Assembling the Team Part 1: Kevin Senzaki

Probably the most embarrassing picture I could find.

Kevin Senzaki (who is referred to as Toshi because of this video), was my friend in preschool. WAS.

He, Jason Park, Bobby Atkinson, Perry Zagha, and I were best friends at Broadacres Preschool. There's a super adorable video of us bowling at Gable House for Toshi's 4th birthday that I will totally find a way to post clips of if people nag enough for it (Twitter, FB wall, or comments here are acceptable forms of nagging).

After preschool, we grew apart. I mean, we were both just such different people by the time we hit (preschool) graduation, that we honestly wouldn't have recognized each other as Kindergarteners. We never saw each other again.

Somehow, more stereotypically Asian than the last one I posted

That is, until nearly 20 years later. Somehow, the moms of the aforementioned group got together and decided to plan us a little play date. We all agreed that this was thoroughly lame to be 23 and have our moms plan to get us together, and also that it'd be super awkward to hang out with guys we scarcely remembered being forced to play with as toddlers.

And then we were promised Korean BBQ prepared by Jason's mom. Down.

Reuniting friends since the dawn of time

Leading up to going there, my mom started saying things to me. "You know, Kevin went to USC film school. He's a director." So of course what I heard is "Kevin is a pompous asshole that thinks he's better than everyone else and entitled to a film career when he's really a talentless hack." I mean, right? Who else has met a USC film student? This is typical.

Simultaneously, Toshi's mom was saying to him "You know, Chris is an actor. He's in some play right now." So of course what he heard was "Chris is a drama queen attention whore who thinks the world revolves around him and is a complete waste of organic material." This, having met actors before, is almost universally true.

Toshi, fooling no one.

So we reluctantly acknowledged each other at the table with forced small talk. Slowly, that grew and before we knew it, we'd hung out till 2AM talking about movies. Then once he showed me his short (Infamy), I was sold that this guy could direct. Once I had everything in place for Brickwalk, I brought the script to him and he (stupidly) agreed to sign on.

Additionally, you should read his awesome web comic, Savage Tongue.