In this special 3-part Try Guys series, we set out to explore the arts and religious practices that evolved through the history of New Orleans. We focus on Burlesque, Jazz, and Voodoo, and how they developed despite the oppression of the marginalized communities that practiced them.
For Voodoo specifically, we wanted to amplify the true story that is often overshadowed and misinterpreted through traditional media.
Our goal was to reach as many people as possible to help clear up falsehoods around these topics.
Our strategy was to work with the best representatives of each subject in New Orleans, and let them tell their stories through our experiences.
We worked with The Van Ella Bordella, a burlesque company whose show tells the story of the history of Burlesque in New Orleans. The Van Ella Bordella has hundreds of performances under its belt, and is led by Lola Van Ella, an incredibly accomplished Burlesque Performer who has performed all over the world.
We partnered with the New Orleans Jazz Museum during Satchmo Fest to learn the history of Jazz in New Orleans, and trained with veteran jazz performers to put up a jazz show in one day.
And we finished with a Voodoo video led by High Priest Robi to give us the full picture on the history of Slavery, Indigenous peoples, and the truth about how New Orleans Voodoo grew with the communities who came to live in New Orleans but were excluded from healthcare, religion, and many public spaces. This proved to be the most enlightening experience, forcing our talent to look inward at their own prejudices and trauma.
In these videos, our cast of four men are put into the shows and practices to experience firsthand the work, joy, and importance of these subjects to the communities they serve.
To create this series, we prepared research documents and contacted multiple experts until we found the best subjects possible to bring these stories to life. From working with the Tourism Board of New Orleans to tracking down Walking Tour Guides on Instagram, we used every path to find the right people to lead these subjects.
Then we had to secure locations to film that visually represented the stories we needed. From permitting parks and museums, booking dance studios and theaters, advertising and selling tickets to the shows (that the vendors and partners kept the profits from), it was a large pre-production effort.
However, we kept our crew on the ground small. With only 4 of our own talent, 1 director, 2 cameras, 1 sound, and 1 PA, we managed to shoot the entire series across 3.5 days in New Orleans in August.
(The link in the sidebar has all three episodes, as the Burlesque video only premiered on our OOT platform, 2ndtry.tv, as it has brief nudity and sexual themes.)
Our objectives with The Try Guys are always to highlight people's cultures, passions, identities, and showcase a genuine attempt to participate to the fullest to better understand the world around us.
We are so happy with how we not only achieved the first goal of awareness, but also highlighted the smaller goals of body positivity through burlesque, appreciation of a new art form with Jazz, and helping us work through our own life issues through some of our Voodoo experiences.
And on a pure numbers level, the series gained 2 million total longform views across YouTube and 2ndtry.tv, but short-form clips from the series also had an additional 63 million views across TikTok, Instagram, and YT Shorts. This prompted extensive discussion and education across our platforms that exceeded our expectations.
Other creators also created their own shorts, which amassed millions more views and spread the message further than we could have possibly expected.
