An epic musical tale about two buddies on a mission to pay back their student loans, score some weed and stick it to THE MAN.
OVERVIEW
If Bill & Ted had a baby with Harold & Kumar who then had a baby with Bert & Ernie who then had a one nighter with Book of Mormon’s Elders Price and Cunningham, you would end up with Simon & Jorge - two twenty-something best friends who live in an animated musical world, and smoke a lot of weed.
And like most twenty-somethings, they dream big. Also like most twenty-somethings, they find their biggest dreams can quickly turn into their worst nightmares. But that can’t stop our dynamic duo, because like their theme song says, they are TOO high to keep down. Even when the chips are stacked against them, there’s nothing that a little weed can’t convince these guys is possible. Whether it be vigilante kidney extractions, a stoned run for president, or saving the world from artificial intelligence, these two put the “high” in high-jinx.
Each season of this bromance musical comedy contains a long arc story constructed of stand-alone episodes with self-contained narratives full of escalating mishaps and heartfelt moments. It's a satirical look at what it’s like to become an adult in this crazy world, and a testament to what a good friendship, and a little weed, can do for us all.
JUST THE FACTS
- A fast paced adult animated musical series where the characters SING! and the songs move the story -
- 22 minute x 10 Episodes -
- Traditional 2D Animation -
- Harold & Kumar meets Book of Mormon in the animation style of Bob's Burgers, Big Mouth, etc. -
- Note: Demo artwork by college students desperate to pay their student loans -
MEET THE CHARACTERS
SIMON
JORGE
AMY
E.F. HARRINGTON
SALLY RAE
DEAN
ROSALITA
SCOTT
BRUCE THE SQUIRREL
SIMON
Age 26
A robustly framed lovable stoner with a questionable grasp on reality. Permanently disowned by his affluent family, he happily lives in a tent at KOA Campgrounds.
Simon is the man with the plan and a solution for every problem, no matter how dangerous or illegal. His long term life goals are: scoring weed, hitting up Taco Bell, and becoming a world famous D.J., in that order.
Simon loves his BFF Jorge, but can sometimes take him for granted, letting his excitement and ambitions get the best of him. Eventually he realizes this, and recognizes that their friendship, like life, is a give and take that requires you to sometimes ask: WWJD - What Would Jorge Do?
JORGE
Age 25
An unknowingly handsome wide-eyed idealist. He lives with his recently widowed mother above the family sandwich shop.
Jorge is naive but lovable, and dreams of making the world a better place. However, he could use a boost in the self confidence department, and often finds himself frozen with indecision, afraid to take risks and afraid to fail in the pursuit of his noble ambitions.
He can struggle to think for himself, and can become overwhelmed when faced with the cruel realities of life and the dark side of humanity. That finally changes though when he hits rock-bottom, and realizes that before he can change the world, he needs to change himself.
AMY
Age 22
Fellow Cardell graduate and Nobucks barista. Snarky conspiracy theorist with exceptional athletic skills, she is skeptical of everything and everyone. She wants justice. She wants revenge. She wants to stick it to the man and tear down the corrupt system that screwed her and her fellow baristas. She also might kinda sorta have a thing going with Jorge. Maybe. Or maybe not. It's a classic "will they or won't they?”
E.F. HARRINGTON
Age 55
Owner of Nobucks Coffee. Super slick and permanently tan, he enjoys bathing in baby seal tears and dining on extra confined veal. In exchange for an endless supply of cheap and overqualified labor, he garnishes the wages of all his Cardell graduate baristas, returning the proceeds to Sallie Rae. As E.F. likes to say, “You can’t have rich without the poor. That’s what income inequality is for!”
SALLY RAE
Age 56
Owner and president of Sallie Rae Student Loans. Mousy and condescending with a permanent stick up her ass, she provides the green that greases Cardell’s gears and has little time for annoying human emotions such as compassion or sympathy. “It may be sad but true that it sucks to be you, but some things are just meant to be. What a good time it is to be me!”
DEAN
Age 54
Dean and president of Cardell University, the number one chain of for-profit colleges in the United States. Dour and humorless, he sees students as profit generating opportunities and believes no dream is too small or too stupid to be turned into a college major. “Some may say life isn’t fair, but when it’s not you who’s getting screwed, it’s really easy not to care!”
ROSALITA
Age 52
Jorge’s recently widowed mother and sandwich shop owner who moved from Mexico when she was sixteen. She’s short, curvy, and energetic, and in a perpetual battle to fix her cable. To some she may seem scatterbrained, but in reality she’s as smart as a whip and takes shit from no one.
SCOTT
Age 37
Passionately dedicated and overly caffeinated manager of the Nobucks Coffee branch where Simon, Jorge and Amy work. His dream is to one day attend the super exclusive Annual Nobucks Yacht Party. Nobucks is his life and E.F. Harrington his hero. That is until he finds out the truth, and then everything changes.
BRUCE THE SQUIRREL
AGE 42 (IN SQUIRREL YEARS)
Simon's #2 BFF. Simon found Bruce working in a traveling petting zoo, stealing wallets and smoking cigarettes. He rescued him from his life of crime and nicotine, and brought him back to the campgrounds where he now enjoys long walks in the woods, ELO and puffing up a fatty.
SEASON ONE
SEASON ARC
After getting conned into going to Cardell University, the largest chain of for-profit colleges in the United States, Simon and Jorge are ready to graduate and take on the world. But instead they’re taking cappuccino orders at Nobucks Coffee and getting their paychecks garnished for not paying their student loans.
Which leads to a major problem: how are they going to pay for their WEED!?
They first go legit, getting second jobs in the gig economy. But that ends with severe personal injuries and little money. So they turn to more extreme measures. They take a job manufacturing crystal meth, which leaves them heavily indebted to the Russian mob and with no choice but to sell their kidneys on the darknet. This leads to the discovery of a secret underground society of super rich people called “The Order of Superior Beings”, who buy extra organs and have them installed in their bodies to make them more powerful, and possibly even immortal. After a kidney extraction and a coma, our duo, which is now a trio after adding fellow barista and Jorge love interest, Amy, decide to form a superhero team called the Organizers. Their plan: steal back the organs from the Superior Beings and return them to their rightful owners. Kind of like Robin Hood but with organs instead of money.
It’s a wild, sometimes bloody affair, but their surgical skills are surprisingly good. And although things don’t quite go as planned, in the end Simon and Jorge do succeed in sticking it to the man, paying off their student loans and scoring some sweet, sweet maryjane.
PILOT EPISODE: “THE WORLD IS OURS”
LISTEN TO THE SONGS:
Best bro’s Simon and Jorge are conned into going to Cardell U., the number one chain of for-profit colleges in the U.S., after finding out Cardell offers degrees in “DJ’ing” (Simon) and “Making the World a Better Place” (Jorge). They graduate seven years later with their “BS” degrees, ready to make their dreams come true (Song: Dudes It’s Graduation!). But instead they find themselves making cappuccinos at the Nobucks Coffee chain, working for minimum wage.
To make matters worse, their measly paychecks are being garnished for not paying back their student loans. Enter fellow barista, Amy, who lets them in on a little secret: it’s all a conspiracy, man! They’re all getting garnished because the billionaire owners of Cardell U, Nobucks Coffee and Sallie Rae Student Loans have secretly rigged the system to screw her and all the other college grads, and she’s going to prove it (Song: This Is How It Works).
Simon and Jorge freak out, wondering how they’re going to pay for their bills (Jorge), and how they’re going to pay for their weed (Simon), while huffing Nobucks Cleaning Solution #5 (Song: What’s This World Coming To (When You Can’t Buy A Dimebag)). Meanwhile, our Billionaire Villain Trio dine at the Golden Acres Country Club, living the life of luxury and dropping hints about their evil master plan (Song: Good To Be Me).
Finished with their toilet cleaning duties, Simon and Jorge stomp back to Cardell U. demanding a refund, but are quickly booted out on their asses. Jorge blames Simon for everything, and leaves him alone on a park bench. Jorge takes the bus back to the apartment he shares with his mom, Rosalita, above her sandwich shop.
There, Rosalita convinces Jorge that he and Simon can do anything (Song: Sandwich Song). Inspired, Jorge visits Simon at his three-person tent where he lives at the KOA Campgrounds with Bruce the Squirrel, his pot smoking pet. Our duo rekindles the bromance over a joint from their dwindling weed supplies, and swear they will find a way to fix their lives and pay back their student loans.
But smash cut to something sinister. Our Billionaire Villains are deviously staring into a mysterious glowing armored briefcase, proclaiming the future has arrived.
Dun-dun-dunnn!
NEXT EPISODES
EPISODE 2 : “THE MAN WITH THE PLAN”
Simon convinces Jorge to join the gig economy: Uber, Instacart, TaskRabbit! Humiliation and personal injuries ensue. Weed supplies almost empty. Amy digs deeper into the villains’ evil plans.
EPISODE 3: “VERPRUGEL MICH MAMA”
Jorge and his mom, now in mortgage trouble, move in with Simon at the campgrounds. German swingers come to town. The villains expand their operations. Student loans remain unpaid and weed supplies are now nil.
EPISODE 4 : “WHAT COULD GO WRONG?”
Simon and Jorge turn to the darknet and make crystal meth for the Russian mob. Nicolai and Rosalita meet cute. The meth lab explodes leaving them in debt to the Russians and Jorge injured. Dr. Bob has a plan.
EPISODE 5: “MAYONNAISE & MACHETES”
The Russian mob comes to collect payment. Rosalita’s sandwiches win them a reprieve. Bruce the Squirrel and his furry forest buddies save the day with a surprise joint. Simon and Jorge decide to follow Dr. Bob’s advice and sell their kidneys.
EPISODE 6: “LET’S SELL some organs!”
Amy and Jorge profess their love for each other. Jorge backs out of the kidney selling plan. Simon goes through with it but finds himself in a strange underground ritual.
EPISODE 7: “SIMON IN A COMA”
The bromance is in tatters. Jorge discovers Simon is in a coma and his kidney was sold to the Order of Superior Beings. Jorge realizes this time he has to come up with a plan.
EPISODE 8: “DUDE, WHERE’S MY KIDNEY?”
Jorge and Amy recover Simon’s kidney using Google instructions. Simon emerges from his coma and reveals...he's gay! Which is totally fine with Jorge. The bromance is rekindled.
EPISODE 9: “YOU’VE BEEN ORGANIZED”
Our duo plus Amy forms the Organizers and seeks revenge on the Order of Superior Beings. They succeed in organ recovery but fail in paying their student loans or scoring weed. The villains are in pursuit.
EPISODE 10: “THE FINAL SHOWDOWN”
Simon, Jorge and crew battle the villains in an epic showdown. The good guys win, saved by Bruce the Squirrel and his furry forest friends. Student loan debts are cancelled, weed is scored, and Simon and Jorge become the new deans of Cardell.
NEXT SEASONS
SEASON 2 - SIMON & JORGE RUN FOR PRESIDENT
Distraught by the state of affairs in their beloved USA, Simon and Jorge decide they can’t take it anymore. It is time to do something about it. It is time...to run for president. So they trade their moped and a quarter pound of weed for a used yellow school bus, and embark on a fifty state campaign tour across America. After their stoned YouTube campaign video goes viral, they find themselves in the thick of the presidential race, and discover that, gasp!, politics is a dirty business.
SEASON 3 - SIMON & JORGE VS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Simon and Jorge score a massive internet hit with their electro pop power ballad “Love Is A Battlefield” (and survive a copyright infringement action brought by Pat Benetar). They wait for their internet royalty riches to come pouring in, but they never do. So they travel to the headquarters of the internet conglomerate Yahoogle to find out where their money is. There they discover that Yahoogle founder Tremont Rusk has created the ultimate algorithm that will perfectly control human behavior and now it is up to them to stop Rusk from taking over the world.
SEASON 4 - SIMON & JORGE: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
After attempting to write a follow up hit to “Love Is A Battlefield '', Simon and Jorge have major creative differences, leading to a bromance break up. They go their separate ways, as Simon pursues his world famous DJ’ing career and Jorge sails the seas saving whales with Greenpeace. While in London, their paths cross and they accidentally find themselves in the middle of a meeting between world leaders, where they learn that we are on the brink of World War III. With one week to make peace between the nations, Simon and Jorge put their differences aside and go on a mission to locate the mythical Lovebud, the most powerful marijuana ever created, which they will use to get the world leaders high and save the human race from annihilation.
DEMO ALBUM
First Season Songs (Partial List)
BACKSTORY
Originally created as a stage play musical, Simon & Jorge was featured in the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's 31st Annual Festival of New Musicals in New York City. Check out this video for additional backstory on our heroes' journey.
ABOUT US
JESSE Salvador-Gage
WRITER (Script, Music & Lyrics)
Jesse is an NYC based musical theater writer and veteran of the Bleeker Street music scene, who can be found wheeling his upright piano around the West Village. His television credits include Fox, NBC, BBC, PBS and a bevy of Brazilian soap operas. After discovering musical theater and writing the cult hit Oklahomo: Enforcer of Justice (NYMF 2010), he was awarded a musical theater fellowship at NYU/Tisch, and in 2016 and 2017 was recognized by Barrington Stages as one of the “ridiculously talented writers you should know (but probably don’t)”. Most recently, his musical Simon & Jorge Pay Their Student Loans was a selection at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's 31st Annual Festival of New Musicals and subsequently optioned for Broadway. Jesse lives in Coney Island with his amazing wife Marlena and son Jonah Blue. www.jessesalvadorgage.com
BRUCE LAZARUS
PRODUCER
Bruce Lazarus, is the former Executive Director of Samuel French (sold to Concord Music in 2019). He has produced two Broadway shows (Tony Nomination) and several off-Broadway plays and served as a business affairs executive at Disney Theatrical Productions for the original Broadway and touring productions of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. As an entertainment attorney he has represented many Broadway and off-Broadway musicals and plays including the original production of Blue Man Group. For more info visit www.linkedin.com/in/BruceLazarus.