jonathan katz – NashvilleStandUp.com

“HG Chicken” is a cartoon with a voice cast that stars comedians Bobcat Goldthwait, Jonathan Katz, Maria Bamford and Todd Barry. A Kickstarter campaign has been launched for the animated production about an evil, mutant, time-traveling chicken (Goldthwait) and his robot sidekick (Katz).

The voice cast also includes filmmakers Lloyd Kaufman (Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ‘Em High), Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs), as well as Samantha Newark (Jem) and Trevor Lissauer (Sabrina the Teenage Witch).

The cartoon is being produced, directed & co-written by animator Mike Salva, who’s made a handful of animated shorts that have had over 100 film festival screenings. Salva plans to make HG Chicken into the length of a half hour show, and to use it as a pilot for a proposed animated series. The video on the Kickstarter page includes a 30-second scene from the cartoon:

In exchange for supporting the project, backers can choose from rewards including digital downloads of the cartoon, onscreen thanks credit, posters, t-shirts, associate producer credit, and more. There are even options for backers to be drawn as a character in the cartoon. (One option even promises the backer’s character can “die a horrible and grisly” onscreen death.)

The project is live on Kickstarter until Nov. 20, 2014. During this time, backers can become part of the animated project and get access to the rewards at www.HGChicken.com (that URL redirects to the Kickstarter page).

For more information, contact the creator, Mike Salva, at www.projectmeatball.com.

Nashville-based animator Mike Salva has started a crowd-funding campaign to fund an animated comedy series starring comedian Jonathan Katz called Death Row Diet. Katz is best known for playing the title character on Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, a role for which he won an Emmy. Salva’s previous work includes award-winning shorts “Max The Hero” (which stars and was written by Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax.com’s Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett) & “Pound Dogs” (which features Nashville-based comedians Sean Parrott and Ryan Williams plus Atlanta’s Andy Merrill, who played Brak on Space Ghost and Oglethorpe on Aqua Teen Hunger Force).

In Katz and Salva’s animated short ‘Death Row Diet’, Jonathan plays a man on death row and Weight Watchers, where he consults with his lawyer (played by Tom Leopold of “Seinfeld” and “Cheers”). The cartoon was a big hit at film festivals and won a lot of awards, including a television pilot award from the New York Television Festival.

Work began to expand Death Row Diet into an animated series about the main character’s life in prison. A number of scripts were written but as they were ready to begin recording the dialogue, their funding source for the project backed out. The creators immediately began planning a Kickstarter campaign to fund the series. They are offering rewards to backers, including a “special thanks” listing in the credits, an “associate producer” credit, a speaking part in the cartoon, DVD copies of Death Row Diet autographed by Jonathan Katz.. and having the director & a voice actor come to your house to clean your bathroom.

Complete details of the campaign can be found on the project’s Kickstarter page and at DeathRowDiet.com. Here’s the original short:

Death Row Diet (with Jonathan Katz) from Project Meatball on Vimeo.

More infos:
Death Row Diet @ Kickstarter
DeathRowDiet.com
Facebook.com/DeathRowDiet
Twitter.com/DeathRowDiet

Tag: jonathan katz

Kickstarting: Nashville’s Mike Salva’s “HG Chicken” cartoon stars Bobcat Goldthwait, Jonathan Katz, Maria Bamford and Todd Barry

Jonathan Katz & award-winning Nashville animator Mike Salva launch Kickstarter campaign for ‘Death Row Diet’