Review Fix Exclusive: Chad Meisenheimer Talks ‘Check Please!’

December 26, 2017 Patrick Hickey Jr. Film 0

Review Fix chats with “Check Please!” Writer, Director and Producer Chad Meisenheimer (60 Seconds to Die)  who discusses the short film and what inspired it.

Review Fix: How was this film born?

Chad Meisenheimer: The idea originally came to me in two folds during 2016.  First witnessing and overhearing a very awkward and brutal blind date at a Starbucks.  The man kept trying to talk himself up about how “awesome he was” and the woman was totally not feeling it.  She kept twirling her hair and glancing at her cell phone.

Second was after watching the Judd Apatow comedy feature “Knocked Up”.  There is a scene in the film between Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl the morning after their characters hooked up after just meeting the night before.  I love the awkwardness of that moment.  Everyone has that one story of the “morning after”.

So I wanted to switch it up a little bit and have it be about two dudes who hook up the night of the blind date and the morning after just to find out one of the dudes is actually straight. My goal was to go deeper into the moment of awkwardness and disappointment using my shock and awe style of comedy.

Review Fix: Why do you think comedic films work so well in the short film genre?

Meisenheimer: Comedy is very universal, it can relevant and it can also be very objective.  People love to laugh.  When I make comedies I use a very simple structure for developing jokes from my stand up comedy days.  Premise, set up, punch line.

Review Fix: Any thoughts on submitting this to Tribeca or other festivals?

Meisenheimer: Originally I was going to premiere it on the comedy website Funny or Die and just leave it at that. But a few people who really enjoyed the short film talked me into doing a limited film festival run of it.  Then put it up on Funny or Die.

Review Fix: How is this different from the other short you’ve been involved in?

Meisenheimer: I consider myself a Genre Filmmaker sometimes Actor – Comedian – Content Creator even though the last seven years I was making my bread and butter doing comedy work.  Especially sketch comedy videos for youtube.  So, it really wasn’t a big difference to me just bouncing back and forth between genres.

Review Fix: Bottom line-why must someone see this film?

Meisenheimer: If you like raunchy R-rated comedy or awkward moments this is definitely a must see.


Review Fix: How do you want this film to ultimately be remembered?

Meisenheimer: Someone online said it perfectly “Meisenheimer takes rebounding from a relationship to the next level in the comedic short, “check please!”. His shock and awe style comedy is sure to bring laughs and even unwanted introspection.”  Pretty much in a nutshell how I want the film to be remembered.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Meisenheimer: Currently I’m in pre-production for the final two installments of my short film Retro Horror Trilogy, plus I’m signed on to direct a feature in summer 2018 that’s currently in development and have a recurring role in a comedy web series “My Daughter, Karl” in early 2018.


Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Meisenheimer: If any of your readers are producers or investors or just fans of horror or raunchy R-Rated comedy they can follow me at twitter @ChadMeise or IG @TheChadMeise for future projects.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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