Five ship's acts try to break into TV. Watch how funny it can be when humans overreach!
PRLog - May 3, 2015 - KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Stand-up comedian Tom Drake, who is the writer/producer of the new cruise ship comedy, Best At Sea, says he thinks it’s time for another Love Boat, but this time New York style. Drake explains, “The television show Love Boat ran for 244 episodes from 1977 to 1987 and it helped create the cruise industry. 24 million people will cruise this year but for some reason we have what seems like 4,000 shows on cooking but not one show about cruising.”
Best At Sea is the story of five cruise ship entertainers who are hired to stage a televised talent competition at sea. An American Idol on the water. A very good idea except that the five entertainers hired are cruise ship entertainers who really know very little about television production and aren’t really all that anxious to learn. As Tom says, “This is an exaggeration but acts on ships like to sleep late, perform every now and then and find a good cigar.” In the pilot episode of Best at Sea, the cast is about to meet their fourth director in four weeks. They have somehow managed to run off three directors in three weeks.
The cast of Best at Sea are all real life cruise ship entertainers. Tom says, “Hollywood calls this show a mockumentary because the cast in reality is playing themselves. It was really the only way to do it. I think if we had to be somebody else we would have been confused.” The cast includes concert pianist Elliott Finkel who plays the role of the musical director. In real life Elliot is a graduate of Julliard, spends five hours a day practicing and now finds himself in charge of an orchestra backing a puppet. The host of the show is Michael Minor, a classically trained singer who became a ventriloquist in order to get work. It seems in the cruise industry if there is a choice between someone who sings Pavarotti or a puppet, the puppet usually gets the job.
Drake explains, “Last year two of the top five grossing comedians were ventriloquists and they are bringing back the Muppet show. Puppets are popular, especially with kids and the cruise industry is a family business.” Tom Drake plays the role of one of the two writers. The other writer is fellow standup comedian David Sayh, a Tonight Show veteran who was discovered by Johnny Carson and who now finds himself writing gags for a puppet act on a cruise ship. The role of the mentor of the competition is played by the world’s greatest xylophonist Ian Finkel. He is the brother of Elliott and in real life, they are the sons of Emmy-winning actor Fyvush Finkel. According to Drake, “The real life talent competitions hire mentors who are famous entertainers. Our mentor happens to be the world’s greatest xylophonist. It is obvious we are not taking this competition all that serious.”
The cast is supported by Michael Minor’s family that includes his wife Jill, his daughter Neve and his son Noah who is also a ventriloquist but without a puppet. His puppet has been put in timeout for flirting with the female guests. Now Noah wanders around the ship talking to his hand which bothers the guests even more. Tom Drake’s wife is the voice of the cruise director and in real life his wife Dottie is a cruise director. David Sayh’s wife Sally plays the role of an aspiring jazz singer. In real life she is an aspiring jazz singer. Drake says he spent many hours developing these characters. Actually, he just looked at his friends.
The pilot for Best at Sea is being filmed in Orlando in June and Tom has launched an Indiegogo campaign to help offset some of the expenses. The show has not been picked up for broadcast yet but Tom is hopeful that when networks see the finished product, they will see the value in a very funny show about life at sea. Tom says the show is New York style because three of the cast are from New York and he is from New Jersey. Those areas have a comedy style of their own. Of course, Tom says he did add a singing ventriloquist from Iowa to balance out some of that attitude.
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These five cruise ship entertainers think it’s time for another Love Boat…New York Style
May 03, 2015 at 22:02 PM EDT
