Channel Frederator Blog

Jonathan Katz, star of Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist and host of “Hey, We’re Back” took a moment to answer a few of Cartoon Hangover’s questions about his career and his animated short “Death Row Diet.”

Cartoon Hangover: What drew you to comedy initially?

Jonathan Katz: I had no other skills. I tried to tune pianos and I was a flop. I had a band and we were moderately successful. On a good night we made 600 dollars. We never had a good night.

CH: Who was good to you and gave you a lot of encouragement when you first started as a stand up comedian?

JK: Dom Irrera, his ex-wife, Lisa Mende, in her own odd way. Silver Friedman, the owner of the NY Improv. My wife. My wife again. Carol Siskind, a comedian who taught me the trick where you right something down. Carol Leifer, a wonderful comedian, Rita Rudner, Paula Poundstone, but [Read more…]

Mike Salva, animator of “Max the Hero” and this week’s Cartoon Hangover ‘toon “Death Row Diet” gives us some background on his work with comedy and capital punishment.

Cartoon Hangover: How did you become so involved with comedy? I mean, as adorable as animated tragedy is…

Mike Salva: I blame it on nine years of Catholic school. Laughter of any kind was discouraged. And I was there when the nuns weren’t allowed to hit the students anymore, so they started punishing the children with mental cruelty. And by golly, those nuns got to be pretty darn good at it!

CH: Why did you approach Jonathan Katz about animating “Death Row Diet”?

MS: I was a big fan of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. Jonathan had watched a cartoon I had made called “Max the Hero” and we had talked about Jon doing a voice in a future cartoon of mine, but I didn’t have a particular project in mind. [Read more…]

You like music? Animation? DINOSAURS?! Then it stands to reason that you will love this weeks animated music video. Thanks for casting your nominations for Channel Frederator and Cartoon Hangover at the Streamys! You’ve proven time and again that Frederator fans are the best fans of all the fans!

“Raindrops Keep Falling on the Dead”, by Alex De Campi: Flash animated music video for the group Flipiron.

*New episode of Cartoon Hangover this Friday! Jonathan Katz & Mike Salva! You can now follow CH on Twitter! Be our friend on Facebook!

*Follow CF on Twitter too!

*Want to submit? Then go for it! Click here!

WARNING: Channel Frederator is rated EXPLICIT. Man, 2010 is so *bleepin’* awesome! Oops. Sorry. Some content on CF is pretty grown up. If you’re under 18, get your parent’s permission prior to viewing.

-Bailee DesRocher

Animator (and superdad!) Mike Salva gives us the details on his short film “Back to Life” and the extremely cool stuff he has coming up (keep an eye out for his film “Max the Hero” screening at this year’s San Diego ComiCon!).

Channel Frederator: Where (if at all) did you study animation?

Mike Salva: Technically, I studied animation at the Film & Video Dept. of Rochester Institute of Technology, but they taught me next to nothing in the classrooms. Really. Nothing. Not even by accident. Since they weren’t teaching me anything, I watched horror movies and played video games with my buddy Stew for four years. Pretty much everything I know (which isn’t much) I learned on my own, and from watching far too many cartoons.

CF: What gave you the idea for “Back to Life”?

MS: An executive at Adobe asked me to make several funny “monster-themed” videos. I wanted at least one of them [Read more…]

Emily Salva was seven (yep, seven) years old when she made her short animation “Odysseus and the Cyclops”. She drew the drawings, and her dad, animator Mike Salva, brought them to life.

WARNING: The following interview is super cute. Read at your own risk.

Channel Frederator: What was your favorite part about making “Odysseus and the Cyclops”?

Emily Salva: I liked making fart sounds into the microphone but my Daddy told me to stop. Also, I liked doing the drawings.

CF: The film was for a class project - did you get a good grade?

ES: I got an A and I did better than all the other kids in the class. The kids were worried that I was going to do another video the next time we did a report.

CF: What do you want to be when you grow up?

ES: A drawing artist or a clay artist.

CF: How would you escape the Cyclops?

ES: I would hide behind a [Read more…]

The Daddy of all cartoon shows is here to bring you the Father’s Day goods!

Dads. Without ‘em, you wouldn’t have anyone to play catch with, to give you “the talk”, or to tell you to “take out those piercings or so help me…”

Aren’t dad’s the best? Enjoy this week’s ‘toons - but call your pop and wish him a Happy F’s Day first!

F as in Father. Oh, grow up.

“Odysseus and the Cyclops”, submitted by Emily Salva – Emily was seven years old when she made this cartoon for a class project… with a little help from Dad, of course.

“Back to Life”, submitted by Mike Salva – Hilarious animation by Emily’s Dad/top notch animator, Mike Salva! You did not see that coming. I wish you could see your face! Priceless! Featuring the voices of Nashville comedians Ryan Williams and Sean Parrott.

“Parallelostory”, submitted by Impactist – Sweet story about love that never intersects, [Read more…]