Jeremy Beiler, Paul Dorfman, Jared Gramstrup, Gabe Gronli, Anne Johnson, and Dieter Klipstein, save FrISC a seat as they open up about their lives and career.
The Free Love Forum is a space bursting with unforgettable characters that are quite often disturbingly familiar. They embrace topics ranging from history and politics to pop culture, and pondering the daily minutia of life. With the speed and agility of an infomercial host, the team aims to create pieces with a considerable amount of detail, unfolding like layers of an onion - all restrained in a trademark style they refer to as, “10,000 tons of ass-blasting subtlety”! The sketch team originally met in middle school, “[staying] in touch throughout college, making videos and occasionally doing shows over school breaks. And, for us, there was only ever the question of where and how we’d work with each other after college”. After narrowing down their options, the friends settled on New York, and their efforts have resulted in critical acclaim - as well as their TV pilots being made official selections of the New York Television Festival in 2006 and 2008. Additionally, their videos have been featured by YouTube, Funny or Die, and The New York Times.
FrISC: As the story goes, the origins of Free Love Forum date back to your time in middle school, when you were banned from doing announcements due to “questionable editorial commentary.” Do tell!
Free Love Forum: Some of us were AV club nerds in middle school. We produced a weekly morning show for the school’s closed circuit TV network, reading homeroom announcements with a few comedy bits thrown in. Without prior notice, the school replaced us with a very reasonable educational series on conflict resolution. The club felt ownership over the morning slot, and as soon as we had it back, we aired a video where we interviewed classmates and teachers and blatantly edited it so that everyone seemed inexplicably upset about the series that preempted ours. It was too hot for (closed-circuit Wisconsin middle school) TV and we were banned from the airwaves, turning us into the group of sexy rebels you see today.
FrISC: Next, you took your show to WYOU, a public access station in Madison, Wisconsin, where you were mentored by a local comic. Tell us about this benevolent comedian.
Free Love Forum: That was a rotund standup with a blond crew cut and leather jacket named Dave Gray. We first got to know Dave when he called in to our show, told some really funny jokes, and said too many nice things about what we were doing. He had built a name for himself in our town over the years, so his compliments carried weight, and our friendship grew from there. He graduated from the same high school 15 years earlier and had just come back to Madison after working in radio in a larger market for a few years. I think he felt a kinship. We were from the same area and had similar aspirations. He certainly gave us a leg up, getting us into Madison’s 21 & over comedy club as minors, introducing us to improv, and inviting us to do bits for his TV show on our local CBS affiliate. He fed our egos, and helped us to think we were doing something worthwhile.
Dave’s definitely one of the reasons we still work together, but he isn‘t around anymore due to his being deceased. Talking about a friend’s death is a little tricky for a comedy interview so please go ahead and consider this to be the poignant moment in the narrative where we overcome adversity. While we had always planned to keep in touch and work together after college, [Dave’s death] reminded us of the faith he had in us and inspired us to keep developing whatever it is that we have as group.
FrISC: What’s the craziest thing that’s happened during a taping or live performance of one of your shows?
Free Love Forum: While we were in high school we did a large-venue show called ‘Madison Comedy All Stars.’ The event had been publicized very strangely and, as a result, the majority of the audience ended up being a local motorcycle gang who got free tickets over the radio. They delayed the show from starting for about an hour, loudly revved their bikes outside, pulled a couch into the theater from the lobby, heckled the host relentlessly and brought their own kegs in. As a group of 17 year-olds this was more than slightly intimidating, but they ended up being quite pleasant and seemed to like our stuff.
FrISC: Do you have any advice for beginning sketch performers?
Free Love Forum: Sketch comedy can be a hit-or-miss format, so just have fun, keep your sketches short and when it comes to the ending, try to stick the landing like a confident gymnast.
FrISC: In your wildest dreams, if money were no object, where would you want to take Free Love Forum?
Free Love Forum: In our wildest dreams our jokes would cure racism and we would go around the world showing people the light. Although, I guess that means we would pretty much always be performing for racists - which actually sounds miserable. Scratch that.
I think we’d love to create the kind of absurd, semi-narrative sketchy TV series that seem to get made more often in England. We’ve also talked about how great a sketch/feature film hybrid can be if it’s done right. Mainly I think we’d love to just have the time and money to properly work on the weird little ideas that make us laugh.
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