Crackle Blog

Meet a Handsome Donkey who likes spending time with Courtney Cox, has luxurious hair and was frequently laid in college.

Decisions, Decisions is the brainchild of the comedy group Handsome Donkey. This week Crackle is getting to know them inside and out. We've already met the Countee brothers, Brendan and Adam, as well as Marc Gilbar. To complete our look at this talented group, we finish it of with the "Ray Stantz" (the heart) of Handsome Donkey, the funny and versatile Aaron Greenberg.

Crackle: So Aaron, can you give us the lowdown of how Handsome Donkey became a on-line film making machine?

Aaron Greenberg: We each individually made short films over the years. I made some starting in high school and then in college. Every chance I got I made a video project, took classes and made some short films just for fun on the side. Then I came back to LA and started working in the television business. Then one day in 2006, we were all living together at the time, and I got a text from Marc that said, "Would you be interested in making a fake music video?" and I said absolutely!  So we started working on it, and the first one we made was "Photograph", and we had fun doing it. This was the first time we had the opportunity to take these short films that we'd always made for ourselves to show our friends, and now could now show it to a mass audience using the internet. We started making more and more of them and putting them on YouTube, kept doing it, more people started watching, and... well... the rest is history ... hm, that sounds kind of obnoxious, that sounds like we actually achieved something.

Crackle: Well, even before Decisions, Decisions, there was Squeegees, and that was kind of a big deal, no?

AG: Yeah ... Squeegees was a big deal. It was one of the first times a major studio decided that they were going to get behind web stuff, that they would finance it and were going to spread some interest. It was huge for us, because it let us make something with other people's money which was great because we could never afford to do something like that with our own money. We got to prove to ourselves and to other people that we could deliver a product and not just blow it. It was kind of a dream come true.

Crackle: So how did you guys go from making "Photograph" to getting a major Hollywood studio to back you?

AG: We made "Photograph" in fall or winter of 2005, we then made "Mamasita" which we were happy with because we thought it looked better. That was when iPod videos had just come out and we were hopping people would put them on their iPods, since YouTube had just barely come on the scene. A lot has changed in the last few years in internet video.

Then we wanted to make something a bit more ambitious. During a television hiatus, Adam and I were both working in television, and Marc was in law school at the time, summer break was the only time we could take on something bigger. So we made this short called "Le Montage" that we put on YouTube, and we sent e-mails to all our friends. I don't even think Facebook was a part of it at that point. That got us some good positive buzz including an interview in The New York Times Sunday Magazine. The morning that came out we got a call from an executive over at ABC saying they were interested in starting this company, and would we be interested in working with them. That phone call and that deal, that relationship allowed us to make Squeegees and Decisions, Decisions. It was like a pinch yourself moment, because we had totally not set out to make this stuff and put it on-line and parlay it into TV and movies. In fact we were outspoken about how we felt that internet video was not just a craze, or an opportunity to move into something bigger, we actually think that internet video is the future, and we want to focus on that, but it wound up leading into something bigger.

Crackle: Speaking of crossover into mediums like TV, wasn't there even an ad for Squeegees at the end of an episode of Lost?

AG: That was really cool. At the time Lost was the most popular show on TV and they ran the commercial on national television for our little show that we made. I was sitting on a couch in my living room, and it was definitely surreal. I almost forgot about that.

Crackle: After the call, how did Decisions, Decisions eventually wind up at Crackle?

AG: We had an opportunity to go in and pitch a bunch of ideas to Stage 9. We had to come up with five ideas, and they told us that they were going to buy two ideas, and Decisions, Decisions was like number two or three on the list -- Squeegees was number five. Squeegees we came up with the night before, we needed one more thing, and it seemed like a good thing for four dudes, which I always loved that idea. We go in there and pitch our ideas, and they didn't buy several ideas that we were very confident about and had put a lot of time and effort into developing. But they bought Decisions, Decisions, and they bought Squeegees, which was such an infant idea it was probably not ready to pitch, but it worked out fine in the end.

Yet we knew we wanted to do Decisions, Decisions, and so we even shot one in our apartment. It's actually similar to "Dikembe Mutombo or Purple Gatorade?", and it's actually the same apartment we used in the final show. This pitch wasn't as good as the final show ... I should see if I can dig it up.

Eventually it found its way to Crackle, and we're thrilled about that. We think that Crackle's a great site, and it was the first where the way they discussed how web video works is very much in line with how we felt that web video worked too.

Crackle: So what's your favorite Decisions, Decisions episode?

AG: Being totally honest there's something in every episode that I'm really happy with either a joke I find very funny, or something I'm really proud of us for being able to pull off, something I remember laughing about and saying we could never do that, and then doing it. I think over all my favorite episode is "Civil War or Press Conference". I think it was pretty ambitious, and I think it looks pretty good, and I think the jokes are funny. Also, Mike Sugerman, the reporter who throws it to the press conference was my father's best man, I love that he's in there. I think some the best writing is in there, all that stuff makes me laugh every time I see it. Then at the end Ernie, the guy who comes in playing the banjo, that was our art director -- we knew he was musical, but none of us knew that he could really play the banjo like that, and he has a great goatee and he really looked the part. There's a bunch of gems like that through the whole series.

Crackle: Now for the questions that have secretly been submitted by you fellow Donkeys ...

(From Brendan Countee): What was it like acting opposite the lovely and talented Courtney Cox in Cougar Town?

AG: It was a real treat. I enjoy acting, I don't hold myself in high regard as an actor, but I had an opportunity to get on the show, and I'm not one to pass up opportunity. It was great. I'm there with Courtney Cox who is nice as can be, and she's a great actress, so much so that when I was playing beer pong with her -- I was so blown away by the experience of acting with someone who is as good as she is that I was totally unaware of the fact that I was acting. I was just playing beer pong with her, and responding to whatever she did and it was very easy. I was relieved because I was nervous, and she's incredibly beautiful in person and you're sort of overwhelmed by that.

The problem is that she was going to be on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. So we started shooting the scene and there was a real sense of urgency to it. They shot her side, then she leaves and we break for lunch, and we come back 45 minutes later to shoot my half. I'm nervous, and since Courtney's gone, now I have to act with her stand in. Her stand-in is as nice as can be, I don't know anything about her, but I can see that she's making a list of a hundred places that she'd rather be in her mind, and she's really not even trying, she's just standing there -- and I'm losing it. Had Courtney been there I'm sure my appearance would have won me an Emmy, but it cut together okay and it was fun to see me on TV (Cougar Town: "A Woman in Love [It's Not Me])

(From Marc Gilbar): If the other members of Handsome Donkey were WWF wrestlers, who would they be?

AG: Adam and Brendan would be The Bushwhackers, or the Road Warriors Hawk and Animal. Although what is probably more honest, this is sad, is that Adam would be Owen Heart and Brendan would be Bret Heart, but Owen Heart died -- that's not the part of it that reminds me of Adam, it's just that they're both good guys. Marc would be Vince McMahon ... in control and on the sidelines, although Marc is very likable.

(From Adam Countee): Please describe the daily beauty regimen during the filming of Decisions, Decisions that gave your hair such remarkable volume and sheen.

AG: They are trying to make me feel uncomfortable I cringe every time I see myself in Decisions, Decisions because my hair is so outrageous ... morning shampoo -- morning conditioner. There was definately no product in my hair at the time, which is why there was such a beautiful flow to it. Basically I just wanted to see what would happen if I didn't cut my hair. I derive all my self esteem from my hair and Decisions, Decisions was a very difficult time for me.

(From Brendan Countee): Who is "the burning man" and why do you go see him every year?

AG: First of all it's not "the" burning man, it's just, burning man. For one week a year the third largest city in Nevada pops up out of nowhere, and it goes away a week later. It's this incredibly massive art festival where people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building these remarkable sculptures and just stuff, I can't even explain it. It's the biggest party on earth, and the greatest party on earth. There's no where else that I'm aware of where people will spend a year of planning and constructing and half a million dollars on some artwork and won't put their signature on it. I recommend everybody go. There's no way you could ever regret going.

(From Marc Gilbar): What is your favorite father/son switchy movie?

AG: I think it's gotta' be the Duddly Moore and Kirk Cameron one, Like Father, Like Son -- I was talking about it like two days ago because I found out that my little brother's girlfriend's father wrote it, which I thought was SO COOL!

(From Brendan Countee): Did you find that being in the California marching band made it easier, or harder, for you to get laid in college?

AG: If I had to make a list of things that prevented me from getting laid in college, I'm not sure that the marching band would even be on it to be honest. I was such a disaster, no offense to any of the girls who laid me in college. I am very proud of having been in the California marching band, it's the best damn band in the land. It made me a better musician. I so owned it. I was not ashamed of it, or shy about it, so that I think girls dug it ... but I didn't get laid at all my freshman year, and that may have been a part of it. I played the snare drum -- it was bad ass! It may not have been the coolest, but I was proud of it.

(From Adam Countee): Have you ever had any fantasies involving Dean Wormer's wife from Animal House? Be as explicit as you deem prudent.

AG: I can't say I've actually had... wait, maybe that's not true, I'm a big fan of Animal House ... but no I haven't had a fantasy about Dean Wormer's wife, but I have tried Otter's cucumber move before.

(From Brendan Countee): Who was the 11^th president of the United States?

AG: James K. Polk. It's a handsome Donkey gem, that was left on the cutting room floor.

... And with that, our grilling of the men of Handsome Donkey comes to an end. Thanks to them you'll never forget the 11th president of the United States, and you may just be better equipped when those hard choices in life present themselves, all thanks to the show so nice they named it twice, Decisions, Decisions.

CJ - Crackle Blog Editor