HITTIN’ THE BAR WITH DAVE URLAKIS’ NEW “DAY DRINKING”
Published in Reel Chicago, September 2014
The regular crowd from “Day Drinking”
Plenty of people like to knock back a few cold ones while the rest of the world is at work, but the pastime is rarely celebrated in popular culture. “Day Drinking,” a new webseries by comedian Dave Urlakis, aims to change all that.
Occupying a nameless bar where the jukebox never plays, the setting could double as a sunshine repellent.
But in the spirit of a good neighborhood dive, decoration is not the point: the people are the ones who make the place worthwhile.
Every episode begins with a slow zoom up to a table full of regulars who persuade the viewer to grab a chair.
“I try to put a positive spin on crappy bars,” says Urlakis, who wrote the series and also plays the dj character.
Since debuting on August 26, “Day Drinking” has scored 1,600 views and received enthusiastic coverage in the Sun Times.
Jeff Crump and Jason Chin
The characters include a janitor, a hotel manager, an EMT, a tech support guy and an overnight dj. Third-shifters who make fun of each other and don’t take it personally when the waitress uncorks a bottle of attitude, because she’s pretty much one of them too.
“In Cheers, the bar’s always full and everybody knows your name,” Urlakis continues. “In ‘Day Drinking,’ the bar’s mostly empty and everybody’s not supposed to be there.”
Dave Urlakis
Urlakis developed the concept and conducted the research while performing with groups like Comedy Sportz and iO for more than a decade.
“As a comedian, you do some pretty late shows and then it’s time to drink,” he says. “Sometimes it goes to the morning and you see people where that’s their five p.m.”
Combining these memories with the answers he heard from asking people one of his favorite questions — “What do you know about your job that I don’t know?” — he jumpstarted production before the script was completed, a method he follows regularly.
“I have an idea and an outline,” he says, “then I cast the show.”
Brit Belsheim and Melissa DuPrey
Urlakis admits that the method is uncommon, but he’s also proven it to be quite successful. He is the founding member of Awkward Spaceship, a production collective that has racked up more than four and a half million online views with shows like “Dentally Challenged,” a comedy shot in an actual dentist’s office.
For “Day Drinking,” he used Cinespace studios, where there’s a bar set ready to go. This gave him time to focus on other challenges like, “figuring out how to juggle five characters in four minute videos.”
“The janitor would say something totally different than the hotel manager… and what’s Roy’s relationship to Ivy?”
Fortunately, he had worked most of the cast members on the Chicago comedy circuit and, with their help, wrote to their strengths. He had also worked with DP’s Alex Sherman and Ben Sherman and editor Ryan DiGiorgi through Awkward Spaceship for years.
Urlakis admits that he doesn’t drink like he used to, but he still keeps late hours in pursuite of a whole ‘nother kind of happiness, most often with his ten month old daughter, Roxy.
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