LOS ANGELES, CA.- MOCAtv, the digital extension of The Museum of Contemporary Art which has reached over 5 million views and 150,000 subscribers since its launch, will debut a new series created by artist Alix Lambert titled Ambiance Man, featuring Fred Armisen and Jack Black. Part sketch comedy and part subversive artistic commentary, Ambiance Man will be part of MOCAtv’s Art + Comedy programming, drawing upon and referencing the art historical tradition of comedic performance by artists including Alex Bag, Kate Berlant, Dynasty Handbag, Andy Kaufman, Martin Kersels, and David Robbins. The new series will be premiered on December 20, 2013 on MOCA’s contemporary art video channel on YouTube, MOCAtv (www.youtube.com/mocatv).
Ambiance Man is the second MOCAtv collaboration with Lambert, following CRIME: The Animated Series which she co-created with Sam Chou of Toronto’s Style5. Lambert’s book CRIME inspired the series. The idea for the new series is that a little ambiance goes a long way and where there is bad ambiance, the superhero Ambiance Man goes to great lengths to fix it. In addition to Armisen and Black, the cast includes Jibz Cameron, Peter Macon, and Atsuko Okatsuka in the respective roles of Ambiance Man, Unidentifiable Odor, Buzz Kill, Cooke Alistaire, and Feng- She. The series will be complemented by fictitious Twitter feeds of the primary characters.
Lambert explains, “Ambiance Man is a series about a super hero who fixes what we really need fixed in our day-to-day lives. While most super heroes are focused on preventing the end of the world, Ambiance Man is focused on transforming the moments that feel like the end of the world.”
The series was shot at the YouTube Space LA in Playa Vista, a state of the art production facility designed specifically for YouTube creators to produce digital video content.
Comedy is a huge attraction on YouTube and the Art + Comedy programming, a natural subject for MOCA's YouTube channel, takes a look at some of the artists and performers working in the art historical tradition of performance art. The Art + Comedy season features a film about the ephemera of Andy Kaufman and his legacy, and a celebration of the pioneering video performer Alex Bag, as well as new films by 2014 Whitney Biennial artist David Robbins, Martin Kersels, Kate Berlant and Dynasty Handbag, a performance artist whose work is increasingly showing up in mainstream comedy.
Alix Lambert is an artist, filmmaker and author. She has directed and produced award-winning documentaries, including The Mark of Cain (nominated for an Independent Spirit Award), Bayou Blue and Mentor. Lambert wrote episode 6, season 3 (A Rich Find) of HBO’s Deadwood and was a writer and associate producer for HBO’s John from Cincinnati. She has authored four books and is co-founder and co-artistic director of The Brooklyn International Theater Company. As an artist Lambert has exhibited her work to international critical acclaim, showing in The Venice Biennale, The Museum of Modern Art, The Georges Pompidou Center, and the Kwangju Biennnale, to name a few. She has received numerous grants and residencies from the NEA, The Roberts Foundation, NYSCA, and MacDowell. She is currently the Kennedy Teaching Fellow at University of South Florida.
