We love "East WillyB". Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of having two members of the show's familia, @juliagrob and @jazminchavez, write one our favorite pieces of 2012: Latinos, Turn Off Your TV, Coño! The piece focused about why supporting independent Latino programming is a good thing. We agree 100%. Ever since that post, we have had the pleasure of getting to know both Julia and Jazmin, and we are proud to call them honorary Rebeldes.
This month, the cast and crew of "East WillyB" announced its 50K in 50 Days Campaign on Kickstarter. Yes, the concept is simple: if you love the show (like us), if you believe in supporting independent Latino artists (we do), and if you want to see a full season of the show (yes!), just go to the Kickstarter link and pledge. Any amount is a great amount, the goal is to get the group to 50K, so far the number is at $4,525, and here is the cool part:
If you pledge today and help us get the number to over 5K, you are invited to a Brooklyn Cinco de Mayo Pub Crawl with the cast and crew. Here is the pledge link. Let Julia explain:
Pub Crawl in Brooklyn? Cinco de Mayo? We are down with that.
But seriously, we think "East WillyB" is a show that needs to get supported since it gives Latino creatives the opportunity to share their art directly with audience that we know is out there (BTW, the show has over 100,000 viewers).
We had a chance to speak with Julia this week and we asked her a few questions, well, because we heard PUB CRAWL in BROOKLYN and that got our interest.
LR: What is the vision of "East WillyB?"
JG: We hope to create a new American sitcom in "East WillyB." A show that features characters you want to invite into your homes weekly, stories that reflect the lives and experiences of Latinos living in the US, and humor that is intelligent and doesn't reinforce tired stereotypes.
LR: And the whole "straight to web" decision?
JG: We chose to use the web as our medium of distribution because the population we want to reach is online: young, new generation, Latinos growing up between their parents world and their own.
LR: The Kickstarter campaign is a bold move, and by being transparent and taking your goals to your audience, you will know who will support you or not. Do you agree?
JR: Yes, the Kickstarter is exciting to us because it gives us an opportunity to grow our audience while fundraising for our season. It puts our asses on the line as well. If people want to see programming like "East WillyB," we will succeed in raising our $50,000 goal. If you believe in what we are doing, we ask that you give to the project. No amount is too small. If we can get 10,000 people to give $5 we'll reach our goal today.
LR: And that Pub Crawl offer is legit? That video you did for us is true? Pub Crawl in Brooklyn?
JR: (Laughs) Yes! We wanted to offer the following Incentive to Latino Rebels readers: Any backers who help us reach $5000 in the next 24 hours will be invited to a special Cinco de Mayo bar crawl in Brooklyn with the cast and crew of WillyB.
