brendan hunt Tag

GREG SHAPIRO RARE VIDEO

GREG SHAPIRO RARE VIDEO

29 June, 2023

GREG SHAPIRO RARE VIDEO

In 2001, I starred in a short film about a serial killer / hamburger entrepreneur: THE AMERICAN BICKMAN BURGER. Fellow Boom Chicago performer Brendan Hunt co-starred in the film, and his devil makeup and prosthetic horns are legend! I mean they are worthy of Tim Curry in the film Legend. (Whereas my old-age makeup makes me look like Tim Curry’s butt.)
Nowadays you may know Brendan Hunt as Coach Beard from the Emmy Award winning TV series Ted Lasso. Here you can see some of the same dance moves Brendan now uses on AppleTV.

The writer / director of The American Bickman burger was Michael John Fedun, from Dutch Netwerk6 Productions. And who portrayed one of the dead bodies in the meat locker? It was future Dutch film director Tim Oliehoek. [Note: back in 2000, my professional name was Greg Shore. I’m still working to update all those old credits.]

 

Plot summary:

The life story of an American legend, Bickman Pike. Bickman kills his parents, grows into a serial killer, and turns the dead bodies into hamburgers. Not to be outdone, Bickman’s son reveals that he is Satan and unleashes his evil creation on the world: disco music.

Here is a link to the 4-minute acting demo:

And here is a link to the entire short film, thanks to casting director and featured player Chip Bray of International Native Casting:

From the Netherlands Film Commission:

“In eighteen minutes, the fictional documentary The American Bickman Burger by Michael John Fedun makes mincemeat of the ideal of ‘The American Dream’. In ineluctable images, the film tells the success story of Bickman Pike, who sets up a fast-growing chain of hamburger restaurants in the 1950s.”

From IMDB:

“In a world where killing is legal and traffic violations are punishable by life in prison. A serial killer named Bickman Pike frantically chases after his life long dream to marry and have children. Along the way he creates the worlds largest fast food chain. Its success made possible by Bickman’s victims being ground up into addictive hamburger patties. The world stands in awe of the Bickman phenomenon while reporter Walter Fufckin and his cameraman Barney Wright struggle to bring the world a proper representation of the facts. Bickman finally marries a Las Vegas dancer named Mimi Marigold, almost immediately their son Peter Pike is unleashed upon the world. Like his father before him, Peter attempts to make his own dream a reality. Not even the hand of God is able to put a stop to Peter Pike’s agonizing master plan.”

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275914/?ref_=ttpl_ov

GREG SHAPIRO RARE VIDEO

For more Greg Shapiro as Actor / Voiceover, click here:
https://gregshapiro.nl/greg-shapiro-actor-voiceover/

COMEDY CENTRAL NEWS, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

COMEDY CENTRAL NEWS, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

27 Sept., 2022

HBD, CCN! It was 15 years ago that Boom Chicago comedy theater launched Comedy Central News, with your host: Greg Shapiro. “Comedy Central News: Because Dutch News Is News Too.”

 

In 2007, Viacom’s Comedy Central launched its first channel in the Netherlands. The Dutch producers wanted to create a new TV show for the occasion – a mix of The Daily Show and a comedy sketch show. And they liked me when I was presenting the ‘Boom Chicago News’ for a TV pilot we’d made. So Boom Chicago got the call to create a show, and we came in with a concept that was basically “What if The Muppet Show had a Weekend Update?” 

 

CCN COMEDY CENTRAL NEWS SEASON ONE, EP 23 

CCN AND EMMY AWARD WINNER BRENDAN HUNT 

It was quirky, it was daily, and it featured my Boom Chicago colleague Lauren Flans doing remote segments about Dutch culture. Lauren would go on to appear on MTV’s Wild ‘N Out and Epic Rap Battles of History.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1508641/

Our executive producer – and 2008 head writer – was Pep Rosenfeld, who had actually written for ‘Weekend Update’ on Saturday Night Live and been nominated for an Emmy.
https://boomchicago.nl/pep-rosenfeld/

And the 2007 Head Writer was Brendan Hunt, who is now known as co-creator of the Emmy-winning series TED LASSO. (You might know him as TED LASSO’s ‘Coach Beard.’)
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0402360/

 


(Here is Brendan Hunt with some of his early beard work.)

 

A DUTCH NEWS SHOW IN ENGLISH

It remains amazing to me that we were able to make a TV show – for the Netherlands – in English. At that point, Dutch commercial television was experimenting with more and more English (Dutch publicly funded TV shows not so much). A few years before CCN, there was a brief moment when Boom Chicago was being pitched to create a Dutch version of Whose Line Is It Anyway – for a Dutch public broadcaster. But our Dutch language skills were niet zo goed. That pitch went on to become the smash hit De Lama’s, starring Ruben van der Meer – who started his career working in the Boom Chicago kitchen. The host of De Lama’s was Patrick Lodiers.

Side note: Patrick Lodiers went on to host a 2007 late night comedy news show called De Nieuwste Show – premiering the exact same month as our show, CCN. You know that story about the Burger King opening up right next to the McDonalds, and miraculously both businesses saw improved success? Yeah, that did not happen in our case. But interestingly, one of the commentators on De Nieuwste Show was a young Arjen Lubach. And we would go on to collaborate for some quality TV content – about 10 years later. 

https://mashable.com/video/netherlands-trump-viral-video

 

CCN COMEDY CENTRAL NEWS PROMO SPOT

 

CCN COMEDY CENTRAL NEWS – IN GREG SHAPIRO ARCHIVE 

https://gregshapiro.nl/portfolio_page/greg-shapiro-comedy-central-news/

MEDIA LINKS CCN COMEDY CENTRAL NEWS

https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/comedygezelschap-boom-chicago-ook-op-tv-te-zien~b65dd6c7/

https://www.parool.nl/nieuws/boom-chicago-ook-op-tv~bebc3628/

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_Central_News 

BOOM CHICAGO CCN CREW
Producer: Andrew Moskos
Segment Producer: Christy Ju
Exec Producer / Head Writer: Pep Rosenfeld
Directors: Matt Chapman, Becky Nelson
Presenter / Writer: Greg Shapiro
Presenter / Writer: Lauren Flans
Writer / Super Catty Celebrity Bitch: Michael Diederich
Head Writer / Ensemble S1: Brendan Hunt
Writers & Ensemble:
Lolu Ajayi
Rob AndristPlourde
Hilary Bauman
Jen Burton
Hans Holsen
Brian Jack
Mike OT
Jeffrey Spalburg
Andel Sudik

Dutch Producers:
Maurice Hols
Kaja Wolffers
Geert-Martin van der Jagt

18 Sept., 2008