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Online Comedy Insurance with Elisa Donovan of In Gayle We Trust
by Troy Rogers
NBC has jumped into the web series arena with
both online network feet after the success of
the Tony Hale toplined time bending web series
Ctrl. Fresh on the heels of Ctrl, NBC got back
to online comedy business with actress Elisa Donovan
as the lead in the new web series In Gayle We
Trust in which Donovan plays well-intentioned
and warm-hearted Maple Grove insurance agent Gayle
Evans who gets comedically wrapped up in the insurance
claims of the town's quirky residents.
Created and written by Brent Forrester of The Office, In Gayle We Trust gives online viewers a comedic look at familiar, everyday circumstances filled with life's unsual comedy handled by the overly caring Gayle Evans.
With the new NBC webseries underway on its own official In Gayle We Trust website, with a new episode slated for October 13, we filled out a recent conference call claim and submitted it to actress Elisa Donovan who filled us in on her favorite In Gayle We Trust episode, boiling comedy down to five minutes, and who she likes best in the town of Maple Grove.
THE DEADBOLT: Which insurance related story from the show is your favorite?
 ELISA
DONOVAN: They're all hilarious. I love the
man who comes in to get insurance for his dog
in the unlikely event of his demise [laughs].
It's hilarious because he's clearly delusional,
first of all, but he thinks the dog is completely
in love with him and needs his companionship.
And then you realize the dog has simply left
the building and is desperately trying to get
away from this man.
It is something that I realize in people who deal in insurance, you are really dealing with people's personalities and they're fears and they're apprehension at losing things they love. And it gets incredibly personal, which is really something that I never thought about from that angle. So we kind of exasperate that dynamic to the fullest. But it is pretty real because people are talking about losing things that they love. So I guess it can be pretty intense.
 THE
DEADBOLT: How hard is it to get a story
told in less than five minutes, as compared
to something like 90210?
DONOVAN: Right [laughs]. Yeah, this is where Brent [Forrester] is a genius. And the writing is one of the most important elements because you really do have to have an entire arc in a couple of pages, and that is completely Brent's genius. It's more like a sketch really, structurally speaking. So you have to really distill down what it's about so you know this particular scene is about Gayle trying to tell these two people they can't come in here anymore for their relationship issues.
So right from the beginning, that's what it is. And you have to get to that point really quick, like everything has to go there directly and the humor comes out of it. I guess what you have to do is be really laser focused in what the intention is in the scene so it doesn't meander because you don't have time to kind of let something develop. You have to know what it is immediately.
THE DEADBOLT: So you're dealing in seconds?
 DONOVAN:
Right. And it's really fun in that way too,
because it's really clear and you know in the
writing exactly where you're going. That's super
important. I can't stress that enough, that
the writing is really important. As much as
in certain episodes we improved a little bit
more than others and went off script, which
Brent wanted us to do, but that was really only
possible because he had created the structure
that was really clear.
THE DEADBOLT: Who is your favorite resident of Maple Grove?
DONOVAN: [laughs] That's a good question. You know what? Well, aside from my husband and my son, I would have to say my rival because he just really really needs a lot of love. He needs a lot of support and I think that Gayle is really the person to get him on the right road.
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