Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Boca is the punchline in comic duo’s hit web show
Irene and Thaddeus have to get out of Boca Raton.
The pair of friends are so bored in their hometown that they keep forging plans to stir things up. Hoping to anger other residents, for example, they arrange to play a singles tennis match on “Doubles Day.”
“The club would eventually have to close because people won’t play there anymore. And those people will go and start their own club, and before you know it, it’s an outright civil war in Boca!” Irene fantasizes.
That’s the premise for the first episode of “Boca Broads,” a web series that launched in January on Facebook and YouTube.
It comes from a place of love and familiarity: Though she lives in Los Angeles, Alexia Verbeke, 20, creator and writer of the series, grew up in Boca Raton and still has family there. Verbeke makes up half of Dave and Alexia, the comedy duo behind the short videos. The other half is Dave Lingwood, 30, who is from Canada.
“I could’ve written about Beverly Hills people, but I grew up in Boca. So I think what made people like the video is that it was true to what they were. I’m just writing about what I know,” Verbeke says. “I definitely grew up with some interesting people in Boca.”
Since its release, the first episode has gotten more than 176,000 views and 1,290 shares. The pair have released three more episodes, of about two minutes each, which so far have averaged about 16,000 views.
They already had two other videos that went viral last year, including one with more than 2.6 million views about a man obsessed with Bulletproof Coffee. Still, they expressed surprise at the popularity of the first episode of “Boca Broads.”
“We never expect stuff to go viral, so when it does and the response is very positive, it's always a nice surprise,” Verbeke says.
In the series, Verbeke plays housewife Irene and Lingwood plays her best friend, Thaddeus. They shoot the episodes at Lingwood’s home in Marina del Rey, a seaside neighborhood in Los Angeles, and incorporate outdoor images of Boca Raton taken by Verbeke’s father.
Each episode has generated dozens of comments, with people praising the accuracy of the characters and tagging
other Boca residents.
“Boca has a pretentious reputation, so it really makes you laugh. It doesn’t insult me in the least bit,” says Jenny Wicker, a former Boca Raton resident who now lives in Fort Lauderdale. “On the flip side, people who have lived there for a while aren’t pretentious at all. I love Boca, but they are right, if you’re looking for a lot of action, you need to go elsewhere.”
There was one recurring complaint, though, in the comments section: the pronunciation of the word Raton as “Ratan,” instead of “Ratone.”
“I think it’s kind of funny but obviously is a bit over-dramatic, over-thetop, as it intends to be,” says Kelly Klein, a Boca Raton resident who is attending school in Tallahassee. “I just can’t stand people who pronounce Boca Raton like ‘Boca Ratan,’ and I had to comment on the girl’s pronunciation. If you’re going to do an entire miniseries about a city, at least take the time to actually learn how to correctly pronounce the name of that city.”
Verbeke was surprised by the pronunciation comments: “I’ve always pronounced it ‘Ratan,’ and everybody I knew when growing up would say ‘Ratan.’ You say ‘Boca Ratan’ or ‘Boca Ratone’ based on the way you’ve been raised. There’s no right or wrong.”
She left her hometown for Los Angeles three years ago to pursue an acting and producing career. But Boca didn’t leave her. She’s often surprised by how many people outside of Florida know or have heard of the city.
“Some people have family members [there]. Some people are like, ‘Oh yeah, Ariana Grande is from there,’” she says.
Verbeke and Lingwood began their comedic partnership in June, producing sketch comedy videos a few months after meeting at an improv class. Creating a web series felt like the “next step,” Verbeke says.
“We will use this footage to show agents and producers and people in the industry our skills,” she says.
“I just wanted to create these kind of crazy characters and just have some fun, all in love. This was not an insult or anything to Boca,” she adds. “Hey, it’s my hometown too, so I get to make fun of it.”
To watch the episodes, go to Facebook.com/DaveAndAlexia.