Comedian, writer, director, podcast fixture, and Vine superstar Jason Nash has carved out a fascinating niche for himself as a modestly accomplished middle-aged husband and father in a city and industry that worships success and youth. But part of what makes Nash such a singular and refreshing comic voice is that he has never done much to hide the fact that he worships success and youth himself, and has driven himself a little batty chasing his dreams.
Nash made his feature-film directorial debut with Jason Nash Is Married. The film was an adaptation of a web series of the same name Nash created for Comedycentral.com that benefited from a cast that constitutes a veritable who’s-who of hip Los Angeles comedians: Patton Oswalt, T.J. Miller, Paul F. Tompkins, Paul Scheer, Rob Corrdry, Casey Wilson, Busy Philipps, and pretty much every one you can think of who ever performed stand-up comedy on the West Coast.
The film was a surprise hit, and now Nash is following it up with FML, a road-trip comedy being billed as “first-ever Vine star feature film.” For you oldsters out there (and I include myself among your ranks), Vine is a social-media platform where users can film tiny little videos of themselves and their friends for the public’s amusement. Think of it as sort of the Twitter version of YouTube, where succinctness and concision are key.
Like YouTube, Vine has created its own gallery of stars you’ve never heard of, and FML will feature a lot of them. Nash’s co-lead is a youngster named Brandon Calvillo; he’s also cast Brittany Furlan, Nicholas Megalis, and Marcus Johns, names that mean nothing to a geriatric type like myself, but all of whom have literally millions of followers on Vine. The plot of the film finds Nash and Calvillo embarking on a two-month cross-country journey to collaborate with other Vine stars and increase their social-media presence. Truly, it sounds like a modern-day Grapes Of Wrath, only with a much more direct emphasis on social media.
In addition to these obscure superstars, FML will also include Jason Nash Is Married alums Oswalt, Miller, Andy Daly, Scheer, Corddry, and Ken Marino. That’s a whole lot of star-power for one small film. To fund the film, Nash has launched a Kickstarter seeking $200,000 dollars, and is offering premiums that range from following you on Vine for $1 to an executive producer credit/package for $10,000.