Calling All Comedy Lovers

For Luigi Saracino, acting has been a life-long involvement. Having been an actor for nearly 30 years, Saracino has seen many different sides of the industry.

He is now taking on a new challenge with fellow actor friends Peter M. Dillon and Gregory Wilson.

CBC is running a contest called ComedyCoup—searching for comedy television show concepts from across Canada. Creators apply with a team, teaser video and social media connections and they advance purely from the support of fans.

Saracino heard about the contest four days before application deadline and contacted director Alexandre Carriere and actor friend Dillon who “took the idea and ran with it,” says Saracino.

“As an actor you really try to branch out as much as you can. I’m really just trying to get my hands in as many different areas as possible,” he says.

The concept behind the trio’s project, Entourage Hey, is hilarity waiting to happen. Saracino, Dillon and Wilson’s characters have just purchased a warehouse in Ottawa they plan to rent out to clients to use to film. However, they soon realize they are in over their heads.

Episodes of Entourage Hey will revolve around the people who rent out the warehouse space. Saracino says, “the stories are built around empathy. They’re kind of surreal, farcical kind of situations.”

The contest runs for 10 weeks and contestant teams create new videos, images or artwork each week to develop and bring their projects together. Finalists are decided upon by the fans.

Should Saracino and company win the contest, their grand prize would be $500 thousand and a half-hour primetime special slot in Fall 2015 to finally show their work to the country.

Saracino admits it’s “a daunting amount of money” but speaks of his passion when he explains, “at the end of the day I want to be able to feel like I’ve contributed and that I’ve given my all to something, that I put out something people can relate to and enjoy.”

You can help Entourage Hey advance to the next round of the contest by watching, liking and sharing their videos and other content from their project page. Your vote counts!

“We’re really just trying to get as much attention as possible right now in terms of getting the word out there,” says Saracino.

Saracino, Dillon and Wilson are being represented by the Mensour agency.