What's Your Top Six Things to Be Thankful For?

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Runaway Box Live Chat?

That's right. You read correctly. A Runaway Box live chat. However, that question mark at the end there... That's not a typo. We'd love to do it, but we're just wondering what the specifics will be: how long we'd be on, who you guys would want to talk to, and what we would talk about... Eventually we realized we're just too lazy to figure out all that crap ourselves, so we decided to let you do it. Afterwards, we also have a fence you can whitewash for us... it's really fun!

But really, take a look at this here video. Woody explains it all. And if you have answers to the above mentioned questions, leave them either under this post here, or on the comment section of that video! We'd love to hear from you.

We've never done something live before so this is kind of a big deal for us. We need you guys to help us along. It's like we're little birds learning how to fly..... but live, in front of a studio audience.

Help us spread our wings. Help us soar.

Candy Hangover

Hey, Gang. I imagine you are all too busy to do anything save gorge yourselves on baby-hippopotamus-sized sacks of candy from the recent holiday. I know at times you may get weary, maybe even a little sick, but you must press on. You can't let the candy defeat you. It's a matter of pride. I still have candy left over from a Halloween outing in '92 and I've never been able to live it down. Good news for you, though: I've got a few videos that were MADE to eat candy by.

If you haven't realized, Runaway Box was feeling quite festive this Halloween and made about 4 billion Halloween videos. Here are the five that came out good:

The Marty Show featuring Elvira
Thad's Halloween
Man in the Box - Halloween Boss
Man in the Box - Costumes
Elevator - Three Part Halloween Mini-series!
Part 2*
Part 3

*OKay, so to those of you who have paid attention... Yes, my character, creatively named "Paul", did get eaten by zombies in Part 2 of the Elevator Halloween Mini-series and re-appear in a later episode, entitled "Would you rather?", apparently non-zombified. If you watch closely though, you'll notice that I do make an appearance AS A ZOMBIE in Part 3 of the Elevator Halloween Mini-series, ultimately being sent back to the 13th Floor with the other zombies inhabiting the Elevator. Clearly, from there, my character Paul became King of the Zombies, being closest to life and therefore possessing the most powerful brain. The zombies slaved beneath Paul's iron fist for months (remember, time goes by differently on the 13th floor). Finally, Paul, growing bored of pointless dull conversation, simply walked to the elevator, pressed the down button, got on, and went straight to a dermatologist. Dr. Rubinstein cleared up all the bloody abrasions, sores, and decaying skin, as well as Paul's pale undead complexion. So basically in subsequent episodes Paul is still undead, he's just had a lot of work done. THANK YOU, DR. RUBINSTEIN!!! You guys couldn't figure that out? Shit, learn to read between the lines.

Anyway, enjoy! And for the record, my advice is to get through the candy corn sooner rather than later. You hit that in the final stretch and you're blowing chunks.

Dave Hill Sighted on 'Elevator'!

You can usually find Dave Hill interviewing celebrities on his Instant Talk Show.

Well, F that! We brought him into the Elevator for a little taste of his character "Randy", the impassioned crooner who's got a song for just about everybody who needs to change floors.

Dave coming in for this filming was actually the first time I got to meet him in person, and let me just say, he is just as charming and debonair as he is on screen. He was great to have around, and an awesome addition to the "Elevator" series. Hopefully he'll be around more often.

Below: Dave Hill, although it looks like his name should be something like... Skip McPerv here. Took this from his blog, which you can read here.

More Elevator Bloopers

You guys asked for them so here they are!

Bloopers for last week's Elevator episode -- "Don't Be a Drip".

Classic.



Post comments!

Felicitaciones a Spanish Mike... y el tigre azul!

I just wanna take the time to point out just how successful our "One Semester of Spanish Love Song" video has been.

Mike is now inexplicably an authority on first semester Spanish. The DVD has been requested by Pepperdine University for their first year Spanish program, the LA county Office of Education for use by their Pre-K Dual Language Teachers, and countless Spanish teachers from around the country for use in the classroom. Mike has also been invited to perform at the Cervantes Center's Folklore Festival... Mind-blowing.

On top of it all, later this week Mike is going to speak at Rocky River High, a high school in a suburb of Cleveland. A spanish teacher invited him to come in and talk to her class. I imagine there will be a lot of laughing, and little to no learning whatsoever. Sounds like my entire college experience, actually.

Below: Andrew, Jaime, and Woody have a celebration jam for Spanish Mike's success! And, the answer is, yes, their band sounds just as AMAZING as it looks.

Everybody, This is Thad. Say "Hi, Thad!"

Our new series "Thad" finally dropped on Monday, albeit to mixed reviews, but that was fully anticipated. It's not for everyone; just cool people. Check it out and see if you're cool! Then, test your friends!

But, seriously, it's an acquired taste, although four episodes in, it seems like people are really beginning to appreciate it. It's not as "in your face" as "Elevator" or "Man in the Box", but we figured it'd be good for us to experiment with some different "flavors", if you will, of comedy (my fav is cherry vanilla, but "Thad" is also good on a waffle cone). Animation seemed like a great idea, considering how much we love all those Pixar movies. Apparently computer animation is a little pricey these days; we felt little yellow pads were more in our budgetary range. So we bought some of those, threw them at our animator Zack, and waited to see what would happen.

Luckily, we scored big time with getting Zack on board. He's a really funny and super-creative guy. I highly recommend checking out his website, www.zacksmovies.com, and taking a look at some of his other projects. I particularly enjoyed "Annihilation (the making of)".

So here are a few frequently asked questions Zack gets about the animation, answered by Zack himself! Enjoy!

THAD ANIMATION FAQ:

Is the show really animated flipbook-style, with actual post-it notes?

Yes. I mean no. I mean yes. I use a generic brand of sticky note, but yeah, it's done flipbook-style. I don't use extra animation software, or any such nuttiness.

Doesn't it take a long time to animate it that way?

Kinda. If the show looks all crusty, that's my excuse. Hopefully, *said crustiness adds a quaint charm to the show.

How do you record the flipbook animations to video?

I just put the flipbooks flat on a marked space on a desk, then point a camera down and record. Each episode is made with multiple flipbooks recorded separately, but edited together to play like one long flipbook.

Who are you? Does Greg/Mike Polk animate the show?

My name is Zack, and I have flipbook skillz. Mike lacks *said skillz.

*I do not apologize for my indulgent use of the word "said" as an adjective. Said said usage amuses me.

More questions about "Thad" or anything else Runaway Box? Leave them in the comments section! Or if you just wanna, like, say hello... Blogging gets lonely.