Adventures with Matt Geiler

If you don't know my friend Matt. You really should. He's an amazing performer on stage and on camera. And hysterical. He lives in Omaha where he produced his own TV show for KXVO news. There he has gained many fans. And probably some enemies. Matt and I met at The Second City in 2005 and our frienship has grown since. Recently Matt invited me to Omaha to shoot a pilot that he will be shopping around in LA and to local channels. Matt came to Chicago this summer to play a role in our feature Off the Cuff. A few weeks ago Matt and his editor and friend Jeff VanRoy came to Chicago to attend The Second City film festival that one of our shorts was featured in. During his trip Matt told me that KXVO is about to sign a deal to produce a whole new show that would feature some of the material that Matt has produced with myself and other Second City friends. Project after project Matt and I always come up with crazy characters and at the end of the day it just come down to this-who do you really love to work with? And if the people you love to work with on your comedy are separated by miles, you make it happen.

To me nothing is crappier than a group of comedians working together because everyone wants to get as much of themselves out there as possible. Some people *whore* themselves in the improv community and join so many groups that you'll see their faces everywhere. But those groups don't always seem funny. And moreover, those people tend to be getting around due to their persistence, not talent.

The key to producing quality material is finding people that you believe in whole heartedly and then developing those relationships. Matt and myself and few others have continuously worked together and our comedy has grown tremendously.

You can visit Matt's site at mattgeiler.com. He has lots of his material and information up on his site and its pretty sweet. And he has really good hair.