‘Jury Duty’ Director Jake Szymanski Tells All

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Director Jake Szymanski came up at Funny or Die and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ but nothing he had ever done in the comedy world could have prepared him to pull off what was essentially a real-life version of ‘The Truman Show,’ with jokes, on ‘Jury Duty.’ In this episode, the director breaks down what went into making the comedy-reality show’s unsuspecting star Ronald Gladden think he was in a documentary about jury duty when he was actually surrounded by actors and improv comedians for three weeks straight. Szymanski reveals how they cast Ronald, the secret maneuvers behind the show’s hilarious Margaritaville episode, and the huge sigh of relief he let out when they finally let the cat out of the bag.

Follow Jake Szymanski on Twitter @szyjake and Instagram @szyjake

Follow Matt Wilstein on Twitter @mattwilstein

Follow The Last Laugh on Instagram @lastlaughpod

Highlights from this episode and others at The Daily Beast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	There were several times during the filming of the show Jury Duty when my guest on this week's show was worried the jig was up.
0:07.6	But this was the moment his heart really sank.
0:10.7	I knew this was going to happen.
0:11.8	I actually called out specifically what was going to happen.
0:13.7	Plaintiff was going to make a closing statement.
0:15.5	Something crazy was going to happen.
0:16.8	We adjourned for the day.
0:18.4	Here we are.
0:19.2	How are you that psychic?
0:22.6	Because this happens every day, Barb. There has not been a single day that we've had that just been smooth.
0:26.6	There's always something crazy that comes up.
0:28.6	This literally feels like reality TV.
0:34.6	This is the Last Laugh.
0:49.8	I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and that was Ronald Gladden pretty early into his three-week journey as the one real person surrounded by actors in one of my favorite shows so far this year, Jury Duty.
0:55.4	And in this week's episode, we go deep on how they pulled off what has to be the longest con in TV history with the show's director, Jake Szymansky.
1:01.0	Jake is a veteran of Funny or Die and Saturday Night Live, but neither of those gigs could
1:06.5	really have prepared him for the challenge of what was essentially a real-life version
1:10.6	of the Truman Show
1:11.6	with lots of jokes on jury duty, which premiered back in April on Amazon Freevy, and in my opinion,
1:19.1	should be in the conversation for Best Comedy Series at this year's Emmys.
1:23.8	Jury Duty is not the easiest show to explain if you haven't had the pleasure of watching it yet.
1:29.4	So I began my conversation with Jake by asking him to help describe what makes it so unique.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Daily Beast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Daily Beast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.