Touchblue

It’s the dawn of a new technological era. MySpacers and YouTubers alike have united to invade today’s cyberscape with broadcasts of everything from last night’s celebrity faux pas to every BobDickandJane’s homemade music videos. Nowadays, armed with a camera and a web connection, anyone can dub himself filmmaker, video blogger, or digital storyteller. But little did anyone know that before the peculiar ramblings of lonelygirl15 and before the world started wondering where the hell Matt was, there was Jaymar Cabebe, Abraham Cajudo, Rene Gube, and Francis Lansang – just four guys with a knack for laughs and a camera to fiddle with.

On one sunny Saturday afternoon, after a satisfying lunch of chicken and biscuits, I sat down with the cast of Touchblue in Suisun City, a remote settlement in Northern California, to find out exactly where these guys have been and where they are going.

IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

The guys of Touchblue came together through Kaibigang Pilipino (KP), an organization at the University of California, San Diego that aims to support Filipina/o American students, staff, faculty, and community through various social, political and cultural programs. Before thoughts of touching blue ever began to stir, they worked together on KP’s 10th Annual Pilipino Cultural Celebration, Because He Had to Live, in which they all had a hand in the scriptwriting, directing, and acting processes. From then on, KP continued to provide stages and venues in which the group would impress audiences with a comedy that was as raw and natural as pure cane sugar…sweet.

Their first stage and on-screen appearances as a group occurred in February 2002, when Francis, Rene, and Jaymar hosted the talent show portion of Define Your SPACE, a high school conference designed to encourage local high school students to pursue higher education. It was for the same conference that they created their first sketch comedy video with no more than a borrowed handycam and instinct.

Tell me a little bit about your beginnings. What was that first show like?

JAYMAR: “Everything that year was improv[is]ed. Everything on stage was improv[is]ed, everything on camera was improv[is]ed, and it just worked. We didn’t understand why it worked or how it worked, and we didn’t understand that [improvisation] was a huge ability that we all possessed.”

ABE: “Even though I did ask all the guys, ‘hey, why don’t we just make videos?,’ I had never held a video camera before and I didn’t know how to edit or do any of that stuff. But once we started filming, we figured out that it just came naturally.”

Indeed, whatever they did, it worked. In this very first collection of sketches, the ever-popular character, Terry Maddox, was introduced in the telling, Diary of a Pilipino. *NSync music videos were revolutionized, having gone from choreographed narratives of love lost to satiric masterpieces involving household pets (Note: No animals were ever harmed in the filming of any Touchblue video…though a few may have been humiliated). In its infancy, whatever these guys lacked in technical prowess, they made up for with an undeniable organic relationship to comedy, performance, and each other.

TOUCHBLUE: THE ADOLESCENT YEARS

Over the last four years, Touchblue, much like a pubescent boy, has grown and changed – voice deeper, balls bigger. While the group still retains its spontaneous improvisational spirit, it has simultaneously shifted to a more scripted, thoughtful, and rehearsed style of performance and filmmaking. Despite geographical challenges and time constraints (Abe and Francis live in NorCal, while Rene and Jaymar live in SoCal), the guys have been able to sharpen their skills through theater/film classes, auditions, performances, self-directed technical study, and commitment.

What are some of the ways that Touchblue has grown and changed over the years?

JAYMAR: “[Before], things worked, but we were trying to accomplish very simple things, like making people laugh. Now, we’re actually trying to make this organic chemistry work for a purpose.”

ABE: “We started to examine the anatomy of a laugh and the mechanics of a performance and…started getting into the nitty gritty of what really made us tick. In doing that, we all found ways to make the group grow – like, I just kept researching how to edit better, how to shoot stuff, and how to use the camera, while the other guys practiced their performance in their own spaces.”

Are there any videos that you would say highlight this growth? What do you have to say about Touchblue’s body of work so far?

JAYMAR: “I think a sketch that’s pretty pivotal is our chicken sketch, Knight School. It’s really experimental. It’s the first sketch that we actually rehearsed prior to the day of the shoot (laughs). We didn’t really even think about how the audience would feel about it. We felt good about it and we just made it and put it out there.”

RENE: “Honestly, when we put our stuff out, I don’t’ think we’re really trying to impress anybody. I’m proud of the work we put up. I recognize that none of it is perfect. It’s not all solid gold material. [But] I’m proud that we put that work in and that we put something that we created into the world, and that body of work is something that I think people will appreciate if they really want to join us in this journey. I mean, I would love to see a sketch that Dave Chappelle wrote when he was 19. You know what I mean? I would love to follow him from day one. I think it’s really cool for people who like our stuff to see where we’re going.”

TOUCHBLUE 2.0 AND THE ART OF CREATIVE COLLABORATION

With works such as Terry’s Mega Hitz, Mentos, the Freshmaker?, Be In It, and others circulating and growing in popularity, Touchblue has become a household name. One can visit all corners of the web to find these sidesplitting and innovative videos. But fans will be delighted to know that the fun doesn’t stop here. Until today, Touchblue has been a pretty face. With the launch of Touchblue 2.0, the guys hope not only to give this face a voice, but also to provide an avenue of expression for other new voices through what they call, the “art of creative collaboration.”

What is Touchblue trying to accomplish with the launch of Touchblue 2.0? What does this new voice sound like?

RENE: “I think there’s a bunch of goals with the [new] website. One is that we think its gonna get us to write more often. That’s kind of more self-indulgent, but it’s something that we all care about. And we know that if we have a call and [if] there’s a space for our writing to be read, it will force us to put something out there on a more regular basis.”

FRANCIS: “We want to let people know [about] and invite other people to this idea of creatively collaborating.”

RENE: “Yeah, what we want is to open up the valve on what people think and give them a place to really take [our art] apart. Like, if they don’t like it, if they feel that we’re using an image negatively, we would like them to actually express that on our website.”

FRANCIS: “…spark some interest and generate opinions.”

JAYMAR: “It’s really an outlet for our creativity, whatever that may be, and at this point it’s filmmaking, performing, writing…and we want to invite discussion or criticism on any and all of that.”

ABE: “[The website] is also opening up the fact that we aren’t just always doing sketch comedy.”

RENE: “Right, if we were to put a dramatic short on our current website, I think it would stick out like a sore thumb, but with this new site, we’ll be writing about a variety of topics, some funny, some not so funny, some provocative. I think we’ll be attracting a wider audience with more expectation of us, which would allow us to do something like a dramatic short or some experimental piece…with more possibility of people appreciating it.”

Chance (okay, and maybe ethnicity) may have drawn the cast of Touchblue toward one another, but chemistry and passion have kept these guys together and continue to fuel their ideas for the future. “Our foundation is strong…obviously, we’re friends. But when we became a little more serious about what we really wanted to do with the rest of our lives, we chose to grow together,” says Francis. Rooted in performance art, sketch comedy, and storytelling, Touchblue is taking real and virtual stages by storm in a movement defined by cutting wit, creative collaboration, and artistic innovation. Put simply, the cast of Touchblue found something they liked, tried it, loved it, and are doing it some more. With their heads in the clouds and feet on the ground, these guys are skyscrapers among dreamers. Touchblue, make it true.

--> This entry was posted on Saturday, October 21st, 2006 at 11:25 pm and is filed under Art, Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.