You know the old story—a comedian rides a jet ski from Chicago to New Orleans to raise money to send goats and chickens to help African families. It’s a tale as old as time! Comedian Kurt Braunohler is the first person to actually do this, and he filmed the whole thing for his new Comedy Central webseries Roustabout. We spoke with him about the project.
Braunohler’s goal is send 500 goats and 1,000 chickens (one goat and two chickens per family) to Africa, and he’s using his jet ski trip as a means to raise money through an Indiegogo campaign. First, we asked the obvious question: why jet ski from Chicago to New Orleans? Braunohler’s answer was that he couldn’t jet ski from Los Angeles to New York.
If you’re not familiar with Braunohler’s work, he hosts The K Ohle podcast on the Nerdist network, he hosted the canceled but brilliant Bunk on IFC, he’s been a contestant on @Midnight, and has made a number of appearance on other shows. Braunohler has also put up a “No You Stop” sign underneath a stop sign, and hired a skywriter to write “How do I land?” over Los Angeles.
If someone was going to have the idea to jet ski across the country, it’s not surprising that it was Braunohler. This time around, he’s tied his efforts to charity. I asked which came first, the jet ski idea or the idea to do something big for charity.
I had the idea to jet ski cross country first, as like a big dumb thing to do. Then it was actually my writing partner Scotty Landies was like ‘You know we should do it to send 500 goats to Africa,’ and I was like ‘I love this.’
Doing something like jet skiing across the country is bound to teach a person something about themselves. Braunohler told me what he found most surprising about the trip now that it’s over.
How much I like jet skiing. I think I’m a jet ski dude. I think I might buy a jet ski.
He also found out that the Mississippi is an unforgiving swallower of things like phones, sunglasses, alarm clocks, and even the camera drone they were using to film Roustabout. If you’ve been following Braunohler’s Instagram account, you’re probably excited for the webseries to come out, but it’s important to remember that this is all for charity.
The charity Braunohler is going through, Heifer International, has been around for 70 years. But why goats?
I think we both just think it’s kind of a cool way to make a family self-subsistent. And I think that’s the ideal really, you know? It’s not really a handout, it’s more a way to change the life and economy of a family, and I think that that’s very cool. It’s not a one-time gift.
Braunohler explained how the charity works in his launch video for the campaign:
The idea is that by giving a family these animals, they become able to provide themselves with things like eggs, milk, cheese, and butter that they can eat or sell. According to the Heifer International site, the gift of a goat takes a donation of $120 and a “flock” of chicks is $20. Braunohler’s goal is to raise $50,000 to send 500 goats and 1,000 chickens to families. The math doesn’t check out, but maybe there’s a discount on the price of goats when buying in bulk.
The Indiegogo campaign is currently at $20,599 with 49 days to go to hit its goal. It’s a “flexible funding” campaign, meaning that any money raised will still go to the charity even if it falls short of the goal.
Roustabout, the webseries Braunohler filmed during the jet ski adventure premieres in September. Braunohler didn’t yet know how many episodes would be released in the series, but you can already follow some highlights of his trip on his Instagram page.
I’d like to thank Kurt for taking the time to talk to me about the trip and the fundraising campaign. You can follow Braunohler on Twitter or check his website for more updates on Roustabout and whatever his next big idea is, which he told me he hasn’t thought of yet.
(via Kurt Braunohler, image via Roustabout)
- Here are some of our favorite moments from Braunohler’s Instagram
- Braunohler launched the campaign less than a month ago
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Published: Jun 11, 2014 01:56 pm