Today we’d like to introduce you to Roni Geva and Margaret Katch.
Roni and Margaret, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We both came up in the theatre world as actors. Margaret had also done some directing and Roni had done a lot of writing (she came up in improv/sketch comedy in Chicago)… and we knew each other from our side-hustle job and from sitting in the same audition rooms.
Then, when we moved to Los Angeles six years ago (separately, not together), we decided to make a quick cheap short film just for our reels as actors. It was just gonna shot in an afternoon (and it was)… but the process of it made us fall in love with filmmaking.
Then, to our delight and surprise, the short got into a nice film festival. Emboldened by that quick success, we decided to make the very rookie mistake of starting to work on a feature. Lucky for us, we quickly recognized our own idiotic move (features can sometimes take ten years to get made) and conferred:
“What should we do next?”
Margaret immediately knew, “A web series! About abortion!”
Roni quickly added, “But only if it’s funny!”
And so CTRL ALT DELETE, our pro-choice comedy, was born (yes, we know… but it was our CHOICE)… Season 1 was made on a shoestring and garnered a lot of attention and an Emmy nomination. Season 2 was just released in May and got a second Emmy nomination.
But we are most proud of is when people come up to us at a screening or DM us on the socials and tell us THEIR abortion stories. Often it’s the first time they’ve told anyone… which highlights the power of storytelling to help people feel less alone.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Yup.
We magically pooped out a show and got two Emmy nominations.
JUST KIDDING.
It was and continues to be a game of WORK and HUSTLE and GRIT and PERSEVERANCE.
Making independent work is a constant battle of not enough money, losing locations, having to find ridiculously creative solutions, never sleeping, making sure everyone else has food before you do, and having that moment where you’re freaking out because you’re scared everyone will find out that you don’t know what the hell you’re doing (even though you do, you really do).
Roni ended up in a hospital during our first crowdfunding campaign, it was THAT stressful.
A crappy piece of gear broke on set and put us hours behind.
We re-wrote an entire episode in season 1 while the actors were on their lunch break.
We could go on… but here’s the thing. We signed up for this. We love the grit and the hustle. We are all running up the mountain and we can choose to whine about our blisters or sing about the view.
Making your own worth is also the only time you have full creative control as a producer/director/writer, and that’s the literal best.
Please tell us about Ctrl Alt Delete.
Ctrl Alt Delete is a comedic short-form digital series that you can watch in its entirety at www.vimeo.com/channels/ctrlaltdeleteshow.
We believe that as filmmakers and storytellers, it is our responsibility to intersect art and activism.
When we had our abortions, we each looked to the media for stories we could relate to and found no one who was speaking to our experiences. The only stories we could find were about fraught teens who agonized over their decisions before finally choosing birth. That was not our story.
Where was the show about the family planning clinic? There was the show about medical interns, the one about the busy ER, the one about the clinic in a small town with the big city doctor, and the one about the old folks’ home… but somehow, this one workplace has been overlooked.
Believe it or not, there is a wealth of funny at women’s health clinics too. Every abortion provider we have spoken to has a warehouse of hilarious stories. They and the women we interviewed who have had abortions shared stories full of jokes and love and joy and yes, sadness too.
We believe that comedy is incredibly humanizing and the very best comedy comes from a real and deep place. We’ve all been in an awful or uncomfortable situation where we made a joke to cope with the moment. It’s a very human response. And that’s the perfect balance — the fart joke in the middle of the saddest day.
And hell, if we can take the shame out of abortion while writing things that make us laugh, we’ll be the happiest gals in the world.
What were you like growing up?
Margaret was a storyteller from the get-go. She told stories about princesses finding berries in the woods and living happily ever after. She was also a social pariah a little bit, which is why she’s so freaking funny.
Roni was a clown from the get-go. She realized very quickly that the easiest ways for people to like you is to make them laugh. Then, when she was 11, she moved from Tel Aviv to College Station, TX. That was hard. She became a social pariah too. And now she’s even funnier than Margaret.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ctrlaltdeleteshow.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ctrlaltdeleteshow/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ctrlaltdeleteshow
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ctrlaltdel_show
Image Credit:
The personal photo is by Josh Fingerhut (just the 2 of us with the black t-shirts that say ‘everyone loves someone…’)
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