The Bravo Channel has launched a new show called LOLwork. The series goes inside the Seattle office of a web publishing company called www.ICanHasCheezburger.com . Every day, the team uses pictures and captions to make followers laugh around the world.
Openly gay Will Sharick is the content supervisor for the website and wedding planner for a lesbian cat wedding this December. We sat for a chat with the cat lover himself right before the series debut.
Windy City Times: Hi, Will. Tell our readers about the brand new show LOLwork.
Will Sharick: It is a reality comedy show. It is about the company I work for. It follows myself and my colleagues around the office with what we do on our website. The website at www.ICanHasCheezburger.com features mainly images of cats. It highlights what we do on a day-to-day basis. We work with funny pictures, and it is a very quirky product.
WCT: Your office is so crazy that you wanted to make it into a reality show?
Will Sharick: Exactly. We have a large fan base on the Internet. They love laughing at all of the hilarious content that we feature so we thought we would be relevant to a television audience too.
WCT: How does the website make money?
Will Sharick: Through advertising.
WCT: You always hear about putting a cat on YouTube, then there will be tons of hits.
Will Sharick: Yep, people love cat content!
WCT: Do you have cats yourself?
Will Sharick: I have two very special kitties in my life: Winston and Nigel. They are the best cats I have ever known. They are cuddly and have their own distinct personalities. They definitely rule the house. When you know cats then you know they have their own set of rules that they play by. We try to capture that in the photos we post. The captions are all based on the relationships that people have with their cats. It can be very funny.
WCT: Talk about this lesbian cat wedding in an upcoming episode.
Will Sharick: They are from a lovely couple Whitney and Irene, who are friends of mine. They love cats as much as I do. They were married in New York City about a year ago and never had a proper ceremony. They are also super fans of the website so I have known them both in my personal life and the online world as well. I thought throwing together a ceremony for my friends would be fun to do and we had a lot of fun putting it together. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out on the show.
WCT: How did you get this job?
Will Sharick: I have always been a fan of the Cheezburger website. My friends and I always shared pictures with each other. I had been working for the University of Washington Department of Global Health. I wanted to look into a different working environment. I found a friend on Facebook who was working for Cheezburger at the time who said there were a few open positions. I immediately sent in my resume and a couple of months later I had a job offer. I have been there a little under two years now.
WCT: How old is the company?
Will Sharick: Our CEO, Ben Huh, started IcanHasCheezburger.com in 2007. That was the original website, with a fluffy cat looking off into the distance and thinking about a cheeseburger. Since then it has turned into a network of different websites.
WCT: This show should bring tons of attention to the website.
Will Sharick: That is what we are hoping for!
WCT: This series screams Andy Cohen. I am sure he loves it.
Will Sharick: He tweeted at me the other day. He said that I was hilarious.
WCT: You need to get on Watch What Happens Live.
Will Sharick: I would love to. I'm a fan of Bravo.
WCT: Have you ever dated anyone who is allergic to cats?
Will Sharick: Yes; my former boyfriend was very allergic to cats, which made things interesting. That is what allergy medicine is for, in my book! I think people get immune to it. I think that people who can't be around cats because of their allergies are really people who don't like cats.
WCT: That's an interesting idea. I have never heard that take on it. Do you have an all-time favorite photo from the website?
Will Sharick: We have thousands of submissions that come into us every single day. I generally like the ones where the cat is telling its human exactly why they are unhappy. Angry-looking cats really crack me up!
LOLwork premieres Wed., Nov. 7, at 10 p.m. on Bravo.
