Interview: Situation: Comedy Star and The Sperm Donor Co-Creator Mark Treitel - Page 2

So you're saying things may not be quite what they seem.

Well, the editing can be very frustrating. When they edit it all together, it's very easy to make it look like someone's not working! I mean, we worked eight to ten hours a day, and the one minute where you're not working, they shoot it, and they do five of those in a row, and it looks like you're not working.

Do they film you from the minute you walk in up until you go home?

We got there at 8:00 every morning and left between 11 and midnight and they would put a microphone on you when you first got there and then start filming you. The first day Shoe got there, they actually followed him into the bathroom and he was like, "What are you guys doing?" They stopped after that.

Having a video camera on you is like being in the movie Goodfellas, where the characters develop this language where they're kind of talking in code. Shoe and I wound up talking in code and would talk about "the thing about the other thing" with gesturing!

So imagine what you're really good at, and having a camera put on you. It puts a tremendous amount of pressure on you. Our only goal was to make the best sitcom. And obviously the camera makes that a little bit harder, but you kind of get used to it.

Were there ever moments where you would say something and a producer would step in and say, "Hey, can you do that again"?

Not really. The thing about reality shows is that there is a lot of "real" stuff, like reactions to things. But I think you can tell when something doesn't sound real.

There was a scene where they said, "There's a deadline – you have to get it done by 9 PM." And it was just kind of weird. So toward the camera I said [very obvious and over-the-top], "Look Shoe, it's 9:00." It was a fake moment.

With reality shows, the POVs [point of views], the interviews, this happens a lot. Knowing what's going on, you can watch a lot of other shows a lot differently. You have to kind of know when the interview is being done. Is it being done during the taping of the show or after the fact?

The Real World seems to do a lot of this. I'm a reality…

A junkie?

Yeah. They'll speak in the present tense even though it's another time and another place.

Article Author: Eric Berlin

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