On a hot afternoon in Flatbush, Brooklyn, Noah Blau concluded filming an episode of his Instagram series “Errands” featuring Ivy Wolk, a 21-year-old comedian and internet personality. The episode documented Wolk purchasing an air conditioner for her apartment, a necessity she had improvised for by placing her head in the freezer. Blau captured her journey buying the unit from a discount store and installing it, highlighting the mundane yet intimate moments of everyday life.
Blau’s series focuses on the often overlooked activities that define adult life—ordinary errands that serve as a quiet backdrop to personal growth and realization. Wolk emphasized the appeal of these scenes as a counterpoint to the overwhelming mythos of New York City as a relentlessly consuming place. Instead, “Errands” shows the small, routine tasks individuals must do to exist, creating a space for viewers to find comfort in the shared experience of daily life.
Blau, who shares a Bushwick apartment with a roommate, describes his lifelong passion for filming. Raised in Baltimore by parents who worked in journalism, he began recording everyday moments at a young age, including a ladybug video posted on YouTube and a home documentary capturing a family Holocaust interview. His artistic influences include documentary filmmakers like Frederick Wiseman and Ross McElwee, as well as narrative directors John Cassavetes and Martin Scorsese. Blau cites Scorsese’s “After Hours” as an idealized form of errand, where an ordinary task spirals into an extraordinary adventure.
The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted Blau’s time at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, halting student productions and forcing classes online. After graduating, he found it difficult to secure steady work within the struggling film industry and supplemented his income with retail and restaurant jobs. Immersed in Bushwick’s creative community, Blau began filming his friends and acquaintances engaged in low-key errands, initially posting the series in 2025.
“Errands” arrived amid the rise of “Subway Takes,” a popular Instagram talk show hosted by Kareem Rahma that features interviews conducted on New York subway trains. While Blau admires “Subway Takes,” he is cautious about his own project gaining commercial success and celebrity involvement. He expressed concern that high-profile guests might dilute the series’ authenticity, emphasizing its value as a modest, non-commercialized work.
In one recent episode, Blau followed a young woman named Doyle as she headed to take her driver’s test in Flatbush. After long delays in a line of student drivers, Doyle’s test was unexpectedly postponed, providing an unplanned moment of reflection, filmed against the backdrop of a sunlit cemetery. Blau, observing the incident, framed these interruptions and routine experiences as part of a broader understanding of life itself as a series of errands.
“The longer I do this, the more I think of everything as an errand,” Blau noted. “What I’m doing right now is an errand. Decomposing and turning into a tree is an errand. Death is an errand.” Through “Errands,” he seeks to elevate the ordinary and explore the subtle rhythms that shape human existence.