NORMIES

Episode 1: "The Cat"

Last year, I set out to make a web series with a bunch of friends, and somehow life got in the way of us making the eight episodes we planned, but the project still brought me so much joy.

I love making things with friends, especially these friends.

People ask me all the time for advice on how to get started in this business, and I always give the same answer: go find some friends and make something. The hardest part isn’t the camera, lighting, sound, or any other technical aspect. The hard part is the process, showing up, getting stuck, problem-solving, getting unstuck, doing it again. And learning on the fly, in real time, while everyone’s staring at you like you’re supposed to know what you’re doing.

I know that feeling because I started the exact same way. I made a web series that basically kicked off my career, and it was the first time I’d written anything longer than a sketch for staged comedy show. I didn’t know script structure the way I know it now, I just knew what was funny, what was honest, and what I wanted to watch. Directing? Never directed anything. I faked it till I made it. Editing, producing, set design, casting, and promoting it. Every job was new, and every mistake taught me something. Making things was my film school. Still is.

We shot this with the intention of creating a place where a bunch of talented people could shine. Simple, funny episodes about regular people trying to do the right thing and somehow making it worse. The working title is NORMIES, which tells you everything you need to know.

We also shot one more episode, and I still want to put it out, but I kept pumpfaking on how I would release it. Maybe here, maybe somewhere else. But I woke up the other day and thought: what would happen if I stopped overthinking the release the same way I try to stop overthinking the making? What if I just put it out and let it be what it is?

Maybe posting this is the kick in the ass I need to finish the rest of eight-episode web series I set out to make over a year ago. Time to reopen the notebook, dust off those scribbled ideas, and start acting like a person who believes the work is the reward… not some mystical sweet spot that makes it go viral and allows us all to afford matching Jetskis.

NORMIES is a comedy about well-meaning, average adults who get pulled into other people’s dramas and immediately prove they are not built for it, turning small problems into social disasters and earning the worst label imaginable: Normies.

Anyway. Here’s NORMIES (Episode 1: “The Cat”)

Starring: Tim Curcio, Sally Pressman, and Trisha LaFache
Shot & Edited by: David Rogers
Special Thanks: Drew Fuller & Paul Swain