May Industry Pick - Zipwaz Humphries

Back to blogs

June 10, 2019

Series 1 was made with an old camcorder which would be operated by whichever actor wasn’t in the shot at the time, but with Series 2 the production values have improved a lot. Amongst other changes, Josh Grayson joined the team (and made it a team by doubling the number of people within it) as cinematographer, so the show looks way better, to the extent that some scenes actually look too good. The next step will be to drop the production values further than ever before; Series 3 will be filmed using the camera on my 2007 Motorola flip phone.

Every month a VIP from the world of comedy picks their favourite show on Comedy Crowd TV. May's pick was chosen by former BBC and Sky Comedy Commissioner, and founder of Yellow Door Productions, Lucy Lumsden.

Lucy selected the brilliantly original, slightly strange and very funny Zipwaz Humphries by Victor Hampson as the best "web series" on the platform.

You can find out more about Zipwaz Humphries and follow the show as a fan on the dedicated Comedy Crowd page.

Announcing her winner, Lucy Lumsden said: "For it's sheer invention, it shows ambition in it's production values and delivers an exciting new comedy voice."

Victor Hampson responded:

"Lucy Lumsden has obviously commissioned a huge amount of brilliant comedies so for her to have seen some potential in Zipwaz is really great.

I made the first series back in 2015, and have just finished Series 2, but forgot to tell anyone about either so haven’t had much response to it. We’ve now made 11 episodes under the assumption that once Zipwaz finds a fanbase they will be willing to watch at least that many instalments, but have based this assumption on nothing. I’m in quite a strange situation where I’m making a series for a hypothetical audience that lives in the future, so it’s nice to get some recognition from people who actually exist.

Having the series chosen to feature on Comedy Crowd TV was another of those moments where it seems like real people think it’s worth watching. (Although I have only met the Comedy Crowd in person once before, and that was a few years back, so it’s possible that they have since become purely digital beings.) I hope that lots of people do get on board with Comedy Crowd TV because there really doesn’t seem to be anywhere else like it. If you put your videos on YouTube it takes a lot to keep them from being buried under a pile of infinite cats, and to do well on Vimeo they need to be 4k-drone-shot-edgy-lighting type films, which can be expensive and also doesn’t suit a lot of comedy. So Punkanary seems a great place to be.

We’ve made both series on no budget. Series 1 was made with an old camcorder which would be operated by whichever actor wasn’t in the shot at the time, but with Series 2 the production values have improved a lot. Amongst other changes, Josh Grayson joined the team (and made it a team by doubling the number of people within it) as cinematographer, so the show looks way better, to the extent that some scenes actually look too good. The next step will be to drop the production values further than ever before; Series 3 will be filmed using the camera on my 2007 Motorola flip phone.

We’ve been working on this show for a long time, and so many people have given up their time to help make it, so it’s great to get some positive feedback. Both series are going to be on Punkanary onDemand, and we’ll be putting out behind-the-scenes clips, outtakes, extended scenes and songs, and possibly a ‘Making Of’ documentary in the next few months, so what else could you ask for really? If the answer is ‘less of your nonsense’ then I can only apologise."

If you accept Victor's apology and want to see series 1 and 2 for yourself, you can do so on Comedy Crowd TV. Click here to find out more