Can David Rees make boring things interesting?
David Rees' new show proves even dull tasks can be captivating.
David Rees joins guest host Stephen Quinn to chat about his new National Geographic Channel show, Going Deep With David Rees.
Watch how Rees makes a mundane task like sharpening pencils not only interesting, but hilarious in the window embedded below: From audacious to ordinary
Rees, who gained recognition as the comedian and cartoonist behind Get Your War On, is now teaching a television audience how to properly tie their shoes, open doors and sharpen pencils. And, no, it's not a joke.
"To me the whole project would fall apart if it was just a goof," Rees tells Stephen, "All the information we present is true, it's factual. We meet with honest-to-goodness experts."
"We are honestly just trying to celebrate all these humdrum everyday things in the world."
The satisfaction of doing a simple thing well
Going Deep With David Rees came about when a friend asked if Rees could turn his then "artisanal" pencil sharpening business -- meaning he used a straight blade to sharpen instead of a sharpener -- into TV entertainment.
"We blew that up and just decided to do it for everything," Rees says, "And really try to examine all these every day, humdrum things and just dig down deeper and deeper until we hit all the science, the anthropology, the aesthetics that are involved in these humble tasks."
HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS from Pricefilms on Vimeo.
Rees' leap from provocative cartoons about the war on terror with Get Your War On to exploring all facets of seemingly dull, day-to-day activities was a big one.
He says he no longer has an outlet to vent his frustration with politics and what's happening in the world, but that's okay.
"Every week you have a deadline and you have to figure out what horrible atrocity you're going to make a cartoon about - I just got tired of it," Rees says, "I felt like there was nothing new I could do with it, so that's why I quit and eventually started the pencil sharpening gig."