If you’re in the L.A. area, our pal Jonah Ray is bringing to our attention something going on this weekend that might be relevant, as we say, to your interests. Oh, of COURSE it’s relevant to your interests. It’s Cinematic Titanic — Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, J. Elvis Weinstein, and Mary Jo Pehl from Mystery Science Theater 3000, of course — laying waste to a Ted V. Mikels “classic,” The Doll Squad, live in person as part of Cinefamily’s “Everything is Festival III: The Domination,” the alt-comedy and found footage celebration of strangeness which kicks off Saturday night.
Yeah, see? You’re already asking where, when, and how much. I knew it. Slow down and I’ll tell you everything you need to know.
The crew will be eviscerating the movie (which allegedly inspired Charlie’s Angels, influenced a scene in Kill Bill, and involves rats with bubonic plague. so you know it’s a quality production) at the Saban Theater on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills on Sunday, August 19th at 7 pm. Tickets are $20, and there’ll be DJs and an afterparty, too. Click here to buy tickets.
And the rest of the festival is pretty impressive, too, from the opening festival of summer camp movies (Wet Hot American Summer, Sleepaway Camp, Little Darlings) at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and a “show and tell” event with Joel Hodgson to a screening of a documentary about G.L.O.W. (the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) with some of the wrestlers on hand live and events with found footage, outsider films, cat films (!), Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab showing off their worst video finds, an evening with Jeff Krulik of Heavy Metal Parking Lot fame, Doug Benson’s Movie Interruption riffing on M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, and a talent show featuring Nick Offerman, Bob Baker’s marionettes, and an acapella quartet performing Philip Glass scores to clips from Koyaanisqatsi. Oh, and the big closer downtown is an Adventures of Pete and Pete reunion with practically the whole cast on hand, and, yes, Polaris is reuniting for this. The whole lineup and ticket links can be found by clicking here.
Here’s a trailer about the whole festival:
The festival runs through August 28th. You might want to get tickets now.
This past semester, Joel came to my little community college and taught a ‘course’ on movie riffing. The twenty or so of us would meet up once or twice a week, eat pizza and make fun of crappy PSAs from the fifties, and eventually put on a show. What really turned it into a childhood dream come true was, he found out that my improv group works with homemade puppets, which inspired him to teach us how to make robot puppets. Long story short, the man is my hero and thanks to him, my group has it’s third show opening for an episode of MST3K at the Colonial in Phoenixville, PA tomorrow night. So, thank you, Joel, and we wish you luck at your show!
http://deletedscenesimprov.blogspot.com/2012/08/dover-rover-rover-movie-riffs-at.html