Interview With The Team Behind BALLS: The Monster-Catchin' Musical Comedy

Recently I was lucky enough to interview the guys behind the upcoming musical BALLS: The Monster-Catchin’ Musical Comédy. This is an interactive musical parody based on a popular game that involves catching monsters in little balls...I'm sure you can guess which game I am referring to! Thank you to Harrison and the team for taking time to answer my question!

What inspired you to write “BALLS: The Monster-Catchin’ Musical Comédy?”

Our childhoods were about gaming together and fighting together and trading binders full of monster cards that we collected but never learned how to play with… together. Now that we’re old and weird, we’re nostalgic for the unfettered joy of in-person trades and the battles with buddies. 

This show captures that feeling of shared, in-person fun. An engaging visual and imaginative experience, inside its own colorful universe, lovingly lampooning nostalgia, nerd culture, and the wide-eyed immersion of selecting “NEW GAME” for the very… first… time.

Most inspiring however are the discoveries we are making inside the interactivity between live theatre and gaming. Bringing to life the best of both worlds is our dream for the show. Since launching the project two weeks ago, we’ve had the great fortune of talking to so many incredibly talented and fascinating people, from international theatre-artists to video game developers – and this relationship between gaming and theatre has been in our hearts forever, but it’s only now that we are fully realizing these passions through… BALLS. 

We are even considering how to translate and adapt BALLS into all different types of artistic mediums and platforms; we’re open to all the possibilities… as far as our imaginations will take us.  

How many people have worked on BALLS: The Monster-Catchin’ Musical Comédy, and what is their experience?

We’re Brandon Zelman and Harrison Bryan, we’ve been best friends (and collaborators!) since high school. We created BALLS together in a very non-traditional way. When a team sets off to write a musical, they usually work side-by-side with a composer, to build the musical score alongside the script. But we wrote ALL the Lyrics and the Dialogue first… and then folded composers into the mix! (This is maybe erm…not recommended!)

But this out-of-the-box writing style worked for us. Plus, it gave us this exciting and amazing opportunity to work alongside A WHOLE TEAM of composers, instead of JUST ONE. We’ve absolutely LOVED adding more collaborators, diversifying the team across the board. Our music team consists of: Lena Gabrielle (also executive producing, orchestrating, and arranging), Pippa Cleary, Joriah Kwamé, Aaron Kenny, and Grace Yurchuk. With additional music by Matthew Ryan Hunter and Allan Nalven. Some of these people we’ve been friends with forever, and some we met on Instagram and Zoom. But the common denominator for all of our composers is that…we’ve fallen in love with their music. Additionally, they’re all wonderfully kind and supportive human beings, creative and collaborative artists. Every composer works in a totally different way, and part of the fun was figuring out HOW everyone works best. How everyone’s strengths and unique tastes blend together is the magic that makes the score; OH!, we can’t wait to share! 

The rest of the team are actors, puppeteers, designers, theatre-artists, comedians, and simply FANS of the show, many of which are talented multi-hyphenated artists, who are excited to utilize their many skill sets, all for the same goal: to create the best live experience for the audience as humanly (and monsterly) possible. As the show grows, so will “the squad.” Everyone has been so supportive and so pumped to bring this show to life, as made clear by how our crowdfund campaign has been received thus far! 

What style of music will we hear in BALLS: The Monster-Catchin’ Musical Comédy?

We are heavily inspired by the nostalgic soundscape of the 90s games. The score’s balanced hybrid between contemporary musical theatre and 8-bit chiptune bops should make for a unique blend of sonic textures that really help our “musical” stand out. We hope to appeal to the tastes of gamers and theatre fans alike. 

And honestly, if you’ve never seen a person directly play electronic rave music LIVE off their actual video game consoles … are you really even living? 

We hope to bring that type of niche digital soundscape into the immersive and interactive world of BALLS! 

How is the puppetry used alongside the actors?

Puppetry is one of the oldest forms of storytelling tracing back to the beginning of mankind. There’s an innate theatricality and scrappiness to it that appeals to us. But even more important, it gives us the opportunity to bring to life the weirdest corners of our imagination as we ask ourselves HOW we bring these “Collectabuddy” fighting-pets to life. 

The design of the puppets are inspired by a DIY aesthetic. The conceit of taking household objects, 90s toys, “trash,” and turning them into magical creatures excites us – paralleling the idea of IMAGINATION itself. By playing so broadly with our puppets and their design we are invited to return to a simpler daring time – the time when we were kids in the playground and sandbox, making wild adventures on the daily! 

With most actors playing multiple characters, often at the same time in the same scene or song, puppets allow us the opportunity to explore theatrical conventions and solutions to any ridiculous staging problem – in a fun imaginative and visually compelling way.

Also, something we are SO excited about…is the infusion of battle and violence with our puppetry. Not very often is a fight choreographer asked to find the safest ways for puppets to engage in battle and combat – but BALLS is full of this unique and new type of fun, aimed at rewarding risk-taking and daring to make the impossible POSSIBLE.

What other shows inspired you when writing this?

In witnessing the success of shows like PUFFS and TITANIQUE, we’ve been inspired by comedies, who boldly satirize pop culture, but also bring their own uniqueness to the world of fandom.  They too started with a low budget concept – formed an organic audience off the merit of their humor and heart – and grew into the massive commercial successes they are now. We are inspired to follow in the paths they’ve paved for musical satires of epic proportions. 

What would you say are some of the funniest aspects or moments of the musical?

Just like a real video game, BALLS provides interactive opportunities for the audience/(the hero) to engage directly with the characters and influence the course of narrative in really fun and inventive ways. For example, the audience is responsible for naming one of our main characters, they’re responsible for choosing the climactic battle moves, and they even become part of a mob of angry ten-year-olds who (SPOILER!?) help save the world! (Not to mention, of course, A SPLASH ZONE for the bravest of fans!)

The multimedia design incorporated into the puppetry is also one of our most fun and most creative elements (as seen in our crowdfund video!) – Seeing these puppets and projections subvert the familiar universe, while also having their own distinct personalities and fighting capabilities is going to bring a whole new *evolved* form of funny to musical theatre. We’re really excited in committing ourselves to the idea that every song has to have a comedic game – and our actors having such a wide range of experience in comedy, improv, puppetry, and storytelling through song, is going to add SO MUCH to this already incredibly ambitious project. 

How long have you been working on it, and what does the process look like?

Writing a new musical is insane. We wrote our first song in 2016. Took about three years to think about the plot of the show. And then REALLY started writing a full draft, including ten other songs, for the next two plus years. And we are still very much in process with producing the music tracks, building the set and costumes and props and puppets, design, logistics and marketing, IT NEVER ENDS! In fact, the creative process in theatre-making is NEVER really done, and some might say: now that we are committed to sharing this in front of a live audience –  we are JUST getting started, ballers! 

Talk a little about the crowdfunding BALLS: The Monster-Catchin’ Musical Comédy.

BALLSmusical.com = PLEASE check us out! 

Because in order to bring our show to life in 2025, we need help. Self-producing theatre in NYC is incredibly expensive…but the magic of a crowdfund is that it helps a show like ours, which is crafted with community in mind, to really find its organic audience – providing an opportunity for that audience to feel real ownership in the creation of the show! 

The funds raised on Kickstarter will enable us to debut "BALLS" at a scale that we are really excited about. Hitting our campaign’s stretch goals will allow us to LEVEL UP the production from something small into a prominent experience in an exciting venue, pay our team of artists, build "Collectabuddy" puppets, expand the show's global marketing and outreach, and fully document the experience so that "BALLS" can be experienced by fans around the world. (And this is only the beginning; opportunities to expand the project even more directly into the world of GAMING is high on our list of stretch goals. No dream is too big for the epic world of "BALLS.") 

Out team of crowdfunders are SO passionate about this project, and we are SO grateful to each and every one of them. The reception to our campaign has been overwhelmingly joyful. We are really proud of this massive effort – and can’t wait to pay it off with a live experience like never before. 

So please take a moment to check out our launch page at BALLSmusical.com – we’re offering fun rewards for pledging early, like digital patches, original “Collectabuddy” trading cards, a bootleg copy to watch anywhere in the world, and even a BONUS LEVEL to the musical that gets you up-close-and-personal with the characters and monsters of the show! 

Where/When can people see it?

Right now, you can follow our socials for more updates (and even some PRIZE GIVEAWAYS!) at: @BALLSmusical and BALLSmusical.com — Plenty of exciting news to share SOON! 

Thank you for giving BALLS your time and consideration. We are very grateful and appreciate your support. A world of adventure awaits! 

DISCLAIMER:

“BALLS: The Monster-Catchin’ Musical Comédy” is a musical written by Brandon Zelman and Harrison Bryan as a transformative work under US Fair Use laws. “BALLS” is not authorized, sanctioned, licensed or endorsed by any brand, organization, franchise, underground cock fighting ring, or person, living or dead.

Thank you again to the BALLS team! I cannot wait to see this musical and please everyone check out their Kickstarter.

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