Three University of Memphis juniors are cracking up America and using the Internet to do it.
Josh Pursley, Olan Rogers and Thomas Gore make up the comedy team Balloon Shop. They shoot digital short videos that have been featured on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show and BestFilmOnCampus.com.
"It's somewhat similar to the digital shorts on SNL," Gore said. "It's more than your standard type of sketch comedy. We have scripts, and it's all planned out."
Almost all of the shorts are less than 10 minutes and compare favorably with the films of Wes Anderson but without the director's tired quirkiness. They also boast the brilliantly absurd comedy style of the creators of shows "The State" and "Stella" and the films "Wet Hot American Summer" and "The Ten."
In "Running to Manhood," Gore plays a 23 year old who wants to leave home and be a man. But every time he tries, he either forgets his blanket or the cold weather keeps him from leaving. The best part comes while Gore tells his parents of his plans. Inexplicably, a stuffed animal named Demetrius plays the '80s song "If You Leave" by OMD for dramatic effect. And like a few other Balloon Shop shorts, there's ... frolicking.
For the past two years, the three friends, who met at Collierville High School, have been making short comedy films that they upload to YouTube and MySpace.
Rogers was shooting shorts before he met them and used his experience to help jump-start Balloon Shop.
"I really just made short films kind of like I do now, but it was more playing around," Rogers said. "But when I started doing school video projects, my teachers were blown away that a student could make anything movie related. Needless to say, they were pretty horrible looking back."
Of the three, only Rogers is a film and video major, while Josh plans to use his major in graphic design to aid the group on Web ventures. Gore seems to be the odd man out with his accounting major.
"Well, this is more or less a hobby right now. But if we're able to take this to the next level, then I would much rather be doing something with the Balloon Shop," Gore said. "With the accounting thing, it's just good to have something to fall back on."
Judging by their recent ascent towards fame, accounting could become the hobby.
In the latter part of 2006, MySpace searched their site for fresh videos and came across the Balloon Shop's short "Copper Cat" about an aspiring Jack Nicklaus-wannabe prone to fits of rage. It featured on the front page of MySpace and set in motion what Pursley refers to as the "Balloon Shop timeline."
A representative for MTV's campus-only music channel, mtvU, contacted them.
"He told us about contests and other opportunities," Pursley said. "It was strictly on a 'Keep in touch' basis."
As a result, mtvU featured them on their site, BestFilmOnCampus.com, and Balloon Shop was among the top-25 finalists competing for an MTV Movie Award.
"The contest was based on votes and we had maybe 30 viewers at that point, so we had no chance," Pursley said. "But after that, 'Copper Cat' became our first video that people would send around."
Soon after, one of their videos about a rock band signing to a record company, "When the Blood Comes Home," featured for a day on Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's website, FunnyOrDie.com.
"After that, the best thing happened for us," Pursley said.
Clips of "Hey Ben," their short about two guys and a piece of meat, aired on MTV's Total Request Live during a new segment called Movie Mondays.
"You saw portions of our clips on there, telling all the kids how to get hooked up with our YouTube account," Pursley said. "That was when our YouTube got hot."
From there, they got their first paying job hosting a TV show on mtvU called "The Dean's List."
"The show was one hour in length and featured our favorite music videos," Pursley said. "We chose a good portion of silly '70s and '80s music videos, unlike most episodes of the show that usually played rap and current pop."
After that, computer company Hewlett-Packard hired them to write commercials, but none were ever aired.
"They didn't choose to use them, but were still very impressed and paid us for each commercial idea presented," Pursley said.
Last fall, they entered the Sidekick Nation: T-Mobile Sidekick Video Contest and won the second place prize of $5,000. Clips of the two-minute short about why someone should buy a Sidekick aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Jan. 14.
"We didn't even know about it," Pursley said. "People came up to us and asked 'How did you feel about being on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show?'."
Now that the Internet has changed how movies are seen, Balloon Shop can rely on curiosity or boredom to entice viewers.
"I'd be willing to bet money on the table, right now, that if you were bored enough to sit in front of your computer for hours on end and watch every one of our videos, you would like at least one of them," Pursley said.
The confidence of the cinematography - considering none of the three have any formal training - and Gore's boyish charm may leave you wanting more than just a few minutes. Fortunately, there are over 40 videos uploaded to their sites at http://www.YouTube.com/balloonshop or http://www.MySpace.com/balloonshop.
For those who don't have regular access to the Internet, they are putting together a DVD.
"We're cramming as many clips a DVD will hold, for ten bucks," Pursley said. "It should be available around April or May."
But the friends aren't trying to make a profit.
"We just want to spread it around and have others enjoy it," Pursley said.
