40 and Leroy

The 50th EPISODE MILESTONE

“Raise your glasses, one-and-all.  Time for a Toast.” [Drum-roll] “Taa-Daaaah - the 50th episode y’all.  ‘40 and Leroy – Crazy in New York’ has made it. Made what, one could ask.  The simple answer could be ‘the first plateau’.  But doesn’t television usually acknowledge the 100th episode, and not the 50th?  Yeah, but this is the internet, a new horizon - and the rules are changing.

Yep, the upcoming episode of “40 and Leroy – Crazy in New York” will be the fiftieth installment of the groundbreaking series.  Quite naturally with a ‘low-budget’ production, there were many obstacles to overcome but creator, director Reed R. McCants and actors Eduardo Lorenzo, and particularly Horace Glasper were stalwart in their desire to see new episodes produced and broadcast over their YouTube channel [liveat5tube] on a continual basis.  The fact that all three resided in different cities (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago respectively) presented difficulties.  A lot of credit has to go to Glasper (Leroy) because he picked up and moved from Chicago to New York to assist in the writing, production and marketing of the show

which was a herculean task when you consider this entailed finding work and an affordable apartment in New York.  Many times the production picked up and traveled to Los Angeles to work out scenes with Lorenzo (40 Ounce), or in some cases, flying Lorenzo and McCants to New York to work with Glasper, Denzel McCants (the Diesel character), Ralph Correa (Ralphie) and Janus Yvonne (Lynette) and the other cast members.

Much of the work of the “40 and Leroy” entity entails updating the website (40andLeroy.com), writing the shows (although much of the show is improvised), editing, coordinating schedules and coming up with new ways and means of increasing viewership and fan base.  The lion’s share of the duties primarily falls on the shoulders of McCants who describes his efforts as ‘a labor of love’ – so much so that the realization of the 50th episode milestone came upon him ‘”like a thief in the night”, says McCants.  Generally he works on several episodes at once – editing one episode while shooting an

other, and at the same time arranging schedules and writing skits for future episodes.  With so much on the plate, no wonder the 50thepisode plateau came upon the production crew and cast with such suddenness.  But when it’s all said and done, all parties concerned are certainly pleased with the overall quality and improvements made over the years.  The early episodes were shot on a ‘flip camera’ and now are shot in high-definition [HD].  Many of the graphics and effects are now also of a higher quality as is the new revamped website.  As it turns out, weekly viewership is in the many thousands although YouTube misrepresents the numbers as being much smaller (much like Hollywood in general).  Regrettably black productions like “40 and Leroy” tend to be ignored or not given ‘top-shelf’ status by many of the web organizations.  Luckily the “40 and Leroy” team takes the time to seek out data and verify the actual viewership statistics which are ‘many multiples higher’ than those reported by YouTube.  On the other side of the coin “40 and Leroy” has received much love from other comedy web sites like Will Ferrel’s ‘Funny or Die’.  But as long as “40 and Leroy – Crazy in New York” receives love and accolades from those whom they value most – the urban audience – they will continue to make new and hopefully funnier episodes until they finally reach the 100th show plateau, and beyond.   Time to raise your glasses and join in the toast, “Here’s to 40 and Leroy, keeping us laughing far into the new horizon, for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjLwKV4bfV4