Style Weekly
Richmond's alternative for news, arts, culture and opinion
Balls to the Firewall
by Brent Baldwin
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Remember when those two dudes embarrassed the Virginia DMV in December by getting goofy pictures taken for their licenses?
A flurry of Internet-driven interest ensued. Soon the two 28-year-olds were on "The Today Show" and being flown to California to meet with television execs about possible projects involving their crude, youth-oriented, skate-culture humor.
Local media instantly tagged them as Richmond's own "Jackass" crew -- but the guys behind daybyday — Dave Stewart, Will Carsola and behind-the-scenes partner-in-crime Mike Atkinson — are not into that characterization.
"We hate being compared to 'Jackass,'" Stewart says. "We write. We're not just trying to punch each other in the balls. Those guys are funny, but we put a lot of work into actual sketch comedy."
The group's videos run the gamut from crude to some next-level bad taste. And whether or not it's your thing, it's at least an exploration of creativity and culture. "We like to push the envelope," Stewart says.
It all evolved from their promotion of local art shows, and a plan to start a record label in 2000, which quickly changed to producing DVDs — like their popular "Teenagers from Marz" and "Teenagers from Uranus" releases. They feature music videos, skateboarding scenes and shots of local area graffiti, interspersed with sketch comedy.
Daybyday spent the summer holed up working on sketches for a new show called "Stupidface" on the Fuel TV network. Their first nine sketches, three months of work, were rejected for being too vulgar. Among them were videos of Smokey the Bear raping hippies; Stewart with his genitalia "tucked back" and running through a Richmond cemetery; along with an animation entry, "Randolph the Retarded Shark."
A CW program called "Online Nation" will feature an interview with the group Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. The group also is working on a more serious documentary about local punk mainstay, Avail.
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