On her show, Shay Weintraub calls the Rhode Island State House “the house that Gina built.” She describes the Roger Williams Park Zoo as “our local dog park on steroids.” After playing a promotional ad for Rhode Island College packed with peppy students, Weintraub leans into a palm, sighs at the camera, and murmurs, “I remember large events.”
This is the off-kilter humor of Anchored, a comedy web series produced by Trailblaze Marketing and hosted entirely by Weintraub. Filmed in front of a green screen and punctuated with a pre-recorded laugh track, Anchored is a jokey version of a local news program, like a Daily Show with ultra-specific punchlines.
“In high school, I really wanted to become a comedian,” says Weintraub, who grew up in Washington State. “I would watch Netflix specials, and it was inspiring. I remember telling my parents, I want to move to LA and become a standup. But I didn’t have the confidence to move from a little town in Washington to a big city.”
Over the course of five undergraduate programs, Weintraub took a circuitous route to Rhode Island. “I chose a lot of majors during the six years I was in college,” she quips. “I’ve always had a lot of interest in a lot of different things.” She finally completed a bachelor’s degree in history at Rhode Island College – or, as she affectionately calls it on the show, “Viola Davis University.”
Weintraub learned to love history through the lens of humor. For a time, she worked as a tour guide at Slater Mill. “I had a whole lot of fun getting to meet new people, people who didn’t know anything about Rhode Island history,” she says. “I always say there are two kinds of tour guides – the kinds who like to educate and the kinds of who like to entertain.”
This vaudevillian impulse continued at the Providence City Archives, where she served as an intern. Weintraub took over a sleepy social media feed and injected doses of wit. One post showed Buddy Cianci attending the X-Games and wearing a baseball cap turned backward. Weintraub playfully added the lyrics to Avril Lavigne’s pop-ballad “Sk8ter Boi.” The post was a hit.
After some comedy-driven presentations at a local PechaKucha storytelling series, Weintraub started writing for Trailblaze Marketing, where she was hired full-time last August.
Anchored both pokes fun at Rhode Island while also celebrating its culture and history. The show is still young and its following is modest; few videos have broken 100 views. But the quality of production is startling: Weintraub delivers her wisecracks in an understated monotone, accenting each bit with graphics and groan-worthy puns. Meanwhile, she lobs arcane knowledge at her viewers, like the life story of Annie Smith Peck, a turn-of-the-century alpinist raised in Providence.
“It kind of borders on surreal,” says Weintraub. “The company really tries to elevate the community. It’s exciting to know that we can make [the show] into anything we want. To me, this is just the first pebble on the first stepping stone of a very long garden path.”
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