Young Dumb Winners take home national radio award
The Chapman Radio show won big at the Intercollegiate Broadcast System Award for Best Comedy Program on March 2. The group talked to The Panther about their show's origins, funniest episodes and being best friends who live together. Photo collage by EMILY PARIS, Photo Editor, photos courtesy of Young Dumb Geeked
Initially seeking to discuss news events and geopolitical issues in a satirical way, the boys ultimately changed the show to be more of a comedy variety show with fake celebrity guest stars, hot sauce and blind dates. Photos courtesy of YoungDumbGeeked
Whether it’s interrogating Santa Claus about his political beliefs, fangirling over guest star Justin Bieber or creating survival guides for when you cross an Alaskan bear society, the boys of Young Dumb Geeked have never been scared to take the bit a little too far.
For instance, senior broadcast journalism and documentary major Max Karpman played Santa Claus in the first Father Christmas tell-all episode. Friends called into the show to ask Santa about the thermal map of his present drop-offs and his location on Jan. 6.
“We had (Karpman) come in and play the character,” said Jackson Gefen, a senior strategic and corporate communication major and the general manager of Chapman Radio. “It's a great example of keeping the bit going too far. We didn’t give (Karpman) a script at all for that episode, and it was perfect.”
On Mar. 2, the group attended the Intercollegiate Broadcast System Awards in New York. To their surprise, along with the other Chapman radio nominees in attendance, Young Dumb Geeked was announced as the winner of the Best Comedy Program category.
Despite their utter shock and joy at taking home the gold, senior screenwriting major Marlowe Harris-Wilson revealed it was never about the trophy.
“We do this because it’s fun. We didn’t do it to get the award, and we didn’t do it to get to New York. We did it to have fun on Sundays. It was just something to do, and it ended up becoming so much more.”
None of them can pinpoint the exact series of events that led to the six of them hanging out, but they quickly became inseparable — even hosting a joint birthday party for two of them after only knowing each other for a few weeks.
The team traveled to New York to accept the award.
Karpman shared a formative moment he had with his co-stars and senior screenwriting majors Jack Sundblad and Danny Tamariz.
“(We) shared a very important experience the summer after our sophomore year that bonded us, and it was a job at Zito’s Pizza,” Karpman said. “We all happened to get fired at the end, but for six months of working there, it was like a movie. We made the place a living hell.”
That summer, five of them decided to move in with each other. Gefen, Sundblad, Tamariz and Harris-Wilson reside with senior business administration major Quinn Verbosky. Karpman, who lives elsewhere, has been deemed the honorary sixth roommate, but don’t tell their landlord.
Chapman Radio used to air a show called Rough Roommates, where the hosts would bring roommates on and air out their issues live. They were looking for someone to carry on the show as a legacy, and the roommates stepped up to the plate.
“At the time, Sundblad and I were doing radio shows,” Gefen told The Panther. “No one else in the group was affiliated with Chapman Radio at that point. So (Sundblad) and I pitched to the roommates — why don’t we do a show as the five of us? That’s how Young Dumb Geeked was born.”
They initially set out to tell the news in a satirical format — “the least qualified men discuss the most complex geopolitical issues.” It quickly devolved into a comedy variety show filled with fake celebrity guest stars, blind dates and lots of hot sauce. Their absurdity knows no bounds.
Karpman’s second appearance as Santa Claus turned into a therapy session as the group attempted to save his failing marriage with Mrs. Claus (played by senior screenwriting major and programming director of Chapman Radio Bella Gerencser). Verbosky channeled his inner Belieber, appearing in an episode as Justin Bieber. They even spent an episode replicating the viral show “Hot Ones,” which resulted in a lot of crying, shouting and swearing under the heat of hot sauces.
They compiled their show's least offensive and PG-13 moments and submitted them to the Intercollegiate Broadcast System Awards for Best Comedy Program. They were surprised to be nominated, much less win the category. That meant a free trip to New York City on Chapman University’s dime and attending the award ceremony.
“It’s ridiculous how well they mesh together because it’s multiple different types of comedy but the same type of humor. It’s just boy humor, but in a good way because they’re all different types of boy. I’m a firm believer that creativity of all forms bleeds into each other, and there is a lot of creativity in that house.”
The show, which broadcasts every Sunday at 10 p.m., can be streamed through the Chapman Radio website and their corresponding YouTube channel.
“It feels like we trolled an award,” Verbosky said. “We don’t take any of this too seriously at all, and we got to go to New York and do all of this. It’s pretty surreal.”
The group is all seniors now, which means their time at Chapman Radio is soon coming to an end. Tamariz pitched a one-of-a-kind ridiculous idea for their final episode.
“My idea was to have a bachelor auction of Young Dumb Geeked where we have people call in and see how much they would pay for a date with us,” Tamariz said. “Probably a live audience.”
No matter what happened earlier in the day or what arguments they had that week, for an hour every Sunday at 10 P.M., those problems don’t seem so important. Gerencser, a helping hand to Young Dumb Geeked, spoke about the group’s dynamic.
Young Dumb Geeked will not continue after they graduate. It will be a time capsule of their friendship, how they got closer over the years of college and how they changed as people. At the end of the day, no matter where the road takes them, they will always be young, dumb and geeked.
Young Dumb Geeked streams on chapmanradio.live and Chapman Radio’s Youtube channel every Sunday at 10 P.M. To learn more about their show, follow their Instagram.