Indie Spotlight: ‘Last Will & Testicle’ Battles Cancer With Laughs

We receive a ton of tips every day from independent creators, unaffiliated with any major motion picture studios, television networks, new media studios, or other well-funded online video entities. The Indie Spotlight is where we’ll write about and shout out to a select few of them and bring you up to speed on the great (and sometimes not-so-great) attention-grabbing series you probably haven’t heard about until now. Read previous installments here.

Cancer is as morose a topic as there is, but Byron Lane manages to use it as a tool for comedy. Lane is the creator and star of Last Will & Testicle, a web series whose lead character is afflicted by a testicular tumor.

Last Will‘s protagonist is fittingly named Will, but he’s ostensibly an avatar for Lane, who himself lost a testicle to a cancer diagnosis. While that may not seem like a laughing matter, Last Will derives plenty of humor from the ways in which Will’s friends and family react to his diagnosis. In the first episode, for example, Will’s mother has an odd response when she hears the news:

The first season of Last Will runs for 12 episodes, which follow Will from his initial diagnosis through his surgery and beyond. After the series picked up some awards during its initial run, Lane produced a second season, which he previewed with a trailer on his YouTube channel. Beyond that, the future of the series is unclear, but Lane told Insight Magazine that future darkness in his life could be translated into more levity. “Every time I feel an ache or pain,” he said, “I think maybe that’s my season three.”

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Brand Penetration. A droll advisor teaches Brooklynites how to spruce up their personal brands.
• Triffany & Briffney. Two secretaries annoy their bosses with their incompetence. They also have funny names.
• Rideshare. Humorous interactions play out during Uber and Lyft rides.

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