By Christopher Jewel
Were you aware that Saint Vincent is home to its very own internet superstars? Well, look no further than Milkshake Night Productions. Oh, you’ve never heard of them? They might have been undercover as your classmates. Milkshake Night Productions is a comedy sketch channel made up of five guys just trying to make your days better. Founded by Brandon Hallick, Bradley Hallick, and Kendall Janosko, they began their journey to stardom as just three best friends who all happen to share a birthday. They then began to make food vlogs which you can find on the channel under the Munch Bunch playlist. These videos were fun for them, so they expanded onto something much better and less funny, comedy sketches, where they drafted two young hotshots onto the team. When Benjamin Edwards and Christopher Jewel joined the team, Milkshake Night Productions was formed. Together they’ve written and filmed some of the most family-friendly, funniest, action-packed, under 10-minute videos ever seen.
Some of their more popular videos are “Working Late,” “The Jack O’Lantern,” and “The New Roommate.” Some of the things you might see in these sketches are, working after hours, carved pumpkins, and perhaps the meeting of roommates. If you don’t enjoy these instant classics, sorry pal, but you just don’t know what funny is. Although not truly established, many fans believe that these sketches all occur in one connected cinematic universe. You can find countless universe theories amongst the Milkshake theorist. But the strongest argument for supporting this idea is that Brandon starts any sketch doing work and that Brad is always the best actor in every video.
The guys at Milkshake Night productions have listened to the fans, and they’ve learned that “Quarantine Olympics” is the worst video. The fans are correct. You should most definitely
stay away from that video. However, Brandon Hallick has gone on record saying, “A lot of people ask us why we keep Quarantine Olympics on the channel. And the answer is because it keeps us humble. Especially since our stardom is really taking off, I think it’s important for us to stay humble.”
The fans don’t know this about Milkshake Night Production, but they put a ton of time into their scripts. Their process for taking a joke to the screen can be broken into five phases; idea, writer’s room, writing, filming, and editing. First, a joke or comical scenario can appear in one of the Milkshake Night Production’s team members’ heads. Next, the guys will meet to pitch ideas and inevitably veto Ben’s idea (they’re funny but only cause they’re not good). Once they’ve reached an agreement on what sketch to make, they begin the writing phase. This phase can be a lot of fun and is full of banter, arguments, and battles to the death, all for a one-liner. Once a script is complete that the five of them can agree on, they will film the video throughout the week. That is if they feel like it. Filming can take anywhere from two to almost twenty-four hours. For a shorter video, such as “The Divine Debate,” it took about four hours of filming, but the Oscar-nominated “Working Late,” took close to twenty hours of just filming. After the crew finish filming, Brandon will edit together all the clips into the masterpieces that can be seen at Milkshake Night Productions on YouTube. And that’s how a YouTube video is made.
That sounds super simple; however, the boys often struggle to juggle new videos with school, sports, and jobs. That’s probably why we never post new videos, seriously guys like never. Take me, Chris Jewel, as an example. I’m an English major who is also on the swim team. I bet you can imagine just how tough it is for me to practice when there is a mob of fans asking for autographs.
So, does Milkshake Night Productions sound like a worthy investment of your time? Let me tell you, it is! I don’t just say that because I’m an irreplaceable part of the team but I say it as a true fan. So quit reading and start watching.
Chris Jewel is a team member of “Milkshake Night Productions,” a student-run YouTube comedy channel.