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March 27, 2008
Inside With: Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld
We've interviewed a lot of folks here, but none as ace as Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, the CollegeHumor officemates responsible for the site's hit series Hardly Working as well as their creative outpost, which is immensely popular amongst the Tumblr community, JakeandAmir.com. If you don't know much about them yet, prepare yourself for a couple days of mindlessly clicking through their video archive. Their tight and quirky vids are packed with real laughs and the sketches are never 10 seconds longer than they need to be. Today, Jake and Amir face the toughest QQs of their lives, including questions such as, but not limited to: "Who are you people??" and "Do you really have an MTV deal?"
How did all of this happen? What are your backgrounds and how did you get started at Connected Ventures?
Amir: I started writing for CollegeHumor in 2003 when I was a sophomore at UC Berkeley -- sending them articles every couple weeks. As I was getting ready to graduate in June of 2005, CH had signed a book deal and used some of the money to hire me, so I moved to New York to work there as a full time writer right away.
Jake: I started writing articles for CollegeHumor in 2005, a year later I moved to New York and started as an intern. Eventually I started working all the time and getting paid. We moved offices last April and Amir and I got seated across from each other.
Do you actually still do actual work there? Or has work become writing and shooting Jake and Amir videos all day?
Jake: We do other work for CH, some people might not call it that, though. For instance, I am in charge of keeping up the Cute College Girl section.
Amir: My actual job is to help with the videos on the site. Finding popular internet videos, uploading them, captioning them etc. We also help come up the original videos that we shoot around the office that aren't "Jake and Amir based. The one's we call Hardly Working. We usually save the actual shooting/editing of Jake and Amirs for after work.
It's truly awesome how in recent years, CollegeHumor has birthed its own stable of talent. If the Internet's not buzzing about the CH founders, it's talking about you guys or the Prank War or Moberg or the latest video on CHTV. CH/CV is creating and defining our collective web experience as well as our culture in a number of different ways. Has that been the business plan all along? And are you all a part of The 250?
Amir: Wow, thanks. I don't think the business plan all along has been to hire people to get the internet buzzing. I think that's just a byproduct of 50 creative/talented/funny people who work together and encourage each other. Eventually somebody will create something or do something that a greater audience becomes interested in.
Jake: What's the 250 thing?
Amir: Don't worry about it...
Your guys' charisma together and comic timing is so genuine and perfect. Are all the vids scripted and rehearsed?
Jake: Most of them are mildly scripted. We usually try to write an outline and then follow that, but there is a lot of ad-libbing. If something ad libbed makes us crack up during a take, we start over and add it to the script. The result is lots of outtakes, but also lots of jokes.
Amir: In a sense we "rehearse" a lot because we're constantly slipping into these characters. I'll talk to Jake in character even when we're not filming, and he'll respond in character. I'll even call him on a weekend or something and start acting like "Amir." Or send him a text message that says something like "Thinking of you. lol." and he'll respond with something like... "Don't. And that's not funny." In a way I guess we're always "practicing." Maybe that's what makes it seem more genuine.
Jake: Don't tell them about the text messages.
Amir: Whatever. I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS WE'RE BEST FRIENDS!
Jake: Kay. We're not. Though.
Do you write all your own stuff? Or do you pick through Jake and Amir spec scripts in your down time?
Jake: Yeah we pretty much write our own stuff. Sometimes people from work give us ideas or certain jokes. I find myself having conversations with people then suddenly saying, "This is perfect for Jake and Amir."
Amir: People have pitched Jake and Amir script ideas to us though. On our Facebook page there's a whole thread dedicated to "Ace ideas," which are ideas people have for Jake and Amir videos. We've never taken a whole sketch, but we do use some of the jokes sometimes. Me calling Jake my BBF instead of BFF came from somebody's suggestions, and now that's a part of the Jake and Amir vernacular.
What's going on with you guys and MTV? Valleywag says something is going on.
Jake: It's not really a Jake and Amir thing. They may be interested in some type of CollegeHumor show, but who knows. As with most Valleywag rumors it's probably not as true as you think.
Amir: Although, if MTV IS listening, I have an idea for another Jackass show. It's like me, but I walk around shaving my friends heads, hitting them hard and stuff...
Jake: Stop.
Amir: I beat up my parents.
Jake: Next question.
Do people who leave bad comments serve a purpose in society?
Jake: They help us decide which Jake and Amir fans we hate.
Amir: Everybody is entitled to leave a bad comment on a video or article. I don't mind it on our videos because I don't expect everybody to love every one of our videos. However, when I see a new writer on CH publish his/her first article and some idiot from Community College University calls it terrible that pisses me off a little. It's hard for me to fight the urge to respond to that comment and tell him that they're only degrading that article or video because they aren't talented enough to create something themselves. But then I realize that responding to them will actually give them more satisfaction than simply ignoring them so I leave them alone. Society will dish out their revenge eventually!
How often do you get recognized in public?
Amir: Once or twice a week. Usually from CollegeHumor stuff (Hardly Working/ Prank War) more than Jake and Amir... but it's exciting nonetheless!
Jake: It's slowly starting to happen more often, I'm always ecstatic when a stranger says they know me from Jake and Amir. Probably more excited than they are to see me. No one has yet recognized us when we were out in public together though, so I'm really excited for that day.
How was the last Tumblr Meet Up party? We tried to go but the line was really long when we got there and they stopped letting people in.
Jake: It was really fun. I lost pretty badly in pool, I met some nice people. It was really cool meet David Karp and Marco Arment too. I love Tumblr and it was cool to be around a bunch of other people who feel the same way.
Amir: Does that count in the "How often do you get recognized question?" Because if so, I want to change my answer to 2-3 times a week!
Do you have any fun secrets to share about the other or about the videos?
Jake: People might be surprised to know that Amir's disgusting eating habits are loosely based on my own. In reality, I love McDonald's far more than Amir does.
Amir: And some of the stupid stuff my character says is also based on actual stuff Jake has said. Like calling a friend "Comprende" instead of "Compadre."
Jake: All right, we don't need to go into any more detail...
Posted by The Apiary at March 27, 2008 4:25 PM
Comments
great interview.
Posted by: Eric at March 27, 2008 7:07 PM
Thanks, this was awesome!
Posted by: :) at March 28, 2008 2:29 AM