Recently, fellow comedian Kevin Avery announced he was going to make “Thugs, the Musical” into a film. I was enthusiastic to hear this, because Kevin’s made several other really hilarious short films like “Black Guys on a Beautiful Day.”
One of the things I love about “Thugs, the Musical” as a concept is it’s explained so quickly – all you need to hear is the title to find the funny. However, since people do like a little more detail, here’s the story line:
“Thugs, The Musical is about Michael Gardner, a mediocre, slightly delusional, and very “non-urban” black actor in Hollywood who, after years of auditioning but not being considered “black enough” to be cast in any of the roles that his fellow black actors have been getting – the Gangsta, the fast-talking Sidekick, the one doomed Black Guy at the party in the horror movie – decides to write, direct, and star in his own theater production – an epically bad play called Thugs, The Musical – to show Hollywood (and the world) that he, too, can “act black”.
The film, shot as a faux documentary, chronicles the making of the play, from rehearsals through its disastrous opening week, and spotlights a well meaning, but horribly inept cast performing musical numbers like “Who’s That Keepin’ It Real?”, “Drive-By” and “Oh No She Di-in’t” in what may possibly be the worst musical ever conceived.”
Even cooler, Kevin will be bringing in Margaret Cho, David Allen Grier, and Rachel True as actors. Also, Liam Kyle Sullivan is directing (he’s the guy who created all the hilariously funny Kelly videos like Shoes and Let Me Borrow That Top).
Kevin has a hilarious stand-up routine based on the concept which gives you a sense of things to come:
Here’s the thing – Kevin is doing this film with a professional cast and crew. The film has a $10,000 budget, but he’s only at around $5.5k right now. If you want to see this film get made, I encourage you to check out his Kickstarter page for the project and donate like I did. They have some amazingly cool giveaways for different donation levels. There’s also a funny video with Kevin and Margaret talking about the project. So please, check it out and consider donating or telling your friends about it.
Click here to go to the Kickstarter page for Thugs, the Musical.