Cube News 1
 Several weeks ago, we featured Cube News 1, the online "newscast" that dispenses advice to office drones and cubicle slaves everywhere. Now, we touch base with Kim Waldauer, the show's anchor and creative force, to find out how it feels to vent about past bosses on the Web, who's writing her from China, and what's next for this broadcast comic...
Hey Kim, you've been running Cube News 1 for almost a year. Looking back, what surprises you about the experience? That I would be having so much fun still! The problem now is that we still do Cube News 1 in our free time, and there is a growing demand for more frequent content; we'd like it to be something we dedicate all our time to. There are episodes sitting in my notebook that we just haven't gotten to yet. How did you get started? I started this after serving a five-year sentence in a cubicle, as a way for me to cope with some of the b.s. that comes with the job. I did some research and found out that the majority of people working in the U.S. work out of a cubicle, so I knew it had an audience. But I get a lot of email from people all over the world—which still surprises me—I just didn't think people in Korea and China and Amsterdam would be my audience. And more surprising are the emails from the bosses with offices (who haven't forgotten the cubicle days obviously), high school students, teachers, ministers, military personnel... Do your military fans have the same gripes as the average office worker? Yes, the military personnel who wrote to me express shared space/lack of privacy issues, much like us civilians. Human nature is a bitch I guess ;) I was also corresponding for a while with a sergeant who represented an elite group he called "Cubicle Marines" ... You also mentioned some cubicle comrades in China. What do they write you about? I helped transcribe episodes for a (Chinese) YouTube viewer for a group he runs, which has about 200 members. The first episode he transcribed was "Sex and The Company Picnic." [Find it here.] He said they they like to discuss interesting videos and use them to practice English. So... Cube News 1 is part comedy and part education! I'm just glad to have people watching :) What about the ideas for each show? At first all the episodes were really me airing my own gripes (a very satisfying thing by the way), but then emails started to come in from viewers, talking about their issues and asking for advice. So now a lot of the content addresses these viewers. If I refer to an email, it's a real person. Tell us about the Internet sitcom you're working on. It's called Cubeville and I'm really itching to start production on it! Before we had the idea of Cube News 1 as a newscast, I had wanted to do a sitcom about four cubicle workers and life from their perspective. So the script has been sitting around for a few months, while we figure out the best way to produce it. Right now we're in the "talks" process, finding the best outlet for the project and getting other producers involved. The script was written for television, so we also are breaking it down into Internet-sized episodes, whether that means 3 minutes or 7 minutes. The humor of the script is similar to Cube News 1, and while Cubeville is a stand-alone comedy show, it also ties back into Cube News 1 because a couple of the characters, unbeknownst to anyone else, are secretly broadcasting a news report... called... Cube News 1?! We love it. Any words of advice for people looking to start their own faux-newscast online? Don't wear white or stripes. And get a decent microphone. What are some of your favorite sites? I frequently watch Ask a Ninja, It's Jerry Time, and "The Daily Show." I also rely on a couple of friends to send me links to all cat videos. The one where the cat knocks the baby over is brilliant. We love that one, too. Thanks, Kim, and good luck with Cubeville! We'll be watching from here at our well-decorated cube farm.
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