It looks like stupidity pays off.
When Christopher Allan Smith and Ryan Neisz started Zanizbar19.com in August 2006, they wanted to create ridiculous comedy to entertain the masses fleeing televised network television. Their first show, SNOWMEN Hunters recounts the adventures of snowman assassin Sherman Rance and his idiot sidekick Everett Van der Sloot as they shotgun, decapitate, strangle every snowman they can find. Ah... good, dirty fun.
A few short months later, they were snagging some of the biggest honors in their new industry, and being tapped as Internet entertainers to watch in this new video medium.
"...You'd be wise to keep your eyes on two other guys who, in a small way, are helping to transform the media landscape: Christopher Allan Smith and Ryan Neisz," LA TIMES writer Rick Wartzman wrote in the March 22, 2007 edition. This kudo came hot on the heels of their March 2007 nomination for a 2006 YouTube Award in the Best Series category. Who knew a show with a main character played by a piece of pine wood could go so far so fast.
Smith and Neisz have done a few select interviews, but work to interact with their friends and fans. Among the interviews they've done is the Internet's own entertainment news show Viral and the digital revolution magazine IF. In March 2007 their special brand of infamy snagged them a Wikipedia entry.
Maybe their highest point came in May 2007 when they were invited to San Francisco by YOUTUBE to sit on a panel at YOUTUBE's 2007 Sales and Business Development Conference. The first ever official YOUTUBE user panel included MdotStrange as the Director, Maldroid1 as the Musician, TheResident as the Vlogger, and Zanzibar19 as the resident Comedian. They are well aware it'll probably all be down hill from here.
Here's a video of their adventure.
They are currently working on episodes of Snowmen Hunters and other internet video projects.
YouTube Award Nomination
YouTube.com, the web's top user-generated video site and Time magazine's invention of the year in 2006, has announced the nominees for the 2006 YouTube Awards. Among the shows nominated is the most ridiculous comedy on the Internet, Snowmen Hunters.
"Turns out, it is an honor to be nominated," said co-creator and Hunters star Neisz. "We're up against two of our favorite online shows, ASK A NINJA, CHAD VADER so we're just thanking our lucky stars we're here."
"And that we continue to kill snowmen," added co-creator and Hunters co-star Smith. "We've been watching and loving and following a lot of these shows since we started work on Hunters, so to find ourselves here is pretty sweet."
Since premiering on Wednesday, September 6, 2006 Snowmen Hunters has been honored as a spotlight recommendation/featured video/featured channel on every significant video sharing site going. These include YouTube.com, Veoh.com, Stupidvideos.com, Revver.com, GoFish.com, Grouper.com, DailyMotion.com, Sharkle.com and many, many more.
In November 2006, they were picked as one of 10 Videos of the Week by TheDailyReel.com, a website dedicated to highlighting the best in professionally produced online video.
On November 10, 2006, Episode 8 of Hunters was the featured video on the front page of YouTube.com. Also in November, Hunters was reviewed by UPON FURTHER REVIEW, one of the premiere podcasting review shows in this new medium.
In early 2007, Smith & Neisz were interviewed by Veoh.com's Internet entertainment newsmagazine, VIRAL.
In the spring of 2007, Hunters was chosen to be among the clips in CMT's highest rated show, Country Fried Vidoes. That episode is coming soon.
Positive buzz for Snowmen Hunters has been buzzing since early in 2006, before production even ended. In June, Hunters was chosen as one of the top 20 semi-finalists in the FX Network's IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA Show Us Your Pilot contest, beating out over 3000 other entrants.
As is emblematic of the roiling Internet video revolution, Hunters was created outside the Hollywood entertainment complex by talented professionals who have thrown off the shackles of agents, network executives and FCC regulations. We're making Snowmen Hunters locally, and premiering it directly to the people.
About Zanzibar19.com
At Zanzibar19.com, we're proud to produce Snowmen Hunters, and are excited to be among those on the vanguard of the current Internet TV revolution.
Unlike past developments in TV entertainment, Internet TV can be created anyone with talent anywhere in the world. Traditional network TV takes millions of dollars put up by large corporations to create, and even then networks only reach out to creators living in New York and Los Angeles. Internet TV is creating a new reality for TV-style entertainment. Now, talents far from these media centers can create TV-quality entertainment and distribute it across the world via YouTube, iTunes and other such services. The major networks no longer have just cable to compete with, but thousands of home-brew entertainment companies.
Put another way, Zanzibar19.com is taking on NBC, ABC and CBS. And Fox, HBO and Showtime. Also, Comedy Central. And MTV. And VH1. And everyone else. We like to shoot big at Zanzibar19.com.
Snowmen Hunters was created, written and directed by Ryan Neisz & Christopher Allan Smith, and shot locally by a small but talented crew in Burbank, Lake Arrowhead, Butte Meadows, Chico, Paradise, Merced and Antioch California. The show is set in Smith's birthplace of Klamath Falls, Oregon.
About Us:
Zanzibar19.com is made up primarily of creative partners Ryan Neisz & Christopher Allan Smith. The creative team at Zanzibar19.com, lead by Neisz & Smith, specializes in commercial production, video podcasting, and online TV series geared towards 18-to-35 year-old media consumers. Snowmen Hunters is their first production.
In June of 2006, their first online series, Snowmen Hunters was chosen as one of the top 20 semi-finalists in the FX Network's IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA Show Us Your Pilot contest, beating out over 3000 other entrants.
Neisz's background is in mainstream TV, having worked on Sping City, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Battery Park, created by Oscar winner Alan Ball (American Beauty, Si Feet Under). Since leaving the grind of weekly sitcoms, Neisz has been a digital filmmaker and commercial producer/director in Burbank, CA. He also owns Ryan Neisz Productions of Burbank CA.
Smith's background is in entertainment journalism and digital filmmaking. As an entertainment journalist he has interviewed Will Farrell, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and filmmaker David Mamet, Oscar winning director Ron Howard (Apollo 13, Beautiful Mind), M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) and Andrew Stanton, the writer/director of Pixar's Finding Nemo. He has also done film reviewing for Eon Magazine, IF magazine and the Chico News and Review.
Contact Us:
Christopher Allan Smith — 530.680.7125
Csmith@Zanzibar19.com
Ryan Neisz — 310.347.5958
Rneisz@Zanzibar19.com
Or at Zanzibar19.com
