(people believe it’s Sarine), delivers his often ludicrous and nonsensical thoughts at lightning speed. The production is crude, but what do you expect from two guys who use an apartment in West Hollywood for their sound stage?
The result is an underground comedic masterpiece that will either have viewers laughing out loud or scratching their heads in disbelief at what they are hearing. Either way, it’s a great way to spend three minutes.
“We just try to bring a lot of energy to it because you are dealing with the Internet and there are so many other things that can grab people’s attention,” Sarine said. “It’s not like with cable where you are competing against 500 other channels. With the Internet there are literally thousands and thousands of sites that one can go to so you have to have a real hyper deliver.”
“We’re just trying to grab people by the throat and not let go for three minutes,” Nichols said.
The two met six years ago at the legendary Second City Training Center, the birthplace of sketch and improvisational comedy. Sarine was working as a paralegal and a dog walker while Nichols had a gig in an improvisational troupe for kids.
Using Santa Monica’s Main Library as their office, Nichols and Sarine developed an animated feature about Ninjas in Orange County who were trying to live normal lives. The only problem was, the ninjas couldn’t stop killing people.
Nichols and Sarine soon discovered that neither one of them knew how to draw nor did they know anything about computer animation. Instead of giving up, they decided to turn to the Internet and “Ask a Ninja” was born.
The two come from very different backgrounds. Sarine is from Chicago and holds a business degree from Appalachian State. Nichols is a college drop out from Placentia.
“I had basically resigned my self to business for life,” Sarine said.
But after a bad breakup, friends suggested he enroll in Second City to “meet people,” which is exactly what he did.
Nichols and Sarine naturally gravitated toward one another and began writing together. The two also worked on a really bad television show called “Touching Evil,” which had a brief run on USA.
“He was always coming out with this zany, sort of off the wall things that were totally brilliant, but nobody really understood him but me,” Nichols said of Sarine.
While the two do not live in Santa Monica, they spend an awful lot of their time here. Now that they have some cash, they’re thinking of moving to the city by the sea, which not only is home to plenty of production companies, but is also 10 to 15 degrees cooler than North Hollywood.
“I love the Santa Monica Library,” said Sarine, who can also be found munching on burgers at The Counter or dining with friends at Jack n’ Jill’s. “It has great Internet access, it’s clean and it has waterless toilets.”
The two have another Santa Monica connection. Their attorney is Santa Monica College Trustee Rod Rader, who is known to be a little wacky and off-the-wall himself.
Nichols and Sarine are not sure what the future holds for “Ask a Ninja.” They plan to continue to produce more webisodes and possibly develop a cartoon series based on the idea. They both would like to do film or television, but as of right now, they are sticking with the ninja that brought them to the dance.
“As long as both of us stay amused then we’ll keep on doing it,” Sarine said. “When it’s time to stop, it will be clear. There really isn’t any pressure on us to continue. It’s just all about keeping it fresh and entertaining for us. Once that’s gone, we’ll move on to something else.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 17, 2007. Read the original PDF.