SO many great comedy series are hitting the web, as you can see here, and another hilariously amazing gem is “Missed Connection” from writer, comedian, and actor Freddi Scheib. “Missed Connection” comes from a personal place, but you wouldn’t know it because it’s so relatable, in a beautifully absurd way. With a stellar cast that includes New York’s finest (comedians), and witty sharp writing from Scheib, “Missed Connection” is no doubt en route to being an online watch-the-newest-episode-as-soon-as-it-hits favorite. Read on for a truly laugh out loud interview with Freddi and some “Missed Connection” episodes.

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Serial Optimist: First off, tell us a little about yourself. What makes you laugh, what’s one of your favorite hobbies, and what is one of your favorite things about NYC? Triple question question. That’s right!

Freddi Scheib: Ah! This is just like an online dating profile! I’ve gotten so good at these! Prepare to be blown away by my ability to appear interesting by creating an air of quirkiness and mysteriousness while remaining relatable and NOT PSYCHO (I have found that this is a key element to success). Here we go:

Hello! I am a person, more specifically: a girl (who is does not currently have any restraining orders out against her). I am equally likely to laugh at visceral physical humor (like two guys slapping each other with fish) as I am with cerebral character interactions or wordplay. I particularly enjoy misanthropic characters. I recently watched all of Black Books (BBC) and Bernard Black is a perfect example. He owns a bookshop, but he hates customers. I also love book title jokes. There are never enough of those. As far as hobbies go, I like to choreograph 90’s hip-hop videos. To the untrained eye, it might look like I’m just dancing around my living room in my underwear, but I’m not. I’m an artist. Are you intrigued yet? My favorite thing about NYC is its citizen’s willingness to provide such positive feedback on my choreography efforts. I only have blinds on half of my windows.

SO: You literally just made me laugh out loud. You also founded the production company Shafted Writers in 2010, what was, and is the main goal for that? 

Freddi: To show the world my kick-ass self-choreographed 90’s hip-hop videos! After Ice-T wrote me a personal letter telling me to please stop, I decided to focus on what had become my whole life in college. People that I had come up with in Hammerkatz at NYU were breaking off into sub-groups, shooting videos, and doing shows, but none of them wanted me in their sketch group. At the time I felt like I couldn’t write without a group. There is a powerful sense of camaraderie and good-natured rebellion that is nurtured by sitting around a table at 11pm on a Monday night sharing bits and scrambling to put on a show every month that will make people laugh (whether they want to or not!). It’s a drug that can’t be mimicked in a solo situation. When you write by yourself there’s no bounce board to reaffirm that you are funny and no one to keep you motivated except yourself. On my own I have zero will power. I can’t even finish this se

I wanted to start a company for everyone who was like me, anyone who knew that they had really good ideas and were motivated to work hard, but felt “shafted” by the comedy world. I wouldn’t tie anyone down to a fixed group and we’d just do everything on a project basis. It turned out to be the best way to meet awesome people (pretty much everyone on the “Missed Connection” crew has become my best friend). I also think the content benefited because we never made something just because we felt pressured to make something.

SO: How much has your involvement in UCB helped shape your career, or helped develop it?

Freddi: I owe everything to UCB. I learned how to write comedy from a document of mythical proportions known as the “Hammerkatz Writer’s Guide” by D.C. Pierson. This word document broke down sketch writing in terms of UCB’s Improv ideology. Taking classes there sharpened my writing skills, I pulled almost my entire cast and crew from the community, and because UCB is a haven for artistic intellectuals who are completely socially inept (myself included) it even provided inspiration for the many awkward dating moments in “Missed Connection”.

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Pilot

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SO: Where did the concept for “Missed Connection” come from? How did the idea come about?

Freddi: I had produced a few sketches and wanted to take on a more complex project. Around November 2010 began the crappiest period of my life since 6th grade when David Rosenblume (name changed to protect the innocent) kissed me while playing Truth or Dare and then told everyone that I had bit his tongue. I got dumped, my uncle passed away, I got laid off, my roommate decided to move out because my dog was annoying, I was rejected for advanced study at UCB, I found out I could never eat cupcakes again #girlcomedywriterproblems.

I’m a relationship girl and I had spent the last 4 years of my life in two serious relationships, so through it all I was desperately trying to find that connection again. I kept encountering a huge disconnect between what I expected of the dating process (a complicated mess that I still don’t understand) and what these guys wanted. It was a little depressing and embarrassing but mostly absurd, so I started writing little scenes based on various situations or character traits I had experienced. After a couple weeks I started piecing it together as a series and developing main characters.

SO: Tell us a little about the cast, and how fun it has been for you all to collaborate together. 

Freddi: So much fun! In the early stages the cast and crew came together through a series of fateful encounters. I ran into Johnny McNulty on the G train. I stapled the script to his arm to make sure he wouldn’t forget to read it. Not only was he invaluable in punching up the jokes and creating a larger story arc, but he also ended up playing the Bruce Willis guy. Morgan Evans was on an improv team with a friend of mine at the job from which I was fired. After assuring me that he “wasn’t into romance things,” he agreed to direct it. I had already met Mike Cheslik at numerous NYU comedy parties and he came on board as our AD.

Cast-wise, I wrote Bek Markas’ part specifically for him. We were both fired from being the sailer and the nurse in Times Square (from the TIME magazine picture). He’s such a goof ball that I wanted to show the world. David Rysdahl, who plays Thomas Riley (named after my first cat), I called in from Actors Access. It turned out later that we had almost met twice before (real Missed Connection stuff). After the first read through in the audition room Morgan and I knew he had booked it. Morgan even wrote A+ on his resume. The rest of the cast was either friends of mine or Morgan’s from UCB or NYU. The shoot itself was abnormally fun. Most sets make you want to hang yourself from a c-stand, but as our sound man Bobb Barito said, “it was the best set I’ve EVER been on.” So I’ll stop boring you now with how awesome we are.

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Episode 2

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SO: Web comedy series are really starting to develop into quality programming. Not just one of gag videos or spoofs, but truly good sitcom material videos. What is the main goal when creating a web series, and what do you hope to come from it?

Freddi: The main goal was to create a quality show that would spread joy and laughter by giving sad people someone whose life is clearly worse than their own (mine) to feel sorry for. The ulterior motive of course was to get myself a job writing Television. This is something that I love to do, I think I’m pretty good at it, and to be able to make people laugh on a national or even international scale would be a dream come true. NBC are you getting this? I also can’t waitress for shit and am completely unemployable in any other field.

SO: What were the biggest challenges in creating and shooting “Missed Connection”?

Freddi: Since the series has come out, every single guy that I’ve been out with or have been interested in has expressed their concern that I will write an episode about them. I guess I should have seen this coming, but it’s still super annoying. Obviously I draw from real life experiences, but it’s a bit presumptuous to assume that you are interesting enough to warrant your own episode. And if I do write about you it will be in a very removed and heightened way that will make it unrecognizable to you. Except for what happened between me and Jimmy Goodman. That was verbatim. And yes Jimmy it’s about YOU.

SO: How many more episodes do you have planned, and where does it go from here?

Freddi: There are a total of 8 episodes in the first season. We’ve thrown around a bunch of Season 2 ideas and I’m excited to get the band back together. The series gets weirder and weirder as it goes on in Season 1, so I expect Season 2 to be pretty crazy, but still maintain our signature tightrope walk of heartfelt hilarity.

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SO Note: Check out all episodes of “Missed Connection” here, and follow Freddi on Twitter @FreddiScheib.