‘White Collar Brawler’ An Alternative to Going Postal At Work

Ever just get fed up with your desk job? You ask yourself, after 2.4 million years of evolution, this is where human beings have arrived? To sit in front of a computer all day? Don’t you just want to say f-it, I’m claiming back my inner animal. Then you renew your gym membership, rent Fight Club, pass out on the couch right around the soap-making scene, and then wake up to reality and go back to work.

Well the folks at San Francisco-based new media production company Portal A Interactive can relate. Yesterday they launched White Collar Brawler, a documentary web series about two office workers who decide to quit their jobs and train to become amateur boxers.

White Collar Brawler is part of the recently expanded Next New Networks Creators Program and is being distributed by Blip.tv and YouTube. The show has attracted sponsorship from a range of sports and wellness brands, including Gu Energy Gel, Lombardi Sports, Vibram Five Fingers, No Mas Apparel and Fairtex Boxing. White Collar Brawler received initial funding from an unnamed Silicon Valley angel investor.

The series stars Nate Houghteling and Kai Hasson, who tell us “the blood, sweat, tears you’ll see are real. The punches to the jaw are real. This is really happening.” The two twenty-something ivy-league graduates (one form Harvard, one from Yale) held jobs at News Corp and Current TV before founding Portal A Interactive. The series is “completely current,” meaning “we shoot, edit, and release within a few days, so all of the episodes are fresh out the oven. After all, instant gratification is the currency of the internet. New episodes are released every Tuesday and Friday.”

At the culmination of the series, the pair will step into the ring for a live, fully-sanctioned fight against local amateur boxers in December. In fact, viewers will have the opportunity to attend a series of local events surrounding the show, including the final fight night in San Francisco. The online and offline experience is enhanced with full social media integration on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and an invitation to join the brawlers in person for boxing and conditioning training and diet.