Easy Peasy’s creator Fridtjof Stensæth Josefsen shines at Canneseries with slapstick comedy

An established name in Norway, Fridtjof Stensæth Josefsen has created and starred in various sketch comedies over the last decade, but Easy Peasy (Manndag) is his first solo TV venture, created and written for Viafilm’s Anders Tangen and NRK, with commercials director Morten Borgestad as collaborator.

The six-part three-minute sketches star Josefsen as a common man, wrestling with small everyday challenges. “I focus on everyday familiar situations we can all recognise”, from a man struggling to ask for a bill, or suddenly trying to race past another cyclist, in an absurd self-imposed challenge.“ Instead of having one character in various set ups such as Rowan Atkinson with Mr Bean, Charles Chaplin or Buster Keaton that are my references, I play different characters in different situations,” explained Johansen, who also uses visual physical techniques to create laughter.

Detailing the making of the sketch Balls - tribute to Buster Keaton’s Seven Chances, which required the most preparation, Josefsen said the scene was first conceived as a man trying to kick back a ball to a group of kids. “Then I thought it would be funny to repeat the situation several times, with different balls of different sizes. We had just one hour to shoot it, no proper time to experiment but thankfully I did a demo with my Iphone that proved that the idea was valid. Everything had to be extremely precise, to work in the edit room.”

Director Morten Borgestad said he discussed at length with Josefsen the visual style, “at times exaggerated, played out in realistic settings so that the absurd situations would stand out.”

Seasoned producer Anders Tangen, credited for Lilyhammer, Exit season 3, Dag, One Night and Home for Christmas, said he was extremely pleased when Josefsen approached him with this project. “I had worked on a similar out-of-the-box comedy series with Vidar Magnussen’s Magnus [selected at Canneseries 2019]. This is a totally fresh creation, perfectly fitted for online, all ages viewing and foreign distribution, as there is literally no dialogue.”

Tangen hopes he will be able to produce more episodes - even longer formats and intends to submit some of the best sketches to short film festivals.

The series executive produced by NRK’s Ingvill Marie Nyborg and sold by Viafilm, first aired on nrk.tv March 30.