Rated "R" (for Ramsey)

Rated "R" (for Ramsey)

"Quality over quantity," is a favorite axiom parroted amongst "creative types," but for John Ramsey, there doesn't seem to be a choice. With a steady string of comedy awards and accolades that include an appearance on Comedy Central's Live at Gotham, HBO's Aspen Comedy Festival and the titles of Funniest Person in Austin 2005, Funniest Filmmaker in Austin 2007 and, most recently, the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival's Gold Brick Award for comedy filmmaking excellence, John Ramsey's rapidly growing body of work is an enviable portfolio of both quality and quantity.

We give up - what's his secret? Last Gas Comedy's shortcut-seeking, over-the-shoulder-peeking investigator, Albert Im, decided to find out.

***SPOILER ALERT: The secret is to just make a lot of good stuff. All the time.***

ALBERT IM: Tell me about the Rooftop award. I wasn’t at the Aspen festival – how did you find out that you were nominated?
JOHN RAMSEY: Well I wasn’t at the festival either. What happened was they sent me a notice early on saying that I had been nominated. You can upload your short films to their site and I think that’s where they mostly got their nominees. I specifically made a short film for the CMT competition I was in and that’s really when they started watching my short films. They sent me a notice that I had been nominated and I think for that award it’s within the Rooftop staff. As far as letting me know, and I don’t know if this is public knowledge, but they let me know ahead of time because they wanted a “thank you” video to play at Aspen because I wasn’t going to be there. Ironically enough, I couldn’t get it together.

AI: Really?
JR: Yeah. Part of it is, there’s been a couple times when I’ve been asked to do something like that, but I put so much effort into making those short films that I don’t really want something out there that’s just crap.
AI: (Laughs) Even if it’s just you saying “hey, thanks for the award?”
JR: Well yeah, especially for a filmmaker award because I don’t think you understand how bad it would be for me to do it – I have no technical skills whatsoever. And that’s another thing, I haven’t had a chance to contact them yet, but I want to make sure it’s changed to “Ramsey Bros Pictures" or at least John and Richard Ramsey because my brother is 50% of that process. I get a lot of credit for my brother’s work. So, I didn’t feel like I could get it together in time to make something. I guess I could just say, “thank you,” but I wanted to do something a little more than that – not for me but for other comedians who expect more than that and I, for whatever reason, feel like if I can’t do it well than I don’t want to do it. I even have problems uploading things to the site, that’s how bad I am.

AI: And that’s a good point, not everyone knows that these films are a collaborative effort between you and your brother.
JR: Except for the Country Music thing, we submit everything under “Ramsey Bros Pictures” and everything has credits on it. I think because it’s comedy and I do comedy people associate it with me.

AI: That’s why I assumed you were at the Aspen Festival, because you had been there before to perform stand-up.
JR: That’s right. And I'm the only one Rooftop knows, but as far as my brother’s concerned, the people he works with and the people that know him think they’re his films. They call them “Richie’s films,” and they are. It’s pretty 50/50: I write them, we both conceptualize them although I defer to him on all that – if we have a disagreement, it’s his decision that goes on anything artistic/shooting/concept, that kind of stuff. He edits it, which is a major portion of it, and then I fund them and produce them by getting all the locations and people - that kind of stuff.

AI: The film you won Funniest Filmmaker in Austin with, “How the South was Lost,” was that a short you made specifically for the contest, or were you already working on it?
JR: It was something we had already decided to shoot and I think had already scheduled to shoot and then we found out about the contest so we kind of rushed it to make sure we could enter it.

AI: Was that the first Ramsey Bros film that you guys had worked on? It’s the first that I was aware of.
JR: Yeah, that was the first. Basically, I pushed my brother and said I thought it would be good for us and our careers to team up and he was excited about it and [the script] was already written - it was something I had written in college. So yeah, that was the first thing we worked on together.

AI: How important was it to have that impetus?
JR: As far as getting “How the South was Lost” done, the contest was just a deadline-pusher. We were gonna get that movie done – we were probably gonna get it done two weeks later. However, winning that contest actually did a lot for us in that it gave us early validation that we were onto something and it also got us passes to the Austin Film Festival, which we both attended and learned a ton from. At that point it got us really interested in film – I mean, [Richie] was already interested in film but it got me really interested in film and it got us to learn a lot together and experience that together. In hindsight it was a really good catalyst for us to continue what we do.

AI: What was the most informative part of the festival?
JR: Well, it’s hard to put my finger on… I think just every once in a while it’s good to be saturated with something that you’re passionate about and it’s not that I can pinpoint one particular lesson... I learned so much. It's more that you get to wallow in a lot of the thoughts and dreams you’ve had for a week, which is motivating. It’s also enlightening because you see people who have succeeded at what you want to do and at the same time see thousands of people that you know will never succeed. On the one hand you’re like “oh look, this is possible,” and on the other hand “this is impossible.” In that sense, it’s just enlightening. I don’t know where I fall in the end, whether I’m someone that can’t make it or can, but it’s altogether informative to sit there with a thousand people knowing that none of them, if anyone, will actually be a success while, at the same time, listening to someone who in fact made it.

AI: I think that the same thing would apply to stand-up comedy or just any other job for that matter – no matter what it is, it’s a lot of work. It’s not like someone can say “hey, I’m involved in movies so… at some point I’ll be famous!” It’s a lot of work, just like any other job. The only difference is that it might happen to be a job that you’re passionate about but your passion still requires a lot of work.
JR: (Laughs) Right. It’s a ton of work just to do those dumb… I always call them “dumb” but those short films we do are so much work for what they end up being. You would think that if you are going to put that much work into something it would be meaningful and not just silly.

AI: Well, a lot of people get a lot of enjoyment out of your work.
JR: We try to tell ourselves that. The hope is that these projects lead to bigger projects so we don’t just do them for the actual product but ideally to build some capital and knowledge that will lead to bigger and bigger projects.

AI: From your own personal experience, what advice could you give to someone interested in making films?
JR: I would say a couple things – one, for stand-up comedians who have any interest in it, I would really encourage them to do it and I say that because I’ve gotten stand-up work from my films. People who have seen my short films and see that I do stand up will hire me, like private companies. They’re private shows so it’s more money and I’ve gotten some acting work and stuff like that as well. So my first bit of advice is that if you’re thinking about doing it at all – do it. It cannot possibly hurt to diversify. Secondly, there’s a balance. Some people will say, “just shoot it – just do whatever you have to do to shoot it – get as much stuff as possible” and there’s some merit to that, but I also believe in making sure everything you put out is as high a quality as you can make it. I don’t think quality should be a hindrance to you doing it – if your quality is limited, make it anyway – but I’d say it’s worth it to make it in the highest quality possible. Not only because people are going to look at everything you do and judge you from it, but you learn a lot more by doing it that way and for comedy I think it makes it funnier.
AI: Funnier when it’s produced in high quality?
JR: Yeah. Just to clarify - there are certain sketches that don’t need quality filming. There are some great sketches out there that are clearly just a guy holding a camera – like the David Blaine sketches are hilarious. There are certain sketches that will lend themselves to not needing a certain quality. I don’t have any ability in that regard but I know people who do, so I’m lucky. But if I didn’t, I would try to write things that don’t need quality. The camera is just like another character in a sketch and you can really use editing and good shots to affect comedy.