Web hams

Fans from the Internet will know Jeffery Self and Cole Escola as the VGL (Very Good Looking) Gay Boys—the irreverent duo behind YouTube videos that have riffed on topics ranging from Brangelina’s twins to gay marriage (a posting on the latter of which quickly drew more than 100,000 hits). But newcomers will soon know the pair as fresh-faced cuties on Logo, which snatched up Self and Escola, both 22, after observing their work both online and onstage, at Joe’s Pub. Their new show, Jeffery and Cole Casserole, debuts on the gay cable channel on Monday 22—and though it’s added skits and a few additional characters to the mix, the series is still filmed with a webcam, preserving its DIY feel. TONY chatted with the two New Yorkers about their lucky break.

So you really crack yourselves up.
Jeffery Self: We do amuse each other! We actually amuse ourselves more than anyone else.
Cole Escola: Yes, I don’t really enjoy being around him, but he lets me amuse myself without judgment.
Self: It’s a very indulgent friendship.

How did you two meet?
Self: We met through mutual friends and liked each other, and got together every day to write a play while also watching Designing Women clips. So we bonded and then started making YouTube videos.
Escola: It was during the time when Britney Spears was on suicide watch and even people who don’t care were watching, and so we wrote a play about Britney Spears being visited by three ghosts or something, à la Christmas Carol.
Self: We just sort of abandoned it, because by the end of every day the stuff we’d written was outdated.

You joke about dating each other, but have you ever considered it?
Escola: Our relationship is more like your mom and her sister, or your mom and her best friend. You know, like, “Oh, Aunt Sharon’s coming over. They’ll be drinking white wine and playing Bonnie Raitt all night.”
Escola: And like, she’s complaining that she’s coming over, but secretly counting the minutes.

Where are you each from?
Self: I’m from Rome, Georgia. There are two colleges, there’s a Chick-fil-A. I love a Chick-fil-A.

I grew up with a Chick-fil-A in New Jersey. My favorite part of the sandwich was the pickles.
Self: Oh my God! I was just thinking of those pickles not five minutes ago!
Escola: I grew up in a small town in Oregon.
Self: His was smaller. Mine was like 30,000.
Escola: Mine was 1,500.

Ouch. So did you both escape to New York after college?
Self: We’re both college dropouts. I moved to New York when I was a senior in high school.
Escola: He assisted the director on Mario Cantone’s one-man show.
Self: But then I got freaked out about being in New York, so I went to college and got freaked out about being in college, so I moved back to New York. I get spooked out easily.
Escola: He does.
Self: Swine flu was a hard time. I was sure I had that. I’m still not convinced I don’t.

What can’t you do on the Logo version that you could do online?
Escola: It’s basically just about copyrights and references.
Self: It’s still the same thing—the two of us in my apartment with a camcorder and a clamp light that we bought for $4 at the hardware store.
Escola: We used to tape the camera to a mike stand, but someone took it.
Self: So then somebody gave us a beaten-up tripod and it’s totally changed our lives. The other day we were filming, and Cole said, “Tina Fey, you gotta get one of these tripods!”
Escola: She does!

Jeffery and Cole Casserole premieres Fri 19 at 11pm on Logo.

See more in Gay