Buddies Find Unintentional Humor is Often the Funniest

By Phil Villarreal, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Apr. 3–Unintended comedy is often funnier than the intended variety.

That’s the concept behind the traveling Found Footage Festival, which plays at the Loft tonight. It’s the creation of New York filmmaking duo Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett, both 32 .

Prueher, who works at “The Colbert Report,” and Pickett, employed by The Onion, have been friends since their school days in Wisconsin. They have long had a hobby of scouring thrift stores, garage sales and the like for job-training videos, exercise tapes and whatever else in search of stuff that would make them and their friends laugh.

Four years ago the guys took their findings on a tour nationwide, and last year they added Tucson to the rotation. The show will hit eight more towns through June, including stops in New York and San Francisco. In addition to the tour, Prueher and Pickett have made the film “Dirty Country,” which is on the film festival circuit.

We caught up with Prueher on the phone last week.

What’s the criteria for the films you feature?

“Home movies, corporate training videos, celebrity exercise videos that end up at Goodwill. You name it. Basically stuff that wasn’t intended for a mass audience. The litmus test for what makes it in is whether it’s unintentionally funny. Stuff that was meant to be serious.”

What’s your best stuff this year?

“We have an all-new collection of exercise videos, which are always popular. This batch features something called the Caveman Workout, which involves hitting yourself really hard. We also found, in Chicago, Disrobics, which starts off normal and becomes something far more horrifying. Male nudity is involved, so fair warning.

“We also found this video at a thrift store — this promotional video — about a farming device called E-Z Catch Chicken Harvester. Basically it’s a machine that helps farmers wrangle chickens into a cage. It’s amazing a human being could invent a machine like this.”

Did you have time to check out Tucson much last year?

“Oh yeah, we hit a bunch of thrift stores. That’s what we do. The selection was pretty good. We didn’t know what to expect, but Tucson had a great thrift store thing. I think the main thing I was impressed with was that’s where ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ was filmed. We went to Greasy Tony’s, talked to the owner, tried to get a T-shirt, and he said they just sold out.”

Did you eat there?

“No, but maybe I will this time. If it’s good enough for Booger (who wears a Greasy Tony’s shirt in the film), I think I ought to give it a try.”

What’s “Dirty Country” about?

“It’s a true story. A documentary about the raunchiest country music singer in America, a guy named Larry Pierce. We found his tape at a truck stop in Wisconsin 15 years ago and just could not believe how catchy and well-written the songs were, and also how unbelievably filthy the lyrics were. So three or four years ago we decided to come out and find him.”

If you’re involved in filmmaking and would like to be featured in a Q&A, write to pvillarreal@azstarnet.com.

If you go

Found Footage Festival: Volume 2

–When: 8 p.m. today.

–Where: The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway.

–Admission: $8.50.

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

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