From renowned author, educator and television presenter Ted Rimmarniet comes Our Fascinating Planet, an exciting new educational series that explores our Universe and ourselves – and our place in both of those things. Featuring episodes on Space, Energy, The Brain and The Earth, this staggeringly monumental series contains all of the passion, wonder and curiosity of award-winning programs like NOVA but with double or triple the amount of fascinatingness.
Our Fascinating Planet stars comedian, actor, writer, and musician Demetri Martin as alter-ego Ted Rimmarniet. Some may question his credibility as a scientist. Well, Rimmarniet faced those critics head-on at last night’s world premiere event at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
First, Martin opened the show with an hour long stand-up set which saw him working out new material for a potential upcoming special. The one-liner comedian is clearly on top of his game ripping through countless jokes with the skilled precision he’s developed over the last decade plus. What makes Martin stand-out among his peers is his ability to use multiple mediums to deliver his jokes including his signature notepads and drawings as well as the use of the guitar.
After his set wrapped up, the audience indulged in the first episode of the new webseries, Our Fascinating Planet, which is heading to go90, the new social entertainment platform built for the mobile-first generation. It provides access to live and on demand videos wrapped in a social experience. The content on go90 ranges from live events, prime-time TV, best-of-the-web to original series across comedy, music, gaming, lifestyle, sports, news and entertainment.
Martin then returned to the stage as Ted Rimmarniet for a one-on-one conversation with Radiolab‘s own Jad Abumrad, who happens to be the son of a scientist and a doctor. Rimmarniet faced some tough questions from Abumrad but wasn’t the least bit phased delivering precise, instantly well-thought out answers that could almost pass as factual. Then the audience jumped in with some questions of their own looking for answers about the unknown.
The event culminated in the premiere of a second episode that will be found later on in the 8-episode run during season one. Other notable comedic stars featured in the series include Al Madrigal, Charlyne Yi, and Kate Berlant. With the premiere of Our Fascinating Planet taking place on October 5th, there’s some high potential that we may be seeing more than one Ted Rimmarniet on the internet. It is Halloween season after all and Rimmarniet sports one incredible turtleneck. Look out Lebowski. And now, enjoy the trailer. Episode #1 and #2.
