Look, you could never hear from us again”. Then a week before the shoot, they sent me plane tickets. Then you get there and they tell you, “By the way, you might not even get to tape”. And then you tape and they tell you, “By the way, you might not ever get to air”. And then a couple of Fridays ago, they called me and said, “You have an air date and here it is”.
Q: What were your impressions of the “Shark” panel?
A: While you’re backstage you see them coming in. You’re waiting to do hair and make-up and they’re kind of walking around, so you try to avoid eye contact. But they were very friendly. I didn’t have much interaction with them other than the pitching. Then it gets combative, but that’s their job. They had me singing and dancing. It was crazy. I walked out of it thinking they were pretty cool and nice.
Q: What are the contestants doing right before they go on – are you talking with each other?
A: No, it’s very closed. You meet a few of them in the hotel, but they keep everybody separate and warn you not to talk about much. When you’re waiting to go on you’re in this tiny room that’s very dark and cold. You know other people are giving their pitches that day, but you can’t see them. Then as soon as you’re done, they hustle you out of there into this second hotel so that you’re not talking to people who haven’t gone yet. There’s really no interaction other than casual hellos between the contestants.
Q: What are you doing to prepare for after the show airs?
A: I’ve got extra server space ready to handle the traffic if it comes and I’m taking the week off from work after it airs. If it’s vacation, that’s great, but I’m taking it just in case I’ve got a thousand cats to draw. In all likelihood, it will fizzle pretty quickly and maybe I’ll see a handful of new orders. But I also have read stories of people who have two thousand orders of their product while their episode is airing. So I have to brace myself for that possibility. But I don’t want to seem too foolish about it and assume that’s going to happen.
Q: Any time management tips for juggling so many projects? Do you ever procrastinate?
A: Oh, yeah.
Q: How do you do so much?
A: I think there’s more time in a day than people realize and a lot of things that seem daunting, especially in terms of these projects I do, don’t take as long as they might seem. I’ve been practicing a lot of this stuff for a long time. So to turn around a web site to sell some ridiculous product isn’t like a month-long project. I can sit down and in six hours on a Saturday have something up and running. So it’s just kind of go with your strengths and stuff won’t take too long. And again, don’t do things by yourself.
Like for “Two Film T-Shirts”, I did a lot of the set-up and writing ahead of time and then when it came down to shooting and editing the commercial, that’s pretty much someone else doing all of that. The more projects I take on, the easier it gets to execute them. It’s pretty much a matter of practice.
Q: What can we expect next?
A: A whole bunch of crazy things. Once this thing airs at the end of January, there will be very little coming out from Blewt! [Gadlin’s production company] for a while as I deal with the aftermath or lack of it. Then we’ve got “The Nairobi Project” again and we’ve got “Apes” again. There are another couple of web sites coming out, too, with some goofy things. Or maybe there aren’t. There are little projects I’m trying that may or may not go anywhere.
So hopefully, in 2012 we get to revisit “Don’t Spit” and getting it on TV. Or again, we might not. We might not have any success there, either. I think 2012 will be about trying to close the deal on a lot of this stuff and doing some cool things. But we’ll see. I’m as curious as you are.
“Don’t Spit The Water” returns to Wilmette at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 19th at the Wilmette Theatre,1122 Central Ave. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. For more information or for tickets, call 847-251-7424 or go to http://www.wilmettetheatre.com/events/.
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