On December 1st, CardRunners instructor John “JimmyLegs” Wray, in conjunction with DeucesCracked founder Jay Rosenkrantz, released the pilot episode of a web cartoon series called “The Micros,” which airs on YouTube. After only a week, the episode had over 80,000 views and over a thousand subscribers, receiving acclaim on many poker forums. The seven-minute pilot features three main characters – a noob in the world of online poker who’s made about $3.50 after 800,000 hands, a rock solid multi-tabling grinder who is too afraid to move up in stakes to make decent money, and an online maniac named “Balls” who actually turns out to be a girl.
The pilot sets up the premise of the show, as the main character, known as “SwedeTooth” online, uses his entire bankroll to play in the MegaMillions and takes down $1.2 million thanks to a one-outer on the river. Since his action was chopped three ways, he and each of his two friends now are each sitting on $400,000.
We sat down with Wray to talk about how “The Micros” was developed.
Poker News Daily: How did the concept of “The Micros” come together?
John Wray: It sort of materialized out of thin air – something really only possible in the digital age. I PMed Jay on TwoPlusTwo to let him know how much I admired the TV and film work he’d been involved in and linked him to some of the videos I’d done on the forums. He knew who I was right away and mentioned that he’d been thinking about using cheap animation to tell an ongoing story about poker and, within a week, we were writing the script that became the pilot.
The actors are all friends I had known at UCLA Theater and “RonMexico” and “Eponymous” are brilliant satirists whose work has long graced the TwoPlusTwo forums. The online poker community is full of intelligent, creative people scattered all over the globe and we wanted to harness that talent somehow. It’s strange that none of us have ever even met face-to-face, but I think that will become more and more common as the Web takes over as the source of new media.
PND: How much time did it take to put the pilot episode together?
John Wray: I went back and found the first emails that Jay and I traded and they were dated early September, so it took just shy of three months. But much of that time was spent discussing character. If our story was going to have any kind of longevity, we knew we had to create compelling characters. So, the first month or so was just working out who these three friends were and how they felt about each other and the game of poker.
PND: When is the next episode coming out and how many are you planning to produce?
John Wray: The next full episode is slated for January, but we hope to have a little somethin’ somethin’ out in time for the holidays. As for how many we want to produce, that’s open-ended right now. We love the world of “The Micros” and have a lot of stories we want to tell. But even with technological shortcuts like Xtranormal, animation still takes a long time to produce. So, we probably won’t be able to release more than one per month.
PND: Right now, you have over 1,000 subscribers and 80,000 views on YouTube. It seems like the word is out and people really love this show, right?
John Wray: Seems like it, yes. We’re actually a little surprised that the reaction was as explosive as it was. We thought it would take months to build up a fan base, but apparently there was a hunger for this kind of story and we stumbled right into it.
PND: With the incredible amounts of time it takes to create just one seven-minute episode, will the show eventually need a sponsorship to survive?
John Wray: Sure, eventually. But Jay made a really great analogy on the TwoPlusTwo Pokercast the other night. He explained that as filmmakers, we’re grinding the micros right now. You have to put in the hours, pay your dues, and learn your craft. It’s an investment of time and energy, but the hope is that at some point it will all pay off.
PND: I think we’re all dying to see when some poker celebrities will make their appearance on the show. Can you give us any spoilers in that department?
John Wray: Nope, sorry. But I will say that from Day 1 we wanted to incorporate cameos of known poker personalities. Bart Hanson is actually in the pilot for a microsecond as the voice of the “Blonde Guy” poker avatar. But in the future, we want to have people actually playing themselves in a funny and satirical way.
PND: You’ve already had an outpouring of support and many people have contacted you to let you know they’d love to pitch in. What has the positive feedback meant to you?
John Wray: It means everything in the world to us. It might be hard for poker players to relate to since they see everything in terms of EV and edges worth tenths of a penny, but artists typically crave a positive audience response over the big bucks. So, all of the comments, compliments, “+1″s, and emoticons refill our gas tank and send us back to work with a smile on our faces.
