YouthMin: A Mockumentary (An Interview with the Cast and Crew [Plus 1972s "The Night of the Lepus"])

What if Michael Scott was a youth pastor?

Steve Carell's classic turn as an inept middle manager in NBC's "The Office" may or may not have been on the minds of Jeff Ryan, Arielle Cimino, and Christopher O'Connell when they set out to create their mockumentary feature film called "YouthMin," but no one needs to squint to see why one review of the movie quips that it feels akin to what might have happened if "The Office went to Christian summer camp."

Interestingly enough, "YouthMin" is not a "Christian movie" but it was put together as a way for its creators to laugh about the good, the bad, and the weird that they (and many, many, many others) have experienced in Christian youth ministries over the years (especially those who came of age around the turn of the 21st century). "YouthMin" manages to operate, in some respects, as a knowing send-up of Christian camp culture's quirks while also being an homage to the loads of truly good times that were to be had in those settings as well. Fanboy and Know-It-All had the privilege of sitting down with YouthMin co-director and star Jeff Ryan and the film's lead writer, Christopher O'Connell, to talk about the film, what they got into watching during 2020, their own experiences with Christian youth ministry, the surprises and lessons learned from making a mockumentary, and much more.

Elsewhere, in a return to Hurts So Good, Fanboy and Know-It-All yuk it up over a terribly good bad movie they watched together that came out in 1972 and starred Jamie Lee Curtis' mom (Janet Leigh): "The Night of the Lepus."

("April Showers" by ProleteR is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives [aka Music Sharing] 3.0 International License.)