THE COME UP

There are 8 million stories in the city, but rarely do the most interesting ones get told. THE COME UP is a half-hour television pilot that follows a group of friends as they navigate adulthood. Their stories are representative of the city’s diversity and offer audiences a window into an entertaining and hilarious world often overlooked by the mainstream.

THE SHOW

In the 1970s a comedy form developed in Chicago known as The Harold. This structure takes an assortment of subjects and riffs off them through a series of large group scenes and smaller pairings of characters. This format is the foundation for comedies such as Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. As with these shows, The Come Up’s humor is born out of the minutiae and neurosis of everyday life. Over the course of a season our characters will grapple with open relationships, bed bugs, stop-and-frisk searches, and the ever-rising price of a slice of pizza.

THE CHARACTERS

JASON, our leading man, is lost and lovable underneath bravado and swag.

EMEKA, an eloquent and enigmatic philosopher who can't seem to take his own advice.

PETE is a promiscuous, drug addled, man about town, and although his outlook on life hasn’t changed since the 10th grade, he's the kind of guy you want in your corner.

TAVI is a charming young woman who lives for cheese steaks and straight girls.

THE PILOT EPISODE

The first episode opens with Jason, Emeka and Pete at a diner. Emeka has had an epiphany about monogamy…

EMEKA -- "Nobody’s Nobody’s. That’s MY chick, I’m HER man, HIS wife, YOUR boo, this is all predicated on ownership. I’m not someone’s possession; no one belongs to me. You love me, so you own me? What kind of medieval shit is that? I am my own person- she’s her own person- we’re all beautiful people with our own unique desires. Let my people go free from that MY girlfriend YOU’RE boyfriend, pathology. Nobody’s nobody’s. You like that, right?"

Jason is skeptical, but Emeka convinces him to explore the matter further. When Jason broaches the subject with his girlfriend Melody, she is surprisingly keen on the idea and they agree to give it a try. Jason soon finds his newfound freedom has disastrous consequences and only with the help of his friends can he salvage the mess he has created.

*(check out a scene from the script below…)

WHERE DO YOU COME IN?

You can help us produce the pilot. We will be shooting in mid November. Our goal is to raise $5,000. This is the amount we will need for the rentals of equipment and to secure locations.

If we don’t make our goal by the deadline you will not be charged and we will receive no money. If we do make our goal, you will help us make television history…

CHECK OUT OUR WORK

Here is clip from our short film Hector is Gonna Kill Nate:

*CHECK OUT THE SCRIPT

Here is an excerpt from The Come Up:

EXT. PARK BENCH - DAY

MELODY: You sure you don’t want a bite?

JASON: I’m not hungry.

MELODY: You don’t eat ice cream cause you’re hungry.

JASON: If you could only have one flavor for the rest of your life, what flavor would you choose?

MELODY: I think I’d get sick of ice cream.

JASON: So you’d quit ice cream altogether.

MELODY: I dunno, J. Damn, this is exactly what I wanted.

JASON: You ever feel like I own you?

MELODY: What?

JASON: I just been thinking, like...We don’t have to talk about it now. But...

MELODY: Talk about what?

JASON: You know I’d never cheat on you right?

MELODY: Did you cheat on me?

JASON: No.

MELODY: Good.

JASON: Look, I’m not asking for anything in particular, I just wanna have a hypothetical conversation. Hypothetically.

MELODY: Hypothesize.

JASON: What if me an you-

MELODY: You and I.

JASON: What if we had an understanding whereby, we’d still be exactly how we are now, AND, we’d be, open to being things we are not.

MELODY: What sort of things?

JASON: Just, umm, like having options, in life, to be-

MELODY: With other people?

JASON: That’s one version of...yeah...I guess...

MELODY: Are you asking for an open relationship?

JASON: Maybe…but you know-

MELODY: Okay.

JASON: Okay?

MELODY: Okay.

JASON: You mad at me.

MELODY: No.

JASON:You sad?

MELODY: No.

JASON: What are you?

MELODY: I’m a little tired and I got six more hours to my shift.

JASON: Should I not have brought it up now?

MELODY: Too late.

JASON: Yeah...

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