Making Fun, where makers build kids’ ideas for delightfully pointless inventions, debuts on Netflix on Friday, March 4. And one of the makers is from here.

John “Graz” Graziano has been working out of a shop in Salem, MA for the last half-decade, tinkering and making and posting videos of his work. But before that? He was growing up and going to school with me and my brother! So I’ve taken advantage of our connection as good Greenwood boys to get the skinny on how he landed on a new Netflix show that’s sure to be a hit.

Get to know Graz, then check out the trailer for Making Stuff below.

• First of all, Graz, for those who don't know: what the hell is a

  “To me, a maker is a person who doesn’t mind getting their hands dirty. Someone who doesn’t mind looking up how to make something and giving it a shot. They like to tinker and modify existing things just to see how they work or if they can improve them.”

• How did you get started?

  “It’s a long story! In 2013, my wife Meg and I moved into a two-family house in Peabody and the landlord told me our neighbor downstairs is in woodworking and he has a YouTube page where he shows you how to make things. At the exact same time, I got into knife making and stumbled upon a video called “Big Ass Kitchen Knife: DiResta.” “This is exactly how to make a knife,” I thought to myself. Then, to my surprise as I scroll through the comments, I notice that my neighbor Paul was like the second person to comment!

  I thought there was a glitch in the Matrix: how does my neighbor know this DiResta guy? When I asked him about it, he tells me this guy named Jimmy DiResta is a real life MacGyver and can make just about anything and usually does on his YouTube page. After that, I was hooked. I watched just about every one of his videos and was blown by his skills.

  Fast forward a year or so, my job takes me to NYC many times a year, and coincidentally Jimmy has a small underground shop there (literally in a basement). So as a fan, I messaged him and asked if I could swing by and say hello. To my surprise he replied: “Sure, come on by!” So after catching a cab, I walk up to the entrance to his shop and he greets me with a smile and says: “Are you Graz?” and invites me in. He shows me around his shop with all the things he’s made which, as a fan, it was really cool to see all of his builds in real life. When it was time to catch my train back to Boston, he says “come back any time you’re in NYC!”

• And how did you get involved with 'Making Fun?'

  Fast forward a few more years and neighbor Paul hits 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. When that happens, YouTube invites you to shoot at their studio in either NYC or L.A. He asked me and his buddy Pat up in Canada if we would help him write a short story for his 100k video. We ended up writing a silly story where Paul ends up in the YouTube studio and builds a large Adirondack chair.

  Seeing that we were in NYC, we texted Jimmy and asked if he’d like to be in the video. With a quick text back, Jimmy and his buddy Derek were on their way over. Once shooting was done, one of us said: “lets get a group shot in the big chair!” A few weeks later, Paul decides to post the picture on Reddit.

  After a week or so, he receives an email from a production company in L.A. asking him about the group picture they stumbled upon while browsing Reddit. “All of you guys look great in the picture, would you be interested in developing a TV show?” So after about a year, we develop a show and shoot a pilot for it. After pitching it to a few cable networks, we get word that Netflix is very interested. Lo and behold, they officially offer us a show!

  We shot for 3 months during the spring and summer of 2021 and ended up shooting 8 episodes of Making Fun.

• 'Making Fun' trailer

• Graz Makes a Wu-Tang pizza cutter!

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