It’s Bar Mitzvah time, kids. StolenDress.com is 13 years old today. This year, we celebrate a number of milestones. Our first viral video is 15, Comedy on Vinyl turns 5 and is now in the earbuds of a few million listeners at WLOR.net, Dan and Jay’s Comedy Hour will hit 100 episodes, Lords of Soaptown is coming to DVD, and we’re rolling out our most unconventional feature film, piece by piece, through November.
I’m very proud that so much has happened through this website, especially since it originally started as a place for me to put my writing and resume. I wanted it to be a gathering place for young filmmakers, but it ended up being a place where my collaborations could find an online home when they didn’t get sold to someone.
The thing I’m most thankful for, though, is that I’ve lucked into a group of writers, actors, directors and producers who have given of their time to help me get my dream projects done. When I say “given,” I really mean that. Our early projects, and a lot of them still, depend on collaborating for free to get stuff made. This includes guys like Ray Nowosielski, Ryan Penington and Damien Salimeno shooting Lords of Soaptown for free. This includes my actors, writers and directors, like Rachel Lynn, Scott Pettis, Chad Newman, Doug Wilkinson-Gray, Matt Saxe, TJ Cencula, Laura Napoli, Dan Gomiller, Allen Rueckert, Jeremy Guskin and a ton of other people who helped me struggle through figuring out the original Looking Forward for EIGHT YEARS. This includes everyone who has put together a podcast and then let me distribute their shows, like Ari Jarvis, Dan Gomiller, Mike Worden, Richard Stroffolino, Matt Saxe and Levi Weinhagen, all of whom have at one time or another put their shows under the StolenDress banner. It includes my wife, Jen, who edited my latest book, Post-Modem. Anyone who helped me shoot our first webseries, InformNation, or the short film CSI: LA, or the pilot pieces for Dan and Jay’s Community Service, or Conan O’Brien’s Romance-A-Tee, or Ho! Christmas Tree or The Million McFly March. My amazing improviser/actor/producers who are creating individual blogs for Looking Forward: 2016 are geniuses, in no small measure.
I have lucked into knowing a lot of brilliant people who I hope know that I love them and appreciate that they do such amazing hard work for me, often with less guidance than I should provide. Thank you to everyone who trusts me enough to give me their time and their immense talent.
And dammit, Chad Newman, why did you propose that I buy this URL for no reason other than a whim, and why did I stick with it?
– Jason Klamm
The trailer for Looking Forward: 2016, because it makes me happy:
