Local comic stars in new film

People don’t always laugh when Zach Dresch performs his stand-up comedy routine.

He used to let that discourage him. After all, Dresch — all comics, really — started doing comedy because he loves making people laugh.

The nights when the Sioux Falls man’s riffs don’t quite land can be just as valuable as a club filled with uproarious laughter.

Now, the Sioux Falls man’s experiences as a successful and unsuccessful comic could inspire others. Dresch is the star of local filmmaker Joe Hubers’ latest production, “Killing It,” which is now in post-production. Former Sioux Falls resident Joel Pickard currently is creating the film’s musical score.

Hubers, who wrote and directed the movie, describes it as being about a struggling local comic who must address the issues in his past if he wants to find his true comedic voice. That means taking an odyssey across South Dakota, performing in different venues while learning what needs to change to find freedom and release from his problems.

Dresch, Hubers said, is the opposite of a struggling comic. It’s because of Dresch’s success in stand-up that he brings such depth to the man that Hubers created.

“He’s very talented, but what if he wasn’t and he had to overcome some hurdle to find that true voice to kill it,” Hubers said. “He was my template, so to speak. There are a lot of things that are not Zach. Zach is talented, he didn’t grow up in a tumultuous home, but he’s doing his thing in a small city like Sioux Falls.”

Hubers had written an early script but was dissatisfied with it. He knew of Dresch, who also is a musician with several bands based in Sioux Falls, has acted on stage and in television commercials, performed in improv and hosts a trivia night with his fiancee, in addition to working as an adjuster with an insurance company.

“After the previous script wasn’t kind of panning out, I took a break,” Hubers said. “I found myself on Instagram, just scrolling, and Zach popped up. Something clicked in that moment, and the idea for the script came out then and there. I reached out to Zach, and we built a working relationship and a friendship.”

Hubers told Dresch that he wanted to incorporate elements of Dresch’s life into his script. The main character, who has a dying father and a successful girlfriend, is searching for what he wants in life. Dresch compared it to throwing darts at a dartboard to see what sticks.

“I’ve felt the same,” he said, “not sure what I should hone in on and focus on. That resonated with me, the searching for meaning. The movie is a coming-of-age search for meaning.”

“Killing It” is Hubers’ second feature film, and he continues to raise funding for it. His first film, “Of Minor Prophets,” was released almost 10 years ago. He also has produced narrative shorts, corporate films for clients through his company, Passenger Productions, and a feature-length documentary, “Riding With Ghosts,” on Lakota artist James Starkey. Hubers recently relaunched Passenger with a focus on telling the founders stories of startups and legacy firms.

“Of Minor Prophets” involved about 15 actors. “Killing It” involved three principal roles, about a half-dozen supporting roles and more than 100 extras.

While Dresch is local, Hubers cast two actors from Los Angeles for the other main roles: Katherine Bourne Taylor and Christine Vrem-Ydstie. Bourne Taylor, also a director, gives Hubers a 10 out of 10 for his work.

Christine Vrem-Ydstie

Bourne Taylor spent 10 days in South Dakota last winter shooting the script. It was her first trip to the state, and it was Hubers’ writing that drew her here.

“I really liked the script. I think Joe writes women very well actually,” she said. “The character I play, she has a lot of layers to her, ambition matched with self-sabotage. I haven’t been given that opportunity to play that role. My friend and mentor, Cora Vander Broek, who was the lead in ‘Of Minor Prophets,’ she brought me the script and really vouched for him. I really trust Cora; if she says someone is a good person, I believe her.”

Katherine Bourne Taylor

Hubers, raised in a pastor’s family, lived in Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa, settling in Sioux Falls after graduating from Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. He worked for two marketing firms before starting Passenger Productions in 2005. He closed it as a marketing firm in 2023 and now uses it as a business framework as a freelancer.

The first movie Hubers saw in a theater probably was the Disney animated film “The Jungle Book,” and he recalls being inundated by its size and scope and the sensory overload caused by intense scenes. Other early influences included the Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Back to the Future movies, but it wasn’t until college that the idea of filmmaking presented itself as a possibility.

“A professor introduced me to films that were totally different than the popcorn-big-experience,” he said. “Terence Malik, the Coen brothers, indie and foreign films that kind of grabbed my attention at the time. ‘Fight Club,’ ‘American History X,’ ‘Magnolia,’ Paul Thomas Anderson — those seemed like I could maybe do that someday and affect another person.”

Several distinct factors affected the gap of almost 10 years between feature films, Hubers said. One was the success of Passenger Productions, followed by the pandemic. There also, Hubers admitted, was a letdown after the release of “Of Minor Prophets.”

“Distribution (of a movie) feels very defeating,” he said. “It took time to let that go. Making it that personal isn’t real healthy as an artist. I needed some time to grow up. The funny thing is, now after wrapping up this film, I told my wife, I think I could go into the next project.”

First comes the film editing. If everything goes as planned, Hubers expects to be done with that step later this year, plus other finishing work such as choosing the music. He will work with a sales agent to find distribution. His plan for applying to film festivals is not quantity but “depth of quality,” Hubers said.

“Killing It” is both a comedy and a drama, like “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Away We Go” and “Lady Bird,” Hubers said. One minute, the viewer might be laughing, or their emotions can “turn on a dime” to weeping. Mixing comedy and drama creates an emotional resonance, Hubers said.

Dresch understands that. He is firsthand familiar with the pitfalls of stand-up comedy, he said.

“You have to bomb, you have to fail a lot,” he said. “I took a lot of that into the process. A lot of scenes we did for the movie, I had to bomb and not do well. I was watching old clips of myself and just dreading it.”

Some of the jokes in “Killing It” come from his original open-mic routines, Dresch said. He struggles with anxiety and depression, and for the movie, he channeled “a lot of experiences where he felt lower than dirt.

“A lot of times comedy is not a happy job,” he said. “There are ups and downs, there are great nights and happy nights. If you have the drive to do it, then I think that’s probably the most important thing. You’re not a comic if you quit, you’re a comic because you don’t.”

As an actor, Bourne Taylor is familiar with the period of waiting between finishing a film and its release. During that time, the actor must trust the director and the post-production work, she said. “It’s a lot of waiting, but it’s always nice when you get to celebrate and see the film.”

Bourne Taylor said she enjoyed the adventure of visiting South Dakota. “Killing It” could inspire others to become excited about independent films and investing in indies and in lesser-known actors. That’s the business side, she said.

“From the story side, following any kind of dream takes a lot of courage, and there’s a reason a lot of people sort of let what they want fall to the side,” Bourne Taylor said. “Trying and failing takes a lot of courage.”

Building an arts community in a city is as important as good roadways, school systems and emergency response, Hubers said. People can build a powerful sense of identity, value and self through the stories told.

“It can be through stories of trauma and defeat, as well as victory,” he said. “We can know who we are and have conversations among ourselves, strong conversations through stories.”