The Curator of Schlock #373: Vamp

08 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comedy, Film, Horror, The Curator of Schlock

The Curator of Schlock #373 by Jeff Shuster

Vamp

Grace Jones plays a vampire stripper. If that doesn’t sell you, what will?

Back to the story of how Edwige, my kangaroo traveling companion, and I barely escaped with our lives from the small town of Mooseville up in Canada. After some little twerp announced our presence to the town, an angry mob surrounded our truck and started battering it with clubs. A brick struck the windshield, cracking it thoroughly. I thought we could wait it out, but Edwige had forgotten to lock her passenger side door. Before I knew it, they had dragged Edwige out of the vehicle. I knew it wouldn’t be long before they grabbed me.

To be continued.

This week’s Arrow Home Video release is 1986’s Vamp from director Richard Wenk. Back in the 1980s, you had a whole slew of teenage vampire flicks such as The Lost Boys and Fright Night. You got kind of a mixture of comedy with the frights and Vamp carries on with this tradition. And you’ve got an interesting cast of Brat Pack alumni in this movie. You don’t get James Spader or Molly Ringwald, but you get their co-stars.

For instance, Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusley play a couple of frat pledges named Keith and AJ. You may know Chris Makepeace from such movies as Meatballs and My Bodyguard. Robert Rusley played a bully in Weird Science right alongside Robert Downey Jr. We’ve got Gedde Watanabe from Sixteen Candles as Duncan, a rich nerd desperate for friends. Lastly, we’ve got Dedee Pfeiffer as Amaretto, a cocktail waitress at an exotic strip club. Who is Dedee Pfeiffer? She’s Michelle Pfeiffer’s younger sister. Need I say more?

So we’ve got a couple of pledges named Keith and AJ trying to get into a fraternity. AJ offers the fraternity anything they want if they’ll let them join. The fraternity wants a stripper for a party they’re having that weekend. The two of them go to see Duncan, a friendless nerd with a lot of money. He’s so rich that he has a team of students doing his homework for him in his swank apartment. Keith and AJ ask if they can borrow his Cadillac and he agrees as long as he takes him with them.

The trio ends up in a shady part of town where there’s this strip club that only opens up after dark. They stop for some coffee at a cafe staffed by a nervous man wearing a crucifix around his neck. A gang led by a creepy albino man enters the cafe after the sun goes down. Keith makes the googly eyes at one of the women in this gang and she smiles a set of sharp fangs at him. This should have been seen as a red flag, but instead of high tailing it out of town, the trio makes their way over to the strip club.

Inside the club, the young men are treated to a dance performance by Katrina (Grace Jones), the top act of the night which has to be seen to be believed. If a demented Ronald McDonald in a steel bikini is your thing, Katrina is for you. AJ is impressed and requests a meeting with Katrina to see if she’ll strip for the fraternity later that night. AJ gets more than he bargained for when Katrina puts the moves on him and takes off her clothes. He gets even more than he bargained for when she sinks her fangs into his neck.

Did I like the movie? Sure. Is it the best teen horror vampire comedy I’ve ever seen? No, but it’s good enough. You get a wonderful scene later on where Keith offers his neck to a now vampire AJ, thinking he can just take a little bit to get by. Keith replies, “What do you think I am, a mosquito?”

Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, and episode 491) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #72: Ludoctratic Dissidents

27 Wednesday May 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comedy, Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #72 by Drew Barth

Ludoctratic Dissidents

I would like to, if I may, talk about the absurd. There is much in comics that can be considered absurd: sun-powered aliens, living trash, a gang leader who might be a crocodile, etc. We’ve become accustomed to oddity at its highest level—our suspension of disbelief has gone from suspended to outright expelled. These things don’t hinder our enjoyment. Having a pure stream of the ludicrous shot straight into our lives like a Harpo Marxian bottle of seltzer is always appreciated. As such, we must appreciate what Kieron Gillen, Jim Rossignol, Jeff Stokely, Tamra Bonvillain, and Clayton Cowles have provided us with their work in The Ludocrats.

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The story of the Aristocrats of the Ludicrous has already had its own absurd kind of history. Gillen himself has talked about developing The Ludocrat swith Rossignol at length in his newsletter and how the kernel of the story started as far back as 2003 with the eventual series announcement happening in 2015. This would lead to a solicitation for the first issue in 2018, which came and went. Many things happened in the interim, but finally, after rumors and whispers, the first physical issue of The Ludocrat swas confirmed to be released on April 1^st, 2020—this turned out to also be the first week Diamond Distributors would not be shipping comics due to COVID-19. But, this past Wednesday, May the 20^th, 2020, we could finally behold the this ludicrous work that we have been craving for so long.

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How is the first issue of The Ludocrats? It’s a story by Kieron Gillen and Jim Rossignol with Jeff Stokely on art, Tamra Bonvillain on colors, and Clayton Cowles on letters, so it’s going to be the best kind of fucking absurd. We begin with a blood-soaked and naked Baron Otto Von Subertan on the day a wedding is taking place in his own home while his confidant, Professor Hades Zero-K, attempts to get him to dress in something other than blood. This continual frenetic propulsion through the wedding into the reception into a massive fight is the driving energy that maintains this book. These Ludocrats revolt against the very idea of normalcy, highlighted with a wedding day decapitation, to the point that stopping to breathe may be a mortal sin. Stokely and Bonvillain’s art gives every page this electric feeling that reinforces the idea of absurdity—from the half-train Steam-Judge Grattinia Gavelstein to Casanova Quinn hidden inside a sexy dinosaur—nothing here looks or feels like any comic that’s come before it.

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The Ludocrats is pure absurd, ludicrous energy and it is exactly what we needed during this quarantine and as the start of comics returning to shops. The pure joy of comics screams across each page; the love that comes from creating a world and work such as this is a physical thing in your hands that can be felt. I’ve been reading Gillen’s work since Phonogram: The Singles Club and to finally have The Ludocrats in my hand feels like touching a piece of that joy that comes from creating these comics.

Get excited. Get ludicrous.

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Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

Episode 420: Tom Papa!

16 Saturday May 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comedy, Episode

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Tags

Tom Papa, You're Doing Great ... And Other Reasons to Stay Alive, Your Dad Stole My Rake

Episode 420 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

Photograph by Sam Jones.

This week I talk with comedian, actor, sourdough aficionado, and essay writer, Tom Papa!

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Cover.You're Doing Great Your Dad Stole My Rake El Superbeasto

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

If you want me to talk about creativity, check out my appearance on Jeff Wilfong’s podcast, Dub Ya Mind.

Consider donating to City Lights Books to sustain it and/or buying a book online from Powells.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

The Curator of Schlock #315: Uncle Buck

27 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comedy, Film, The Curator of Schlock

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Tags

John Candy, John Hughes, Uncle Buck

The Curator of Schlock #315 by Jeff Shuster

Uncle Buck

An unsung John Hughes classic.

Maybe I should thought this whole staying-in-a-cabin-in-the-middle-of-the-Florida-Everglades-while-the-world-goes-to-pot scheme through. Granted, I’ve got enough Campbell’s Pork and Beans to last me three months, but I forgot to buy Beano and I’m down to four rolls of toilet paper. Still, there are plenty of leafy plants sprung around this place. Wow. Three leaves! They say three leaves are better than two.

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Tonight’s movie is 1989’s Uncle Buck from director John Hughes because I just don’t care this week. I’m scared out of my mind and I need a 80s comedy to calm my nerves. I need some John Candy in my life. I mean look at this poster. The movie just screams, watch me! You can tell the nice suburban family wants nothing to do with their crude and crass Uncle Buck (John Candy). This is the kind of movie Elaine from Seinfeld would rather see than something like Howard’s End.

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I aspire to be just like Buck Russell. The man doesn’t have a job. He refuses to work and enjoys smoking cigars. He makes a living by making sure-thing bets at the horse track. His girlfriend, Chanice (Amy Madigan), convinces him to take a job selling tires at the garage she manages. Buck reluctantly agrees, but bails on her as soon as his brother, Bob, calls with a family emergency. Bob needs Buck to watch the kids while he and his wife, Cindy, go to Indianapolis to stay with her father, who just had a heart attack.

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They leave Uncle Buck in charge and the children wake up to find him making some disgusting scrambled egg concoction. I’m sorry, but he sprayed yellow mustard into the frying pan. That’s a no, no. So we’ve got a surly teenager named Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly) who makes it no secret that she can’t stand Uncle Buck and wants him out of their house. More understanding are her younger siblings Miles (Macaulay Culkin) and Maizy (Gaby Hoffmann). Uncle Buck has no problem winning them over. He chews out the assistant vice-principal at Maizy’s elementary school after she criticizes the six year-old for not taking her academic career seriously. Oh, and when a drunken clown shows up at Miles’s birthday party, Uncle Buck punches him in the face a few times.

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Uncle Buck was a childhood staple of mine, repeated viewings on gray Saturdays in the dead of winter. It’s not the best John Hughes comedy, but it’s far from the worst. I love Uncle Buck’s regular threatening of Tia’s handsy boyfriend, Bug (Jay Underwood), or the scene of him cooking an obscenely large stack of pancakes for Miles and Maizy. And this movie was my first introduction to Macaulay Culkin, who would make a huge splash the following year in Home Alone.

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I miss John Candy. He was taken too soon from this world, but he left me with some good memories. Great comedians often do.

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

Episode 405: Corwin Moore!

08 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comedy, Episode

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Tags

Bernie Mac, Blazing Saddles, Corwin Moore, Dick Gregory, Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Live on the Sunset Strip, Paul Mooney, Pryor Convictions, Richard Pryor, Richard Pryor Here and Now, Superman III

Episode 405 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

This week, I talk to my friend Corwin Moore, who is a comic and comedy writer.

Corwin Moore

Our proposed topic of discussion was the greatness of Richard Pryor, which we cover at length in a conversation that took many turns.

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

If I said that Superman III wasn’t bad, I may have been quite wrong.
Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover

The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #54: The Taming of the Shrew (1929)

21 Sunday May 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comedy, Film, Shakespeare, The Rogue's Guide to Shakespeare on Film

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Rogues Guide to Shakes on Film

54. Sam Taylor’s The Taming of the Shrew (1929)

Taming of the Shrew Poster

Thirty-eight years before Hollywood power-couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton captivated audiences as Katherine and Petruchio, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford did something similar.

Taming of the Shrew 3

Apparently, this is the first Shakespeare film with sound, and the performances of Fairbanks and Pickford are not especially good. When their acting gets more physical than vocal, the performances improve a hundredfold.

The slapstick of the play comes off wonderfully, with plenty of people falling down a staircase that is the chief hero of this film.

Taming of the Shrew 1

I suppose I find myself slightly shocked that the violent tendencies of Katherine could be more cartoony than in the later Zefirelli version, but Pickford is arresting as this female dervish. That she actually wields a whip makes this a kinkier version of Shrew than one should expect from 1929, and when Petruchio woos her, they both have whips. (Behind the scenes, Fairbanks and Pickford’s marriage was on the rocks.)

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Hugo Riesenfeld’s music is delightfully bouncy, insanely melodramatic. It is good along with that staircase.

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At times, Fairbanks is good in a hammy, egotistically clownish way. Pickford’s voice is why her career would not last long into the sound era of film.

Shakespeare’s text was altered and truncated, so much so that the running time is about 65 minutes. It’s like a fun fever dream.

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John King (Episode, well, all of them) holds a PhD in English from Purdue University, and an MFA from New York University. He has reviewed performances for Shakespeare Bulletin.

Episode 151: Greg Proops

09 Saturday May 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comedy, Episode

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Tags

Greg Proops, Rochelle Spencer, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Smartest Book in the World, The Smartest Man in the World, Zora Neale Hurston

Episode 151 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I talk to comedian, podcaster, and now, author, Greg Proops,

Photo by Idil Sukan/Draw HQ

plus Rochelle Spencer writes about the liberating politics of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTES

Read Teege Braune’s review of Greg Proops’s comedy special, Live at Musso and Frank, here.

To keep up with all things Proops, go here.

A masterpiece composed during the Locally Grown Words summer book fair:

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Episode 151 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.