About this project

SLUM LORD

Slum Lord is an independent comedy series, created by Todd Pitman and Noah Milligan.

The show's main character is Jesus—a thirtysomething landlord from Minneapolis.

Jesus has long, light brown hair and a beard of varying length and kemptness. He has a long face, with high cheekbones. His routines, intellect, and diet are all sort of questionable. His last ten to fifteen years are "sort of a cloud."

He also happens to look just like Christ Incarnate. The Son of Man. The Lamb of God. The Jesus—as he appears in paintings, books, movies, on TV, billboards, bumper stickers, decorative plates, and so on...

But this is not that Jesus.
This is Jesus Johnson.

A self-proclaimed "path-of-least-resistance kinda guy," Jesus sees his life as a complicated series of frustrations: stuck behind a slow driver on his way to the dentist, sitting on hold with the cable company while his breakfast burns in the toaster, arguing with the waitress at the Mexican restaurant about the authenticity of his two dollar bills. And though the world may be slowly deteriorating around him, Jesus has enough difficulty just sorting out his own lot in life.

Jesus Johnson (Daniel Ettedgui)

To make his living, Jesus owns properties throughout Minneapolis and the greater Twin Cities. The tenants of his buildings are a diverse group, and play as large a part of the show as Jesus himself. There's the high school assistant principal, the Hasidic jeweller, the cab driver, the elderly man slowly losing his mind. A seemingly endless parade of common people, all of them scraping by—with varying degrees of success—in the early part of the Third Millennium of Our Lord.

THE SHOW

Most episodes revolve loosely around a simple premise: One of Jesus' tenants calls and asks him about making a repair, or a leaky this-or-that, and won't he come over and do something about it? He usually won't, but from time to time he'll begrudgingly fix a drippy faucet or a squeaky hinge.

Played by a cast of local comedians, actors, luminaries—and with your contribution, even you—Jesus' tenants and neighbors represent a cross-section of this day and age: They are friends and enemies, collectivists and individuals, teachers and students, cops and junkies, Pagans and Mormons—a cast of characters that richly portray our New America: one in flux, under the knife—all waiting to see what happens next.

Slum Lord is a truly local production, and aims for an accurate portrayal of the Twin Cities—and the upper Midwest as a whole. The soundtrack is comprised of recordings by local artists (City on the Make, Martin Devaney, and many more). Scenes are shot on-location, with local landmarks on full display. From Spoonbridge and Cherry to the Turf Club; Lake of the Isles to Grand Avenue, Slum Lord is a production that is proud to call the Twin Cities home. Right down to the very way its characters talk, the show exudes a contemporary Midwesternness that is at once affable, sarcastic, passive, deadpan, naïve and brutally honest.

And though the protagonist may seem familiar, Slum Lord is not overtly religious. It seeks to be accessible to those from all walks of life, and comedic in a universal way. Jokes are not at the expense of any one group of people over another, and do not reflect any specific political or religious slant. The show instead takes a survey of our modern world, without inherent judgment or pretense. Slum Lord is for everyone.

Each season is comprised of six episodes; each episode exists on its own and as part of a larger dramatic arc. The episodes run about 20 minutes each and are made up of written and improvised material, meaning that—though each episode of Slum Lord has a distinct plot and most of it is pre-written—much of the dialogue is ad-libbed by cast members on-set.

YOUR CONTRIBUTION

Your Kickstarter contribution helps fund the creation of the first two seasons of Slum Lord. Camera, lights, audio equipment—all aspects of production are backed by your Kickstarter contributions.