Herman

Meet the team behind the SUBWAY® Fresh Artists Series "Herman":

Josh Eiserike - Producer
Josh Eiserike is a writer/cartoonist living in Los Angeles. He has written for the hit HUB animated series “G.I. Joe: Renegades” and MAD Magazine. His feature script “Booty Seekers,” a teen comedy set in pirate times was named a 2012 quarter finalist in the Nicholl Fellowship, sponsored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He is currently finishing his MFA in film production from the University of Southern California with an emphasis in writing and producing.

Josh’s first comic book “Class of ‘99” won an Ignatz Award (the Independent Spirit Award of the comic book world). Aintitcoolnews.com called his subsequent comic, amen-behaving-badly comedy titled “Assholes,” “A damn funny book.” His first graphic novel “Anyone But Virginia,” about a superhero who returns home to plan her high school reunion (and reconnect with friends and family), is currently distributed by Alterna Comics. Josh has also produced and written various short films, including“Volcano Girl,” based on “Anyone But Virginia.” He also produced USC thesis film"The Films of Avi Krum," starring Adam Herschman ("Accepted") and Dan Rather("CBS Evening News").
Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Josh worked as a reporter in the Washington, D.C. area for the Washington City Paper, The Examiner and the News and Messenger. Josh covered everything from Congress to rock music to video arcades to comic books. His reporting and editorial cartoons received awards from various press associations and the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists. He has also completed internships at Marvel Comics in New York and, in Los Angeles, at the management production company Aligned Entertainment and at Robert Zemeckis' production company ImageMovers.

Christian Contreras - Writer/Director
Christian Contreras is the director and co-writer of the Subway Fresh Artists web series, “Herman.”

Christian is originally from El Paso, TX where his love for cinema was cultivated by the rich Mexican culture of a border town community. He holds a BA in Electronic Media with a minor in Theatre Arts from the University of Texas at El Paso. In 2008, Christian won the national ‘Kennedy Center ACTF Barbizon Award for Excellence in Lighting Design’ for his work in his school’s production of Jose Rivera’s “Cloud Tectonics.”

Shortly after, Christian moved to Los Angeles, CA to pursue his passion for film and lighting. He is currently finishing his MFA in Film and TV Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where he focused his studies in cinematography and discovered his love for writing and directing.

Coming off his experience on “Herman,” Christian is revisiting his craze for puppets in his graduate thesis film, “Para Ellos,” a story about two children who journey across the U.S./Mexico border in search for their father; he is co-directing “Para Ellos” along with “Herman” producer, Victoria De La Torre. Christian hopes to continue making films that focus on the stories and experiences of the Mexican-American culture while pursuing a career in family entertainment.

Victoria De La Torre - Writer/Producer
Victoria De La Torre is a producer and co-writer of the SUBWAY Fresh Artists web-series ‘HERMAN’. This California native is a current MFA candidate at the USC School of Cinematic Arts Production Program. She received her BA in Communications fromCalifornia State University of San Bernardino where she had the opportunity of interning at Robert Greenwald Productions.

During her time at USC she has been a twice recipient of the Rodolfo Montes Memorial Scholarship and was also awarded the John Huston Directing Scholarship (2010-2011) for her USC film titled ‘THE DAY BEFORE’. Although Victoria aspires to write and direct she had the great fortune to discover a love for Production Design. Over the course of her USC studies she has designed and set decorated over 20 projects; including in- class exercises, music videos, advanced shorts and thesis films.

One of her best experiences by far is working on the ‘HERMAN’ SUBWAY web-series alongside her classmates and friends.

Victoria is most inspired by her family and culture and is currently working on her thesis film with ‘HERMAN’ director and co-writer Christian Contreras. She loves everything about the production process.



‘HERMAN’ - Episode #1

Herman arrives to Hollywood and is presented with the ‘roll’ of a lifetime.

Directed by Christian Contreras
Written by Christian Contreras & Victoria De La Torre
Produced by Victoria De La Torre & Josh Eiserike

PRINCIPLE CAST:
Herman - Voice and Puppetry by Danny Montooth
Mona - Voice by Amanda Troop | Puppetry by Amber Reeder & Alison Mork
Carlos - Voice and Puppetry by Kevin Carlson
Jacob - Voice by Adam Silver | Puppetry by Amber Reeder
Leroy - Voice by Dustin Jacobs | Puppetry by Erwin Bayan
Cindy - Lisa Martel
Wayne Lasso - Tim Moran

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Subway Fresh Artist Filmmaker Series

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MY DAMN CHANNEL -- My 5th Birthday Love Letter

I'm flying home from the 30th Birthday of "Just for Laughs" in Montreal -- the annual, best family reunion in comedy. I've just spent 4 daze and nights with many of the world's best comic minds -- and I'm heading into our birthday re-inspired to keep giving you more.

Everything everyone said about being an entrepreneur has turned out to be true. It's been much more rewarding to not work inside the old corporate monoliths of my past: MTV, VH1, CBS. But I'd never be here without remembering everything I learned there. It's been much harder work to create and run my own business -- the hours are endless -- the pressure to win for everyone who believes in us and works with us is a weight I've tried to carry with honor every day since leaving people like Mr. Moonves, Mr. Redstone, and their worlds 6 years ago.

We launched My Damn Channel July 31. 2007 to create a new destination for comedy fans and a new home for talent to get the freedom, money, production, distribution and promotion they deserve. Don Was still runs our music channel too. YouTube changed the world. Technology empowered every single content creator to finally get the equipment and distribution we needed to get our art seen by the masses without having to break down the walls of major television networks.

Most new companies never make it 5 years. We made it. Thank you for being part of this family and for supporting our simple mathematical premise: The Best Talent + The Best Original Entertainment = Big Audiences + Big Business.

From our first minute, we trusted smart artists to create their best work. We trusted smart fans to discern the difference between schlock and great video worthy of your views, likes, comments, and shares. This entire dream evaporates without you.

Smart advertisers trust us to deliver excellent talent, creative, production, distribution and promotion alongside every marketing dollar they spend to reach millions in a whole new way.

Our backers trust us never to raise too much or spend too much. They trust us to win big. Those backers include saints we love and many of our closest friends and family members.

To every artist, fan, advertiser, backer and business partner that's been with us since 2007 - thank you for believing and thank you for building the future of entertainment.

My Damn Channel would never have made it to our 5th birthday -- we'd never have even launched without WARREN CHAO. He's my Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, and the man who proves every single day that he's the most dedicated, brilliant, multi-talented executive in media. When I hatched the My Damn Channel idea in 2006, I went looking for the one person who could embody most of the things I was missing to take this dream from inception to glory. Warren is a Harvard graduate, a lawyer, a venture capitalist, a technologist, a business development executive and the only man in the world I'd trust to manage the math and the money. I want to thank Warren and his family for their trust as we all work every day to turn that trust into success.

Every artist who's ever had a video on My Damn Channel shares our belief that show business is best when TALENT is in charge. We vow to continue to put as many of you in charge of your art as we possibly can. We vow to continue to share your art with as many humans as possible. And yes...we vow to continue to share the cash.

Every person who's ever worked inside My Damn Channel has brought their energy, spirit, sweat, brain and backbone to help build an idea and a business that's grown gradually and consistently bigger every year. We worked together to try to avoid most of the mistakes of the first Internet bubble more than a decade ago. We worked tirelessly to outlast dozens of companies who raised countless millions to try to get this right. We worked together passionately to bring us onto the same stage as much deeper-pocketed, excellent pals like Funny or Die and College Humor. If you're on our team right now, you know that 2012 is the inflection point. This is the year when premium original content became the Queen and King at the prom. This is the year when our phones started ringing off the hook. This is the year we launched My Damn Channel LIVE every weekday afternoon with YouTube. This is the time when the great work you've done begins to reap more of the rewards you've earned.

Thank YOU again for every minute you've helped everyone at My Damn Channel.

Please share our link: www.MyDamnChannel.com

Please subscribe here: www.YouTube.com/MyDamnChannel

Please continue to let me know what you think of all that's good/bad/ugly -- and how we can work together.

Great art is usually reliant on breaking the rules. I apologize for breaking the rule to "keep it short" - but I couldn't let this 5th birthday go by without one final story:

My wife and I have twins who will also soon turn "5." My youngest daughter nearly broke my heart when she asked today why I couldn't have a job that got me home at 3 o'clock in the afternoon every day. She once asked me why I couldn't be a mailman - since he seemed to have to only work in the morning. The hours we all put into a career can be ridiculous and wrong. Jessie: I hope you find this one day and know that this was the night when your Dad started getting so good at his job making videos that he was home more with you and your sister and your brother and your most beautiful and loving mother.

Respect and Love,
Rob

(This note appeared originally on Rob Barnett's Facebook Page, 7/31/12)

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Status Kill Season Premiere

Today is the day! The season premiere of Status Kill from our very own Jesse Cowell. I could not be more excited. How about you guys? How excited are you? Are you excited enough to invite all your friends to the Facebook event I Hate Invites? Funny... right? Because it's an invite to watch a show about hating invites. Come on you guys… be that excited!

Denton Sparks is back and ready for action. He would never let any silly social media get in his way. He's way too professional to be wasting his time on silly social media sites… I'm kidding you guys, this series is ALL ABOUT the time we waste on silly social media sites. Wait, have you not seen the first season? Second question, what is wrong with you? GO WATCH IT NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

Status Kill is one of the more than 30 new original series we are creating for you in 2012. Season Two premiered during today's episode of My Damn Channel LIVE which you can watch here.

If you missed the premiere today during My Damn Channel LIVE then we can't be friends anymore. Don't cry. Come on, stop it. Fine we can still be friends but you have to do one thing for me. Watch Status Kill, share Status Kill, tell everyone you know about Status Kill (ok, so maybe that's three things). We cool internet? Alright cool, just don't fuck up again. Tweet @Jeskid and let him know what you think and watch for me @MrChrisDonahue in a tiny, small nonspeaking part in future episodes.

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How Many Netflix Movies Can Mark Malkoff Watch?

How many movies can one man watch in one month?

Who hasn't had the fantasy: "I'm going to stay home and watch movies all day. I'm going to catch up on the classics, see all those movies that I never had time to see, hell... I'll maybe I'll even watch a couple of those romantic comedies that my wife is always trying to make me enjoy... just because I CAN. I have Netflix streaming and I have access to a million movies 24 hours a day. WHY CAN'T I JUST STAY HOME AND WATCH MOVIES?"

Verbatim, right? Now you're all, "Get out of my head, My Damn Channel!"

Too late. We're just gonna dig in deeper because Mark Malkoff lived out your Netflix streaming movie watching fantasy and filmed it for us.

For "Netflix Challenge," Mark wanted to see exactly how many movies he could watch for $7.99 per month. Turns out, it's 252.

Before you say, "252? Well that sounds easy as sh*t," think about this: Mark gained 6 pounds by barely moving all month. When he did move, he still had to watch movies on his iPhone and iPad. He started doing bad Jack Nicholson impressions.

Of course, the good parts of this whole thing are that both Andrew McCarthy and Jason London decided to provide him with live commentary of the movies St. Elmo's Fire and Dazed and Confused, respectively.

Make sure you watch the video to see how Mark took movie suggestions from people on Twitter, Facebook -- even Mashable commenters.  Watch it to see Andrew McCarthy cart Mark around in a red wagon. And watch it to see how Mark got through all of these movies (yes, he even devoted an entire day to Razzie winners):

#1. The Graduate
#2. Chinatown
#3. Bonnie and Clyde
#4. A Clockwork Orange
#5. Paper Moon
#6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
#7. Harold and Maude
#8. Marathon Man
#9. Being John Malkovich
#10. Reservoir Dogs
#11. Swingers
#12. Trainspotting
#13. Clerks
#14. Girl, Interrupted
#15. The Grifters
#16. Sliding Doors
#17. Reality Bites
#18. Office Space
#19. The Big Lebowski
#20. Ghostbusters
#21. Dumb and Dumber
#22. Airplane
#23. The Producers
#24. This is Spinal Tap
#25. Arthur
#26. Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
#27. Client 9: Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer
#28. Rolling Stones: Stones in Exile
#29. Page One: Inside the New York Times
#30. Waiting for Superman
#31. American: The Bill Hicks Story
#32. Classic Albums: U2: The Joshua Tree
#33. The Way We Get By
#34. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
#35. St. Elmo’s Fire
#36. Dirty Dancing
#37. The Lost Boys
#38. Dream a Little Dream
#39. License to Drive
#40. Girls Just Want to Have Fun
#41. Heathers
#42. Weird Science
#43. Duck Soup
#44. A Night in Casablanca
#45. Love Happy
#46. Steamboat Bill, Jr.
#47. College
#48. The Navigator
#49. Seven Chances
#50. Sherlock Jr.
#51. Go West
#52. Our Hospitality
#54. Rocky
#55. Hoosiers
#56. The Hustler
#57. The Longest Yard (original)
#58. The Cutting Edge
#59. Senna
#60. Fever Pitch (original)
#61. The Terminator                    
#62. Die Hard 2                             
#63. Lethal Weapon                        
#64. 13 Assassins                               
#65. Enter the Dragon                        
#66. The Expendables                   
#67. Dillinger                     
#68. Dirty Harry
#69. Donnie Darko
#70. Tiny Furniture
#71. Wet Hot American Summer
#72. World’s Greatest Dad
#73. Punch-Drunk Love
#74. Broken Flowers
#75. Anvil! The Story of Anvil
#76. Winter’s Bone
#77. Insidious
#78. An American Werewolf in London
#79. Paranormal Activity 2
#80. Creature from the Black Lagoon
#81. Saw: The Final Chapter
#82. House on Haunted Hill
#83. Dracula
#84. Audition
#85. Scream 2
#86. Being Elmo
#87. Helvetica
#88. Dazed and Confused
#89. Bill Cunningham New York
#90. This Film is Not Yet Rated
#91. Dear Zachary
#92. Man on a Wire
#93. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
#94. Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
#95. Dive
#96. Gigli
#97. Battlefield Earth
#98. Xanadu
#99. Cop and a Half
#100. Indecent Proposal
#101. The Last Airbender
#102. Rocky 4
#103. Spy Kids
#104. Cheaper by the Dozen
#105. Fred: The Movie
#106. Dr. Dolittle
#107. Dark Crystal
#108. Babe: Pig in the City
#109. Rango
#110. Labyrinth
#111. True Grit (original)
#112. True Grit (remake)
#113. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
#114. Dead Man
#115. Shane
#116. Two Mules for Sister Sara
#117. The Warrior’s Way
#118. High School Musical
#119. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
#120. Sense and Sensibility
#121. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family
#122. Iron Man 2
#123. The Phantom
#124. Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
#125. Planet of the Apes
#126. They Live
#127. RoboCop
#128. Serenity
#129. Starship Troopers
#130. Dreamscape
#131. The Final Countdown
#132. 1984
#133. Little Shop of Horrors (original)
#134. Annie
#135. Gypsy
#136. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
#137. Love Me Tender
#138. Camp
#139. Bikini Beach
#140. There’s No Business Like Show Business
#141. Troll 2
#142. Cool as Ice
#143. Birdemic: Shock and Terror
#144. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie
#145. Titanic 2
#146. Ed
#147. Best Worst Movie
#148. Shark Attack 3: Megalondon
#149. The Thing with Two Heads
#150. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
#151. Oldboy                        
#152. Exit Through the Gift Shop
#153. Brick                                                       
#154. Good Will Hunting
#155. Trollhunter                   
#156. Malice in Wonderland                    
#157. 21 Grams                         
#158. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
#159. Network
#160. Edward Scissorhands
#161. Top Gun
#162. Time Bandits
#163. The Red Balloon
#164. The Wiz
#165. The Karate Kid#
#166. Swimming with Sharks
#167. The People vs. George Lucas
#168. Thirst
#169. Return of the Pink Panther
#170. Buck
#171. The Landlord
#172. One Bright Shinning Moment
#173. The Paper Chase
#174. Reel injun
#175. Tales from the Script
#176. Murder!
#177. Dail M for Murder
#178. The Lady Vanishes
#179. The Manxman
#180. Young and Innocent
#181. Number 17
#182. The Man Who Knew Too Much
#183. The Stranger
#184. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
#185. The Seven Year Itch
#186. The King and Four Queens
#187. The Lady Eve
#188. How to Steal a Million
#189. Anastasia
#190. Father’s Little Dividend
#191. The Raven
#192. Serpico
#193. Smoke Signals
#194. Passion of the Christ
#195. Whale Rider
#196. The Lincoln Lawyers
#197. 8 ½
#198. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
#199. The Outsider
#200. Submarine
#201. Ballerina
#202. The Trip
#203. Gosford Park
#204. Groundhog Day
#205. Me and Orson Welles
#206. The Double
#207. Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows
#208. WWE’s Rivalries: Michaels vs Hart
#209. The Rise & Fall of WCW
#210. The Top 50 Incidents in WWE History
#211.  The Epic Journey of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
#212. Bobby Heenan
#213. Ricky Steamboat: Life Story of the Dragon
#214. Card Subjec to to Change
#215. The American Dream: The Dusty Rhodes Story
#216. Champion
#217. The Man Who Wasn’t There
#218. The Gold Rush
#219. Bad Company
#220. Rubber
#221. Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
#222.  Bob Dylan: Never Ending Tour Diaries
#223.  Biggie & Tupac
#224.  Ginger Baker in Africa
#225. Moog
#226. Heavy Metal in Baghdad
#227. Kurt Cobain: About a Son
#228. The Art of 16 Bars
#229. The Invisible Man                
#230. The Wolf Man                        
#231. The Mummy’s Curse  
#232. Something to Cheer About
#233. The Invention of Dr. Nakamats
#234. She Done Him Wrong                  
#235. Laurel & Hardy: Flying Deuces          
#236. The Battleship of Potemkin       
#237. The Hornets Nest                 
#238. So This is New York             
#239. It   
#240. Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
#241. Dance with Me Henry
#242. Nothing Sacred
#243. Pulling John
#244. food Matters
#245. Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven
#246. I Need That Record
#247. Road to the Big Leagues
#248. To Live and Ride in LA
#249. Almost Elvis
#250. Dog Day Afternoon
#251.  Into the Abyss
#252. Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade

For Mark's "Netflix Challenge" diary, visit his blog at MarkMalkoff.com.

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Be our social media intern.

This is his "excited" face.

Meet Matt The Intern.

Look at how excited Matt The Intern is to be one of the very first people holding the brand-new Wainy Days DVD.

If you were our intern you would be as lucky as he is, too. In FACT, today IS your lucky day because we need social media and graphics interns.

Here's the deal:

• *We are located in New York City, so you must be, too. Or you must be willing at least to commute into New York City on a regular basis.
• *You can receive college credit! If this is of interest to you we can do this... however...
• *Being a student is not a prerequisite. Just know that.

Here are the skills we're looking for:

• *You should be familiar with our content. Some of it. All of it. Take your pick. But you should know something about us.
• *You should have strong writing skills. Please send us links to your Twitter and Tumblr and blog. But not your Pinterest. We don't care about that...YET.
• *You should have basic Photoshop and HTML skills. Have you ever created an image for a meme? Have you posted said image to your blog without the benefit of a blog editor? Do you sometimes wish you could just hold up an animated gif in real-life situations? Fantastic. You're who we want.
• *Basic Final Cut Pro or other video editing skills are wonderful and we could definitely figure out how to use your skills effectively and creatively, but they are not necessary.

Here's what you'd be doing:

• *Hanging out on Tumblr all day.
• *Creating gifs of our content.
• *Helping us think of hashtags.
• *Photoshopping Mary Lynn Rajskub's head onto Jeremy Lin's body just because we think saying "Mary Lynn-sanity" is funny.
• *Helping to optimize all of our social media outlets aesthetically and strategically.
• *Not all of it is fun. Sometimes there is data entry. Sometimes there is heavy lifting. Sometimes there is a coffee run that needs running.

BUT you would definitely get a Wainy Days DVD. Well, probably.

Please send all inquiries to Maria [at] MyDamnChannel [dot] com.

Thanks! And may the odds be ever in your favor! (But not in a BAD Hunger Games sort of way!)

(PS: We have several videos starring Elizabeth Banks!)

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Mary Lynn Rajskub Is Our Newest Series Star.

Meet "Dicki."

She's fortysomething. She lives at home with her parents. She's "artsy." She likes Double Gulp sodas. She's looking for love.

And she's played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, whom you might know from 24, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Mr. Show with Bob and David and The Larry Sanders Show.

But Dicki is special. You'll get a chance to see HOW special she is this Thursday at www.MyDamnChannel.com/Dicki.

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David Wain is SEXY.

David Wain is a sex machine.
He dates the hottest women that you've ever seen.
It seems unlikely but it's totally true
If you don't understand it we'll explain it to you...

Way back in August of '11 we went to Just For Laughs in Montreal and did "Wainy Days LIVE" with David Wain, Rob Corddry, Reggie Watts and a bunch of their super-talented friends.

Two of those friends were Garfunkel and Oates aka Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci, two of the sweetest, funniest, most talented, adorable people you could ever hope to meet in your entire life. In Montreal, they wrote a song about how sexy David Wain must be since in every episode of Wainy Days gorgeous women are falling over themselves to be with him. When we all returned home, everyone thought it would be a shame to keep the brilliance of that song limited to a few hundred people in French-Speaking Quebec, so we filmed it and are sharing it with the world.

Watch it and share it with your friends. It's like a little bit of joy right on your computer screen.

And Kate and Riki have both been on television and in film so they would know what sexy is, right? They're like comedic rock stars, right? The LA Times wrote a feature about them! They would know what would make a pretty girl want to lick an average 42 year old body!

Could it be they find David Wain that sexy because he told them that Season 5 of his groundbreaking web series Wainy Days is returning to My Damn Channel this Fall?! Yes. That's it. That's very much what it must be. For sure.

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Looking for Grace or Molly? Well, I'm Maria.

(Stuff You're Looking For On This Blog)

You guys search for a lot of info about Daily Grace and Mememolly. And that's cool.

But I'm not Grace or Molly. Sorry. My name is Maria.

(Sorry. Not blonde.)

I am My Damn Channel's "Social Media Voice," which means I write My Damn Channel's Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and House Blog, among other things. Yes, it's my fault that the photoshop is bad and the jokes aren't funny and no one comments. So, if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm pretty good at my job.

What other kinds of things would you like to see here? What other things would you like to know? Tell me. Let's TweetTumblFaceBlogSquare together. Leave some comments. Talk to me on Tumblr and Twitter and Facebook and stuff. I posted a picture of myself with a light switch, for God's sake. If that doesn't scream "you can talk to me" I don't know what does.

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We Like The Sklar Brothers

(The Sklar Brothers at My Damn Channel HQ!)

We like The Sklar Brothers.

They're funny. Their podcast is reliably funny. They did a web series with us called Back On Topps, which got us as close to Yankees GM Brian Cashman as we're probably ever going to get:

And this week they put out a new album, "Hendersons & Daughters."

In fact, it's already Number One on the iTunes Comedy chart:

(You guys knocked Daniel Tosh out of the top spot! Thank goodness.)

So check it out. Buy the album. Tell them we said "Thanks for being so nice that one time you came by the office." And always make sure that you shout out loud whenever and wherever you possibly can, "HENDERSON!!!"

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