It’s almost as if he is observing us from a distant planet. This creator is able to capture human kind’s true nature AND make the earthlings laugh about the very quirks that make them anthropomorphic. Who is this puppet master that has immersed himself in the online comedy genre? He is DAVE URLAKIS. Citizens of Chicago already recognize him as a member of ComedySportz who has also been a part of the critically-acclaimed sketch duo Urlakis & Cusick and an iO improvisor. His sketch group, Awkward Spaceship, has garnered millions of views on YouTube, Funny or Die, and many other video networks with its viral creations. Urlakis has written two web series to date, the Windy City Teeth comedy, Dentally Challenged, and Day Drinking, his latest venture that delves into the lives of some peculiar third shift workers. Get a taste of the series while you get awkward with Dave. You’ll be happy you did.
COMEDY CAKE: How did you get your start in comedy?
DAVE URLAKIS: As a kid, I did impressions of celebrities. Or rather I did impressions of other people’s impressions of celebrities, so, like, I did my impression of Dana Carvey‘s impression of George Bush Sr. or whatever. I just did them at home or for friends, but in junior high I saw a friend of mine in a production of Oliver, and suddenly I realized that performing in front of people was a thing you could, you know, actually do.
So, I got involved with a children’s theatre, which lead to a theatre degree, which lead to professional theatre, and improvisation, and sketch comedy, and eventually on-camera work.
CAKE: What comedic works are you most influenced by?
DAVE: If I’m honest, probably 90s-era Saturday Night Live, Looney Tunes cartoons, Kids in the Hall, Pulp Fiction, Office Space, Clerks, and Annie Hall. Only a couple of those are embarrassing.
CAKE: Who are some of your favorite comedians?
DAVE: Off the top of my head, Louis CK, Sarah Silverman, Dan Harmon, Tina Fey, Aziz Ansari, and Kristen Schaal. I’m probably forgetting a boatload of other awesome people.
CAKE: If you had to choose, would acting, improvisation or writing be your one chosen passion?
DAVE: Oh man, do I really have to choose? I learned acting and writing through improvisation, so, to me, they’re all three sides of the same thing. In this moment, if you put a gun to my head, I guess I’d choose writing.
CAKE: How did the Awkward Spaceship team come together?
DAVE: The Awkward Spaceship team is more or less just a loose confederation of people who I think are crazy-talented and then I asked them if they’d like to be involved in a particular project that I thought they’d be a good fit for. There really aren’t any “official” members, it’s just a group of people who I think are great and I’m lucky enough that they’re willing to work with me. Chicago is full of talented people that I met through iO or Second City or at an audition or a sketch show or through mutual friends.
CAKE: What are the challenges of coming up with fresh sketch ideas?
DAVE: There are really two big challenges – 1.) most sketch ideas are awful, just like most ideas for paintings or ideas for songs or ideas for any kind of art are awful and 2.) a lot of things have already been done before. So, it really gets down to figuring out your own process for coming up with a bunch of different ideas so that you actually have something “fresh” left after you throw out all of the bad ideas and the ideas that have already been done before.
CAKE: Dentists, thumbs up or down? Was your web series “Dentally Challenged” inspired by any personal dental situations? BTW, the writing is phenomenal.
DAVE: Oh, thanks, I’m glad you liked it! The nugget of an idea that started Dentally Challenged came from the fact that every time I went to the dentist, my dental hygienist told me I was flossing wrong. I wasn’t flossing hard enough, and then the next time I was flossing too hard, and then the next time I wasn’t flossing deep enough, and then I was flossing too deep. I started thinking to myself, “These people are either incompetent, they’re lying to me, or they’re just assholes,” which lead to me write a web series about a dentist’s office full of incompetent, lying assholes.
CAKE: Your writing tends to skew a bit dark. Do you find folks are more drawn to this type of humor or does your mind just work that way?
DAVE: Oh, I think different people are drawn to different types of humor. I just make whatever I find funny in the moment. So, while that frequently results in some fairly dark stuff like Game Night and Jade Valley Coffee, sometimes I end up writing things like Dinnermost Thoughts and Theme Song Confusion, which I think are fairly sweet when you get right down to it.
That’s all a long way of saying, yeah, my mind is just wired for dark humor, but there are occasionally exceptions.
CAKE: You’ve screened your videos at New York and San Diego Comic-Cons. What’s it like showing off your work in front of a room of onlookers who may have no clue what they are about to watch?
DAVE: Well, here’s the funny thing – I had no idea what they were about to watch either! I found out about the screenings after the fact. A couple years ago I made a video called Voltron in Real Life that was a loving sendup of the 80s cartoon Voltron. The production company behind Voltron liked the video, so they screened it at some of their Comic-Con panels. They let me know about the screenings and were just generally pretty cool about the whole thing.
CAKE: Your latest series “Day Drinking” follows DJ Quentin Day and his band of unlikely bar friends in a not quite Cheers-esque setting. Does Chicago have many early-morning bars? What made you come up with the concept of “Day Drinking”?
DAVE: While I don’t have an exact count of early-morning bars in Chicago, I do know there are a lot of people here who work third shift.
As an actor in Chicago, I’m occasionally out really late after a late night show or I’m up very early for an early-morning call, so every now and then I’ll bump into and meet someone who works third shift. I’ve always found it fascinating that there’s this whole other group of people going about their lives while the rest of us are sleeping.
So, when I found out we had access to a bar set, I thought it would be interesting to follow a bunch of third shifters rather than the normal bar crowd we see on TV shows and in movies.
CAKE: My personal favorite “Day Drinking” episode is the one aptly named “Phones”. It’s amazing how fast phone technology has evolved! Do you recall the first phone you had? Any funny smart phone stories you can relay to our readers?
DAVE: Thanks! The first cellphone I had was this atrocious gray flip phone thing that made the Nokia brickphone look like the iPhone 6. As for a funny story, how about this – on the day we were shooting “Phones,” I accidentally left all of the phone props at home, which meant we had to halt production for a half-hour until my friend Zack could run them over to set for me. It was remarkably embarrassing to forget the thing that the episode was literally named after.
CAKE: Do the members of Awkward Spaceship tend to circulate or stay the same? What bloopers or set backs have you experienced filming “Day Drinking”?
DAVE: We tend to work with a lot of the same people over and over again, but we’re also constantly bringing in new people as needed, so it fluctuates.
Take Day Drinking as an example. Our editor, Ryan DiGiorgi, had worked on dozens of videos with us beforehand, but for two of our actors – Jason R. Chin and Melissa R. DuPrey – Day Drinking was their first of hopefully many Awkward Spaceship projects.
As for setbacks, the biggest issue we had to deal with while filming was the heat. We shot all 11 episodes during five days in June and June is a very hot month in Chicago. The set was over 100 degrees some days. Needless to say, that got old rather quickly.
CAKE: What projects do you have lined up in the near future? Do you have a 5-year plan or do you fly by the seat of your pants?
DAVE: I’m currently in early pre-production for Awkward Spaceship‘s third web series as well as working on some other scripts. I don’t quite have a five-year plan, but I am definitely a planner. It’s easier to get more done that way.
CAKE: What type of sandwich do you hold near and dear to your heart? Cake or pie? Do or die?
DAVE: A turkey bacon club with basil and chipotle mayo, pie (unless my wife has baked the cake), and, if those are my only two options, do (who would ever choose die?).