Video Interview: Barats And Bereta

Published: April 19, 2007 6:24 PM EST
By: Isaac Joseph Davis Junior
(Juniorscave.com)

For those folks out there who have not heard about YouTube I am here to say that this is one of the most coolest websites out there on the Internet at the moment. What is YouTube? It is a place where folks like you and me can Broadcast ourselves via video uploads. It is also a cool place for young filmmakers to get their work out there to the masses. Moreover, it is a great place to find great material like the guys, Barats and Bereta, whom I have grown to watch on a weekly status. I wanted to feature these guys in our on-line publication and really get our readers in on their videos. If you have not joined YouTube, please do and while you are there check these guys out at:
http://youtube.com/profile?user=BaratsAndBereta

Check out this great on-line spotlight that the guys completed with us: Enjoy!

JC Videos: Could you tell our audience a little about yourselves and how each of you got started?
>>>We started collaborating after meeting each other in our college improv troupe. Luke was a Theater major and I was in Broadcast Studies. We liked the funny that each of us brought to the comedy scene so we grabbed a camera and started making videos. Soon after, we started doing stand-up, live sketch shows, and joined a couple improv groups.

JC Videos: Your videos are great; many times they have me in stitches--do you work on a script or wing it?
>>>Our first couple videos relied a great deal on improv. If one of us came up with a funny idea, we would turn on the camera and just go for it. The Good Word, The Gonzaga RA videos, and the Ninja Rap were all done in this way. As time went on, we started to rely on our scripts a great deal more. I think our videos are now about 70% script and 30% improv. We improv as much in the edit bay as we do on camera.

JC Videos: What is your ultimate goal from doing these videos?
>>>We just want to make our friends and family laugh. They are the reason we even put our vids on the Internet. Our family members are not exactly what you would call computer literate, so YouTube made it easy for them to check out our stuff.

JC Videos: You guys have a huge fan base--what do you feel is the formula for your success?
>>>I'm going to go with %60 luck and %40 effort. The YouTube editors were kind enough to feature a few of our vids and that exposure was invaluable. When our Mother's Day video was first featured, we were fortunate enough to have a back stock of videos that we did in the past. I think this showed we were not a one trick pony. We may not post as frequently as some of the other groups out there but we feel the quality of our videos can compete with most.

JC Videos: I had a chance to peruse your website and found the site a fun place to hang out. Give a quick run down on what people can expect when they visit your website:
>>>Lets see...Videos complete with cast credits and mp3 files for our music videos, bios that reflect our tragic experiences growing up in the middle class ghetto, a store with merchandise guaranteed to make you at least 10% sexier than your current sexiness, an art section that shows off the mad skills of our graphic artist Tyler Jacobson, and a forum that has evolved into its own crazy culture...they don't even talk about us anymore. I think they have a mayor and run elections and crap...insane...crazy insane.
JC Videos: (laughs)

JC Videos: What type of response do you guys get from your fans?
>>>It has been great. No crazy stalkers or anything...yet... There are a couple fan sites and the folks who run those are very nice. We are more than flattered because we realize that they could have created fan sites for things a billion times cooler than us...like that cute polar bear cub or any cast member from Scrubs.

JC Videos: What have been some negative feedbacks have you received?
>>>I guess we've learned two things from this whole experience. 1. You can't please everyone. 2. You're always going to offend somebody. All our videos receive some angry anonymous comments but luckily, the good tends to outweigh the bad. You begin to ignore these things when they come from screen names like TigerPenisAphrodisiac69 and IhateEverythingGuy.
JC Videos: So true!

JC Videos: Have you ever received an email from a fan who was offended by your video? How do you usually handle those? >>>As stated before, yes, yes we do. We never intend to offend anyone. We find that we make fun of ourselves more than anything else, but when we do get an actual email from a truly offended human being who is owning up to their comments we try to politely respond and offer up our explanation and point of view.

JC Videos: Where do you see yourself in the next three years?
>>>Luke will be traveling the country as a main cast member in the traveling company of Platoon, the smash Broadway musical comedy that will go on to break the record for longest running theater production EVER. I will be finishing up my rookie campaign in the world of competitive eating by finishing off 23 baked potatoes in 10 minutes. Kobayashi will have downed 113. I'll get you Kobayashi.

JC Videos: It's time for shameless plus time: Any updates or new releases that you guys would like to plug?
>>>We should have a vid coming out in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned.

Joe Bereta

Photo used in this story was provided by Joe Bereta