Austen Reeder is an up-and-coming artist and comedian from California. His short form comedy series “Star Boat” recently aired on Adult Swim’s YouTube and live streaming platforms. The Connector had the chance to speak with Reeder about his creative process and his experience working with Adult Swim.
The Connector: How did you get into making videos in the first place? What inspired you to pick up a camera?
Reeder: I have been making videos since I was in middle school — really cringey vlogs and stuff like that — but I had always been really interested in entertainment and doing a lot of community theater. I guess the style of videos I make now probably comes out of — I got into “Tom Goes to the Mayor” really late. I discovered it three or four years ago. Seeing that kind of animation style made it seem very attainable to me. Not to bring down the show or anything like that — the comedy and writing is fantastic — but using three or four frames to animate someone moving looked like something I could do. The fact that it was on television was really eye opening. Seeing that really made me think, ‘OK, maybe I can make something with just a computer and a camera.’
The Connector: That is really cool. Once you said “Tom Goes to the Mayor,” I thought about that part at the end of one of the last few episodes of “Star Boat,” the virtual reality episode.
Reeder: The VR one, yup. That one definitely has a very heavy nod to them.
The Connector: I think a lot of creators can relate to that sort of inspiration. Where like you said, you aren’t bringing down the show or anything, but it is something that gives you a reasonable place to start from.
Reeder: Yeah, exactly.
The Connector: You have some prior acting experience. Do you think that informs how you make things?
Reeder: Yeah, that stuff definitely helped. I did a couple of little roles growing up, but none of that stuff ever really got made — most of it was canceled. I was on a children’s television show when I was really young — like seven or eight. It was just a small, public access Mr. Rogers type of thing. I definitely did a lot of acting growing up that helped.
The Connector: I think it really shows in your delivery.
Reeder: Growing up, I probably spent a total of one month or two doing gigs, but most of that experience comes more from doing community theater and a lot of acting classes. The comedy stuff started happening in high school drama. I went to high school in a rural mountain community where there’s a ton of gross celebrities that have lake homes. One of the less gross ones donated a ton of money to my high school’s theater department.
The rest of the school was super dilapidated, underfunded and leaky, and then the theater department was this multi-million-dollar complex with a giant catwalk, lighting equipment and sound boards. It was really weird, but I think a lot of it came out of taking high school drama.
Our teacher was super relaxed. She let us say edgy things and make dumb jokes. We didn’t have to filter ourselves. Also, 25 percent of the time the teacher wouldn’t even show up [laughs]. We were just kind of left to our own devices, which in retrospect is a really bad idea — leaving 20 hormonal teenagers in a room and saying, ‘Let’s put on a play in six weeks.’ At the time, I thought it was awesome because I was in high school and going through some edgy contrarian meme phase.
The Connector: Didn’t we all.
Reeder: Yeah, being in that class really taught me to be vulnerable and goof around on stage, trying to make my friends laugh. I would recite poetry, lip sync to Bo Burnham songs and be cringey and embarrassing. I think a lot of the stuff I do now was developed there — just goofing around with other people.
The Connector: It’s nice to have a space to work stuff out, especially early on.
Reeder: Definitely.
The Connector: Do you think that being on the west coast and being close to Los Angeles had a lot to do with your acting opportunities when you were young and that exposure to the entertainment business?
Reeder: Yeah, definitely. It is probably the best place to grow up, although I have no frame of reference and can’t really say [laughs], but it definitely helps. There are a lot of people out here that are interested in that kind of stuff. I live two or three hours from L.A. in the middle of nowhere, but even out here there’s still a lot of the entertainment industry that leaks out to us.
The Connector: In regards to “Star Boat,” I was curious about where that idea came from, and how it evolved.
Reeder: The original video I made was called “Intergalactic Space Cruiser: International Space Station – Season 1 – Episode 1: The Pilot.” It was basically me with tin foil over my eyes in front of a green sheet. The whole idea was that I was trying to survive in space with nothing but a box of generic cereal that I had spent 20 million bitcoins on. It was ridiculous. There was no reason for anyone to have seen that video [laughs]. But, once someone did see that video and I got my contract, I was able to talk with Dave Hughes. He really helped me develop the first short.
After that it grew into something else. The original idea was to make a thing that is set in this fantastical, futuristic space world where anything can happen, but nothing really does because Dan is just too full of anxiety and awkwardness — he just quarantines himself into a little box to feel safe. A lot of it was trying to subvert what a wacky space show should be. It’s also just a really solid avenue for me to try out new characters, dialogue and do fast-paced stories. It’s all very new and I’m still trying to find my exact voice, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s turning out so far.
The Connector: What was it like having your project approved, and getting feedback from Adult Swim throughout that process?
Reeder: It was really weird [laughs]. I’ve always been a huge fan of everything on Adult Swim and I’ve always wanted to work with them. That was always the dream, I just thought there would be 10,000 steps between me and getting to work with them. It was really weird, especially because when I made that intergalactic space-cruiser video, I had like 20 subscribers. I’m still not that well established, but there is no reason anyone should have seen that video. I was just posting it to some weird comedy corners of Facebook, and sending it around to try and get some feedback on it. By dumb luck, it fell into a fantastic producer’s lap and he gave me a contract and patiently worked with me to help develop it.
You never know who is going to see your stuff. The whole thing with social media is it tries to quantify how good your stuff is with a number. Like, ‘Ah, my stuff’s only worth 10 likes. I’m sh*t.’ That dynamic is so gross. I feel like so many creatives get down on themselves because they see that little number and they think, ‘well I’m not worth anything.’ It’s such bullsh*t.
Check out Austen’s work here. Stay tuned later this week for part two.
