LEWISTON — At 23, Jake Sasseville figures he’s maturing as a TV mogul. After a disastrous run on national TV, he’s back on late night with a new staff and a new strategy: stop trying to be funny.

“I’m growing up before your very eyes,” said Sasseville, who is even dabbling in intellectualism in his new persona. “Intellectual can also mean funny.”

It’s all part of the journey for the young Lewiston native who debuted “The Edge With Jake Sasseville” as a public access talk show on Lewiston-Auburn’s Great Falls TV while he was attending Edward Little High School. The show, with the same old title, is now back on TV after a near fatal collapse a year ago.

“I failed miserably,” said Sasseville, who had led a New York City staff of 25 people to create 13 episodes of his show. “It was horrible.”

Like putting an infomercial on the air, he convinced advertisers including Overstock.com and Ford to pay the costs of production and buy TV airtime directly, just like the makers of an infomercial.

“I basically ran myself into a million dollars worth of debt with the program,” he said. “It took me a year to turn it around.”

He has paid everyone back, he said.

“I convinced Denny’s to come on board,” Sasseville said. “I convinced Coke to put their brand Fuze behind me.” He even shot a commercial for the latter company. The ad ran in movie theaters across the country, including Maine.

Once again, he is producing his show. This time, he took a more traditional route by syndicating. Rather than buying TV time, he is signing up stations that are willing to air his show in late night.

“We’re paying nothing to be on the air and we’re on in 55 markets,” he said. “It’s still an independently produced program. While it’s nice to have the
distribution, which is what sponsors are looking for, now I have to
bring in the money to pay for everything.”

He began airing new episodes in May, but they were stylistically similar to the old ones, complete with a silly, animated opening telling the story of Jake’s birth in Maine and migration to the big city, complete with a moose riding shotgun in a Ford Focus.

The newest version — toned down and sans moose — launched last Thursday night. Locally, it ran at 11:30 p.m. on WPME-TV, the Portland affiliate of My TV. On Time Warner Cable in Lewiston-Auburn, the show is carried on channel 3.

“We were early adopters to Jake Sasseville,” said Doug Finck, WPME’s station manager. He ran each of Jake’s New York-based shows.

Though the humor is more refined, Sasseville insists he still has edge. He has hired a six-person platoon of writers headed by Michael Delaney, a longtime collaborator of Will Ferrell.

Delaney, a veteran of movies and Broadway, gave Sasseville some advice when he was hired.

“Look, don’t try to be funny,” he said, pleading with Sasseville to stop mugging for the camera and recast himself as a straight man. “Not funny is funny.”

The season is beginning with a five-show tour of college campuses, some straight New York talk shows and pair of Christmas episodes.

“I’m not trying to be funny anymore and it’s working,” he said. “The show is funnier.”

Of course, the situations can be a challenge. His favorite bit so far? A bruising encounter at Binghamton University in upstate New York.

“The writers thought it would be hilarious to get me suited up and
take the field with the female rugby team,” he said. One at a time, the women tackled him. “Dude, I got so beaten up.”

But when it was over, he kept on shooting, like a mature TV host is supposed to.

“I had a 12-hour day planned, and it wasn’t over,” he said. “I couldn’t stop.”

Sasseville said he has calmed but there are still hints of the teenager who once tried to raise money for charity by auctioning his hair on eBay.

“We’re the No. 1 underdog in late night,” Sasseville said, still sounding like a mogul in the making.

“Not there yet,” he said. “Still building. Still failing. Still succeeding. All of the above.”

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