Late Night in the Bedroom exposes artists.
Carey Wass (left) hosts and Joshua Barndt produces the online late night live audience talk show, Late Night in the Bedroom. The increasingly popular show aims to gain expose and unite the city's struggling artists.
Staff photo/ERIN HATFIELD
All artists know, regardless of the medium, they share similar struggles and triumphs when it comes to trying to make it in their chosen field.
Well, one group of such artists has launched an online show to unite the struggle, share the triumphs and expose this city to the people who make up Toronto's arts scene.
"We want to expose, engage, celebrate and elevate young up-and-coming artists," said Carey Wass, host of the online show, Late Night in the Bedroom. "The idea is that we are passionate young artists and we want to surround ourselves with more passionate people and essentially create a show where more people can see this young, fresh exciting thing going on."
Late Night in the Bedroom is a live audience talk show, featuring local artists, musicians and cultural players. It aims to expand public dialogue around the art we see, hear, and create, as well as supporting the ongoing development of the creative community.
"We were talking about how we have all these friends who are doing all these different things, but we don't really know too much about those fields," explained Joshua Barndt, a painter and instillation artist as well as the show's producer. "Just because I have a friend in theatre doesn't mean I go to a lot of theatre."
So he and Wass decided to create the show, which brings different artists together and in turn give audiences a taste of all of the art, music and creativity out there people don't know about.
"We are trying to help artists that are trying to do this professionally," Barndt said. "Our long-term goal is to create more awareness about the people who are making really great art in this city.
"We are all gaining a better appreciation for the artists that are in our community as well as, to some extent, building new communities," continued Barndt, who lives in Parkdale.
They filmed the first episode a week after the project was conceived at a house party.
"It is not ground breaking, I mean it's a late night talk show, but we thought, why not focus on up-and-coming artists," Wass said of the inception of the show. "(Barndt), being the go getter, he is said, 'Yup, we'll do it next week.'"
They shot the first three episodes at Barndt's old apartment on College, hence the name, "Late Night in the Bedroom".
"In the summer we were doing it every two weeks, which was a bit crazy, to plan it, film it and get it out," Barndt explained. "So we moved to once a month and we also switched locations, because it was a bit too cramped."
The increasingly popular show is now filmed once a month at alternative art venues across Toronto including 52 McCaul and Whippersnapper Gallery at College Street and Clinton Avenue. Tapings are done in front of a live audience and the men said it turns into a social event where everyone stays afterwards.
"We have about a 12 person collective that ranges from people that are active in every kind of piece of the show and other people who have smaller rolls," Barndt explained.
Together the group brainstorms ideas, prepare interviews, shooting and editing the show.
Among the collective are all manner of artists, which Barndt says helps them maintain a diversity of contacts in the artistic community and source out a variety of guests for the show.
"It's good to have people who specialize in all those areas because then when we do bring in a musician or a visual artist...it really helps," Wass said.
They also work with local photography duo, Istoica, which they are connected to through Whippersnapper Gallery.
"A great deal of the quality is due to them," Wass said.
The makers of Late Night in the Bedroom are currently working on producing a comedy special, which they hope to hold at a venue, possibly in Parkdale.
"At this point we are trying to find people that are really strong in different areas of the arts so that our palette is covered," Wass said. "It is a show celebrating the arts in general."
They encourage artists to contact them about being on the show.
"The show is getting to a place that, I think the collective agrees it is a worthwhile effort," Wass said. "We are at a point now that we feel the product is getting stronger and stronger."
Past episodes of Late Night in the Bedroom can be seen at www.latenightinthebedroom.com