SO much of what's supposed to be really funny ends up being just crude, shocking and sophomoric -- sometimes all three. that's why i was so blown away a few years ago when i attended the first national tour of the Found Footage Festival, which came to Hollywood's M Bar, not only was it genuinely hilarious, it was an original turn on both indie/DIY and on the trash-can aesthetic that runs from duchamp through "found" magazine.
there was a lot of great, weird stuff salvaged from the dustbin of history then. part of what i remember was a truly cheesy macdonald's training video for custodians (did you know they used to call them "mc g's," as in, "so you're the new mc g!") also memorable: teen-star corey haim's video boast, "my myself and i," the film of a young austrian weightlifter who would later become governor of california, on a trip to rio de janeiro to dance the samba, discuss his favorite part of the female anatomy, and set world-class groping records. (okay, some of that was crude and shocking, but in a good way.)
HERE is my piece from today's LATimes. The show kicks off tonight; Friday i go to check out the latest installment, which involves a hellish 1987 dating show, at the M Bar.
as i say in the piece, it's like the opposite of a film festival: these guys go seeking out the very worst, and often find it.
I spoke recently to Christine Ebersole, the actress and singer who's done everything from Tootsie to Saturday Night Live to Noel Coward. That piece, part of my Influences series for the LA Times Culture Monster page, is here.
