~by SARAH WILSON

 

Sitting at a table at BLD on Beverly I had the pleasure of speaking to two of the most impressive, intelligent 20 something’s Los Angeles has to offer… Max Lugavere and Jason Silva. With a new show and a feature length documentary in production this dynamic duo inspire and educate the younger generation.

Sarah: Tell me a little background on Current TV for those who are unfamiliar. What did it start as and where it is moving towards now?

Jason: Well, we have been with the network since its inception 4 yrs ago, and when it launched its mission was to launch a network that would bring a level of participation to television. There was really no structure, other than that it would be short form because 1) it caters to the ADD generation and 2) it was citizen journalism, people in the audience were making up 30% of the programming. In the beginning they had just played   everything on shuffle. This year the network is moving towards actual shows. We now have our own late night topical show, Max and Jason: Still up.

 

S: Wow, that is exciting! What is your show’s premise?

Max: This hour is basically our Marquee show where we get to curate all of the content that we think is the best and spin it in a way that is cohesive as it applies to whatever theme we pick for the night. Now those themes vary in their seriousness, sometimes we will do fashion or the party scene around the world, but our favorite shows are the   heavier shows that often times will be about the middle east practices and cultures, issues with weight. We want to be the guys on the network that have the most range.

J: We see ourselves as the Bill Maher of the next generation. we want to be a reflection of our audience and their point of view, but we also want to raise the level of conversation.

 

S: You have a feature documentary you’re working on currently entitled “Power”. What is that about?

M: It is an investigative journey of what the future of power looks like, the problem is pretty much accepted at this point as something that we need to fix, so our film is going to be an investigative piece about what technologies are out there, that is both optimistic and solution oriented.

 

S: You guys are best friends since college, co-workers, and best known with your names combined, do you ever get sick of each other?

J: We don’t spend every minute together, We each have different interests on the side that we do in our free time and when you have accomplished so much together, you can’t get sick of each other”.

 

S: What are some of your “different interests”?

M: I play music.

 

S: What kind? Who would you compare yourself to?

M: I am an acoustic singer with a sound similar to Matt Nathanson, who’s actually a friend of mine and Damien Rice.

 

S: Jason what do you like to do in your free time?

J: I like to rock climb and go to Point Dume in Malibu, talk about life with friends.

S: You guys are so successful already, is this where you saw yourself being a few years back? Was this career path something you had always intended on?

J: Back when we were about to graduate we had no idea what we were going to do. We thought about traveling for a year or two if we didn’t get jobs right away. (M interjects): we thought about working at the Diesel store in New York

J: Oh yeah, we didn’t know what we wanted to do, but we knew we liked Diesel jeans and so we thought we could work at the store and get a discount!

 

S: Well you have definitely created an impressive and inspirational life and career for yourselves at such a young age. Is there anything you hope to accomplish that you haven’t yet?

J: We want to be invited to the T.E.D* conference!

 

* [The Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference which is an annual conference that brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers]