TOP 11 of '11

It's the 5th year we get to thank you and wish you Happy Holidays from the heart (no joke).

We honestly love you for watching & sharing My Damn Channel original videos.

We promise to deliver the goods again in '12‚ and we'll be launching our new daily live show with YouTube, strangely titled: MY DAMN CHANNEL: LIVE


The staff took an informal poll and picked 11 faves from the past year‚ they're all HERE for your holiday dining and dancing pleasure:

1. WAINY DAYS - Kelly & Arielle (Part 1)
David Wain returns in the triumphant Season 5 of our longest-running hit comedy series with a killer new cast & a new sponsor: FIAT!

2. GIGI: ALMOST AMERICAN - Donate Good Cause
Josh Gad stars as "Gigi," an awesome, original character that infected our fans on My Damn Channel and on YouTube.

3. GARFUNKEL & OATES - David Wain is Sexy
Garfunkel & Oates created this chart-topper to honor WAINY DAYS with David Wain guesting on vocals and guitar.

4. DAILY GRACE - Official Sexy Friday song with Rebecca Black
Rebecca Black recently told YouTube that our My Damn Channel goddess, Daily Grace was one of her favorite people on YouTube. Grace invaded Rebecca's studio for the surprise awesome duet of the year.

5. HARRY SHEARER - Touch My Junk
Our patron saint and in-house hero has blown our brains with original videos since day ONE back in 2007. Here's his musical love note to airport TSA pat-downs.

6. MARK MALKOFF - Apple Store Challenge
MARK MALKOFF - Big Wheel vs. Bus
Every Malkoff adventure captures our imagination, lotsa video views and tons of well-deserved press. He tied for #6 with two videos that tapped the zeitgeist in 2011.

7. VERSAILLES - Episode #7
David Hunt created one of the most original series on My Damn Channel this year with an amazing cast joining him including Patricia Heaton, William H. Macy, Eve Gordon, Martha MacIsaac & the great Fred Willard.

8. SLACKTORY - Slackgeist 2011: The Year in Stupidity
We launched a new My Damn Channel Blog Network this year and Nick Douglas is running an awesome new site for us called Slacktory. Their blog posts are toooo good and they make videos tooo. Here's their year-ender.

9. WAINY DAYS - Kelly & Arielle (Part 4)
Thomas Lennon reunites with David Wain in this new episode from Season 5.

10. SAUL HERNANDEZ - Molecular (from our music channel produced by Don Was)
Don Was is one of the greatest musicians and music producers there is. He's been running our music channel here since day one in 2007 & we all fell in love with one of this year's original songs by Saul Hernandez, lead vocalist and songwriter for the Mexican bands Caifanes and Jaguares.

11. DICKI - Making Friends
We're in love with Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe from "24"). She's a new member of the My Damn Channel fam with an original character comedy, DICKI.

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Waste Time With Us In Even More Places!

We have a foursquare page!

We debuted it in stealth mode a couple of weeks ago, but we figured it would be a good time to tell everyone about its existence today since Mark Malkoff would be checking in all over New York City.

So you should follow us on foursquare. We're making lists of places you should go, curated carefully by our staff. We're giving you tips on what to do to ensure maximum fun time. And since our staff are the ones making these lists, you might even run into one of us having a drink somewhere, or just laughing really hard at with our friends.

We'll also use the page to tell you when we're doing fun things and carrying around free My Damn Channel swag to give away to our friends.

So follow us, friend us and hang out with us. Unless that restraining order is still in effect (you know who you are).

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"4 MORE YEARS"

Huge thanks to everyone who made last night's 4th Birthday Party a whole lotta love!

We're honored to be a part of this creative community.

Huge thanks to everyone who takes a minute to watch - share - and like - the work of the artists we love and respect.

To our artists, fans, staff, advertisers, partners, investors, families and friends (who'd we leave out?)...we love you for helping us all get this far. We're committed to making more goodness for "4 MORE YEARS" and beyond.

Respect & Love,

Rob

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Time for The Temp Life!

We've been watching The Temp Life, a series about the head of a temp agency who falls from grace and has to temp his way back up the ladder, since CJP Digital Media created it in 2006 for Spherion Staffing Services. 

With the premiere of Season 5, The Temp Life becomes  the longest-running original branded entertainment web series. and we're very proud to add The Temp Life to our roster, because The Temp Life's Season 5 was written by "Legend of Neil" writers Tony Janning and Gabe Uhr, will feature guest appearances by Taryn Southern, Tony Janning and Milo Ventimiglia, and-- not least of all--  because it features some familiar faces:


Illeana Douglas as "Eve Randall"


Sandeep Parikh as "Stevie P."

 
Wilson Cleveland as "Nick 'Trouble' Chiapetta"

 
and Craig Bierko as "Eddie Chiapetta"

We won't bore you with stories of our own experiences as temps.  Like the time we worked as a typist for a religious cult that sold yoga classes.  Or the time we worked for a legal headhunter who made us cut and paste newspaper articles into scrapbooks that she could read each night when she took the subway home.  Or the time we worked as a receptionist for a major television network and wrote down in our personal contact list all the extensions for the programming executives-- you know, just in case. 

We won't tell you about all of those stories because they're not nearly as interesting as the season premiere of Season 5, which you should totally watch right now-- unless you're a temp currently on assignment, in which case: finish your work, turn in your time sheet, get your supervisor's signature and watch The Temp Life only when you're sure no one has any other work to dump on you assign you.  Trust us.

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Rob Barnett and Mark Malkoff on The Adam Carolla Show!

Blogworld is the gift that keeps on giving!

While they were all in Las Vegas to do the closing keynote for Blogworld, founder/CEO Rob Barnett and Mark Malkoff made guest appearances on Adam Carolla's podcast.

Rob and Adam are old friends so naturally they talk about:

• *How they're both probably in higher demand for keynotes than Screech and Carrot Top
• *How they're probably not as in high demand as George Clooney and Brad Pitt
• *How Rob hired Adam to replace Howard Stern
• *How Penn Jillette is ridiculously tall
• *How My Damn Channel and The Adam Carolla Show are going to work together!!!

And, to that last point, we feel like this:



Mark Malkoff's segment begins around 40 minutes in, and Adam promptly calls him "Mark Mackoff."  It's okay, though, they blame it on the bad handwriting of one of Adam's staff.  And then they talk about:

• *How Mark has a Guinness World Record in something
• *How Mark learned you can flush an entire roll of toilet paper down an airplane toilet in 4 seconds
• *How Adam HATES IT WHEN PEOPLE CAN'T EVEN MAKE A SIMPLE QUESADILLA
• *How Mark spent 5 Days In The Bathroom

So listen to the show now! 

Or go to Adam's website to hear it!   

You can even download it directly into iTunes!

Phew.  That was a lot.  Here, have a Rob Barnett and Adam Carolla chaser:

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My Damn Channel: Our 3rd Birthday

My Damn Channel is 3 years old today.

Punk was still a baby when this photo was taken. Nixon is looming in the background. He's pointing the finger!

The pic is taken during a time called "college radio" before consultants sucked freedom out of the souls of rock radio madmen and mystical women who turned us onto music completely capable of changing and defining our lives.

I first met Harry Shearer that year. I chased rock dreams through radio, television and film - and called Harry in late 2006, with the idea to start a then-unnamed business which became My Damn Channel. I called Don Was. I called David Wain.

We launched My Damn Channel exactly 3 years ago, on July 31, 2007.



We give artists we love, trust and respect all the tools they need to skip over stone walls of multi-national media empires and create video delivered directly to you.

We've never been stupid enough to think www.MyDamnChannel.com would be the most visited online destination in the world. But we built a home base big and bad enough for every creator to have their own channel and we built a massive distribution network to move video onto every digital platform where we can make a solid business deal to support the work. The good shit ain't free.

We built a business driven by advertising, licensing and the certainty that we can bring you talent and content in special events later this year - worthy of a buck or two from you to support the art. Crazy, right?

Artists like Illeana Douglas prove that companies like IKEA can connect in a whole new way with millions of people watching millions of videos every hour. Illeana birthed a baby called "Easy to Assemble," which Ad Age dubbed "the most-watched sponsored web show."



We survived the world's worst economy and found our way to success because YOU watch and share our videos. THANK YOU.

We have artists that trust us to respect their art. THANK YOU.

We have sponsors and business partners who believe that we can deliver the good shit and guarantee millions of eyes on it all. THANK YOU.

We have backers who put their faith and coin into a vision for a new show business as powerful today as television was in the 50's. YOU GET IT! THANK YOU!

We have a man named Warren Chao, our Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, who knew how to stop us from avoiding most of the mistakes baby companies make to screw it all up. Warren: I've never known a single human being as smart, dedicated and effective inside a company as you. THANK YOU.

Biggest thanks to our families for not killing us when the hill seemed to high to climb! 

RESPECT and THANKS to every one of you who have spent a day inside our small, evolving staff of rebels and business partners.
(Keep an eye out for your party invite!)



We start year four today. Documented in "the world's longest press release" here - with all our new channels for your immediate inspection.

One more major announcement is coming out in days to prove that you'll still have My Damn Channel to kick around for years to come. 
F Nixon.

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THE POINT

Our 2d anniversary arrives next month. Taking stock tonight. Thinking about the reasons we birthed this baby. Thinking about the point. And honoring every collaborator still passionate enough to rally against bullshit.

Warren Chao & I started our ride because YouTube turned old media upside down and ignited a new democratic digital revolution. Media corporations born in the 1920's don't do rebellion well. It became clear that timing and technology gifted us a chance to launch a new, independent media company.

We set out to serve 3 masters:

- to give talent unprecedented freedom to create for their fans

- to give our community the best original work from artists without all of the usual network interference in the way

- to give brands the benefits of reaching one of the most engaged, mass audiences created since the birth of Rock & Roll.

We saw 3 distinct video doors opening:

Door #1: User-generated, aggregated
Door #2: Repurposed professional
Door #3: Original

YouTube created and won the first game. All who attempt to grab this throne face a heavy slog.

There's clearly a business in repurposing television and other old goodies through new media distribution. But we're not the moguls who control that solid gold.

We create original, episodic comedy, music and sports with artists who are as honest as their fans.

Our staff is ridiculously small. Our goals are extremely large. We're heading into one of the more 'interesting' weeks (long XTC story about that another time) and we're heading into the 2d anniversary zone by honoring U humans responsible for creating, distributing and watching our videos. Thanks for being a part of this.

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REBORN

Welcome to the rebirthing. My Damn Channel is all new.

For 21 months, we slowly built a world to co-create the best, original series with the pros that we love in film and television, music and comedy.

We crunched stats last night during our all-night reincarnation and our year-to-year comps for eyeballs are awesome. We can’t thank you enough for taking 3 or 4 or 5 minutes to be here from time to time & support the likes of Harry Shearer, Don Was, David Wain, Daily Grace, Sam Seder, Sarah Silverman, “You Suck at Photoshop” and every artist that decided to create for you here. 

We gave our pros a safe haven where ‘the suits’ are never welcome. We gave our artists direct access to you – without the layers of show business bullshit that normally get in the way.

We raised less than most – we spent less than most – we’re staffed tinier than most. But when triple-digit audience growth brought big sponsors, we were finally ready to re-invest in what we hope is a much better viewing experience.

Take this baby out for a test drive – share the ride – spread the news – post our link – status update us – tweet this re-launch & let us know what you think.

DAY ONE features the season 4 premiere of WAINY DAYS. We worship David Wain. Tonight’s first-ever WAINY DAYS LIVE show is now sold out.

We just learned that the first 2 weeks of PILOT SEASON racked up over 2 million views!! You can watch the first 4 episodes now starring Sam Seder, Sarah Silverman, Andy Dick, David Cross & Isla Fisher.

Thank you for getting us this far. We’re going to continue to unleash the audacity of HBO and bring you the best stuff that outdoes the rest.

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9 DEFINED

If you made it here to THE NIGHT FEED blog on MY DAMN CHANNEL even once before, then you've likely made it into more than one of the 9 circles below.

HAPPY 09! The sun is coming up & as we get ready to race around it again with you - here are nods & promises: 

To Our Families & Friends:

The work is impossible without your support & meaningless without your love. 

To Our Artists: 

To those who've been with us, those who remain, & those about to join My Damn Channel in 09...we built this ship for you: a studio, a network, a syndicator & a cash-creator like no other. Freedom reigns - red tape disappears & you're in the driver's seat to reach as large an audience as you can - and to reap the rewards you deserve. We worship your ability to make people smile, dance & think.

To Our Fans: 

Thank you for finding us, for spreading our url and our videos - but most importantly - thank you for setting the bar as high as you like. The stats don't lie and we're ready for another 365-day lesson about what you want and what's not worth shit.

We built the site going against the grain where a zillion others put a few needles inside a humungous haystack. Here, we bring you a smaller number of better web series. But there's enough of you coming now on a daily basis to grab more help from sponsors - so you'll get MORE series to watch.
 
We trust you to keep attacking us with what's right & what's horribly wrong. You know how to find us.

To Our Advertisers:

We found you an experienced and skilled new leader in Suhaila Suhimi. In the first days of 09, we're ready to unveil our new plans. We're going to give you the opportunity to get inside new series with major talent. And we're also ready to co-create more branded entertainment that delivers high-quality, affordable, effective results.    

To Our Backers: 

Others have fallen trying in 08. They raised too much (or too little), they over-promised, under-delivered, and crashed. Thank you for believing that we could sign pro talent, build big audience, and win the trust of major advertisers to bring us to break-even at break-neck pace. We've proven that our model works, now we prove that it scales. 

To Our Syndication partners:  

You've given us the promotion and the placement we needed to prove that our videos deliver for your audiences. To potential new partners, we'll continue to offer the best original music & comedy and ask just two things in return: significant promotion and a straight-up rev deal.

To Our Competitors: 

Respect to every runner out there who is brave enough to enter the race.  There's room for more than a few winners. And there's room for some of the smarter teams to run together.

To Our Staff & Every Human creating My Damn Channel 24/7: 

We're a small group of determined punks proving that you don't need a thousand execs to screw in a light bulb. Your brilliance is blinding. Your dedication is inspiring. We're winning the game inside the worst economic crisis of our time because of YOU. You make it fun to get out of bed every morning. 09 will be an even bigger blast for all of us.

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LAID OFF

Getting laid off stings like hell. "I've got the scars to prove it & I'm no Miss Congeniality."

The last time I got 'job eliminated' led to the creation of My Damn Channel. We pulled together a small band of like-minded souls determined to build a mass media machine - outside the old system.  

Over 150 actors, comedians, filmmakers, musicians and our tiny staff of 10 have produced over 400 videos to date. We're closing in on 40 million total views. 

Once big audience came - sponsors signed up - and soon after Turkey Day, we'll be announcing our new VP of Advertising, Partnerships & Strategy. 

Enough about us - more about you.
 
If you're laid off, downsized, job eliminated, fired, creative...and filled with angst, energy & a video camera.....we're open to your ideas about how to build a My Damn Channel for you. We're pursuing sponsors now to pay you to create/vent/entertain/communicate.

Rob Barnett
Founder/CEO/etc.
rob@MyDamnChannel.com

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