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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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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Super Bowl Tips With Daily Grace

Daily Grace knows LOTS about football* and she spent all week telling you how to have some fun on Super Bowl Sunday.

1. Learn about Tom Brady and Eli Manning. For example, only one of these quarterbacks is Team Edward.*

2. Learn all you can about football. Just, you know, in general.

3. Learn what to eat at a Super Bowl party! At least, we think it's edible.

4. Learn a Super Bowl cheer! Be a cheerleader. And be aggressive. "B.E. AGGRESSIVE."

Hope these Super Bowl tips help! Good luck to [insert name of team of your choice here]!

*These things may not be true.

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Wainy Days Season Finale!

Actually, no, it can't. Sorry. Who are we kidding?

It's the Wainy Days Season Finale! We wrote a poem for the occasion:

An Ode To Season Five

David Wain and hot girls go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly,
And this season's hot girls were Arielle and Kelly.
Arielle and Kelly you were so fine.
so fine, so fine, you blew David Wain's... mind.
One, a critic of theatre, the other a floor cleaner,
When they met each other they couldn't be meaner,
But The Wain had an idea so bright they couldn't deny it
... they went back to David's bed so they could all lie in it!
The rest involves some soap, a desk clerk and some chicken souvlaki,
We'd say more but we don't want to spoil the Wainy Days season finale!

What? You try rhyming "souvlaki" with something.

PS: If you're sad that this is the end of Season 5 and you're not sure how you're going to get your Wainy Days, fix, we suggest you order the Wainy Days DVD right away. Or make sure we're friends on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr and watch for ways you might win a copy!

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Previously on Wainy Days...

The New Year just started, but the latest season of Wainy Days is almost over! Next Monday, January 9, 2012, is the Season Finale!

I know, right?!

Here's a quick recap to get you all caught up:

• *David went on a date with Kelly (Erinn Hayes)-- a theater critic for the New York Times(!), but she had a thing for David's next-door neighbor, a TV star named "Chez," played by Ken Marino


• *David met Arielle (Lizzy Caplan), who was reading a book called "Rosewood Junction" that David pretended to know all about.


• *At the suggestion of a co-worker at the sweatshop (Jorma Taccone), David tries to find "Rosewood Junction" as a book-on-tape so he'll know all about it before his date with Arielle! The nice old lady who runs the bookstore has an interesting relationship with her landlord (Steven Weber)


• *David got his book-on-tape, but he needs Zandy's Walkman to listen to it, and she left her Walkman (seriously?!) at her ex-boyfriend's (Thomas Lennon), who happens to be a BIG Derek Jeter fan...


• *David goes on his date with Arielle, but she wants to talk about more than just "Rosewood Junction!" Go figure.

Which brings us to this week's episode, in which everyone meets again... at a dramatic reading of TV dialogue by Ken Marino.

You're caught up now. Don't say you don't know what's going on because it would be a lie. Next thing you know you'll be saying that you know what "Rosewood Junction" is about:

Nice try, guys. Nice try.

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IAWTV Awards Nominations!

It's Awards Nomination Season: Golden Globe nominations! SAG nominations! Oscar nominations! IAWTV Award nominations!

Yes, the International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) created these Awards to "provide a venue for celebrating original entertainment distributed on the open Internet by honoring the best in web television programming and recognizing the achievements of online content creators."

And that's US!

We scored FOUR nominations and couldn't be prouder:

Best Writing (Non-Fiction): Daily Grace



Best Animated Series: The World of Bruce McCall



Best Variety Series: Mark Malkoff



Best Comedy Series: Gigi: Almost American

Congrats to all of our fellow nominees! We're honored to be among you. Can't wait to see all of you in Las Vegas in January, at the IAWTV Awards Ceremony!

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My Damn Channel Director of Production: Melissa Schneider

Meet Melissa! Melissa Schneider is our new Director of Production, joining the My Damn Channel family with the experience, energy and cred we need to help produce over 30 new original series in the months ahead. She's also the lead producer for our new 2012 mega show with YouTube...My Damn Channel: Live

Melissa expands our management team in the NY office where Jesse Cowell (Director of Content) and Molly Templeton (Director of Talent & Audience Development) work with Rob Barnett (Founder/CEO) to oversee more killer original comedy and music than legally allowed on the Interweb.

"Melissa brings awesome experience, talent and spirit to our team as we prep to make 2012 the year My Damn Channel delivers more new original programming than ever before," said Rob Barnett. He added, "She's developed and produced over 30 original digital series and branded entertainment campaigns and over 30 independent music videos, commercials, and short films. She worked for David Chase for god's sake!"

Melissa graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and went on to work for The Public Theater / NY Shakespeare Festival during George C. Wolfe’s tenure. She left the theater to work in (wait for it) The Sopranos...in the writers' office for creator David Chase, and writers: Terence Winter (creator, "Boardwalk Empire"), Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess (creators, "Blue Bloods") and Matthew Weiner (creator, "Mad Men").

Melissa went digital...producing online content for Macy’s, XBOX, Vuguru, Nickelodeon, Swanson, Verizon FiOS, CJP Digital, and Summit Entertainment to name a few. She was the Director of Production at Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG) in New York City, where developed and produced digital series and branded entertainment campaigns.

More announcements on our new series, stars and launch info for My Damn Channel: Live hits this space soon.

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Wainy Days Are Here Again!

It's back! It's back! Wainy Days is back with all new episodes! Here are some reasons we're jumping up and down right now (Really. We are. Right now. We promise.):

1. David Wain knows how to bring the hot girls.
It's true. David Wain's past adventures have included Rashida Jones, Elizabeth Banks, Amanda Peet and Megan Mullally. If there's one thing we've been missing in our lives, it's a reliable source of HOT GIRLS.

2. Erinn Hayes and Lizzy Caplan.
Two ridiculously hot girls. This is different from number one because we're being specific. Okay, so maybe it's a subdivision of number one. What are you our English teacher? (Seriously, is that you, Mrs. O'Neil?!)

3. Jorma Taccone.
A member of The Lonely Island, director of MacGruber, and probably one of the few men on the planet who can make this face in a song called "J--z In My Pants" and have millions of women think it's adorable:

4. David Wain.
We're so happy that between writing and shooting Childrens Hospital and making a movie with Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston and touring the country in honor of Wet Hot American Summer, David could find the time to get himself into a Fiat and drive around with old friends like Ken Marino, Thomas Lennon, Zandy Hartig and Steven Weber to entertain us and make us laugh and give us new videos to watch every Monday when we're supposed to be doing something else at work.

Thanks, David Wain. This Wain's for you:

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That Ain't Right

It's time for another edition of That Ain't Right, a semi-regular feature in which we acknowledge that there are people in the world who may not know that My Damn Channel is a proper noun and complain a LOT about what's happening on/to/with their TV.

To which the only reply is, "That Ain't Right":

That Ain’t Right, @KissMy_Tweetinq sounds like your father is on a bit of a power trip. Sure, the bible says to respect your parents but I’m sure he would make an exemption for someone who is at risk of having their damn channel changed. Mr. KissMy_Tweetinq, That Ain’t Right.



That Ain’t Right, @DaTFIn3sTKiNg and myself are kindred spirits.
We both hate it when people come nd change my damn channel like ine been watchin tv,
Does it look like ine been watchin TV?!?!
Get your facts straight ppl.



Yet another victim falls at the hands of the lethal combination of Rain and Comcast. That Ain’t Right Comcast, That Ain’t Right. @Barbranicole1 just wanted to watch her damn channel guide. When will this madness end!
Damn you rain, Damn you satellite and damn you comcast. That Ain’t Right.



That Ain’t Right, Imagine searching for buried treasure for years and years. You have lost your family, lost your friends and lost the will to think about anything else besides for the buried treasure.
Now imagine after all those years you finally find it. You open the treasure box, take out the gold, raise it triumphantly in the sky and then BAM! Someone changes the damn channel!
@_RealLongHair finally found an episode of True Life that he liked and you change the channel! That Ain’t Right. That Just Ain’t Right.

That's all for this edition of That Ain't Right! Until next time, may nothing on this My Damn Channel be as stressful as when someone else has your remote control, Twitterland.

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Rebecca Black Has Something To Say.

Watch it, it's true.

And it's not even "BLACK FRIDAY" yet.

Is this thing on? We're here all week folks.

Thank goodness Thanksgiving makes it a "short" one!

(Rimshot.)

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