By ron evans
Since its inception in 2018, Rotten Apple has produced over 100 comedy shows showcasing comedians from around the nation along with the 2019 Mahogany and Merlot festival in Chelan.
Their goal is simple, “to produce high-quality events that connect the community and bring people together to experience joy.”
Shaimoom and Kelsey Newaz started Rotten Apple in January 2018 when Shaimoom's long-time high school friend, Jesse Shapiro, came up to visit them from their hometown of Los Angeles. Jesse originally planned to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city to work on a TV pilot while staying with Shai and Kelsey. After a couple of days, he asked the inevitable question, "What do people do for entertainment in Chelan?" After coming up somewhat empty for nightlife options, Jesse proposed that the three of them could plan to produce comedy shows. The key was that Jesse worked as the booker for the Hollywood Improv for over a decade, so he had access to an endless list of touring comedians from around the country.
One day while riding "The Lady of the Lake" to Stehekin, Kelsey came up with the name, Rotten Apple, for the budding event production company. She wanted to pay homage to the orchards that surrounded their home, while putting an edgy twist to the name. And Rotten Apple was born. After workshopping the details behind the brand, marketing and production plan, they set their sights on late May for their first run of shows. Locals and visitors quickly got word of the shows and with a successful first run of summer shows, the team was excited about the prospect of working as a year-round company. Rotten Apple's comedy shows were the culminating weekend events of 2019 Lake Chelan Winterfest; over 500 people from around the state attended the shows making the Winterfest shows the most successful to date. In addition, Rotten Apple was commissioned by the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce to produce a completely reimagined experience for October's annual Mahogany & Merlot boat show festival. 2019 also marked the year Rotten Apple expanded to Wenatchee, where it reached new audiences, formed business partnerships and continued to build its brand reach and identity.
Of course...it all came to a screeching halt when they made the decision to cancel their March and April shows due to upholding the safety guidelines put forth by both the federal and state governments. I reached out (from a safe 280,000 feet distance) to the dynamic duo about their company, their community, their brand new streaming variety show and about laughter in the time of Coronavirus.
You have had to cancel shows like most promoters/venues, what has the tone in the industry been like during this time?
We have been hit hard by the current social distancing and quarantine. With no chance to earn income from live events, we immediately recognized that our industry was going to suffer. However, our immediate concern is that our community was going to be severely affected. Living in a small town, the closures posed a real threat to forcing businesses to potentially shut down. Our first instinct was to get creative and get ahead of the challenge. We created a Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/chelanvalleystrong/) to create a unified home for live updates on business hours, volunteer opportunities, donations, curbside/delivery and COVID-19 news. It has over 650 members and is very active and many local business owners post and citizens show their support on a daily basis. We are in the works of creating a "Chelan Valley Strong" sticker to raise money for the local food bank.
For our business, we knew we had to get creative with our business model. How can an entertainment production company provide value for its audience online? If live events are no longer an option, then we knew we had to create digital content to fulfill our mission during this time. We turned on our cameras, brainstormed ideas and printed the digital film online. Over the last two weeks, we have written, directed and produced a mock infomercial, a song parody and a live-streamed variety show. It has taken hours of work, no sleep, learning on the fly and helpful feedback to pull that off so far. However, it has re-energized us, kept us positive and allowed us to stay connected to the community. We are now commiting to live streaming twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7pm on our Facebook page.
Many comedians have tried live streaming sets with various results. So much of comedy depends on the audience. Have you seen anybody having success with live streaming in a way that works specifically in terms of stand up?
It is very challenging to perform standup with no audience. However, we have been following Andrew Rivers and Cory Michaelis' show every Friday at 7pm. They do a good job of interacting with the commenters on their live stream and have brought on some awesome guests including Brad Upton and Gabriel Rutledge. @comedyquarantine is another live stream, daily at 7pm on Instagram, that is raising money for charity and their comics by bringing on some headliners like Margaret Cho and Cameron Esposito, who can drive traffic and exposure. The show has been funny and inspirational for us. It is very candid and the crew behind the show are doing it for a cause.
Truthfully, it is difficult for us to both keep track of everything that is happening out there while producing our own content. The hours in the day quickly disappear and we are exhausted by the end. Don't get me wrong, we love it. It's just hard to keep our eyes and ears to the digital streets while doing our thing.
THE RUBY THEATRE IN CHELAN
Tell us about your new variety show. Are you planning on doing this throughout the quarantine or possibly beyond?
The Rotten Apple Show! is a comedy variety show. Our show format is as follows: invite our comedian friends from around the country for a chat (and skits!) while Kelsey and I sprinkle in some pre-recorded skits, live segments, viewer interaction and other random fun. We loved our first live show and we were honored that people donated tips and subscribed to our Patreon. We are continuing to come up with new ideas, address the modern times and, most importantly, have fun and enjoy both the guests that come on as well as the viewers in an authentic way. Instead of hosting a stand-up show, we want to keep it loose and organic so that we can all be in it together, as opposed to having one person perform to an inaudible audience. We have no planned end to the show and are taking it one day at a time. We believe that no matter what, we have this opportunity to grow, add an online layer to our business and have the potential for a wider reach. Ultimately, it's about tapping into our passion to create and connect with people in any and every way we can.
Any guests you have coming up for the show you can share with us?
In the upcoming weeks, we have the master and super-quick comedian, Ian Bagg, and actor, writer and comedian, Joe DeRosa. Both killed it out here when they performed at our shows and are awesome people, period. We will be posting future shows on our Facebook page. We are hoping to stream both Facebook and YouTube simultaneously down the line. All in all, we are feeling positive and doing what we can from our homes to provide some laughs during these hard times. We love our community and we will do whatever it takes to survive. We are fighters and creators. Love will push us through this!
Chelan Valley Strong Facebook Group
