Hofstra students bring back the 80s on Web site

By Sara Kay

“Oh yeah. Oh F*** yeah.” The first words ever uttered in a C-oh!-bra episode by Rip “Thunderdome” Richards, played by Ian Meltzer, set the mood for the rest of the series. Rip and the guys captured the audience's attention by turning into 80s rockers and kept them coming back for more. They posted their videos onto the Hofstra University's web interactive Web site, htinteractive.com.

Mike “The Misery” Michaels, played by James Appleton, Phil Smith, played by Stephen Dworkin, and Sam Kolls (Formerly of Koll Mine), played by Erik Delosh, make up the band C-oh!-bra that has been a huge hit on the internet for hundreds of followers not only at Hofstra, but recently, nationwide. “We’re huge in Canada,” said Ian.

The guys knew they wanted to do a series about music, but it took some brainstorming to put the concept of C-oh!-bra together. “About a year ago, we were just sitting around talking about music, and how I wanted to be in a 80s band” says Ian, “and then it kind of progressed to, well, let’s be in a 80s band. And then, let’s make a joke 80s band.”

How ever much fun it sounded a year ago sitting around joking, the guys realized that it would take a lot of work. “I wrote down a concept from what we all were talking about,” says Ian, “And then from there we kind of went with it.”



After the general idea of the show was a consensus, the characters needed to be put together. Rip, Mike, Phil and Sam needed depth, dialogue, and a cool wardrobe. “Rip was modeled after Kip Winger and Steven Percy, 80s rock lead men,” says Ian. “Sam is based after random rock interviews where they don’t talk, but they rock,” he continued. As for Mike and Phil, they were more concoctions of these guys’ imaginations. “Mike’s character was kind of a joke,” Ian says. “He’s the biggest out of all of us.” “He’s also very sensitive,” added Stephen. “And to play on that,” Ian continued, “Phil is the smallest of all of us, but he’s just so damn mean.”

Steph, (pronounced Shteph), played by Jen DiMatteo, served as the love interest, resulting in a love triangle between Mike, Jen and Phil. “We wanted something real-life,” says Ian. “We figured it would be funny because she was with Mike who’s the complete opposite of Phil, and then she left Mike for Phil, so it’s like, what’s going on?”

Rip, Mike, Phil and Sam may have been in the same band, but they were different characters, which is what they were aiming for. Each member needed a unique quality to make for good comedy. “We wanted Rip to be the eccentric, front man, who there’s something clearly wrong with,” says Ian. “Sam we wanted to be the one who has the talent, who actually does rock, which is funny because he rocks the hardest but he doesn’t talk about it. Mike and Phil, we wanted the big and little guy to be the main conflict, always at each other’s nerves.”

The costumes and hair-dos, as far as 80s rock bands go, are as important as the music itself. For C-oh!-bra, it wasn’t just about a funny web series with good music. It was about being authentic. “As far as costumes go, we just watched a lot of 80s rock music videos,” says Erik. “We basically just winged it, piecing together stuff as we went along.”

The reaction from the audience of C-oh!-bra is something the guys considered when they designed the overall concept of the show. “We wanted it to be a life-changing experience,” says Erik, laughing. “I knew a lot of people weren’t going to get it,” says Ian, "For the specific audience, it makes sense." “For the audience that doesn’t get it, it still has elements you would find funny regardless of if you know 80s rock or not. People still laugh.”

The seven episode web series definitely had its ups and downs, but the band experienced a good amount of laughs both on and off set. “I think the best part was editing,” says Ian. “When we were kind of all standing around, and we would just watch it through, and see it on the computer screen right in front of us.“I liked the shooting part the best,” says Jen. “You saw the guys immediately turning into their characters.”

They all agreed that it was a great learning experience. “When you watch TV, or you watch web content,” says Erik, “you think it’s easy to do. But when you actually go to do it, it’s a lot more than you think it would be. It’s frustrating at times, we got on each other’s nerves, but there were more than enough occasions when we would have fun.”

Even though they had a great time, there were still some issues along the way. “We wanted to quit many times,” Stephen says. “We didn’t know where we were going with it.” “We re-wrote three times, in production,” says Ian. “The last scene, James wrote literally two hours before we went and filmed it. Everything was kind of on-the-fly production. In the middle we stopped for two weeks, because we all wanted to kill each other. We had to decide if we thought it should be done or not done, but then we decided to finish it up.” Erik says, “It was definitely frustrating, to say the least."

After all the conflicts, mishaps, fights and laughs, C-oh!-bra has definitely made its presence known not only to Hofstra students, but to other followers who have found them on the web. Currently, they are being reviewed by Tilzy.tv. “If you get reviewed by them, it’s a really big deal,” says Ian. “We’ve submitted to all types of web TV awards, so hopefully we’ll hear back from them.”

“Promotion, especially self-promotion, is the key,” says Erik. “Nobody is going to find out about you unless you promote yourselves.” With internet-based promotion, the band managed to pick up a lot of followers. “We spent hours, after midnight, just posting links, trying to get people to watch it. Every little bit helps.”

Want to catch up on the 80s rock web series? Go to Click Here and as Mike would say, “get some.”