Check Out Richie Doyle’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Richie Doyle.

Hi Richie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started as an intern at Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Productions where I worked on promotional materials for ‘Garfunkel & Oates’. From there, I got a job as Business Affairs assistant at ICM Partners. While I didn’t excel at that position, I was able to get to know my coworkers and build relationships. After leaving ICM, I worked at a company called Jukin Media in Culver City where I was the Executive Coordinator to the company’s C-Suite. Following that, I had a brief stint with Reese Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine, and assisted influencer Arielle Vandenberg with strategy. During all of these positions, I was moonlighting as a standup comic, spending nights out at open mics, and getting introduced to the various comedy communities within LA.

I first had the idea for ‘Sunday Morning Digital’ in November 2019. A few days later, I took a meeting with a hungry director, Michael Strauss, who was interested in working with me after seeing a sketch I recently made with friends. Michael loved the idea and from there, we began building it alongside our friend and agent Branden Berger. We initially focused heavily on the proof of concept, but once COVID hit in March 2020, we decided to try to source an entire season of the show. By May 2020, the first season of ‘Sunday Morning Digital’ was released.

In 2020, we also met our third partner, John Connor Hammond, a Brooklyn-based director who was making the funniest stuff out there. When we joined forces, we started reaching out to friends and peers in the comedy space to participate in the episodes. We had some initial interest in the project and decided to start shooting with the talent who were kind enough to license their sketches to us. Over the past year, we shot over 15 sketches and released our second season in May 2021. Our second season caught a little fire; we saw a few sketches go viral, a press hit in Entertainment Weekly and began doing live shows in both Brooklyn & Los Angeles that showcase the on-screen talent we’ve had in the series. We also produced our first feature which we’re planning to release in 2022.

The experience has been life-changing. While it’s still very new and raw, we’ve always maintained the same core principles that we are showcasing new voices for the new day in a decentralized short-form sketch comedy show. Our priorities will always remain with the talent we work with. Without them, we’d be nothing.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
No journey is without road bumps. We’ve certainly had our fair share of challenges and obstacles but with every negative moment, there’s always an opportunity to reflect and learn. With that mindset, it’s hard to see anything as a loss but rather a new perspective to help us grow and move forward. We’ve faced challenges (camera equipment getting stolen out of a car, stranded in a ditch at 3 AM on a night shoot in Palmdale, and of course we saw some sketches that weren’t hits). We also fell victim to Instagram’s infamous ‘shadowbanning’ during the rollout of our second season. I tend to live and die by the numbers but through this process I learned to worry less about the data and more about the overall product and the community we’re building. With every challenge, I always look to take a deep breath and remind myself how far we’ve come and appreciate the road ahead.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve been interested in film and television since I was in first grade. As a child of adderall, there were many restless nights when I couldn’t sleep. I would sneak downstairs and turn on the ‘The Tonight Show’ and ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’, always knowing that if Carson Daly came on I was up way too late. Comedy has always been a part of my life. I come from an enormous first-generation Irish family in New York, and the jokes never stop. On both my mother’s and father’s sides, there’s a never-ending cast of characters and I’m very fortunate that I was raised around such madness. I hail from a town called Sleepy Hollow, just north of the Bronx, and attribute much of my sense of humor to New York style comedy. Having been a proud product of the public school system, growing up in a diverse ecosystem gave me an understanding of comedy through language and culture. My upbringing is a crucial part of my personality and sense of humor, and I’m forever fortunate to my parents and extended family. My main comedy outlet is stand-up, although I find the daily grind to be unhealthy.

After taking more than a year and half off, I returned to the stage in July 2021 and have been continuing the practice since. LA’s mic scene can be hit or miss, and getting the respect (from myself and others) to be a true comedian in this city is harder than expected. With that being said, it’s like a drug, you can’t simply quit. My main goal is to make indie comedies (you know, where the money is) but, as our attention spans seemingly get shorter and shorter, there is a fear that a window in that industry may close. I do, however, live on the glass half full side of the world.

When I was in high school, I won a local Emmy for MSG Varsity, and while it isn’t inherently the work that I am most proud of, it is rather the idea that I did something bigger than myself for other people. This business is never a solo act, and collaboration always prevails and makes for a better product. That’s what makes SMD so special to me; we’ve built a community and as it continues to grow, I remind myself how lucky I am to be working with all these insanely talented people at this raw, exciting point in our (hopefully) long and fruitful careers.

What makes you happy?
My dog, Pug Hampton …and all the Tom Selleck easter eggs in SMD Season 2.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: sundaymorningdigital.com
• Instagram: @sundaymorningdigital / @roylerich
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sundaymorningdigital
• Twitter: @digital_morning
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SundayMorningDigital/featured

Image Credits:
Picture 1: Richie Doyle performing at SMD LIVE in Hollywood Picture 2: (L to R) Michael Strauss, Richie Doyle, Branden Berger, John Connor Hammond Picture 3: Emily Wilson as Sgt. Dumbrowski, Richie Doyle as Officer Michaels Picture 4: Richie Doyle in Man Fax Picture 5: (L to R) John Connor Hammond, Richie Doyle, and Michael Strauss after shooting ‘Mad Mensch’ Picture 6: Jake & Rob Reiner on set of ‘Mad Mensch’ Picture 7: (L to R) Wally Baram, Randall Otis, Matthew Broussard, and Conner McNutt after SMD LIVE in Brooklyn Picture 8: Set Shot of SMD