After The Fact: The Story of Here’s A Fun Fact

With season one of Here’s A Fun Fact finished, I wanted to take a moment to post about the origin of the eight sketches that came to fruition. 

It was March 14th, 2019. My sketch group, Kids These Days, was debating going through with a sketch about a middle school celebration that ends with everyone throwing up on each other, which was brilliantly written by Maggie Maxwell. I was to play Custodian Calhoon, who everyone throws up on.  We had been hearing a lot about this “Novel Coronavirus” and wondered whether throwing up on each other was safe. The world decided for us on March 16th that the sketch was not safe. New York City shut down, and our show was canceled.

As the pandemic settled in, live performing was over, sitting around the table writing sketches was done, and thus goodbye to one of my favorite creative outlets. I racked my head for a solution. Months went by. One day on one of my classic pandemic walks with my wife. I turned to her with the epiphany of doing an animated project. She asked, “What project?” I said, “Maybe this show is about historical facts,” She asked, “Do you know an animator?” I said, “No.” She said, “great.” Thus began my journey to create a sketch show based on Fun Facts.  Like based on a true story but based on true facts. A new genre. 

First, I needed to assemble my animation team. Linkedin became such an essential tool for finding the right people. He may not even remember this, but through reaching out to Robert James Ashe, he recommended Dilara Karbas Mundy, whose artistic vision brought these sketches to life. Dilara brought on Chase Suddarth to do animation. If Dilara created the bodies, Chase gave them the limbs to move. 

Next came writers and performers. Like Captain America, I called out, “Writers/ Performers Assemble!” Not to compare me to Captain America, but I am a small kid whose dad is from Brooklyn with a first name that starts with an S. Oh, and I, too, hate Nazis, but I digress. I reached out to some of my most creative and talented friends and colleagues to help bring these stories to life, Nick Reichheld, Adrian Frimpong, Malorie Cunningham, Heath Harckham, Rachael Burke, Sebastian Dinatale, X Mayo, Cathy Trasborg, and my wife Zoe. Then came picking which sketches to start with. The first sketch was obvious to me. Kids These Days in the past had performed a sketch entitled “The First Whoopee Cushion,” which was a recreation of the first time a whoopee cushion was utilized. Based on a fact. The second sketch would be about a superhero whose only power is holding his breath underwater based on a fun animal fact, and the third was about two middle school girls throwing apples at a boy they like, based on a Greek Tradition. Cut from the docket was a sketch about a Military General warning his cadets of the dangers of Sandcastles. Did you know in the 90s, more people died from sandcastles than sharks?

The three sketches were set, and we went to work doing read-throughs, rewrites and recording audio from all over the country, which, thanks to Chris Sassano, was beautifully mixed in stellar fashion. I got the first set of work from Dilara and Chases and was blown away. I immediately added two more sketches to the docket. Five sketches quickly became six, seven, and then eight. I’m so proud of the work accomplished and amazed by all the work of the people on board.  I’m so excited to be continuing on to season 2 with returning and new talent, and I only hope we can continue to make more episodes. Thanks for reading the story behind Here’s A Fun Fact.

Here’s A Fun Fact Season 1 Sizzle Reel