The Office Party

By Chiara Edmands

The Office Party was filmed in the year 2000 and features a stellar cast of both has-beens as well as current stars still gracing us with their presence on the big or small screen today. Taking place in 1984 New York City, the short revolves around a crazy office party in which every employee showed a side of them they would never reveal on any normal Monday through Friday in the office. The small-voiced secretary, Grace ( Clea Lewis--Audrey from Ellen) used the Robertson file her boss urgently requests the morning after to roll a huge blunt with her co-workers at the party. The infamous Carol Kane (Scrooged with Bill Murray and the broadway hit Wicked) plays Linda who secretly has a disturbing relationship with her 'special buddy' Rodney who she is sponsoring in a walk to raise money ' for special people with special needs'. Don ( Dave Attell--SNL 1993-994), who is the character everyone coincidentally wants to find the morning after the party, supposedly died while taking shots with the karate kid himself, Ralph Macchio who was last seen ( by me at least) as a mistaken identity NYC cousin of Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny. The other guy who witnessed Don 'die' in the copy room was Tate Donovan, who some may have seen in last year's FX show Damages or maybe for some of you Sandra Bullock fans out there ( don't deny it) you probably saw him in Love Potion No. 9. Both Tate and Ralph also known as Bill and Sean decide to dispose of the body by burying him near the Hudson River, well, after they were caught pushing his face into the copy machine by the pizza guy aka the one, the only Jon Stewart! In the end, Don shows up to work covered in dirt the next day, after he gets blamed for losing the Robertson file, leaving a rotting pizza in the copy room and not donating any money towards the 'special people' walk. Bill and Sean are shocked, to say the least.

I found this short to be 100% hilarious, not only because of the unique cast, but also because the premise of the entire short is to almost prove to viewers that CPA's DO know how to have a great time! The fact most of the cast consisted of actors who haven't been in anything 'big' in years also caught my attention. They aren't ashamed of their lack of 'star' status and still take the time to participate in something, like this short, that they obviously believe is worthwhile. The only actor who was in the short who became famous after was Jon Stewart, who is the star of the popular TV show, The Daily Show. It's pretty amusing that he had the smallest role in the short and is probably the most famous cast member to this day.



** there was no picture of this short or website that I can find containing a video of it. I bought it on itunes though, so if you have a good feeling about it, check it out!!