Meet Jack Cusumano | Independent Animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jack Cusumano and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jack, how do you think about risk?
I’m actually extremely risk-averse! I’m pretty great at catastrophizing and identifying all the possible ways in which something can go wrong, and often only make a move once I’ve gone over something 1,000 different times in my head and am relatively certain I’ve accounted for everything. That said, I’m also easily bored by things that are predictable and cliche, and really excited by new, unexpected and surprising ideas, so there can be a frustrating stale-mate between those two sides of me sometimes. Ultimately it’s usually the times in life where external circumstances really push me that I go out on a limb and try something risky.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is an independent animated series called Broats, which centers around 3 goat brothers who run their own petting zoo in a fancy outdoor mall. Their petting zoo business is largely just an excuse for them to hang out in the mall all day, and the mall itself is a parody of malls like the Americana At Brand in Glendale.

In the industry today studios are terrified to do anything new and are hardly greenlighting anything at all, but when they do it’s largely remakes of remakes of remakes. The sad part of that is that audiences are bored to death, and many talented artists are out of work due to lack of projects in production. The silver lining is the current boom in so-called “indie animation” – really exciting, out-there and innovative stuff being produced independently by artists completely outside of the studio system. My work falls into that category, which I feel sets it apart from anything you’ll find from the major networks these days. It’s fun, wierd, vibrant and exciting in a way that not much is these days.

Getting here wasn’t easy. I’ve been pitching shows for years, and had a slight success with Broats many years ago when I pitched it to Nickelodeon as a short, but it languished in development briefly before being dropped (the rights reverted to me a few years later). I’ve always struggled to get networks on board with the kind of show I’d like to create, and the vibe is typically that they’re chasing a particular trend or data point versus just making something fun with their gut instinct. In addition to that, developing something within the studio system was extremely limiting in terms of how I could bring my vision to life. The way past those challenges has been just doing it myself. I’m finally making exactly the show I wanted in the way I wanted it to exist – the style, the jokes, the characters. It’s been really exhilarating!

What I learned along the way was to believe in myself and my vision, when in the past I had doubted and deferred to the input of network executives. That watered down the vision and end product. Now I try to follow my gut and do what excites me, without overthinking it.

What I want the world to know about my brand is: dumb, fun cartoons.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Ok, so first I want to say RIP to the number one spot I would have taken them to, which no longer exists. There used to be a boba shop in LA called Cha Bei Bei, which was the best milk tea and boba I’ve ever had. I love milk tea and boba, as does Chad’s voice actor, Adam McArthur. Because of our shared love of boba tea, the drink features pretty prominently in Broats. Anyway, one day Adam and I went to meet up there for boba and when we got there we saw that it had permanently closed!

I was distraught, but not long after that it miraculously reappeared in Monrovia. That’s a good ways away, but their tea is so good I would drive out there almost every weekend to get some. Well that location recently went under as well, in what I refer to as the bobapocalypse. I legit nearly cried when I heard they had closed.

So if a friend came from out of town I guess I’d bring them to Motto Tea Cafe or Jin Tea Shop in Pasadena instead. Those are the best remaining places close to home, as even more of my go-to boba shops have closed recently, too. Motto has great fluffy pancakes, and Jin has these great waffle puffs on a stick to snack on.

For lunch, I’d say Chong Qing Yao Mei, which is a great hot pot place in Pasadena close to those tea shops. If not that, then Rice & Nori in Little Tokyo. From there we could try our luck at the gacha machines at the Gashapon Bandai shop (gacha also turns up in a Broats short), and look around Q Pop.

Then I guess we’d have to go to the Americana to visit the real-world equivalent of Shopmerica (the fictional mall in Broats). We couldn’t bathe in the fountain, like the goats from Broats love to do, but we could catch a movie there, buy some weird bootleg toys from a kiosk, and eat dinner somewhere in the mall. Maybe Bar Verde, that restaurant that is on the roof of Nordstrom for some reason? That’s a suitably weird place that would probably exist in the Broats world. Not recommending it because it’s exceptional (but it’s fine!) it’s just genuinely odd that it exists inside of a department store inside of the already comically weird Americana. I’d say we could eat at Din Tai Fung but sadly that has moved all the way across the street to the Galleria.

That would wrap up our Broats tour of LA. I hope my friend had fun.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The person who deserves the biggest shoutout in regards to my independent animated series, Broats, is Adam McArthur, the voice actor who plays Chad. He’s been on board since the early days when this was a Nickelodeon short, and has always been so supportive of the project, willing to lend a hand and push me to keep going with it. You may have heard his voice in shows like Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil, where he plays Marco Diaz, or Jujutsu Kaisen, where he plays Yuji Itadori in the English dub.

Other amazing voice actors have contributed their time and talent to the project, including Jessica DiCicco, who is well known for roles in Loud House, Adventure Time, and more. She was also a part of the original short at Nick years ago. Other voice actors include Abed Gheith, Lakira Porter, Roo Rider, and more special guests lined up for upcoming episodes.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/broatsshorts/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BroatsShorts

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@broatsshorts

Image Credits
The photo of myself and the goats was taken by Scout Raskin of Party Goats LA.