Invest Your Time in 'Hedge Fund' the Web Series

Writer/creator Chris Murray is gaining some market share in the web series world by offering folks a clever approach to comedy, in Hedge Fund. Produced by the eponymous Hedge Fund Productions, the show introduces a new, blundering “boys club” whose members aspire to be Masters of the Universe under the banner of Claude S. Dutchy, LLC.

Most people don’t understand what a hedge fund is (including, sometimes, the SEC) and all the intricacies involved with this type of investment structure. Don’t worry. Neither do these guys. The white-collar crew sits cross-legged in the middle of the Great Recession and don’t rely on any actual managing. Instead, they put a heavy lean on management slogans like BSTPK (Blood, Sweat, Tears and Product Knowledge) and the most important assets an financial guru can have are tight investments of skinny jeans and croissan’wiches.

The show opens with actor Tyler Evans playing wannabe Claude Thornbush (CEO), who has just been fired from his job as a waiter. As he sits in the toilet stall contemplating his next move, “Claude” happens to overhear two hot-rod hedgies gloating about their glamorous lives. The powerful company prexies brag about their upcoming vacays, dueling over which is better: taking a trip to outer space with the Russians or swimming with actual Mako sharks. Claude decides that he deserves to live the dream too and this hedge fund thing just might be his ticket out of poverty.

Back at the one bedroom apartment he shares with two other grown men, he enlists the help of his roomies, Skip Murphy (Timmy Cassese

) and Dutch Alison (Chris Murray) to hoist a new hedge fund company called Claude S. Dutchy LLC. The actors hold their own in the series, especially the rich talent of Tyler Evans whose quirky, comedic timing is like money in the bank. Chris Murray carves a clever niche for himself in the series as the “voice of unreasonable reason.”

But the program gets a “C” for “continuity” when it comes to the role of Skip Murphy, the thick-brained business partner, who is played by Timmy Cassese in the first two eps and replaced by Jake Eisbart, a funnier, longhaired version of Skip, in episodes 3 and 4 (and the series promo: 8 Keys of Success).

Keeping his bored partners focused on the prize is never easy, but Claude manages to pump them up constantly. Their fearless leader holds his own, adding the right touch of improvisation into each scene, and managing to motivate his shareholders with packed promises of wealth, chicks and fast cars.

Hedge Fund Productions has taken the bull by the horns, driving the series straight into the bear market offering viewers a witty, no cubicles web show. I’ll definitely be stocking up on this hedge fund opportunity (sorry, only one more finance-related pun left) as those guys roll out another episode slated to appear sometime next week. It is well worth the time and investment (finished!).

Check it out at HedgeFundProductions.com.