On a hunt for graphic design jobs after a career setback, Jacob’s internet searches lead him to Sea Breeze II, a generic painting signed by Jacob Reed. This discovery launches an unexpected quest to crack the code of artistic success. Along the way, Jacob wades through the jungle of customer service hotlines, uncovers the costume jewelry capital of North America, and finds wisdom from a stranger in the most unexpected corner of the globe.
ACT 0. COLD OPEN
[INTRO MUSIC]
[Phone rings]
JAYLIN: Thank you for calling {beep}, this is Jaylin. How can I help you?
JACOB: Hey Jaylin, my name is Jacob Reed, and I got an email that said that there is a package being held for me at the front desk…
JAYLIN: Were you expecting a package?
JACOB: No.
JAYLIN: And you’re not in apartment 604?
JACOB: I’m not a resident.
JAYLIN: Were you a previous resident?
JACOB: I’ve actually never even lived in Seattle. I live in Southern California.
JAYLIN: Weird… [types] There’s someone with your same name, “Jacob Reed.”
My name is Jacob Reed. It’s a pretty common name, and this kind of thing happens to me all the time. I’ve gotten other Jacob Reeds’ phone calls, cable bills, plane tickets, requests to review an anaconda purchase…
Jacob Reed: Hi, my name is Jacob Reed and I’m calling to cancel an appointment that I have with Dr. Cotter tomorrow at 11am
Last week, I called to cancel a doctor’s appointment, and the receptionist insisted that Jacob Reed had just left their office.
Receptionist: Weren't you just here?
Jacob Reed: No, I’m at home.
Receptionist: Oh…
A normal person would brush off these coincidences…. And that’s how I found out: I am not a normal person. Because I started keeping track… logging every Jacob Reed I came across in a spreadsheet. For years, it sat on the back burner, a secret half-baked hobby.
And while those Jacob Reeds sat frozen in time on my spreadsheet, my life moved forward. As an artist and freelancer, I had always moved around a lot, but after a decade of random jobs, my career was finally taking off. I got married, we bought a house, we were expecting a baby, and I was working on my first big TV directing job for Jimmy Kimmel Live.
SFX: Cheering
And for the first time in my adult life, I felt like I had a clear idea of what the next few years would look like. It seemed like anything was possible.
Then, my entire life changed.
[power down SFX]
Newscaster: Flights grounded, cities under lockdown, and a dent in the economy. The coronavirus …
Within a few months, I became a dad, the pandemic hit, and the entertainment industry shut down indefinitely.
[crickets and garage opening]
Each night after we got our baby to sleep, I’d leave my wife on the couch, sneak out to our dusty old garage, open up my laptop, and live vicariously through the hundreds of Jacob Reeds on my spreadsheet.
I quit piano lessons in high school. Jacob Reed #248 teaches them in Ohio. I used to code friends’ websites. Jacob Reed #113 runs NASA's website. My wife makes fun of my doomsday earthquake kit. It's nothing compared to Jacob Reed #14’s. He’s a survivalist.
For almost every life choice I made, I found another Jacob Reed who went a different direction. It was like this spreadsheet was a portal to hundreds of alternate lives. And the more Jacob Reeds I found, the more I became obsessed. I had this overwhelming feeling that if I could somehow make contact with all of them, learning about their lives would help me figure out what to do with mine.
[THEME MUSIC STARTS]
So, I started looking.
CLIP MONTAGE FOR THIS EPISODE
– I’m trying to find someone named Jacob Reed
– [inaudible] passenger Jacob Reed
– Oh, shit we’re literally going off the road!
– And do you just want, like, their number to reach out to them?
– Okay, first of all, I implore you to stop talking about this
– The average take from a bank robbery like that is $3,000
– I don’t know this person.
Welcome to Jacob Reed and Me: a docu-series / a mystery show / a rabbithole / a mundane multiverse / an investigative comedy / that answers life’s biggest questions exclusively by tracking down people named Jacob Reed, hosted by me, Jacob Reed.
ACT 1: WHO IS JACOB REED
As long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be an artist. I studied art and film, but then graduated into the 2008 recession and immediately had to use my art to make a living. Pretty much all of my 20s, I took any job that was remotely connected to creativity — as long as it paid. I did design jobs for randos on Craigslist, flyers for experimental black box shows nobody came to, catalog designs for a fraternity wholesaler, I wrote slogans for novelty t-shirts that never got made. If it paid I would do it—while I slowly worked my way up in the entertainment industry.
So when the pandemic hit, and I needed to pay my mortgage and support my new baby, I started scouring the internet for freelance graphic design jobs, just like I had done in my 20s. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was sort of creative, right? And either way, it was necessary.
To see if I had any old portfolios online I could dust off, I Googled “Jacob Reed” and “artist.”
I wasn’t even on the first page of results.
You know what was? A painting called Sea Breeze II by Jacob Reed
Okay — let me break this down:
Sea Breeze II is an oil painting with reproductions sold all over the internet. The painting shows a tropical view from a cabana. Billowing fabric opens onto a white sand beach, turquoise blue water, and palm trees. Even though this is a podcast and you can’t see the art I’m describing, trust me, you’ve kind of already seen it. It’s one of those tacky hotel art pieces you’d find in a home decor store between a canvas print of the Brooklyn Bridge and a piece of wood with some cheesy font that declares: “It’s Wine O’Clock Somewhere.”
And sure, I realize I sound like a total art snob saying that. But other people are clearly into this painting. Because when I look up reviews, Sea Breeze II is selling like hotcakes.
REVIEW READER #1: I love this picture. My home decor has a beach theme, so this picture fits right in.
REVIEW READER #2: This painting gives a sense of that tropical vacation feeling.
REVIEW READER #3: Great print. Wanted to fill my wall space and feel warm tropical breezes.
REVIEW READER #4: I would buy this product again and again, it gives a relaxing feeling to the room.
REVIEW READER #5: It is breathtaking! Beautiful colors, and it feels like you are actually there!
Clearly, it’s popular. But is it Art? With a capital “A”? I mean, I don’t think so but who am I to judge? I can’t even remember the last time I made something that wasn’t for a company.
Even directing for late night, my job was to make a segment for a show that filled a slot on the schedule of a network that is just one of many income streams for a global conglomerate whose only goal is making money. Is that the life of an artist?
It’s not that TV can’t be art. A lot of it is. Lately, I’ve been re-watching the HBO show White Lotus –– it’s beautifully made, totally entertaining, and presents a scathing commentary on society.
That’s the kind of art I dreamt about making when I was in school. So, how did I get so far off track?
[music hangs]
Reading these reviews of Sea Breeze II, my first thought is… what happened to Sea Breeze I? Is there a Sea Breeze I? But, my second thought is… who is the Jacob Reed who painted this?
Is painting hotel art his day job? Has he cracked the code of wall art? I mean, it’s kind of crappy, but he seems like he’s making money on it. Maybe whatever his real art or passion is, every couple of years, he cranks out some beach landscapes, puts them online, and has a passive income while he works on his more avant-garde gallery pieces.
Whoever Jacob Reed is, he’s selling his art and… I’m not.
I had to know who this guy was. And, could he teach me how to be financially stable as an artist?
Pretty much everyone’s online, but when I look this guy up, I can't find anything. No website, no socials—just his name attached to hundreds of sites that sell Sea Breeze II by Jacob Reed.
JACOB: [Lists websites]
With no public information, the only way I could think of finding Jacob Reed the Artist was to contact every site that sold his art. So, I put my baby down for a nap, and I got to work…
[RINGING]
Some companies were so small, I only got an answering machine --
AUTOMATED VOICE: Please leave your message after the tone --
[Beep]
JACOB: Hi, I’m trying to get some information about a piece of art you guys sell on Art to Canvas—
But the bigger the company, the more they seemed to be set up to never let you talk to a person at all.
OVERLAPPING AUTOMATED MESSAGES:
-- You’ve called outside of normal business hours --
-- We apologize; All of our agents are currently busy --
-- We are currently experiencing high call volumes --
-- Please remain on the line --
-- Stay on the line for the next available team member --
-- Please wait for the next available agent ---
Some of the phone systems wouldn’t talk to me unless I had an account:
AUTOMATED VOICE: We don’t recognize the phone number from which you’re calling.
And some of them did recognize me… and that was worse:
AUTOMATED VOICE 2: Thanks for verifying your account. Are you calling about your order that includes your lacrosse balls?
Just… uncanny…
AUTOMATED VOICE 2: You can take your time and talk to me just like you would with a person. So, tell me, why are you calling today?
JACOB: Uh…. I’m trying to find the artist who painted a piece called Sea Breeze II by Jacob Reed, but coincidentall,y my name is—
AUTOMATED VOICE 2: Sorry, I did not understand if you said something or pressed a key.
When I did get through to a real person, we re-enacted Abbot and Costello—
CUSTOMER REP 1: You’re Jacob Reed? Okay. So you—you didn’t paint this?
CUSTOMER REP 2: May have your name, sir?
JACOB: My name is also Jacob Reed.
CUSTOMER REP 2: Also Jacob Reed?
JACOB: Yeah, yeah.
CUSTOMER REP 2: Okay, one moment please. I don’t know any history of this.
And they were ultimately unable or unwilling to help.
CUSTOMER REP 3: I’m not sure if that’s information we’re allowed to give out
CUSTOMER REP 4: We actually don’t have direct contact with any of the artists
CUSTOMER REP 5: We do not provide that information
CUSTOMER REP 2: We don’t even have that information in the first place, so --
CUSTOMER REP 6: That is used for internal purposes only.
Actually that’s not true, one person did help…
CUSTOMER REP 7: Thank you for patiently holding on the line. I have seen here that Jacob Reed is a writer, director and also perfor–a performer from San Diego.
But, it turned out they had just Googled me…
CUSTOMER REP 7: He has written and directed for Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and Funny or Die and Above Average.
JACOB: That one is me.
CUSTOMER REP 7: Oh. Are you the one who painted that?
JACOB: No… it’s… [laughs]
I reached nearly the end of my list before finding someone who could give me the slightest bit of information.
[RINGING]
KYLIE: Hi, thanks for calling Wayfair, my name's Kylie. Can I get your first and last name?
JACOB: Yeah. Hey Kylie. My name is Jacob Reed.
KYLIE: Perfect. Jacob, do you have an order number?
JACOB: I don't have an order number. This is [laughs] kind of a weird inquiry….
I told Kylie about Sea Breeze II, about Jacob Reed, how I’m Jacob Reed - the whole thing.
KYLIE: And do you just want like their number to reach out to them?
JACOB: Yeah, really any information at all
KYLIE: Let's see. Do you have a SKU number for the piece
Kylie gave me a website with a contact form, which I filled out. After the number of dead ends I’d hit, filling out a form on the internet felt like I was making progress.
I had a little time left in the day’s nap with one more company on my list.
AUTOMATED VOICE: Thank you for calling Walmart.com
And their automated system was the most automated system of them all—
[WALMART MONTAGE]
It took some time but, I was able to arrange a callback from a real person. And almost an hour later—
JACOB: Hello?
WALMART AUTO: Hello, this is your callback request from Walmart customer care. If now is a good time to talk, press one.
[Beep]
WALMART AUTO: Thank you, an agent will be with you shortly.
[Hold music]
JACOB: Those mother f*[phone beep]*ers. They called me to put me back on hold!
While I wait, I read the painting’s product page on Walmart.
JACOB: "This fine art poster print would make the perfect addition to your home or office…captures all the vivid colors and details of the original…Is ready for hanging or framing…A great addition to your wall decor..."
I wonder what Jacob Reed thinks about being “A great addition” to someone’s wall decor….I mean, what if his true style was completely different? But, for whatever reason, he did these two Sea Breeze landscapes, and they took off.
I’m totally projecting—of course—because of what happened to me with Japanese Soda.
VIDEO CLIP: Product name: Mango Creamy Soda Parenthesis Carbonated Drink [BuzzFeed title audiomark]
I got a job at BuzzFeed during the early days of their video department. I was there for the Try Guys, the pee tape, the blue dress/gold dress. I saw it all. And as part of my training I made a taste test video where Americans tried Japanese Soda.
We cranked it out so fast, nobody realized it was shot slightly out of focus until it was already online.
VIDEO CLIP: Peering down the bottle at what the color of this is… I’m like…. A little suspect of it. Oooooh
But Buzzfeed was my day job. In the evenings and weekends, for a year, I worked with a bunch of talented friends—filmmakers and animators—on a pilot for a web series. It was everything I wanted to do as an artist. We called in every favor. There was stop motion, guest appearances from big comedians. I was certain this would be the thing that launched my career.
By sheer coincidence, the pilot and the Buzzfeed video were released the same week.
The artistic labor of love I thought would launch my career slowly accumulated a couple thousand views. Meanwhile, the formulaic, out-of-focus BuzzFeed video went viral, hitting two million views overnight.
VIDEO CLIP: I would definitely buy this at the store because it’s so tiny …
I was baffled and frustrated.
I wondered if Jacob Reed felt the same way about Sea Breeze II. Was this his “Americans Try Japanese Soda”?
I'm way down this day dream when I realize I've been on hold for much longer than two minutes
JACOB: Hello? There's no hold music anymore. Hello? I'm literally just holding my phone to my ear.
JACOB: Let's try calling them again.
AUTOMATED WALMART: Thank you for calling Walmart.com. Your estimated wait time is 10 minutes.
JACOB: [sighs]
I was starting to wonder whether this wild goose chase was worth it.
This was time I could and should be looking for paid work to feed my growing family. And any time I wasn’t looking for work, or with my family, I should be making my own art
Maybe it was time to give up on looking for Jacob Reed. Maybe it was time to stop looking for any Jacob Reeds and focus on THIS Jacob Reed.
[BABY NOISE]
I decided to stop.
[music hangs]
Then I got the email that changed everything.
[AD BREAK]
ACT 2: THE SEARCH CONTINUES
After wasting a week, I had decided to stop looking for Jacob Reed The Artist.
That’s when I got an email from Todd.
Remember the woman I talked to at Wayfair? She gave me a website with a form. I filled it out. The company on the other side of that form was Stupell Industries Limited Incorporated. And the guy who opened my email was Todd Stupell.
(email alert noise)
JACOB: "Hi Jacob, thanks for the email. I just spoke to the artist, and they said they are not interested.
[Record scratch SFX]
Just kidding. I see you are the artist! Feel free to call my cell." [laughs] Oh boy.
[RINGING]
TODD: Todd Speaking!
JACOB: Hey, Todd. This is Jacob. Is this still a good time to talk?
TODD: Well, yes. I'm in the middle of royalties. So I just took my head away from a million numbers… but fine. Let's start.
I explained that I wasn't THE Jacob Reed, merely A Jacob Reed. And Todd explained his family business, which for almost half a century has imported and exported…. Stuff.
First, it was costume jewelry.
TODD: Providence, Rhode Island was actually the costume jewelry capital of the world 50-60 years ago
After that it was home goods, then art products, then wall decor. Stupell Industries Limited Incorporated goes where the market goes.
TODD: If we spoke again in 20 years, who knows it becomes, uh, lamps and drapes. Whatever it is, I’ll be ready.
Even though I had a million questions about living in the “costume jewelry capital of the world,” I had to cut to the chase: could he put me in touch with Jacob Reed?
TODD: We have a million pieces of art. Like, I don't know this person.
But when I tell him about all the dead ends I’ve hit, he offers to help.
TODD: Tomorrow, I will follow up on a handful of things on your behalf.
Todd followed up a few days later with the name of the licensing house where he purchased the rights to sell Sea Breeze II. I emailed them… and got no response. In the meantime, he also set me up with a very important person: the woman who picked Sea Breeze II for Stupell Industries Limited Incorporated to sell.
SUSANNE: My name is Susanne Stahley, and I am an art director. I got my PhD in Art History at Brown University, I left academia and started at TJX the very next day.
TJX is the parent company for TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Home Goods, and a bunch of stores.
SUSANNE: I became a buyer, traveled the world, did lots of trend work, I studied an awful lot of art history… (FADE OUT)
Basically, Susanne's job is to follow trends and put together collections of art for them to sell online. It’s kind of like the way a fashion retailer puts together their spring collection... but with wall art.
SUSANNE: Every one of these images was made by a real person. It's a real artist. Someone who may have gone to art school or self-taught, and I think so often when we look at products in stores the person who is behind it has gotten lost. It just looks like, oh, it's a mug. It's a—it's a notebook. It's a pillow. It’s a real artist and a real artist's hand that went into producing the art.
Susanne couldn’t remember the specifics about when and why she picked Sea Breeze II — but, since all I knew about Jacob Reed The Artist came from this painting, I asked her to explain the inspiration for aquiring the piece and what she was hoping people would see when they looked at it.
[MUSIC AND OCEAN SOUNDS FADE UP AS SHE TALKS]
SUSANNE: // In these images you see a beach, you see palm trees, sun, and an inviting porch to sit on.// They evoke a lovely daydream. And, right now a lovely daydream is something that I think we could all use. // The vantage point is standing just outside the frame with our feet on the deck, we can imagine walking right into this idyllic getaway; sitting by the ocean, feeling the sun and sea breeze, which is evident in long free-flowing, billowing drapes frequently used as a romantic icon. The conjured-up place is an unreal paradise we so desperately want to believe in.// A place to escape all the nuisances and stresses of everyday life //
[MUSIC LINGERS]
As Susanne describes the piece, I get it. I mean, I even feel relaxed. I’m there on the beach, dipping my toes in the surf. And I imagine all these different people who have bought this painting and put it in their homes. All the positive reviews, the business trips to some airport hotel where the only view that’s not of a highway is the wall art above the bed. I get what this painting means to people. And suddenly I feel like a huge asshole.
It might not be my vibe, but something can be art as long as it speaks to people. From cheesy beach paintings to Japanese Soda.
I started thinking about Jacob Reed differently. More of a fun uncle, Jimmy Buffet-listening, beach-loving, beach-painting boomer.
[ISLAND MUSIC]
With a Hawaiian shirt and a tiki drink, enjoying what he unironically and obliviously calls the ‘Aloha lifestyle.’ The beach brings him joy, and his beach paintings are his way of spreading that joy to people around the world.
Of course, only Jacob Reed knows the truth. So, I asked Susanne if she'd ever talked to him.
SUSANNE: I have not. He is represented by a, um, art licensing house and if it's an art licensing house, then I wouldn't be talking directly to the artist.
I made a mental note to follow up with Todd’s licensing company one more time.
SUSANNE: There's also the possibility that the art may have been produced quite a while ago. We don't know how old he is. We don't know if he's, you know, still producing art. Right?
JACOB: Wow. Yeah, that just blows my mind a little bit
SUSANNE: Who knows when this is from? And, because we're not doing art history, I don't need to know who made it. I just need to know who to pay. So, um, he could be, um, I don't know, dead or alive. Don't know.
[MUSIC PLAYS]
With all the questions I’d had about Jacob Reed, one of the most basic assumptions I made was that he was still alive. Maybe the reason I can't find anything about him online is because he's not. Maybe I’m chasing a ghost.
[MUSIC]
ACT 3: ART VS COMMERCE
It had been a few days since my last email to Todd’s licensing company. And, in our email thread, besides my full name appearing in my signature, it appears multiple times: Hi, I'm Jacob Reed, I'm looking for other Jacob Reeds, you have a piece by someone named Jacob Reed, hope to talk soon. Signed, Jacob Reed. And so far they’ve only addressed me as "Jason." So, I'm not getting my hopes up.
But, I sent one last email. And, finally, I got a hold of Kim…
KIM: The company has been in business over 30 years and we used to have an office in Milano, Italy, and in San Diego
Kim tells me about their business, which used to be called Top Art. Their Italian office closed, but they do what Todd does, just on a massive scale.
KIM: Hotels, banks, hospitals, medical centers, anything office, but also big chains, like Target, Z Gallerie, Macy's, any of the retail stores.
JACOB: A piece like this Sea Breeze I or Sea Breeze II, do you have any estimation on how many of them have been made? Like, how many of them exist in the world?
KIM: I would say probably thousands.
JACOB: Okay.
KIM: I believe that this is one of our more popular ones from back in the day. I would say probably over 20 years.
JACOB: Oh, wow.
KIM: This piece actually originated in Italy.
JACOB: Wai-- in- In Italy?
KIM: Yeah. The artist that did it was in Italy
[ITALIAN MUSIC COMES IN]
Italy? After all this time Sea Breeze Jacob Reed is in Italy? I was desperate to get some more information from Kim…
JACOB: The person involved in the company on the European side, is that someone whose name you guys would be able to give me?
KIM: No...
What she lacked in specifics, Kim made up for in encouragement.
JACOB: Like, if I wanted to try to track down –
KIM: I just don't think it would be possible. I mean, it's a big world.
Well, that's all the encouragement I needed.
JACOB: Before you guys were called C Brand Studios, it was called – you said – Top Art?
KIM: Yeah.
JACOB: Was that also what it was called in Italy?
KIM: Yes.
Motivated by the idea of meeting an Italian Jacob Reed, I set off to find Top Art in Italy…
[MUSIC CHANGE]
…but when I Google “Top Art” and “Italy” I get, you know, the top art of Italy:
Michelangelo's David, Botticelli's Venus, Leonardo DaVinci, Titian, Giotto, Caravaggio, The Trevi Fountain, The Last Supper, The School of Athens, The Creation of Adam, The Sistine Chapel, The Mona freaking Lisa.
It's not a needle in a haystack. It's a needle in the Renaissance.
If only they had a more unique name… Like… Top Art Industries Limited Incorporated.
[beat]
Actually …
Remember those random graphic design jobs I had to do right out of college? Yeah? Okay - go with me on this … One of those jobs was for legendary comedian and advertiser Stan Freberg. His company was called Freberg LTD, through which I learned that in the UK, they have LTDs instead of LLCs. I knew from my other searching that Top Art’s full name was Top Art LLC… so I looked up what the Italian version of an LLC is and found it’s an SRL - Società a responsabilità limitata. I’m probably pronouncing that wrong.
Italian speaker: Società a responsabilità limitata.
— And thanks to a fact from a random job that laid dormant in my brain for two decades, I searched for Top Art SRL, and that got me… a shipping manifest.
[SHIP/HARBOR NOISES]
Yup, there's a website where you can purchase PDFs of shipping manifests..
JACOB [reading]: Point of Origin: Milano
Foreign Port of Lading: Genoa
U.S. Port of Unlading: The Port of Los Angeles, California
Commodity: Posters And Catalogues
[fade out]
The document shows 270 kilograms—roughly 600 pounds of art—transported from Italy to the United States. It shipped to Top Art LLC and shipped from Top Art SRL. It also has an address in Milan, which leads me to… this guy:
MAURO: Hopefully, I can be helpful.
JACOB: It’s already so helpful that you speak English because I don’t speak Italian.
MAURO: [laughs] That’s okay. That’s okay.
After the break…. I find out what happened to Jacob Reed The Artist.
ACT 4: FINDING JACOB
After weeks of searching, I had followed the breadcrumbs to this man:
[Italian music]
MAURO: I didn’t use any translation. I just wrote it in English. So, don’t worry.
That's Mauro Torre. He's in his mid-fifties with kind eyes and thick wavy hair. He looks like an Italian Kevin Klein. Mauro was the unnamed partner Top Art had in Europe.
MAURO: I was born in Milan, Italy, and I still live here in Milan and I always been, uh, publishers since 35 years ago. This was my business family. I'm doing this with a lot of love and passion.
Mauro’s father and uncle started Top Art in 1974 as a small publishing company.
MAURO: When I finished the university, I joined them and I started to go around the world and I saw a lot of new art that was not available in Italy at the time.
In 1990 I met my business partner, and we open up a company in California: Top Art U.S.
He didn't paint, but he had an eye for what would sell. And there were two ways art would come into his collection. Either he'd find a piece and license it, or he'd sense a demand within the market and commission a team of freelance artists to supply paintings that met that demand.
MAURO: We were creating some art for the market. // like a small studio where artists were working. We give them some instruction // The elements, the feeling, the atmosphere and the artist was just working and producing.
JACOB: So how many artists were creating the art?
MAURO: Many different. Sometimes you have one artist that was very eclectic and could paint anything. Other time—you know—we had specific artists painting some specific images.
JACOB: So there's one specific artist I want to ask you about. I'm going to send you a link in the Zoom chat.
MAURO: Okay.
JACOB: And the artist's name is Jacob Reed, which is my name. And I, I was wondering if you knew anything about that artist or that piece.
MAURO: Okay.
Mauro’s eyes narrow as he focuses on the image.
MAURO: Um, I can see the—
He seems to be deep in concentration, searching his memory.
MAURO: Ah, okay…
Then, it hits him.
MAURO: This has been – uh, this, this has been created. Yes. This has been created from, uh, one artist, and also the name of the artist has been created.
JACOB: W- you mean that the name of the artist is, is not actually Jacob Reed? That's a fake name?
MAURO: Yes. Yes. Correct.
[MUSIC]
I was shocked. I didn’t know what to ask next. After weeks of searching I had found Jacob Reed the Artist. It just never occurred to me that the he wasn’t real.
JACOB: Why would you use a fake name?
MAURO: ‘Cause this is the way we were doing things. They provide the art, and we do the rest. You know, we create the title, we created the name of the artist, we did the marketing.
So everything about this painting…the subject, the style, the title, and even the artist's name are all part of what Mauro considered “the marketing.”
MAURO: At the time, there was no internet. We were creating history around the artist and the title and the name of the artist is part of this information.
JACOB: How— Why—Of all the names you could pick—if you're going to make up a name—why not an Italian name? Or why, you know, why Jacob Reed?
MAURO: Uh, because sometimes for this kind of pictures—landscapes, marine—an American name would work better for an international market. We would use an Italian name for something more related to Italy.
JACOB: Of all the American names, why Jacob instead of Matt or Steve or...?
MAURO: To be honest, we were just, uh trying to get first name and last name with a nice and important sound when you put them together. Right?
This blew my mind. This whole time, the question I was struggling with was: am I Jacob Reed an artist? And here’s someone who could have picked any name in the world to represent a piece of art, and he chose mine…
JACOB: So, to you, the name, Jacob Reed sounds important.
MAURO: Yeah. At the time. Yes…
JACOB: Not anymore?
MAURO: No, of course. Yes.. Obviously, the name has to be attractive, nice name and, uh, it has to be a short name, // easy to remember… // you don't create a name that already exists. So maybe we take Jimmy Carter and, uh, George Bush and then we do, you know, Jimmy Bush and the reverse.
[beat]
MAURO: So when did you find out about the Jacob Reed images?
JACOB: Uh, I found out about them maybe a month ago.
MAURO: [laughs] Okay
JACOB: Do you remember the artist who painted it?
MAURO: Uh, that's an old piece. Uh, to be honest, no. And I don't have evidence anymore. I don't have Excel files and stuff like that.
Yeah, what kind of weirdo keeps a spreadsheet…
[MUSIC]
ACT 5: JACOB REED THE ARTIST
So, who was Jacob Reed The Artist? Well, like the stereotype of a pure artist that I’d put on a pedestal, he didn’t exist. He was the complete opposite — a literal marketing tool, invented to move merchandise. But, since I still had questions… I decided to see if the man behind the curtain had answers.
JACOB: It seems like everything about this type of painting, you know, it's a business, right? Like it's art, but it's also…
MAURO: It's decoration. You know, for the decorative market. So you decorate a wall. It can be anywhere. // It can be in the bedroom, it can be in the living room, in the man cave // You know, because an empty wall is not nice.
JACOB: So one thing that I am interested in talking to you about is: when I create art I think a lot about is this going to sell, or is this something that I'm excited about? And it's hard for me to do both, right? Like it feels sometimes like it's either the commerce side or the art side–
MAURO: It's the commerce side, obviously. It has to sell. So when you create art, like when you create a show, you know, it has to sell, you know. We have an expression in Italy: With the poetry, you don't eat.
With the poetry you don't eat.
MAURO: The poetry. It's beautiful, but then, you, you need to make it commercial to sell it. Like, um, what was the singer, uh, not Peter Gabrielle, the other guy with “Genesis”. What was the the name?
JACOB: Oh, uh, Phil Collins.
MAURO: Phil Collins. You know, at the beginning he was creating a lot of rock songs, “Genesis”, // But then, he started to become more commercial, sweet melodies. And I'm sure it started to make more money. And then he said, you know what, maybe I do five or six songs, you know, very sweet and the rest will be, more rocky, but you know, that's the business, that's the business.
It's brutal, but that's the reality, right?
That’s definitely the reality.
[Music plays out]
A short time after talking to Mauro, I found an article about how White Lotus was created.
Facing pandemic-related production delays on several of its shows, HBO an urgent need to fill its lineup with new programming. They called up Mike White – a past collaborator with a reputation for writing quickly—and asked if he could come up with a COVID-friendly show set in a single location to film as soon as possible.
So as artistic and wonderful as I think it is… White Lotus was created to solve a supply chain problem.
[Beat]
Sometimes, we make art. Sometimes, we make wall art. Often, we don’t get to pick. The line between art and commerce is blurry and unpredictable and sometimes incredibly frustrating. So why do we do it?
MAURO: Because an empty wall is not nice.
[breath / music hang / moment]
When I set out to find Jacob Reed The Artist, I was looking to find a balance between making art and making a living.
Since then, the entertainment industry has not bounced back; it’s become unrecognizable. Nearly everyone I know is out of work or has switched careers, and the friends who are working — even the ones on hit shows — are barely making ends meet. Corporate greed, mergers, and tax loopholes have made shelving projects more profitable than releasing them. Despite all this, I found opportunities with a podcast. The one you’re listening to. We had interest from major networks, executive producers whose names you’ve definitely heard of. Then, the podcast bubble burst, and all of it went away.
At the same time, my personal stakes are higher than ever.
[CLIP OF JACOB AND KIDS]
I have two kids now. I have bills to pay.
I still think about the difference between art and commerce, but it feels like a frivolous distinction. These days, I’d happily sell out if it meant I knew where my next check was coming from. The opportunities simply do not exist.
So, here I am. I’ve got this podcast with little chance of making money. But more than any other artistic venture over the last few years, I keep coming back to it. Why? Why am I doing this?
Because, as Mauro said, a blank wall isn’t nice. And, no matter how easy or hard it is, or whether there’s any money in it, something in me is compelled to keep filling the walls.
And maybe that, more than anything else, is what it means to be Jacob Reed The Artist.
[MUSIC FOR A BIT]
Coming up on this season of Jacob Reed and Me--
[SEASON SIZZLE REEL]
[Ringtone]
JACOB: I’m trying to find someone named “Jacob Reed”
JACOB: On our GPS is just the arrow symbol in the middle of a blank page
JIMMY: Based on my level of porn I can say he’s not a star.
BOUNCER: You’re the other Jake Reed!
JACOB: I am! Yes.
MORTICIAN: And this is our embalming room
WOMAN: All you are doing is digging your own grave.
JACOB: Well, name is also Jacob Reed. But it’s not the same one.
Hey guys, okay… So, I’ve been working on this show for years, slowly accumulating a motley crew of incredible storytellers, producers, and craftspeople — the people who make shows like Chef’s Table, This American Life, 99% Invisible, and one of my favorite shows of last year, Broomgate. We’re doing this without corporate money, against the odds, just because we want to make something that’s great.
And, we can’t do it without your support. We’ll be releasing new episodes every Wednesday, and you can listen to anywhere you listen to podcasts — but if you don’t want to wait, you can become a founding member of Jacob Reed and Me on our Patreon right now and get access to early episodes and a whole lot more. You’ll also be supporting the kind of independent stories and storytellers you want to exist in the world, and, you’ll join a community of supporters like my new Italian friend, who eventually visited California…
JACOB: Would it be okay if we got a picture together?
MAURO: Yeah, please. We need to.
[SERVER DROPS THE CHECK]
MAURO: Thank you. I’ll take care of this.
JACOB: Are you sure?
MAURO: Yeah, of course.
JACOB: Because I’m the struggling artist?
MAURO. Yeah.
JACOB: Thank you.
MAURO: No problem.
MAURO: Hopefully, it’s gonna, you know, be a success for you, and I hope it’s gonna sell.
JACOB: Yes, that’s the hope
Thanks for listening, and see you next time.
CREDITS
Jacob Reed and Me is a production of Same Name, LLC in association with All Trades Co and End of the Road.
Our executive producers are Danny O’Malley, Alex Rivest, Adam Paul Smith, Chris Kelly, Lauren Bercovitch, and me, Jacob Reed.
The show is written by Margot Leitman, Danny O’Malley, and myself.
Our theme song was composed by Daniel Walter with additional music by Daniel Walter and Podington Bear.
Our interns are Simone Endress, Sophia Lanman, and Sofi Pascua
Special thanks to our friends and family, as well as Chris Berube, Laura Birek, Nate Clark, CE Downs, Jesse Einstein, Aaron David Harris, Mike Leffingwell, Jenna Levin, Matt Mazany, Yak Manrique, Kristin Myers, Jesse Overman, Barry Rothbart, Cate Smierciak, Heather Sundell, and Scott Uhlfelder.
If you like the show, please tell a friend, entertainment journalist, celebrity or multimillionaire. And if you’d like to reach out you can get in touch with us by emailing hello@JacobReedAndMe.Com — or by calling our same name hotline at 1-94 SAME NAME; our team of investigative storytellers is standing by…
We’ll be back next week with another episode in the public feed, that new episode is already waiting for you on our Patreon, which you can find at jacobreedandme.com