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.
Photo credit: Found Footage Festival