Student’s funny claim to fame

Esteban Torres Urso is obsessed with motorcycles. He’s been interested in motorcycles for a good part of his life, and since this summer he has owned his own bike. Yet, unlike his long interest in motorcycles, he said it wasn’t until his freshman year that he knew he wanted to write, so he bought a typewriter.

Urso is a third-year Italian and philosophy student; his choices of majors and hobbies reflect his restless tendency for expression through different interests and avenues. And although it was in college that he honed in on his inclination for writing, he has already developed it beyond campus.

His latest creative project comes in the form of a comedic viral video that has garnered more than 55,000 views on Will Ferrell’s comedy video website, Funny or Die. Urso worked on the video, “Miss USA’s Sexy Halloween,” with his older brother Felipe Torres Urso. Over the summer, Felipe Torres Urso landed the opportunity to direct a video for the website.

“This summer we started writing a bunch of scripts with actors in mind … and then we got this Halloween thing going,” Esteban Torres Urso said.

The video was featured on the front page of the Funny or Die website over the Halloween weekend. The video, running just under seven minutes, features Miss World USA, Lisa-Marie Kohrs, in search of a Halloween costume. The male employees have one mission: get Miss USA in a sexy costume, and more importantly, take pictures. The crew has some hurdles to overcome, such as her demands for a conservative costume and their feminist co-worker Beatriz, portrayed by Zosia Mamet.

The contacts with actors were established through Felipe Torres Urso, since he has been employed as an assistant in different components of the film industry. With the specific actors in mind, Esteban Torres Urso wrote the lines for the video, taking into consideration their personalities. Nevertheless, his creativity was not restricted to writing. He immersed himself in other aspects of the video’s production, such as set design.

“It was the night before … we were doing our third day of shooting, and I was in this garage by myself and the only way we could actually film the next day was if I built the thing,” said Esteban Torres Urso, referring to the fitting room set where Miss USA chooses the Statue of Liberty costume.

According to Felipe Torres Urso, he and his brother have different personalities, yet they work well together because they share the same appetite for exploring new creative territory.

Felipe Torres Urso attributed their voracity to their diverse background and frequent travelling.

“The one thing that we do have in common, we are mutts. We’ve lived everywhere, moving around and seeing so much at a young age,” Felipe Torres Urso said.

The setting: a Halloween store in preparation for the biggest day of the year. Actor B.J. Bales, who plays the store manager, dominates the opening scene with his exaggerated, ’70s-inspired dance moves. Esteban Torres Urso did not specifically write those lines, but Bales felt comfortable adding his own lines in order to animate the character of the store manager.

“He’s like one of those guys that you hope to work with again. He is open to actors writing their own ideas,” Bales said.

Esteban Torres Urso also welcomed the actors to brainstorming for the video.

Felipe Torres Urso credits his brother with the screenwriting because he would take the ideas and write them down. The open brainstorming approach worked well for him, as it seemed to give him more ideas to work into the video.

“He always has ideas; he was usually 10 steps ahead of everyone else. We would film a scene and he would have five more ideas,” Bales said.

Esteban Torres Urso said that he plans to graduate in June, but that he doesn’t know what will come next, aside from maybe a coming year of “epicness” on a long motorcycle trip.