Interview: Stephen Kogon from Groad the Guardian Devil

The creator, writer and star of the new comedy series talks about the show, streaming services and innovation during a pandemic. Groad the Guardian Devil also stars Jim O’Heir (Parks and Recreation) and Carlos Alazraqui (Reno 911!).

Stephen Kogon planned on filming a pilot for Groad the Guardian Devil, a show about a low rung minion from Hell sent to Earth to ruin someone’s life, in the traditional way “with an actual camera, and location, and people in front of you”, he says, but with the events of 2020 he had to adapt. The cast were all on board for filming a Zoom table read with a few extra elements, the result of which can been seen on YouTube.

He describes Groad the Guardian Devil as “the opposite of It’s a Wonderful Life. Hell wants to counteract Guardian Angels helping improve lives, Hell wants to find someone with a wonderful life and make it so much worse. This minion from Hell is now having to adjust to living on Earth, he’s not sure if he still has some of his powers, any of his powers, what’s going on, he’s not exactly a moral and decent being, so he’s going to have to navigate the world and survive with this unethical approach to the world. Amidst that, there’s going to be a cosmic tug of war between Heaven and Hell about who will ultimately control the planet.”

When speaking about the near future of the show, Kogon is looking at doing more table read episodes over Zoom. “Doing it this way is fine for now, it’s safe, it’s easier to do, but it’s no way to make things. Jim [O’Heir] has said that to me ‘I like being with people, I like acting across a human being’. But since the technology exists, why not utilise it, try to get content out there and hopefully it entertains people.”

He sees Groad as different from the current Netflix ‘lockdown’ shows such as Social Distance or Homemade. “Our world will be virus free. The current and all the other issues of the day may be addressed, but it won’t be dealing with the virus. I don’t see a lot of humour being derived from that and I think people would actually like a break from that.”

Kogon does not think of Groad as a YouTube only creation. He plans to “pitch it as a show, as you would with any other show, and somebody pick it up. They say ‘yes, we’re buying this and we going to be your partner on it’, and produce and provide the budget, hire the crew, hire the writing staff, we have the cast already but we’d work out the details on that, and get it out there on their platform.” One of the advantages of YouTube is there is no exclusivity, so a channel won’t refuse it because it’s been on a rival platform. He does see YouTube as something that could be used for more full cast and crew shows in the future. “It all comes down to content. One show that Netflix did that opened everyone’s eyes and said ‘that is really good, what else do they have?’ Amazon Prime did The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Streaming a few years ago was looked down upon, as not something to take seriously, and boy, were they wrong!?”

For now, Groad the Guardian Devil will be made online only. “I’m always going to be concerned for everyone’s health and safety. As much as I want to make the show I don’t want to film and put anyone in danger. You don’t want to do that for your budget reasons, and also there are liability reasons if someone gets sick or worse. Safety has to be paramount. Their health comes first over money. It has to be looked at that way. The Jurassic Park movie finally had to have a stoppage and they’ve been going since July, so I’m sure they figured out what was working and what wasn’t, and of course they had a $100 million budget so their challenges are different from someone who has a smaller budget. ”

Speaking about the future for creatives, he says “Theatres are having a really hard time. Whether they’re going to survive, no one knows. It’s so unfortunate for them. They rely on actual human beings being there. Until people feel safe, they may be open but that doesn’t mean people will go. I hope for the best, it will all come roaring back, there will be a finish line and people will take a breath and run for the lines like running for an amusement park. Let’s get back to doing things we enjoy and I hope it works out that way. I know so many actors and writers who are struggling. We’re all hoping at some point that we can start making some income again. I’m in the same boat as everyone else. This show isn’t monetised right now and I don’t know if it’ll ever be monetised in that way.”

Returning to Groad, Kogon has this to say. “If people are laughing, it’s good and if they’re not laughing, it’s not good. It’s not highbrow, it’s lowbrow silly stuff. We’ll be adding the cosmic tug of war between Heaven and Hell and I think there’ll be some fun visual things and some fun humor. Hopefully it’s a funny show and people who like this kind of thing will find it and if they do we’ll be able to make it for real and they’ll feel like they were with us from the very beginning and helped us make it for real, because we need them. If they’re out there, please find us and subscribe to the YouTube channel or if you’re on Facebook, like us there and comment. What I’ve started to do is, in a future episode a dog will be following Groad home and so I’m putting out there a round by round ‘which dog do you think should follow Groad home?’ and I’m doing a bulldog versus a collie, a poodle versus a rottweiler and I’d love it if people voted and interact, be engaged, comment and suggest things.”