Sammy Anzer

Our Story

Two high school teachers in Memphis dream of becoming comedy writers when they grow up

She was a vegetarian socialist from Ontario; he was a loud-mouth comedian from Queens. They met in Memphis, Tennessee, of all places, to earn their master’s degrees and teach high school.

In between lesson plans and grading papers, Sammy became part of the growing Memphis comedy scene. It was a place full of characters, weirdos and charmers. It takes a special kind of person to go to smoke-filled bars four times a week and try to make a career out of comedy. Ultimately, we wanted to show-off all the wonderful and complex people we met in the comedy scene, and Stand-Up Guys became the way to do it.

We started script-writing on Fridays after school, almost on a whim. We had no idea what we were getting into--just that we wanted to share the things that made us laugh. After writing seven episodes, the real work began. We filmed the first two episodes over the course of just a few short weeks.

The city of Memphis has been fantastically supportive of our audacious dream--all we had to do was ask. We found our videographers, Gregory Gray and Kent Hamson, who were willing to shoot Stand-Up guys on spec. We reached out to an audio engineer, Nate Reisman, who graciously offered to fix all our sound issues when he heard we didn’t have a budget. Businesses opened their doors, allowing us to shoot during prime business hours; Rico Dinero even let us use one of our favorite songs for the intro. Dirty Cotton got our t-shirts done, local blogs got the word out, and our cast, including Memphis's own Comma Comedians, gave countless hours of their time.

The Mission
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Beyond making people laugh, one of our goals is to reveal a hidden facet of Memphis, one that rarely makes the news. Memphis is constantly getting bad press, but it’s so much more than guns and barbecue. Beyond showcasing our city, we want to inspire others to pursue their wildest dreams. When we first came to Memphis, a local comedian said, “People become comics when they look at someone on stage and go, ‘Pshh, I’m funnier than that guy.’” If two teachers with no experience and no budget can make an indie series after work, imagine what you could do.

Let us know you believe in what we’re doing by tweeting, Facebooking or sharing the following:

https://goo.gl/IyVREc

We’re driven to finish the series, and we want to do it even bigger--and sexier. We’ve learned so much from being on set for the first time, and with that experience, we’re confident we can create a show that represents the unique flavor and untapped talent of Memphis comedy.

No great things aren’t individual achievements and you know what they say: It takes a city to make a micro-sitcom. Help put Memphis comedy on the map by liking, sharing, and backing our project : )