Jake Sasseville is being a little different, a little crazy, a little outrageous, and a lot more successful than most 21-year-old college students could hope to be as he keeps a full class schedule at Marymount Manhattan College, tours the country with Guster and tapes his new show, "The Edge," in New York. How does he do it? Sasseville tells us how he got his foot in the door, and how he plans to put the power back in the hands of our generation.
WEEKEND: Jake, tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started.\nJake: I started when I was 15 on local access, my show was picked up by FOX when I was 18 and then I came to New York, and now we have the former head writer for the Chappelle show writing for my show! Oh my gosh it's exciting! \nInterviewer's Note: At this point, Jake is rolling in the grass kicking his feet in the air, apparently overwhelmed with excitement.\nJake: (continues) I didn't really have any connections. My first big break was when I was 17. I convinced the executive producer of "Will & Grace" to let me on set to interview the cast when I was 17 and in high school. And that was a really hot show back then. Then I went to FOX, created a successful business model … and I've just been hustling ever since. I'm really a hustler and I love what I do. I absolutely love people. I have a nasty little obsession with people.
WEEKEND: What's the premise of your show and what makes it different from every other show we see on TV?\nJake: It's a talk show within a talk show. So many people are fascinated about how a 21-year-old goes about financing, distributing and producing his own show. You know our show costs $50,000 a show to do. How does a 21 year-old go about doing that? Here's how. We show the arc of how the show is coming together as it's in progress, so it's sort of a behind-the-scenes look of how a 21 year-old goes about producing his own show as he's producing it.
WEEKEND: Tell us about the name of your show. What does "The Edge" mean?\nJake: It's on the edge of what's real, what's current, what's new and what's taboo. You don't growl at people in interviews! You don't get exited and start telling them that you're going to pluck their feathers like you're a big goose. But I do! It's on the edge of being real. It's really bridging the gap between mainstream and extreme. I'm an extreme kind of guy. I go for things 150 percent. It's sort of teetering on the edge of what's acceptable, what's not acceptable and sort of walking that fine line and having fun with it.
WEEKEND: What are you trying to say with your show?\nJake: I'm creating a brand and branding myself as the voice of this generation and trying to do as many things that cater to that brand as possible, whether that's going to Africa and finding out how I can help or how other people can help -- physically get involved there -- or whether that's coming out on tour and chilling out with some college students and a band that gets high a lot.
WEEKEND: You went to Africa? What did you do there?\nJake: I have a non-profit foundation which is the Xander foundation created in memory of my brother Alex who passed away when I was 16. He had leukemia. I took my show on location to (Democratic Republic of) the Congo last year with MTV and I delivered 10,000 notebooks to the refugee camp that I visited in the Congo so the kids could have access to education. I think that is pertinent too on college campuses. Education is so important to me.
WEEKEND: Time for silly meaningless questions. What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?\nJake: I just went home to Maine last weekend and I had mint chocolate chip mixed with cookie dough. Oh my gosh, I foam at the mouth! Oh Mother Goose!
WEEKEND: Are you single?\nJake: I am single.
WEEKEND: How could a woman attract your attention?\nJake: Do something different. That's the way I get my foot in the door to places. An executive doesn't take my call, I send them a shoe in a box and with the shoe I say, "Now that I have my foot in the door, call me." People call me. I send flowers to people's offices that I wanna get in touch with. It's very personal. It's about being personal and it's about the interaction. You go with the grains and you're gonna get traditional results. If you go with non-traditional you're gonna get non-traditional, extraordinary results.
Jake's show "The Edge" will be coming on after "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in 27 ABC markets around the U.S. To find out more, check out Jake's Web site jakeafterjimmy.com.
