After much playing around with my Laptop and not being able to record voice (I honestly hate this thing) I have decided that I will in fact just write what I wanted to say.
Five years is a long time to do anything. And somehow we have managed to make it to that mark. And it wouldn’t have been remotely possible if it hadn’t been for the tremendous amount of time and energy put in by my fellow LRR crew members. First and formost I want to thank these guys. Morgan, Bill, Graham, Paul, Matt, Jer and Kathleen, you guys have been a great group of people to work with. But more importantly you guys are some of my closet friends and the majortiy of you have been for the past decade or more. I met Morgan and Jeremy 12 years ago, Bill 11 years ago, Graham about 9 years ago, Paul about 6 years ago and Kathleen 4 years ago. Those numbers show people we were friends first and LRR second. And I think that is what makes LRR such an amazing thing. I also need to thank the countless number of people that have been around for the past 5 years; other friends, roomates, girlfriends. You guy have been an amazing support group and we couldn’t do this without you guys.
Too our fans, THANK YOU!! Words cannot do justice to those of you who come back on a week to week (or even day to day) basis. For me this site has never been about making money or becoming HUGE on the internet. It has always been about our ability to make people laugh on a weekly basis. Wether that be the 114 Paul mentioned in his post, the almost 8000 of you who watch our videos on a weekly basis or the millions that see our stuff when it hits big. To know that I am involved in something that can make a person laugh for 5 minutes a week is a fantastic feeling.
Five years ago Graham and Paul came to some of us with an idea that they had. They were going to write, shoot, edit and post a brand new short every week. Now back then the site didn’t have the “organization” it has now. Basically the site was Graham and Paul’s and the rest of us would do what we could when we felt like it really. I won’t lie, when I heard the idea I gave LoadingReadyRun a shelf life of 2 months tops. I figured we would screw around for a couple months, make a couple videos, then Christmas would hit and we would be derailed and that would be that. A dozen or so videos that we could pull out every couple of years and have a laugh. Now it seems everytime I start up the interwebs I am reminded of how incredibly off I was. If you were to do the simple math and take 5 years worth of videos with 1 video every week, “Rapstar 64k” was our 260th video update. That blows my mind, then you take into consideration the Phailhaus, Iron Stomach Challenge, The Whatever Thing, and the various other bonus videos, you have one floored James Turner. At least 350 videos that we have produced over the last 5 years. That day I scoffed at the idea of LoadingReadyRun is a distant memory, and in it’s place is a countless number of new ones [memories]. Lets take a second to look back at a couple of those shall we.
LOADINGREADYLIVE: Easily one of the most important events to ever take place in the history of LRR. Simply put, if not for LoadingReadyLive, we would not be where we are today. That show cemented the crew you have come to know and love over the past 2 years and will continute to love for the next X amount of years. It was a big confidence booster as well. Its one thing to get infront of a camera week after week with your friends, but to be put up on stage when more than half of us had no formal acting/stage experience was both terrifying and awesome at the same time. I am forever grateful that I was able to participate in that show and it has made LoadingReadyRun what it is today.
DESERT BUS FOR HOPE: Are you serious? We raised 22,800.00 playing a video game made ten plus years ago on a dead system? For the rest of our life’s this will be one of the greatest things I think any of us have been a part of. And its also something that I don’t think would have happened if not for LoadingReadyRun.
SAN DIEGO ROADTRIP 2007: This is a hard thing to put into words. The Roadtrip was not entirely a LRR thing. Sure we were heading down to The Comic Con to see our video (Talk like a Pirate) in the festival, but more often that not that road trip was for us. But quite like Desert Bus it was something that I don’t think would have happened if it weren’t for this website.And it produced some of the funniest and most memorable moments I have ever shared with these guys.
And those are just some of the big things that we have been able to do over the past couple years thanks to this site. I haven’t even touched on the hundreds of video shoots that have happened. Notables being, 14 ways to eat Fries, 2004 Holiday Special, Sleep Dep Experiment, Pimp My Chair, The Nanaimo Road Trips, The LoadingReadyRumble, Slacking For Gold, Toast, CSI: CSI, Ways to Keep Cool. And those are just off the top of my head.
LRR has come a long way from that initial idea over 5 years ago. Its something that none of us could have ever expected, but almost what we had always wished for. You guys have made what we do worth doing. Season 6 starts in less than a weeks time and I really think you guys are going to like whats coming. Season 6 promises to be our best season yet and it will be made all the better with fans like you guys.
Thanks for a fantastic first 5 years. Lets see how the next 5 go.