Thw Wounded Soldier

Performing for a crowd that responds in a wildly different manner than what I am used to is a humbling experience. Last night I was at the Broadway comedy club at a show that benefitted wounded veterans. The house was packed with an audience that I later found out had a ton of English as a second language peeps as well as austrailians. Not really the point. The point is that jokes that had the crowd rolling at the improv in Pittsburgh last week seemed to have the audience nonplussed last night.

I finished and started fine but there was a point in the middle where I wanted to shoot everyone in the audience and then myself. Then I would have been the wounded soldier.

On a lighter note, I am off to see the new York premiere of my movie.

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We Should Be Able to kill People

I mean , no, not all the time, but like in special circumstances.

Look at the other side. Our government says that if you are trying to adopt a child, then you better live a certain lifestyle and make a certain amount of money. (Bear with me.) BUT, if you are a meth addict living in a trailer park that rarely changes his / her clothes but you can get someone with a working productive system to sleep with you then you can have babies a plenty.

My point is even though generally, the government says certain types of people shouldn't have kids, under some circumstances they totally can.

So why can't we kill people? Under some circumstances. Oh wait; war. When we are at war, you get to kill people. Yeah, people with guns. Yes, and people without guns (collaterall damage) and your friends (friendly fire) and when you do that, you don't even go to jail usually. What a sweet deal!

What I am trying to say is this. Is there a way to declare war on the loud kids outside my window this morning?

How to scare your baby.

There is a bakery next to my house that makes specialized cakes. I like the idea of a little boy baby showing off his butt to a little girl but somehow the execution is a little more frightening than I would have liked.

I mean, in a perfect world my babies in cakes would look as realistic as possible.  

Okay, I Saw a Few Episodes of Glee

I liked it! But to be honest, it's not the singing and dancing numbers. I liked the characters, namely the lead girl and the dumb jock that she has the hots for... I liked them especially when they were the main characters in the movie Election starring Reese witherspoon.

Now, I am not saying that Glee doesnt rip off the characters and styles of the movie Election and even add some of their own stuff in and do it pretty well, but I do think the creators of Election should be getting a royalty check since Glee so liberally heisted characters and tone from that movie.

Even the voice over from different characters perspectives! I know, other movies have done that too, but not other movies with a high strung girl that is trying to breed herself for excellence in a high school setting with a dumb jock lead that is good at everything but stupid as a stuffed bear. Take a look at Election if you are a fan of Glee, and then tell me I'm wrong if you are a fan of lying to yourself.

I am on my way to Pittsburgh to do some dates as a feature for Hannibal Buress. It's like The Awkward Comedy Show all over again... except I headlined that show and he is headlining this one. And there's nobody else on the show but us... And for some reason he is really into tiny planes.

I was a last minute addition to the show so they didnt have my hotel and travel budgeted, but i am making enough so that is not an issue... but in order to keep my profits at a maximum, I am trying to do things on the cheap... Priceline anyone?

I ended up getting a hotel a couple of miles from the Improv In Pittsburgh and a cheap Megabus ticket. I stayed up all night so that I can sleep the entire way. Now that I have gotten the bus ticket, I maybe should have paid the extra $$ for a plane. Dang.

If you are in Pittsburgh today, tomorrow or Saturday and you want to see some excellent comedy, and me, then come on down to the Improv from the 26 to the 28th of May!

Peace, negroes!

Women in White Dresses Can't Catch a Break

Look at these two posters. You knwo how things tend to go in phases? Or maybe they poster designer had two accounts due at the same time and decided to give them slightly different versions of the same thing, but i think the point is made loud and clear... People in dark clothes have blonde women in dingy white dresses. That IS horror.

Sigh, I hanker for the days when it was Japanese girls with hair over their faces.

One of these is the new John Carpenter film and the other is supposed to be an amazing Spanish language film. They are both on their way out soon.

Terrible television is on its Way

The new Napoleon Dynamite promo reminds you what comedy is by being an aggressive example pf the opposite. Can you spot a joke in this promo? I mean one that makes you laugh? Not the kind where it's timed and delivered like a joke, but actually one that makes you smile... even a little.

If you are laughing out loud at this, then please tell me where you are so that I can stop by and slap some sense into you.

I am going to have a REVERSE BIRTHDAY PARTY tonight!

Hi there!

I just made up a thing!

It's my birthday today and rather than throw a party at my house and
have people come trash it, I decided to come to you wherever you are
in New York and screw around with your shit! I will be hopping from
place to place all night, just tell me where you are and at what
time and I will try and make it by. This is open to friends and
strangers as I will be traveling with a babysitter.

One of my best friends Jason Kanter will be there to make sure I don't
slap anybody too much.

So email me or text me and hopefully I'll see you!

Love Victor!

PS, i will break your stuff!

SXSW Journal Part 5: How we got here.

We didn't submit to SXSW.

On Feb 3, we released a trailer for out film on youtube.  There was a planned screening on Feb 15.  We , at this point, had not even finished the edit for the screening.  Actually, the edit wasn't quite finished on Feb 15.

A day or so before the screening, I got an email from a rep at sxsw.  He had seen the trailer and remembered that I had previously submitted The Awkward Comedy Show to the fest a few years ago.  apparently it had almost gotten in, nice to hear at this point.  Anywaaaaaaaaaaay.....  The rep asked for a screener of Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film! 

A bout a week later we heard that sxsw would like to premiere our movie at their festival.  We would have a late premiere because there were only a few slots left but on the upside we were invited to the fest.  Holy shit, for real!

The downside.  We had a week to finish our film.  That meant we had to do like a month of post production in a week.  Lots of love goes out to my editor Steve Rosenthal, and my Sound re-recordist Jason Kanter.  We all had very little sleep and many aggravating phone calls that whole week, but hey, A feature I directed is premiering at SXSW!  

Tonight. http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_FS12312

SXSW Journal Part 4: Too Many Tacos

Just a word of advice to attendees of SXSW.  Please, don't bang on the door constantly when I am in the middle of a complicated poo.  I will yell at you.

ATTACK THE BLOCK

Seeing this movie made me both happy and sad.  Happy, because it was loads of fun and managed to stay crazy all the way through.  I have been making it a habit to try and ask a question at every  panel or screening that I go to.  My question for the director is a contains spoilers so i won't share it here, but please check out that movie, it has my highest recommendation.

I spent my very first night "out" in Austin.  i went to a snazzy club and had free drinks chips and salsa.

Later, I have to go potty again.

SXSW Journal Part 3: Gathering the Troops

Finally, Liam McEneaney, my co-executive producer and star of "tell Your Friends" and Steven Rosenthal our editor have come to town.  The cult of Tell Your friends is gathering and the three of us are honing our schmoozing skills.  The truth is that we don't actually have to do that much work.  Once we get someone to look at our trailer or read about the film, it seems to do all the work itself.  

We were lucky in that a few weeks ago we released the trailer for our film and then SXSW contacted us and requested a screener.  One thing led to another and suddenly we were invited to have our world premiere at the prestigious fest.  We were happy and a little bit nervous.

Outside the Vimeo theater, they have a red carpet and screen set up so we decided to take a practice photo.

Last night we saw SUPER the new disturbing film by James Gunn.  It really is fantastic, but definitely not for everyone.  Any hard core comic nook fan will be 100 percent behind this movie.  Kevin Bacon plays himself.

SXSW Journal Part 2: Disney Sucks

One of the things that  I was most excited about was the Tron Legacy immersion lounge at SXSW.  It was advertised as a complete Tron experience.  I am a hige fan of the first movie and all of the trailers from the second movie.  Tron Legacy itself was a muddled bust with amazing special effects.  The Tron lounge consisted of a few 3D TV's set up that you could watch.  A couple of art books set out.  Ipads with a partner app to the Blu Ray setup up.  Some glowing srips on the wall and a cheap frisbe that they give you that didn't evn look like the discs in tron.  Thanks disney for continuing to mine my childhood excitement.  I blam George Lucas for starting the trend.

Thumbs up however for the Deviant Art lounge at SXSW!  They had everything set up so that you could create digital art, physical art, and walk through a gallery of the finest artists on Deviant.  Deviant had some of their top employees on hand telling great stories about artists on Deviant that managed to get work and how the community interacted. 

I took a picture of a woman that looked like she was doing a crayon drawing of herself.  turns out that she was actually drawing a woman that was standing near her with almost the same hair and glasses.

Last night I waited in my very first line for a world premiere.  More important than that, i made my first, "You're a filmmaker?  I'm a filmmaker!" connections while we waited to see Source Code.  Waiting in line for almost two hours seems ridiculous now that I have rejoined the Non-waiting in line society.  although I plan on doing it again tonight for the movie Super. 

Number one movie that I never heard about and then I met someone involved in making it so now I will check it out... 96 minutes.

Source code, which was a great movie, was also a fun premiere.  Duncan Jones, the director, was as nervous as I am going to be at the premiewer of my movie on the 17th.  If you are in austin, please come down and rub my shoulders.

In short, Disney can stick it.

SXSW Journal part 1: SXSW starts from the back of a cab.

Wow. Here I go on the first leg of my trip to south by southwest. I say "leg" because I am going to Austin by way of Denver. We, me and my crew, had to buy last minute tickets because our film was a late addition to the fest. In order to avoid astronomical prices I am traveling a day early on a broken trail.

We only finished our movie three weeks ago. AWXSW got whole of our trailer and then asked for a screened. Next thing we know our film is having a world premiere at the fest! The downside is the rush, like having to finish almost a months worth of post in about a week.

Check us out at tellyourfriendsmovie.com

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Racist Elevator Lady

I was in a n elevator with a lady that I didn't know was racist until... well, you'll see.

A review of Juaquin Phoenix in I'm Still Here

There are two ways that i can review, I'm Still Here/ I can review it as if it is mostly real, I can also review it as if it is mostly fake. What I am trying to say is that the chances of it being totally real or fake must be incredibly slim.

I'm not so sure that a sane man would go this far for a prank and I not so sure that a crzed man has this much genius and restraint at just the right time. Whichever you are closest to, Juaquin, I fucking love it.

Do you remember when Juaquin Phoenix was rumored to have dropped out of acting and then dove straight into a rap career? Well, during that entire time, there was a documentary beign made about the whole thing that's directed by his step brother in law Casey Affleck.

The film opens with what one would guess is a young Juaquin diving into a small body of water from a precarious rock formation under a waterfall. Whether it symbolizes the fearlessness of a boy who grows up to be a man who pulls of an elaborate and balls prank or the first wayward step of a wild boy is up to you to decide as you watch the strange yet riveting story of this movie unfold.

Juaquin, who early in the film starts to refer to himself as "J.P." becomes fed up with his life as an actor for reasons that he almost coherently explains. Using his clout as a movie star, he quickly gets meetings with P. Diddy, and performance time at a club in Los Angeles.

One of the best things the film shows is that there is never a time when anyone wholeheartedly agrees with Juaquin that what's he's doing is a good idea. Diddy rolls his eyes, fans cheer at first and then get quieter as they realize he's "serious" about drunkenly performing his half written rap songs... and slowly the world turns against him.

there's a great moment when you see a lot of clips of different comedians making fun of Juaquin.

If the movie is mostly real, then it's fantastic.

If it is, as I believe, mostly fake, then it's even better. And bravo to Juaquin for letting a friend poop on his face for a joke.*

*Yes, this happens. See the movie on Netflix instant right now.