James M. Waugh on Porntourage

James M. Waugh (Creator, Writer, Producer)

He is a proven web content series creator, the next best thing to being a proven money maker... when there isn't anyone who can truly lay claim to that title yet. -by Pamela Eisen

James Waugh created, wrote and produced the online series "Porntourage", a mock Entourage that follows a male porn star, his agent to the sex stars, and of course, his Porntourage. It became an instant hit and garnered nearly a million views on various websites becoming the most successful webisode in Spike.com/ifilm's history. James has been working in Hollywood for nearly eight years as a a Development Executive, Writer, Producer and yes, even Waiter. He was a Script Consultant on the SXSW audience award winning film "Skills Like This" and an Associate Producer on the upcoming film "Looking For Sunday". He was a Quarter Finalist in the ABC Television Writer's Fellowship and a Quarter Finalist in the Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop...which basically means he won neither. James has had several comedy scripts optioned, most recently the animation series "Bully and The Dweeb... Bicycle Cop Partners" for Secret Handshake Entertainment which attracted Chris Kattan (of SNL fame) and Tom Arnold to provide Voice Talent. He created a 20 webisode companion piece for a series starring Jenny McCarthy and executive produced by Jim Carrey. Most recently, James made the jump into the Video Game Industry, by becoming the Story Developer for Blizzard Entertainment. He is developing and writing narrative material for Blizzard's intellectual properties for their DC/Wildstorm comic line, Tokyopop manga line, and WarCraft, to name just a few.

"I like to make fun of things that really piss me off in the world."

Growing up in Miami, James was always into comedy. Influenced by greats such as Eddie Izzard and Monty Python, Waugh also credits "South Park and as low-brow as it is, I f--ckin love Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore." While at University of South Florida, Waugh did go through what he calls his "film-school influenced phase that had me writing that dark, indie father/son screenplay that I thought should be a movie, which is a movie nobody should ever write. Cause who cares? Anyway, I went through that phase a little bit...then I came around and realized I like to entertain people and just have fun. I like to make fun of things that really piss me off in the world."

James started creating web content in response to his frustration with Hollywood development aka "development hell". Nothing was happening with his own projects or even ones he helped develop. It got to the point, Waugh said, where he just wanted to make something and put it up on the web. So he wrote the "Porntourage" pilot and got a couple of friends involved. Waugh says he had no idea it would be success, nor had any aspirations to get into porn. He was just following the old Hollywood adage 'practice your craft'. Even without big ambitions, the pilot pissed off a big porn company, who according to Waugh, was developing their own Porntourage series at the time when James and his crew beat them to the punch.

Soon after, James created "Mister Hollywood" with up and coming, Stand Up comedian and fellow Porntourager, Kristian Harloff. "It started as just a MySpace blog, with me ranting as this character cause he was annoyed. It was autobiographical...after all, comedy is the angry art". Kristian is now one of his producing partners at LeftRight Productions, the company they've formed to create web content.

"Basically, we used blogs I already had and shot them. It ended up getting on the homepage of FunnyorDie.com". Waugh added that while the series never took off, it did become a nice little calling card. Adam Curry's (of MTV fame) Mevio.com; contacted James after finding it and have made a non-exclusive revenue share deal with them. http://misterhollywood.tv/ can also be found on iTunes.

Next up, James was brought on board to create a 20 webisode companion piece for "Honey Vicarro", being executive produced by A-lister Jim Carrey. The show, which was being developed for HBO, was a satirical "mockudrama" about a show that was made in the 1960's and starred Jenny McCarthy as the actress (in the fake '60's version). James was hired by showrunners Daniel Knauf, the creator of "Carnivale" on HBO along with Scott Winant exec. producer of series such as Showtime's "Huff" to create a fictitious fan's Vlog chronicling her obsession. Waugh said of the experience, "For me, it was just kind of fun, a new way to tell a story. It was like one, two minute monologues. Some people thought it was real, some were offended it was fake. It was an interesting experience."

From all this it suddenly made me realize there is sort of a way to carve out a living, as long as it's not your primary source of income!

Waugh is quick to note that despite the A-list names involved, this wasn't the project which garnered him recognition. "At the end of the day, Portourage did more for me. From all this it suddenly made me realize there is sort of a way to carve out a living, as long as it's not your primary source of income!"

On Hollywood and marketing for the web -

"Hollywood hasn't jaded me. If anything it's exciting. I think now more than ever, there's a whole wide open frontier to explore and actually get your work seen. In the past, there was almost no way. The question now is how are people going to make money and that's what is scary about it."

I think there is this fantasy that people have that they're just going to throw something up on YouTube, and get a million hits and people are going to see that they're a genius. It just doesn't work that way. It's a hustle just like Hollywood is a hustle.

When asked about his general thoughts on marketing oneself via the web, Waugh says, "Use it as a calling card for other things. It also comes down to how much hype and work you want to put into it yourself." He is also quick to point out the realities, "I think there is this fantasy that people have that they're just going to throw something up on YouTube, and get a million hits and people are going to see that they're a genius. It just doesn't work that way. It's a hustle just like Hollywood is a hustle."

So just how did they get the word out? "Believe it or not, we made a bunch of bumper stickers."

But that doesn't mean you have to market like you have Hollywood resources. James is a big advocate of guerilla marketing. Sure, "Porntourage", for instance, had a great logo and a great concept, but Waugh points out that doesn't magically get the eyes. So just how did they get the word out? "Believe it or not, we made a bunch of bumper stickers". Waugh continues, "I have a bunch of musician friends and it's kind of just like what they do. At the time, I was going to a lot of bars (back when he was single ladies!) and putting them up. It's that entrepreneurial spirit. You have to hustle and put stuff everywhere. Friends of mine sent stickers to NY."

"...it was luck, timing, and a good idea."

However, that's not what ultimately blew "Porntourage" up. Spike.com (at the time ifilm) saw bumper stickers, subsequently saw the website, and emailed James telling him they wanted to do more of them. Porntourage was shortly thereafter put up on Spike's homepage and received 600,000 views. James says that besides the bumper stickers, "it was luck, timing, and a good idea".

Waugh also does not foresee a day when the Hollywood studios will be replaced. "The whole notion that you don't need studios...I don't think that's going to pan out." he says."You are always going to need to someone to put money up to make sure your stuff is going to get seen. That might mean it's your rich Uncle or it's Warner Bros."

Wondering how James and his creative partners balance their day jobs with all that he has going on? We were too. So when asked, it was obvious James hadn't thought about it up until that point. After a moment of mulling that one over, Waugh simply said, "Umm...we don't have lives".

When asked if his 'angry' comedy has deeper, darker layers, Waugh was quick to put that question to rest. "No. Not at all. Look, I'm a silly person. I can't take myself too seriously." That's okay James - we'll take all the comedy that you put out there on the web and the big screen as seriously funny for you.

Copyright Comedyology.com 2009