Neal Campbell | This is my blog. » streams of income

A Convoluted Post About Comedy, Louis CK and Me …

Neal Campbell — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:58:20 +0000

I wasn’t willing to be mean during the legal divorce stuff. My advice to any nice guy is BE MEAN or get screwed. When she divorces you, loving her is irrelevant. I gave up pretty much everything I created in the last five years of my marriage in exchange for ideas not yet pursued. One thing I got to keep from the past is iYule.TV. It’s a 30-minute, beautiful film of a fireplace optimized for iDevices. You can get your copy here for $4.50 with much gratitude from me!

$4.50

Download Link will be emailed to you within 24-hours.

Here’s my convoluted segue …

I WANT to be producing GeekBrief.TV. It’s my baby. It got taken from me and perverted by the most worthless man I ever met. Now my challenge in life is to want to want to do something else. That isn’t exactly easy, but I don’t seem to get a choice because I’m not rich enough to hire lawyers to make my choice an option.

I have this asset, iYule.TV. It was featured in the New York Times and on Conan O’Brian. I didn’t sell it last year because, after the torture of divorce, I just didn’t care. This year I’m working on wanting to want something else so I made it available. It’s beautiful. It’s a DRM-free film with a request that purchasers don’t give it away.

More convolution …

I feel expected to produce a tech/gadget show. I have one ready to go, but my gut says tech was the place to be at the start of podcasting. Comedy is the place to be in podcasting now. I listen to comedians like Marc Maron, Adam Carolla, and Joe Rogan talk about podcasting and it makes me feel like I’m back in the day when we were pioneers in this thing. The safe part of me wants to move northern California and work on tech shows. The innovator in me wants to move to L.A. and work with comics to do something brand new.

More convolution …

So Louie CK does this absolutely amazing show called Louie. You can see it on Hulu. It shows the future of entrepreneurial entertainment. That show made me a fan. A few days ago, Louie CK did an experiment that made me very jealous. Jealousy is one of my weak points. He released a concert on his website, selling it with Paypal for $5. That’s great and as a fan, I’m glad he found this route. My problem is he’s been on Fresh Air on NPR and the Tonight Show and covered on all kinds of blogs suggesting he’s done something first. He hasn’t. He followed the path laid out by geeks and it has worked for him.

He shared the details and any geek could tell him, he got screwed!

The video production shot over two performances cost him $170,000. Raise your hand if you live in new media and could have produced the same thing for $30,000? Then he paid $32,000 for his “robust, reliable and carefully constructed website.” Again, I ask geeks in the room, could you have not done the same site for $12?

Here’s my point …

The geeks have figured this stuff out. I can’t speak for others, but I look up to comedians and I don’t want to see you get screwed. Connect with us and let us help you revolutionized distribution!

Louis CK is selling a 1.12 GB video of a stand-up concert for $5. I’m selling a 1.13 GB film of a fireplace for $4.50. He broke even after selling 50,000 copies. I broke even after selling 30. That’s not the point though. His break even can sustain his life. Mine can’t. The crucial success point I learned about from producing GeekBrief.TV is to create an intersection between fame and geek. Fame + Geek = Money.

I could save a comedian huge dollars on production, but I can’t deliver the same kind of attention … not yet at least.

In the mean time, thanks for buying a copy of my fireplace for your pocket!

$4.50

Download Link will be emailed to you within 24-hours.

Top 5 Dream Sponsors for GeekBrief.TV

Neal Campbell — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:03:13 +0000

5: Benadryl
4: Urban Outfitters
3: Tanqueray
2: Chipotle
1: Apple

Operation Pixel Baby

Neal Campbell — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:47:39 +0000

Cali and I both grew up poor, but blessed. Cali grew up connected to an amazingly supportive Italian family and I grew up raised by Baptists who introduced me to Jesus and home grown tomatoes.

We’ve been married nine years and we’ve put off having a kid because we have an amazing relationship. We’ve never had an argument…ever and the big fear is that having a kid might be the factor that changes that.

For our Big Trip, we started a site called PaidByPixels.com. It’s similar to the principal of buying a brick in a pathway to support your college. You buy pixels to support our trip and get ads galore on PaidByPixels.com and on our network of Web sites. We call it the Pixel Board.

We don’t need nearly all of the pixels to sell to fund the Big Trip, but we need most of them to sell. Cali said tonight, if we sell all of them, we can have a kid after the trip. I’m pretty sure I can convincer her to get started on the kid mission about half-way through.

People have always said that you can’t wait for everything to be fine finically to have a kid because things my never be okay. Cali grew up in a struggle and she doesn’t want to raise a kid that way. I’m not opposed to admitting that I need your help convincing her. She loves me, and she loves y’all.

When people don’t get this Web 2.0 world we’re living in, I wonder if they want to connect to people at all. To us the connection we feel to our GeekBrief.TV friends is more real than the connection we have to anyone in the flesh-and-blood world. That’s why I’m sharing this mission with you guys and not the natural fam.

Introducing iYule.TV, a yule log video for your iPod

Neal Campbell — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 01:46:35 +0000

Over the last month on nights and weekends, we’ve been working on a Yule log video for portable players. It’s a project inspired by 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris and our meeting with Dave Ramsey. Tim’s book explains in exhaustive detail how to use the power of Internet technology to launch a business that pretty much runs itself. Cali asked Dave for advice, and he told her to create a great product that she’s proud to send to people.

The product we created is at iYule.TV. It’s a 30-minute Yule Log video shot in HD and scored by the amazing Geoff Smith of Digg the Code fame. It’s available in three resolutions: one for 4:3 portables like the iPod Classic and the iPod Nano; one for widescreens like the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the Zune; and one for TV and computer displays. All three sizes are also available without music for the Bah Humbug types who don’t like Christmas music.We’ve partnered with Geoff Smith and Paul Colligan to make it happen. Geoff’s original score is hypnotic, and I can imagine thousands of homes playing it during Christmas dinner. Paul Colligan’s Premium Cast application makes it possible for us to sell the videos, like virtual albums, DRM free.

Last Christmas, I put a fireplace video on my iPod and pulled it out during a romantic Christmas dinner. It’s a quirky, whimsical, romantic thing to do. I hope some guys get the iYule Log video and do the same thing. I also hope people who are giving iPods for Christmas will load this on the players ahead of time.A portion of the proceeds will go to three charities chosen by the producers. Geoff will give to the Songs of Love Foundation. Paul is giving to Tim Ferris’ LitLiberation project and we’ll be giving to Heifer International.

Here’s a sample and an example of why I hate flash (it starts all wonky):

We chose the Virb flash player because it’s the most beautiful one we’ve found so far.