NOTHING IS SACRED IN SATIRICAL SHORT “PITCHING JESUS.”
Despite what you may have learned in Sunday School, the Baby Jesus wasn’t born in a manger. He was born in a conference room. Or, in this case, a conference garden.
Pitching Jesus, a comedy short by the folks at Witty Witty Bang Bang, made its world premiere last night at El Cid in Hollywood. The film packs more laughs in just more than ten minutes than most full length comedies provide in two hours. Those who aren’t offended by religion-based comedy (think Mel Brooks, History of the World: Part I) will find humor at every rapid-fire turn.
The film finds a group of clueless Biblical-era executives tasked with coming up with a sequel to the Old Testament. Since this is set in the year 1 B.C. — or anytime before the 1960s — the New Testament task force is, naturally, made up of only men. But Old Testament gender roles are challenged when a woman named Salome, played by the lovely and charming Lana Gautier, crashes the Sabbath Day sausage party. Corporate America and the Hollywood system that keeps cranking out bad movies after bad movies are also lampooned in this brilliant reinterpretation of The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Pitching Jesus also stars Ron L. Palmer, Michael Rosinsky, Daniel Khayat, Jeffrey Kaye and Jacob H. Clarke. It was directed by Nick Appelbaum and features original music by Tyler Rivera-Stein. Gautier and Palmer are listed as the film’s producers.