Here’s the 200th episode of the wonderful Old Jews Telling Jokes series, which has a new book coming out as well. Watch the video, then come inside for interesting info on how they’ve made so damn many of these things.
Distributed by Blip.tv (co-founder Dina Kaplan considers it a favorite), Old Jews owes its longevity, according to producer Eric Spiegelman, in part to its production style. Each season is shot in one day, with joke-tellers brought in by open casting calls to their mailing list and Facebook followers, as well as friends of Hoffman and Spiegelman’s fathers.They managed to film 160 episodes during the one-day Season 4 shoot, with 40 subjects telling on average four jokes each, which kept the costs down significantly. “We break even on each season,” Spiegelman said, “But we keep doing it because our audience keeps growing and our production costs stay around the same.”
NewTeeVee has the rundown on how they produce these:I’d say something in Yiddish to congratulate them on 200 episodes, but as a gentile, I’d feel like a fraud.
