This Friday (May 12), comedians Tamara Bick and Drew Antzis are looking to a Peterborough audience to save their marriage when they bring their web series Settle This Thing live to the stage at The Theatre On King (TTOK).
Although the couple hasn’t create any new Settle This Thing videos in nearly three years, the pair feels that it is time again to figure out their marriage.
“We are bringing Settle This Thing back in full force,” Drew says. “We have to. We really have to.”
“There are just so many things we need to settle once and for all,” Tamara agrees. “We’ve been married eleven long, torturous years. It feels like I’m shoving flaming bamboo shoots under my fingernails.”
“Some people might consider that a spa treatment,” Drew replies.
As writers, producers, and directors at their own production company, Bick/Antzis, Drew and Tarmara are successful filmmakers, primarily creating web commercials for companies such as VISA, Zurich, Whole Foods and ABC. Together, they have worked with a variety of big-name celebrities including Alex Baldwin, Will Farrell and, most recently, Mike Myers.
A veteran of Second City, Tamara was raised in Peterborough but relocated to pursue comedy in Los Angeles, where she met Drew (who was working for the popular website Funny or Die) during a trip to Burning Man. Eventually, the pair began collaborating.
“We started working together at Funny or Die,” Drew tells of their partnership. “I was the first staff director there and Tamara was in a lot of the videos. Soon we started writing and directing together.”
“We also wrote a short black comedy called Coma together,” Tamara adds. “I was the writer and he was the director. But we were really doing everything together, so we have been doing things as a team effort since then.”
While finding success creating video content, eventually Drew and Tamara brought the camera into their home for a series of two-and-a-half minute videos called Settle This Thing.
The premise is that the couple would take one of their many disagreements and present it to the YouTube audience. Asking for the viewers to vote on who they thought were right, Drew and Tamara would then settle the argument based on the viewer responses. The verdict would be presented at the end of the next video.
From kids’ birthday parties to fart etiquette, major disagreements were solved forever via the power of YouTube.
“Those issues have been resolved and we live by those resolutions,” Tamara reveals. “We stick by the vote.”
However, upon relocating from Los Angeles to Peterborough two and a half years ago so that they could be closer to Tamara’s family, Settle This Thing has been sitting in limbo.
“We took a break because we were moving from California from Peterborough and we figured we’d take a year to move,” Drew explains. “We took over a month just to get here. We camped across the country with the kids. So while we were doing that, we didn’t do any work. We figured we’d take a break from Settle This Thing and get our bearings and figure things out from there. Finally we got to the point where — ”
“To cut to the chase, we were getting along really well,” Tamara interrupts. “It was not necessary to do it. Now things have all descended into hell and we need an audience to settle the arguments we are having.”
“We didn’t move to Canada to break up,” Drew adds. “We did it to enhance our lives.”
Just how serious is the situation with Drew and Tamara’s marriage? In all honesty, it’s hard to tell. When sitting down with the couple, I found the rapid fire back and forth between the two both hilarious and biting.
Drew sets up the situation as the optimistic straight man, while Tamara knocks him down with a cynical, although somewhat realistic, retort. Drew then responds with a clever quip. The result is something very funny.
“The great thing about marriage is that you get this instant criticism,” Drew says while looking at his wife.
“It’s feedback,” Tamara responds.
“She’s this no-holds-barred mean critic,” Drew says.
“I’m just trying to make you a better person,” Tamara explains to Drew. “I’ve got your back. But that means that I’m talking behind your back.”
Although the original Settle This Thing videos are under three minutes, Drew and Tamara have found it easy to expand on the live show for TTOK and want to make the performance an ongoing series.
“It’s the first time we’re doing it live, and we’re trying to find out what working this out in front of a live audience is going to be like,” Tamara says. “Even though we might not be sure that our own marriage is surviving very well, we’re trying to figure out what a marriage is, and if we are masters of it or if we are disasters.
“In the meantime, as we’re trying to keep it together. We need help. This is the premise of the show. Do we want you to think that the end of our marriage is really the case? Yes, we really want you to think that.”
“We’re taking a scientific approach about this,” Drew says. “We’re looking at what it takes to be a master at relationships or why there are disastrous ones.”
“We are exploring the science of relationships,” Tamara adds. “Our relationship happens to be marriage, or co-parents, or partners. Well, I do the majority of everything.”
“What I do is so rich, it kind of balances out,” Drew replies.
“Yeah, the three per cent you do is so full and rich and it matters so much,” Tamara mocks.
“If I quit what I was doing, it would collapse,” Drew objects.
That’s just one sample of the feuding couple’s repartee.
“It’s like a game of Jenga,” Tamara explains. “It’d be like pulling out the one little block that is apparently holding our marriage all together. You know what? I say pull the thing out and let’s see what happens.”
VIDEO: “Front Seat Driver” – Episode 6 of Settle This Thing
Although they have been living in Peterborough for a number of years, Drew and Tamara continue to shoot commercials primarily in the United States. Their revival of Settle This Thing is their first foray into live performance in Peterborough, although the couple tested the material at The Gordon Best in February before a Citiots performance.
“We opened for the Citiots last February,” Drew recalls. “We showed a video and interacted with the audience. It went well. They didn’t throw anything at us.”
“We set the bar low and then go from there,” Tamara adds. “That’s also what I do with my marriage.”
With their cutting off-the-cuff banter, Drew and Tamara are extremely funny to listen to. Is their marriage truly in peril, or is it all a good-natured act? In all honesty I couldn’t tell, but I also couldn’t stop laughing. It’s possible the TTOK audience could hold the cards for the future of Tamara and Drew’s marriage.
“We think that potentially we could do Settle This Thing once a month,” Tamara says. “Perhaps do it enough in front of an audience so we can figure out if it’s something we want to do regularly.”
“We need to figure out if it’s saving our marriage,” Drew adds. “We want it to work.”
One husband, one wife, one argument. You decide. Come out to TTOK on Friday, May 12th and help Drew and Tamara resolve their marital issues with Settle This Thing. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. and admission is $5 or pay what you can.
