Behind the Scenes

In 2019, most of Dollars & Donuts’ attention was supposed to be focused on Am I See You?, the next large-scale production and the centerpiece of an upcoming Kickstarter campaign. As part of the lead-up, Daryl began shooting a series of promotional pieces with the cast, including a short history of Disneyland modeled loosely on the Jackalope feature made for After the Jack.

Sasha Boggs’ segment brought Daryl to the Griffith Park Carousel in Los Angeles, the spot long associated with Walt Disney’s earliest ideas for Disneyland. They filmed the material they had come for, packed up, and then Sasha proposed something else.

A group of her comedian friends had written a rap song for her about IBS, gluten-free diets, shopping at Target, and other concerns rarely addressed in the history of hip-hop. She wanted to know if Daryl would shoot a music video for it. The pitch was for something quick. Daryl knew better.

Still, the working relationship that had developed over the previous year made the answer easy enough. If Sasha was willing to show up for his projects, he was willing to show up for hers.

That night, they met at Fourth Wall in Burbank with Sasha’s comedy circle and very little in the way of conventional preparation. There was no storyboard, no shot list, no real budget, and no attempt to make the production more complicated than it needed to be. Daryl set up the camera, Sasha committed fully to the character, and the room did the rest.

The resulting video became one of the clearest examples yet of how quickly Daryl and Sasha could work together. There were no months of planning, no prolonged debate, and no elaborate production apparatus. Just a song, a room, a handful of funny people, and enough trust to start shooting.