Something Funny This Way Comes…
May 12th, 2010 at 3:41 pm by Allie Hartwick under CW23 Star
Have you ever watched an outdated video and laughed yourself sick at the unintentional hilarity that ensues? If so, you are in very, very good company!
Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett, two comedy writers from Wisconsin, have been touring the United States and Europe for the past six years presenting a collection of such videos. They have named it the Found Footage Festival, due to the way in which they discover the videos.
Videos are submitted by people across the country, or found by Nick and Joe themselves. They are then reviewed before being added to the website website or included in the touring festival.
There are only two rules that apply to all submitted footage:
1. Footage must be found on a DVD or VHS, YouTube is out of the question.
2. The video must be trying to accomplish something, at which it fails miserably (to our delight).
Luckily for us in Buffalo, Nick and Joe will be bringing the event to Buffalo on May 22nd! I was fortunate enough to chat a bit with Nick via Email in preparation for the event. My questions are in bold. His answers are the witty responses in regular typeset.
Firstly, what was the first video you “found” and how did it inspire the festival?
Nick Prueher (Co-creator and host, Found Footage Festival): I was working at a McDonald’s as a freshman in high school and stumbled across a training video for McDonald’s custodians in the break room one day. Out of boredom, I popped it into the little TV-VCR combo unit and couldn’t believe my eyes. It was one of the most ridiculous things I’d ever seen on videotape: a dim trainee on his first day as a janitor, an overly perky crew trainer, and a cloyingly cute plot. My first thought was, “The world needs to see this video,” so I put it in my backpack and showed it to [fellow FFF founder] Joe, who also fell in love with the video. We’d host screenings of the video in my parents’ living room, making jokes the whole time, and it kind of became this cult thing. And that got us to thinking, if there are videos this silly right under our noses, imaging what else is out there.
Is the sole purpose of the festival to be funny, or does it accomplish something more?
NP: Well, our background is in comedy so we definitely try to make the show as funny as possible. That said, there are other things that people can take away from it. These sort of regrettable and forgotten moments captured on VHS can say a lot more about us as a culture than can some of the greatest films of the last 100 years. I mean, if you’re only looking at “Citizen Kane,” you’re getting a pretty incomplete picture of who we are as a people. We also release videos called “How to Toilet Train Your Feline.”
Can we expect to see different videos than the ones posted online?
NP: Yes, the videos in the show are things you can’t see anywhere else, including our own website.
Have you had success in other towns across America?
NP: We’ve been touring all over the country, and sometimes in Europe, since 2004, and we’re continually surprised that anyone beyond our immediate friends shows up to our shows. But for whatever reason, the show really strikes a chord with people, so we have great sold-out shows in most cities. We’re hoping for a nice turnout of VHS enthusiasts in Buffalo.
Have you ever offended anyone with the videos, such as the “stars”?
NP: Quite the opposite. All the people we’ve tracked down from the videos have been almost flattered by the attention. This is footage they’ve long since forgotten about, so when they find out that people all over the country are getting so much joy out of it, they seem to enjoy it as well. We were doing a show in Minneapolis recently and a guy came up to us afterward and said, “Do you recognize me?” It took me a second, but then I knew exactly who he was. He was the guy who got hit by a car and fell off a tall ladder in this series of safety videos. It was like meeting a celebrity. My hand was actually trembling when I shook his hand.
How often do you receive footage?
NP: We’ve been lucky enough to have people bring their own found footage to our shows each weekend and send stuff in the mail each week. That’s the most gratifying part of what we do: meeting other video collectors and hearing the stories of their finds. It’s how we keep the show going, so if anyone has found anything in the Buffalo area, we’d highly encourage them to bring it to the Squeaky Wheel on Saturday.
Where are your favorite places to look for footage?
NP: We usually get to town early on the day of the show and hit all the local thrift stores. Salvation Army is by far our favorite of the chain stores. They don’t filter their tape selection at all, so you find a lot of home movies, instructional videos and other oddities in the VHS section. Estate sales are also good places to look. Sometimes people sell their camcorders there and leave the tapes inside.
Do you have a favorite video?
NP: It changes from time to time but I’m currently in love with this raw footage we found from a local furniture commercial in Corpus Christi, Texas. It stars this older bearded man called Bargain Bernie whose catch phrase is “All I want to do is save you money!” But he just can’t seem to get it right, so we cut together our favorite outtakes into one pretty hilarious clip.
Will the festival continue past this tour?
NP: Oh yeah. We have so much material that I don’t think we’ll ever stop doing the show. This summer, we’re taking some time off to go through all the footage we’ve collected over the past year and edit together our favorites for Volume 5 of the show. As long as people have bad ideas and access to video equipment, we’ll be in business.
You can join me and check out the festival at Squeaky Wheel on May 22! I’ll be there with bells on (not literally because that would be hugely distracting and uncomfortable)!
‘Til next time, with a chuckle,
Allie