Interview with Orrin Zucker

Graphic Designer and Co-Creator of the web series "It's Jerry Time"!

If you haven't heard of him before then grab a cup of coffee because he's a great guy.

In our interview he talks about how he makes the "It's Jerry Time" videos and also give us some insight into his accent and the type of English used in the videos.

Little known fact: Orrin's entertaining web series (consisting of 20 HD videos) has inspired my latest project "It's English Time".

I'm a middle age guy who grew up on the streets of Buffalo, NY (actually suburbs). I went to art school and studied graphic design (Rhode Island School of Design).

I've worked in television for pretty much all my professional life, starting out making graphics for newscasts (eg Fire!, Traffic!, School Closings!) and moved on to creating animation for cable networks and corporations. I have a wife and 4 boys and live outside of Boston.

2) What is “It’s Jerry Time” and how did it come about?

It's JerryTime is a series based on my brother's life, told by him and visually interpreted by me. It came about over lunch one day while were were brainstorming, trying to come up with ideas for a TV show. He had just finished telling me how he was angry with a bartender over getting badgered at a restaurant he went to the night before. Within a month, the story went online (Who's That Guy?!)

3) Which is your favourite “It’s Jerry Time” video and why?

Very difficult question. I like almost all of them...but I think if I had to chose, I'd go with "The Brute". I like the story - it flows very nicely from one scene to the next - there’s a few visual surprises in there (we even had an old song from a Popeye cartoon in one of the scenes- but we took it out for copyright reasons) and it ends well.

It also won a gold medal at the Ottawa Animation Festival (but I think any cartoon about hockey would win something in Canada).

4) Do you speak any languages other than English? Did you find it difficult to learn them? If you don’t speak another language what do you think would be the most difficult part about learning one?

I speak bits and pieces of Hebrew and Spanish, but it's difficult for me to learn a language because I'm not immersed in it. Our parents were fluent in a number of languages (Russian, German, Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew, Czech, Hungarian, and English), but we unfortunately didn't pick much up...maybe because they didn't speak those around the house since the only language our parents spoke in common was English.

5) Do you think you have an accent? How would you describe your accent or style of speaking?

I didn't think I had an accent until I went back for my 30th high school reunion back in Buffalo. When I heard my friends who stayed in the area speak, I realized their accent was distinctly mid-western...with very flat A's. I can hear it in the way that I speak (I say 'haackey" instead on hockey), but in general it's not very pronounced.

6) What was your reaction when I contacted you about using your videos as a basis for an English course?

Shock, and then grief when reality set in. Ultimately, denial. Jerry brought up this idea years ago, so it didn't come as a total surprise, though the idea of people coming to the USA speaking like Jerry is a little scary.

7) How would you describe the English that is used in your videos (formality, types of vocabulary, usefulness etc).

Very average middle-America. Unstructured - with a lot of "Like"s and "So"s (maybe a few too many?)....nothing you would hear being taught English for sure. Since Jerry ad-libs most of it, it's not perfect.

8) How do you think your videos can help English learners?

I think it will help them hear how average Americans speak, rather than grammatically correct English they teach in schools.

9) Could you walk us step-by-step through the process of making a video (describing how you get the idea, planning, execution, recording, animation, music etc)?

The processed changed a bit over the course of the series, but on average, it started with Jerry coming up with the story and recording it on a cheap digital tape recorder. Once he gave me the recording he would leave me alone for about 2 weeks. I might ask him here or there for clarification, or re-record a few lines for continuity purposes.

During this time Jerry usually records some tracks on his piano in his living room (the one you see in some of the episodes). Once I finished the animation, we'd go over it and change a few scenes here and there. Then I'd add sound effects, lay down the music and put it online.

10) Can you tell us a story about yourself? Maybe an embarrassing moment or frustrating situation where you were misunderstood.

A number of years ago my wife and I went skiing. Neither of us are great skiers, but at that time, I'd been skiing no more than a half a dozen times in my life.

One thing you have to know about my wife is that she is kind of quiet and hates being the focus of a lot of attention. It happened that there was a ski race for charity that day. I tried to talk her into racing and she said no way.

I was hoping she'd change her mind during that day, so when I checked in, I decided to grab a number for her as well. I told her if she decided not to race, no damage was done.

When the moment came, she decided not to race and I didn't press her. I went to the top of the mountain and put on one of the two numbers I had in my pocket, waited for the gate to open and proceeded to roll head over heals down the mountain.

That would all have been funny had it not been for the fact that I had mistakenly put on my wife's number. The announcer on the loud speaker seemed to relish the site of me tumbling down the mountain and described it in excruciating detail...but the problem was it was my wife's name that was broadcast over the loudspeaker.

Needless to say, when I got down the mountain it was not a pretty site. And that is (my wife's) most embarrassing moment.

Fun Fact:

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