Keep your eye on The Show

A comedy program changes the face of public access TV

By DANIEL OKAMURA
South Coast Beacon

You could think of The Show as a class project gone horribly wrong. The story even begins like a bad joke: “So a bunch of students were taking a video production class at SBCC ...” But that’s actually how it happened when Hank Romero, Jesse Steele and several others decided to produce a comedy show for Channel 17. They were touring the Santa Barbara Channels Media Access Center (CMAC) at the time.

Steele had previously produced Get Real with Jesse Steele for the public access station in his hometown of Big Pine and asked Romero if he wanted to start something similar.

“It was pretty much him and his friends talking about movies and things ... sitting around a table,” Romero said.

“I told him if I had time to do it, I’d want it to be fast-paced. I don’t want people to be bored.”

The Show puts comedy on a channel with little entertainment programming, spoofing everything from Lord of the Rings to another Channel 17 show, What’s Right With America. “What’s Left In America” was the first sketch ever on The Show.

“It really railed into (Charles Kirkby),” Romero said.

“I showed it to him and he thought it was funny — he put it on his show. He got the joke.”

There’s even a localized version of “Jaywalking” from The Tonight Show, only “Brain Cells” involves drunk people on State Street.

Oscar Gutierrez is another co-collaborator on The Show. His work at Life Chronicles, a nonprofit organization that films people’s stories before they are unable to tell them any longer, gave him a background in video production and he enjoys doing the off-camera work better.

“It’s a lot harder than you think. Even though it’s public access, you can tell when people” don’t give it their all, he said.

“You kind of appreciate ... how much effort everyone has to put in just to make a 30-minute show.”

And even though it’s public access, they’re trying to pattern The Show after things that the cast would actually watch, Romero said, citing The Dave Chappelle Show and The Daily Show.

Just think of it this way, too: they’re actually making television, instead of just talking about being on it.

The second season of The Show begins at 11 p.m. Thursdays, and again at 1 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays on Cox Channel 17. For more information, visit www.theshowsb.com.