ALL IN THE METHOD: An Unpredictable & Self-Deprecating Web Series Comedy On The Pursuit of Fame

An actor’s typical day

Making it as an actor isn’t easy, from the constant rejection, to working all of those odd jobs just to get by. For method actors Rich and Luke, the protagonists of the new British comedy web series ALL IN THE METHOD, the pursuit of fame often leads to disastrous, yet hilarious results. The show, written, co-produced by, and starring Rich Keeble and Luke Kaile (of Muzzle The Pig Productions), as Rich and Luke respectably, debuted in June of last year.

Some what atypical of what we might consider current web series production ‘best practices,’ ‘Method’ episodes are released in spurts over a period of months. In fact, the show’s fourth and fifth episodes are already in post-production, with a sixth episode set to film later this year, wrapping up the show’s first season. The cast also includes Tom Bonington in a recurring role as, who else, Tom (a character that ends up being the butt of every joke, a la Kenny from SOUTH PARK).

Both Keeble and Kaile’s experiences as actors and writers helped prepare them for producing ALL IN THE METHOD in many ways, despite never having produced a web series before. The cast includes many people they’ve worked with on past projects, both in the theatre and in film, and many of the characters are inspired by those past experiences. “When we write a character we often can think of someone from people who have been in our past plays, sketches or even just people we’ve met on film shoots or even on Twitter,” says Keeble, who, along with Kaile, cite popular British comedies such as the UK version of THE OFFICE, along with BLACKADDER, GREEN WING, and the cult American hit COMMUNITY as their main influences as filmmakers.

Keeble and Kaile spoof various movie genres in their own unique ways, and the quality of the production has improved, according to Kaile. “With our upcoming episodes (4 and 5) we are spoofing the action genre, so the feel and look of the upcoming episodes will be completely different to previous ones, with more handheld camera, maybe some added film grain, lots more corny heroic dialogue and a pumping soundtrack.” The production process has taught them a lot, Keeble says, and even though neither expects to see any financial success from the show, exposure for their product is key.

“It’s nice to produce content and share it with everyone, I think it’s helping us grow as actors and writers since writing to a web series format is incredibly different to what we’re used to. We have quite big plans to do with a separate feature film, and by having a solid set of 6 episodes of All in the Method, it’ll hopefully show people the potential of what we could do if we had all those elusive luxuries such as time and an actual budget.” While there is currently no crowd funding campaign for the show (both Keeble and Kaile have funded the first season out of their own pockets), neither have ruled out such a campaign for a second season of the show.

Many actors who find (or have found) themselves struggling to stay afloat while pursuing their first big break will relate to the comical situations portrayed in ALL IN THE METHOD, Keeble says. “We’d hope that actors would find something they can specifically relate to, because although some of our episodes go to the extremes, there’s still many things that actors have to suffer on a daily basis, from the menial temp jobs to the bizarre workshops seen in Episode 2. I think by being a comedy our appeal is quite wide, especially since we’ve tended to mix-up our comic styles in the first 3 episodes while we’ve found our feet.” It’s an approach to comedy that, says Kaile, is “unpredictable, self-deprecating and full of suggestive male nudity,”