{The Pistol Shrimps plays at SIFF on Wednesday, June 1 at Pacific Place at 9:30pm and on Thursday, June 2 at SIFF Cinema Uptown at 4:30pm. Tickets and more info can be found here.}
I first heard about the Pistol Shrimps the same way a lot of people did: When TV star and the Shrimps’ most famous player Aubrey Plaza delivered a message from the “Tonight Show” couch to “haters” (and a skeptical Jimmy Fallon): “We love to ball, and we ball hard… You’re either with us or you’re against us and may God help you if you’re against us because we will dunk on your ass SO HARD!”
The team started when actress and comedian Maria Blasucci wanted to play on a women’s recreational basketball team, and found that there wasn’t one in Los Angeles. She recruited a bunch of her friends to join her team, and shortly after that, an entire league was formed. It has grown now to a league of over twenty teams. Pistol Shrimps games are recorded in a very funny podcast and have a dance routine at halftime. Many of the Pistol Shrimps are actresses, models, and/or comedians, like Blasucci, who is often seen on “Drunk History,” or Molly Hawkey, an actress who makes hilarious videos where she edits herself into episodes of “The Bachelor.” Amanda Lund is an actress and writer, and host of at least one very well-received podcast.
The Pistol Shrimps are the subject of a fun, new documentary set to play at the Seattle International Film Festival this week. It was directed by Brent Hodge (last seen at SIFF in 2014 with his documentary A Brony Tale), and was produced by Hodge, Rachel Ricketts, and Morgan Spurlock.
A few days ago I talked with Brent Hodge and Amanda Lund through the magic of Skype about all things Pistol Shrimps basketball.
Brent, could I ask first how you this movie came about, and how you decided that this was a movie that you wanted to make?
Brent: Yeah, sure. It really just started cause I ran into Aubrey Plaza, who’s on the team, in a coffee shop in New York. I actually just went to one of the games, and this league that Amanda, and Maria (Blasucci), and the girls created was incredible. I just thought this whole thing’s a movie right here. There’s commentators, there’s halftime show. It was a game against The Lisas, so the coach was wearing a pony costume, and there was all these fans and it was a rec league and I thought it was so funny, and so interesting.
When I started diving into how it all got made, and there was no women’s league before, and the Pistol Shrimps girls created it, I just thought it was such a great, powerful story. I was like, “This doc’s already made, I just have to record this.” That’s kind of how it came to be for me.
I first heard about the Pistol Shrimps from seeing Aubrey on with Jimmy Fallon, and that clip kind of became really famous. Then I didn’t know too much, because I’m in Seattle and away from rec league basketball in LA. Then I saw the movie was coming and like, “Oh this is way up my alley.” I did see the “My Little Pony” movie that you made when it played at SIFF a couple years ago too, which I really enjoyed, too, so I was already familiar with Brent’s work.
Brent: Oh cool. I felt like it had some similar vibes to that movie, because it just had this community element that LA was maybe lacking or missing. Is that there was no women’s league and Amanda and Maria and them created it. Then the best thing, too, is that the commentators have this podcast of Pistol Shrimps Radio, and all you had to go was go and listen to all the back episodes and you can feel like you’re there from season one.
Amanda, can you talk about how you came to join the team?
Amanda: Yeah, so my really good friend Maria Plasucci, she played basketball in high school, and she just randomly sent out a Facebook message being like, “I want to start a basketball team, does anyone want to join?” Personally, I have never played a sport; actually never, not even in PE. So I was just like, “Sure, I’m down,” kind of thinking it would be silly, or you know, it would just be a good way to exercise and get a little sun.
We put together this team, a couple girls had played before, but most of us hadn’t. We got these coaches that she had worked with before. I don’t even really know how she knew them. Then we tried to join the league, but they didn’t enough girls who wanted to sign up. They had a couple people who had written in individually but didn’t have a team. Maria took it upon herself to get this whole league started. We basically kind of founded this league. It started out with maybe six teams or eight teams and now it’s in the 20s.
It must be so satisfying to see that there’s such a demand for that too.
Amanda: Oh my gosh, it’s so insane! It really, apparently was something that the community needed, because every girl wanted to join.
Yeah, I think it’s outstanding. I love women’s basketball and try to be supportive of it, so I was excited to see that there’s this blossoming women’s basketball rec league.
Amanda: Yeah, it’s so cool.
Were you really surprised at how it took off too? Like you said, you thought it was maybe something kind of silly and fun, and get a little bit of sunshine, and then has it been four seasons now?
Amanda: I think we’re in our fourth season. I am so surprised that it’s taken off. Basically we formed this league to kind of do something outside of our careers, you know, because a lot of the people in the league are comedians or actors, something … you know, our careers which can be kind of stressful. Now there’s this odd overlap, where it’s come full circle. We have a documentary made about us, we got to go to Tribeca.
Maria, and Angela (Trimbur), and I sold a TV show about a women’s basketball league to Comedy Central. It’s become such this awesome thing that it started to bleed into our careers in a weird way.
I’m super surprised just by, when at first when we would go to play that these gyms it would be all the boy’s teams, then a couple girls teams. Now on Tuesday nights, it’s just all women. All the boys are in the bleachers watching us, all our boyfriends.
I think that’s great. I hope I can make it down to LA to go to one your games sometime.
Amanda: Oh, you should.
I love how it’s taken on a life of it’s own. Like you said, the broadcasters, and the halftime show and everything.
Amanda: Yeah, the halftime show the best part.
Brent: You know, it’s funny too, Chris, even as Amanda said with the coming full circles of the careers. Even Angela, who started this dance square for the halftime show, they’ve been performing at LA Sparks games with the WNBA. They’ve done some halftime shows there now. So it’s really elevated a lot of … Even her, she said that when she quit dancing when she was young she didn’t think it would ever come back, but it really has.
It was so much fun to watch them. This was just a fun documentary to watch. It seemed like everyone was so supportive of one another, and everyone has their own projects where they come together for this team.
Brent: That’s what I’ve been saying a lot to people about this doc. I feel like there’s this tend right now, in documentaries, that they have to be so serious, and that everyone has to have this huge world-ending point. We didn’t really do that. We just saw what these girls were actually doing and real life, and thought it was extremely inspiring. I think that’s kind of the realm of documentaries we want to get into, is just, there are everyday stores, and we’re just documenting them. That’s what I always thought docs were about.
I have been watching a lot docs that are playing at SIFF this year, and there’s a really great one that’s about homelessness in Seattle, and there’s one about prison reform, and they’re all great. Then when I saw this one, I’m like, “This one is really up my alley.” I try to go to as many comedy shows as I can, I have season tickets for Seattle’s WNBA team and I was really excited that I could talk to you guys.
Amanda: I thought that Brent did a really good job with the doc. Capturing what you’re saying it wasn’t trying make it seem something it wasn’t, because at it’s base, it’s just so simple and pure and joyful and fun. That’s what the league is, and I feel like that’s what the documentary shows.
What’s going with the documentary after it plays … I know it played Tribeca, but what else … Do you have any more screenings scheduled?
Brent: Yeah, oddly… We did this film very fast, and we got it in sort very last minute to Tribeca. It was kind of picked up and got into a bunch of festivals really quickly. It’s doing Seattle, and San Francisco, and then we’re actually, on June 16, it launches with NBC, who picked it up on their new program called Seeso, which is their comedy streaming network. We’re going to do a big launch at the Ace Hotel in LA with all the girls from the league, and all the Shrimps are going to be there. All the proceeds are going to the charity, what’s it called again, Amanda?
Amanda: Peace Players International.
Brent: So we’re doing a big launch on the 15th, then the rest of the world can see this then on the 16th.
Oh, right on. That’s very exciting. I was wondering if that was the dance party your team was advertising on Twitter.
Amanda: No, that was something separate. Last year we started this tradition of organizing a school dance, where it’s like a 1990s school dance. Where we get a DJ and it’s open bar, and all the proceeds go to Peace Players. This is the second time we’ve done that, it’s really fun.
I know that you said the league taking off the way it has was a surprise, but were you surprised also at how good at basketball you had gotten, Amanda?
Amanda: That’s really funny. I’m still not that great, but it was this random thing where it was just a really gradual thing. Where at first I knew none of the rules and was just scared of the ball, and now after going into the second and third seasons something just kind of clicked. Now I feel so confident out on the court. I still don’t make a lot of baskets, but I’m working on taking more shots. We take it super seriously, and we practice, and a lot of people on the team have improved.
Who’s the best player on the Pistol Shrimps?
Jesse Thomas, definitely. She’s our point, and she’s magic on the court.
She’s was really funny in the film, and she was hitting three pointers all the time.
Amanda: Yeah, it’s kind of ridiculous. She’s so cool on the basketball court and off of it.
How do you all find time to practice and have your games every Tuesday night?
Amanda: I will say it’s a lot. At first, we were really good about it, and then it was kind of … People get really busy, so we kind of go on and off. Sometimes we don’t practice for a few months, then we start losing games, and then we start practicing again. It’s really rare that we have a practice with everyone there, because people are always travelling and working. Usually we practice Sunday mornings, and then the games are Tuesday nights. We just try and make time for it the best we can. Everyone loves it, it’s so much fun.
I was wondering about how it was to get everyone together, because I thought Molly (Hawkey) was photo shopping you, Amanda, into one of the group photos at the end of the movie.
Amanda: Especially for the doc, it was a challenge because it was such a time crunch. What was it, Brent, two weeks or something of shooting?
Brent: Yeah, and plus some of the old footage you guys had. We really quickly put this thing together, and edited too. We put it together in three and a half weeks, I think of editing. Amanda, I think you were even just out of town half the days just because you had a holiday scheduled.
Amanda: Yeah.
This movie only took three and a half weeks to put together?
Brent: Well no, editing-wise. In total I have been saying it’s taken I guess four moths to put together. The girls had all this footage of all their previous seasons, which was very lucky to get ahold of and use. You could say it took four years to put together, but really I only started filming and put it together in four months.
Which is still really, really fast.
Brent: It’s the fastest I think. Anyone I’ve ever talked to in the documentary industry is like, “I’ve never even heard of a film going that fast.”
Yeah, I haven’t either. Can you guys talk maybe a little bit about, do you guys have any other projects that you’re working on that want to talk about or you want to promote?
Brent: Amanda and Maria write a lot together, but Amanda’s been … You’ve been doing so well, Amanda, maybe you can tell him about some of the stuff you do.
Amanda: I have a podcast on Earwolf’s Howl Network called The Complete Woman that I’m really proud of. Other than that, I don’t have anything coming up really to brag about. I just like developing stuff, and writing, and trying to get something going. Not too much exciting stuff right now for me.
Brent: Right now we’re shooting a lot all over the world, we have different client work. This is our third film with Morgan Spurlock in the last three years, and he’s so behind us now after this Shrimps one; he just said whatever you want to do we’ll just green-light it. I kind of have this open slate on doing any kind of doc I want. Now I just have to find the right idea, but he’s backing it again, which is so good. He’s such a great mentor and executive producer of mine, so it’s really fun.
Was there anything that made you decide with both the Pistol Shrimps and the My Little Pony movie that this is something that I really want to explore more? I mean, you said that they did have some common themes, or common threads through –
Brent: Amanda, I love how you guys are getting looped into My Little Pony, that just makes things…
I’m sorry, no, I like both of the movies so I hope you don’t take that as an insult by any means.
Brent: It’s just so funny that … You know the Brony movie is so funny because I did it as you saw it. My friend Ashlegh (Ball) is a voice-over on the show, and it’s just so funny how it still gets brought up so much in my life. I think it’s just one of those ones that won’t go away. I think the themes are it’s community. It’s funny, that whole film is about a subculture, but it’s about finding that community and finding people in your life that you can relate to and just have fun with. I think that the Shrimps have done that as well.
There’s something of an underdog story there too, I think that Pistol Shrimps had a really hard time winning for awhile. Then the reason that we filmed with them, they ended up winning the championship. I think there’s definitely some crossover themes.
I think those were the things that I loved about both of the movies. What’s coming up next with the Shrimps with I the next season?
Amanda: We’re finishing up a season now. I think we have a couple more games left. Then we’re just going to be practicing for next season. Nothing too special going on. It’s our fifth season, I guess we’re going into our fifth season.
Wow. That’s awesome that it’s flourished for five seasons!
Amanda: Yeah, it’s the fourth or fifth season. We’re just playing basketball. Rec league basketball.
I think that’s so cool and it looks like it’s so much fun that you guys are having.
Amanda: It is just pure fun.
https://twitter.com/evilhag/status/733044005210968064
I saw on Twitter that Aubrey is going to test the free agent market, is it possible that she might not come back to the team?
Amanda: Yeah, I don’t think she is because she’s been our team for a couple of years, but then her sister joined another because our team was full, and then her boyfriend started coaching, I think, the team her sister’s on. Which is natural, and that’s the team she was playing on when she hurt her leg. She was wearing a wig playing on that team, because you’re not supposed to swap teams. I think she’s going to officially join that team, but once you’re a Shrimp, you’re always a Shrimp, so there will always be a spot left for her if she wants to come back. Crawling back on her hands and knees.
I think I’m just going to take a few more minutes of your time because I’ve probably taken enough. Is there anything you want people to take away from the movie, or you want them to know about that I didn’t ask about?
Brent: I’ve been sort of getting a lot of emails from different women, Rachel (Ricketts, producer) has more than I, but asking how to make a league, how to start them. We’ve been forwarding them on to one of the girls that reps the team, Melissa (Stetten). I think that’s the biggest takeaway, if you can join sports again … There’s a line in this film Paisley (Grey) says which is, “It’s so hard to learn something new as an adult.” She just felt like she really did that, she just put her pride away and just said I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m going to do this. I just thought that was really inspiring. I hope that comes across that men and women, just doing sports again, it’s no big deal to start something new. I’m going to probably start kite surfing which is weird, but I’ve always wanted to do it.
Oh that’s cool.
Brent: Yeah, I thought it was a cool one, and San Francisco is windy and it’s really good for it. So I was like, “I’m going to do this, as soon as this film’s done I’m going to try this summer just learning something new, let’s just see if we can do it.”
I think that’s so incredible. It’s great to see how people found this that was so much fun, and they didn’t have any expectations for it. Then it really took off. What about you, Amanda, do you have anything that you want people to know about with the film, or anything else, or anything I didn’t ask about?
Amanda: No, I just totally agree with what Brent said. Also just the idea of kind of forming your own community. That’s a really positive environment, I think was really important for us, and that’s why we life it so much. It would be cool if that started to spring up more than just in LA. I was even thinking, because we’re so on the east side of LA that there should be a league that springs up on the west side for the girls over there. I think you’ve covered everything. I think the reason why everyone is so taken with the league is that it’s just pure fun and silliness. Also, sports, I never knew this, but sports are really good for your self-esteem, because I was never on a sports team, or I was never in a sorority or anything. This is kind of a new experience for me, and I really like it.