Food Coma TV, the web series, an off shoot of Eat Maine Editor Joe Ricchio’s popular blog Portland Food Coma, was made possible when Ricchio and show producer Alex Steed raised money via Kickstarter, a crowd-‐sourced fundraising website, to finance the show.
“Alexpitched the idea back in July and the next thing I know we’ve raised $7,000 and we’re shooting our first episode,” explains Ricchio.
At first it was just this wouldn’t it be ‘cool if…’ idea and then in no time we’re ready to launch.
“We asked the public to help us finance the project because we thought that it was something people would get behind,” said Steed.
Despite the persistently shaky economy, the team managed to raise necessary funds from project supporters in the community. “Alex kept warning [Director Kurt Graser] and me, ‘don’t get your hopes up. The economy is down and it is continuing to get worse.” I kept telling him, “When you can’t trust the stock market, why not put your money into us?’” Ricchio half-‐joked.
He was kidding, but he turned out to be kind of right, laughed Steed. Projects like this are a testament to what’s going on everywhere right now. Look at Wall Street; there is no trust in the old system, and people are only investing in what they know they can believe in.
We are fortunate to have been on the receiving end of that. According to their website, Food Coma TV, “is a series of short films that will report on the oft-‐overlooked food culture of Maine that exists outside of Portland’s city limits.” It is produced by Alex Steed and directed by Kurt Graser.
The first episode of the show, which was available on Monday, October 10th at foodcoma.tv, takes Ricchio to Bangor. The next episode takes place at the Fryeburg Fair.
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