Kabloomerz!: Brad Neely Showcase & Interview

This promises to be an amazing sort of comedy you can’t find anywhere else on the big screen. Strange? Yes. Strong Language, certainly—don’t be fooled by the cartoons, this is not one for the kiddies. But this kind of unique humor doesn’t come along very often and Neely is a storyteller at heart. His stuff could be the storyboards for a motion picture, albeit a kind of bizarre motion picture about Role-Playing Games, Swampsquatch, and making a two-person Voltron with a pretty lady.

Words can’t really describe what this is. As Neely himself says, “When someone asks me, ‘what’s it like?’ usually I just tell them to watch it. They’re like two minutes long, it would take me longer to explain it.” But then he does try, a little: “It’s kind of like having a comic book read to you one panel at a time.”

Have we made it clear enough? Are you intrigued yet? It’s strange, it’s funny, it’s crude, and the guy himself will be there. Make a point to check it out. Tonight's show is already sold out, but there'll be two more screenings next week, and you can get tickets here.

We sat down with Brad to get his take on Austin, Chevy Chase, and why it’s always good to read the fine print. (Warning: Strong Language Ahead)

How did the “Washington” thing happen?
It was a fluke like most things in my life. Kind of a total accident endeavor that I decided to do on a whim. I had been doing regular kind of drawing kind of comics for a while that had gotten quite a bit of attention. And a person who had seen those came to me and wanted to know if I wanted to do an animated thing, which I never, ever wanted to do, and he wanted me to do it so he could develop a ringtone or something, or sell it to somebody…it sounded horrible, a horrible idea. But there was the possibility to make a little cash, and at the time the only kind of cash I was around was the stuff I was putting in and out of the register.

I did the Washington thing thinking, “I will probably never do this again,” but the time was right, and my dad had just bought me a new computer that I was getting acquainted with, and I realized the capability was there, I could do it cheaply and by myself, and that was the main thing. I didn’t plan on wanting to, didn’t have any designs to do anything else, but the popularity of Washington made it seem like an option that I couldn’t refuse.

I had a few friends who were connected with underground film festivals and the like, but finally I put it up on Youtube and, KABLOOMERZ.

Have you always been a George Washington fan?
I don’t think any American can escape that. I mean, all of us think that he was a dude that was made out of marble and pissed a solid block of gold every time he went to the bathroom.

I love all the weird shit people talk about him, like people talk about he and Martha Washington burning all of his papers, burning anything personal because they knew that it would help build the mythos, help the country out. I heard that. But when I did the George Washington, it didn’t come out of, you know, “OK, I’m going to satirize America’s need to glorify our forefathers as the characters of the Illiad." But I had recently heard, and it supposedly is true, that Washington set the long jump record in America. I’m serious. Supposedly he set the fucking long jump record. And it’s terrible for me, it’s like reverse racism, but I’m always thinking about his slaves just standing by watching him do it, just going, “come on.” Terrible I know.

When I made [George Washington], I was thinking about the early formation of the country. I think there’s a lot of great stuff to be pulled out of American history. It’s impossible to get a pure history. I’m serious. It’s an extreme version, but I think the best way to get to the truth is to tell a really obvious lie about it.

Set to music.

Well yeah, make it fun, too.

Is it true that you sold “Washington” by accident? Yeah definitely. It’s pretty weird that people have really gotten behind talking about that story, which is great. There’s a type of film festival, I don’t even know why they call it a festival. At the time I was just sending discs of Washington to every festival that I knew of, I was getting emails and calls from film festivals, asking to show it, and I was sending it out no problem, and a lot of the time there’s no paperwork. I’d never worked in the entertainment industry, and never dealt with contracts. And this one film festival sent a contract, and I was like, “OK, that’s for $250, so obviously they’re going to pay me to be able to use it on their dvd or something, I didn’t know how to read a contract. I went ahead and signed it and sent it in, but continued to look at it and wonder about it. And then when I figured out what it was really saying and wanted to confirm my suspicions, they wouldn’t return my calls, even though I hadn’t cashed their check or anything.

So yeah, it’s not mine. The characters, the song, everything. They police it pretty heavily on youtube. I pretty much write it off. I like Washington and am proud of it, but I’m not going to cry over spilt milk. I’m kind of an idea kind of guy, a volume kind of guy, and I like moving on the future ideas, whatever’s next. So that’s how that ended: they’ve got a dead property that there’s no way they can develop. Good for them. I ate a sandwich with their money.

I think it’s a great thing for people to know that, everybody’s very afraid of the big guys, the big corporations, “oh they’ll get you, they’re ruining the world,” and maybe there’s some truth to that, but the little guys will fuck you real fast.

It was my fault, I was ignorant, I did something stupid. I take responsibility for it. But I think that it takes a pretty shitty person to take advantage of a person like that. I mean, $250, I offered them thousands of dollars to buy it back.

Did you grow up thinking you were going to be an artist?
When I was young, I would tell people that I wanted to be either a stand up comedian or a cartoonist. So now I think it’s kind of funny that the way I’m making my money is kind of a synthesis of two things. But you know, you go through phases growing up, it’s like “oh now I’m in a band, now I’m an actor, that’s what I’m going to do,” but all the while, I was really quite passionate about what all those meant and not very driven about the fame aspect of it, which I think is a common thing to see. I really was interested in all those pursuits because I felt like I could use those forms.

Would you call yourself a comic book artist?
I wouldn’t call myself anything. I think that this enterprise is more akin to comic books than it is animation, but it’s far from my single pursuit, and therefore, I would never attach myself to the profession.

What are your other pursuits?
Everything, too many things. Books, and features, and tv, all forms of storytelling. I’ve been working on a civil war novel for years. I was working on that this morning. The most likely thing will be tv. I’m developing a couple of kinds of shows right now. That’s the real move. But all the while I’m plugging away at this book to try to get it finished too. I get really bored of different formats sometimes, or I find solace in being able to escape from thinking about storytelling in a tv format by working in a book kind of zone. I like to work on a few things at once. It makes me feel better. I don’t want to develop one way of thinking about the world, or talking about the world, I like to try to keep it a little bit of all things.

How has it been here?
I’ve had a lot of great support out of Austin, even when I was making my own Xeroxed copies of cartoons, taking them around, selling them at comic book stores or music places. It was great that I chose this city to live, but it kind of reciprocated the favor.

How would you describe your stuff as a whole? Is there a theme, or are you just trying to be funny? That’s a good one. I like that. Because I have urges to answer both ways. Of course, the aim is always to be funny. I think it’s important to remember that you can makes things funny, but they still have to feel necessary. When you watch it, the things that are said are funny, but I don’t think that funny or important are mutually exclusive. I’m not going out on a limb and saying I’m making important things. That’s terrible. But I’m definitely trying to talk about real things in our world as Americans. American History, regular people trying to think about what it is to be alive.

Like, Baby Cakes is, due to his circumstance, which is kind of undefined, but he seems like he doesn’t have to worry about a job, that he has money, he’s just kind of floating around, drinking beer, having a good time, but idle leisure devil’s plaything kind of thing, maybe he’s thinking about what it is to be a human a lot of the time, and partially wishing for superhuman aspects. But I don’t think that’s alien to the way most people think.

What makes him relatable?
I would hate to put words into fan’s mouths. I’m not sure why every individual finds him relatable. I’m glad they do. But for me, I feel like he’s confused, he gets upset, he’s a little dumber than he realizes, or maybe he does realize but doesn’t care. He’s ignorant to a lot of history and context, has no sense of metaphor. Why that is relatable to me is because he’s still hopeful about his situation and living, he’s still finding delight in being alive. And that’s important. That’s fun, to see someone with maybe not the greatest tools in the world still trying to build something.

Do you get approached by fans?
Only on the internet. Nobody knows who I am. I get a lot of email.
Are they crazy?
No. No. Well, sometimes. But most of the time, they just want to tell me that they like what I do and are appreciative, and that’s the reason to do things. But sometimes they want to tell me, you know, “I think you’re slipping, Neely.” The anonymity of comment boxes brings out a weird voice in some people.

Will it be very different watching these shorts on the big screen instead of watching it at home?
That’s something that I’m concerned about, but I think it will be okay because the Alamo people have told me otherwise and they were not aware of my fear. I always make these things with my audience in mind, and the format dictates the content. When I imagine something for the internet, it’s for one person watching it by themselves, so it moves fast. If they laugh, they’re usually laughing internally and not overlapping a joke, or something, and if so, they can watch it again. So I was concerned, like, wow, how are these things going to play that I made for a 4x3 box and for one person specifically, how is that going to play for a room full of people on a huge screen. I was afraid. But they told me that they had fears too, but that once they started putting it together, it plays really well, and makes a surprising amount of sense as a whole, and so I’m excited about that aspect.

What’s the deal with Chevy Chase? I saw three or four references in your stuff.
I don’t know. I’ve been badgering people who might know him. I don’t want to just meet him, I want to work with him. I have this plan that if I keep talking about him, maybe he’ll…I’m absolutely certain that I’m not a blip on Chevy Chase’s radar, but…
If he googles himself, and you keep talking about it…
That’s what I’m working on. That’s what I’m working on. I just think he has the greatest voice, and I love a lot of those movies with him. And I know he has a family now, he’s got a lot of shit going on now, but I just think that Chevy Chase needs to get back on the horse. He doesn’t need anybody’s help. I’d just like to provide him a new horse.

What’s next for you?
I’m still trying to figure out what to do with all these characters and stuff, but I kind of feel like it’s time to move on to something else, and entirely different kind of project. I love Baby Cakes and Professor Brothers, and I really like that format too. I just started feeling like I understood where I was fucking up, and ok that works, and that kind of timing is good, and…I don’t know. It still is a weird-ass format and I do it all myself and it takes forever.

We only have a few seconds of tape left. Any other quotes you want to give me?

I really think that a good quote is, “a pure history is impossible.”

You still have a few seconds.

I’m going to spend it re-affirming that. And Chevy Chase!