LOGLINE: Sarah Shapiro, a research scientist at a New York City sperm bank moonlighting as a stand up comedian, must face her hospital’s HR department after they find a viral video of her comedy routine where she divulges a little too much about her day job.

OVERVIEW:

Busted: (adjective) to be caught in the act; (verb) to ejaculate. 

“BUSTED” is a sexy, laugh-out-loud, devastatingly-true story of SARAH, a research scientist at Harmony Hospital’s Lower East Side sperm bank, working as a stand-up comedian in her free time. Sarah wishes that her comedy career were going better; she is sick of waiting for her big break and her online content gets no views. While she knows that working at a sperm bank would make for excellent comedic material, Sarah is too nervous to talk about her day job on stage in fear of not being taken seriously at work and jeopardizing her meticulous five-year-plan, which includes admittance to the Harmony PhD program. However, after getting heckled at a comedy show, Sarah is so frustrated that she releases her pent-up jokes about her life as a scientist and has the best set of her life. When she uploads the video online, it falls into the wrong hands at Harmony and Sarah is forced to watch the tape in front of the HR department, and is fired on the spot. A goody-two-shoes all her life, Sarah is horrified at the consequences of her hubris, and must reckon with her choices and what type of future she’s truly destined for. 

In a 12 minute short, “Busted” comically explores the clash between the corporate and the creative, between following rules and breaking them, and the consequences of self-expression and authenticity in the digital age.