ian
I A N P A R K S Y D D O T OT Where the Bears Are is the L.A.-based comedy-mystery web series that has had us gripped from the start. The quirky, independent, bold, bear-beautiful show is unique in its production, and remains the project of its sole creators (Rick Copp, Joe Dietl and Ben Zook) who star in and write the entire series. After the success of the premier season, the Where the Bears Are gang set up a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. Fans put their hands in their pockets, allowing for the filming of the second season, which was later named ‘Best Gay Web Series of 2012’ by both AfterElton.com and LGBT blog Queerty. The Bears have since completed their third season and continue to raise funds for future WTBA antics! GNI was lucky enough to get talking to Ian Parks (Hot Toddy!) about his life, his acting career, his role on the popular web series, all that hair, and of course, his love life! How did you get started in acting? As my mother would say, I was always quite the “little performer”. I was the kid who you could hear louder than anyone else on the playground. So I was encouraged to do school plays and musicals growing up, probably to help channel my energy and give my parents a break from the madness from time to time. When I was ten, I
star ted doing community theater in Pennsylvania at a place called Old Bedford Village. My first play was the Wizard of Oz, I was the coroner of Munchkinland, who announces the witch is dead as the long death cer tificate unfurls across the floor. Everyone always applauded for that, I don’t know why, but I loved it. Theater stuff became a part of my upbringing, an annual thing, and while I loved it to death, I never took it too seriously as a path I’d consider taking. I just liked doing it. In high school, I was in musicals like The Pajama Game, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and the Wizard of Oz again, this time playing the Cowardly Lion. And then in film school, I would take theater classes to fill out credits and enhance my filmmaking education. I took stage combat, voice for the actor, improv workshops, and I enjoyed it. As a filmmaker, it’s important to be able to talk to actors in their own language. But acting, for me, is just another wheel in the machine of filmmaking, it was never a goal or ambition of mine, despite my enjoying it. My real talents and training are better utilized behind the camera, but I love the entire process of filmmaking, and would be happy doing one of a number of jobs in that process. Acting included. Do the other guys have similar acting backgrounds? The other bears, in fact, have far more detailed and experienced acting backgrounds than I do! Joe is an actor professionally, and has
accumulated an impressive resume over his career, from films to television to commercials. Ben has extensive experience in stage work, especially improv comedy, and brings those chops to the table every day. Rick has a lot of experience too, and while he shrugs it off in conversation, he’s great in front of the camera. He was a stand out for me in season 3 last year, I loved the way he played Reggie, he cracked me up constantly. How did WTBA begin? As the story goes, it was born in Palm Springs after a night of Joe, Rick, and Ben getting drunk in Rick’s hot tub. Those guys have been friends for years (Joe and Ben are a couple of 20 years, in fact), and they had always wanted to do something together, but it’s very hard to get a project off the ground in LA. Rick had the title “where the bears are” in his head, so they were talking about making a web series – a new kind of media, no one to tell them “no”, they could make the project themselves, and Ben had just sold a script to Adam Sandler, which would provide money for equipment and so on. Rick used to be a writer for The Golden Girls, so they wanted to adapt that formula for the bear community, and Rick is also a big fan of murder mysteries. Joe originally wasn’t going to be in it and was only going to direct, but they were laughing at the idea of him being the big dumb one. Between the three of them, they had a
ian parks
writer, director, and a producer…it kind of snowballed from there. Tell us about the kickstarter campaign. How far are you from your target, and is there anything our readers can do to ensure WTBA sticks around for a while? Donate, and tell your friends! Haha, that’s the only way we have stuck around this long and the only way we can keep going! As of right now, we are at $80,000 on our way to our $150,000 goal, but there’s only 15 days left, and only 1% of the WTBA fans have donated anything! There are 71K “likes” on facebook, and if everyone gave $5, less than the cost of a big mac, we’d almost triple our goal. People have been so generous, but we need help from everyone! Otherwise, the show is over! There’s no network, no studio, and no adver tisers to fall back on, here. Joe, Rick, and Ben are doing this all on their own, and making a full length series costs much more and takes much longer than most people realize. It’s a full time, 7 days a week job putting this all together, and since the show is put out online free of charge, this is the only way to keep up the pace of releasing one season each year. Those guys will tell you, the show will keep going as long as people keep wanting to see it! But that means helping us out along the way!