New feature ZENITH opens this week in NYC!

Our old friend Ray Privett is opening a new visually stunning and imaginative feature this week in at the Kraine Theater NYC, with releases following across the country.  Full details are here.

And Ray is offering $7 tickets for the NYC screenings for anyone using the code IRON MULE!

Come out and support a real independent film, screening at a unique downtown venue.

Congratulations on the opening Ray, and here's to a successful nationwide launch!

Notes from our January 8th screening

It was a blustery January evening outside, but in the 92YTribeca screening room on January 8th the audience was warming up with the expectation of a night of short comedy films.  Jay got the show off to a start by describing a frustrating start to his year; someone stole his credit card number online and used it to buy 2010's straight-to-DVD Lost Boys: The Thirst.  The thief wasn't very clever because he mailed the DVD to Jay's billing address and Jay was able to get a new credit card before any significant damage was done.  So the story has a happy ending.  Just as long as Jay doesn't actually watch the movie.

Victor then told a story about the start of his year, but we'll spare our readers by not recounting it here.  Really.  It's pretty gruesome.

Jay and Victor then welcomed special guest judge, illustrator, author, and animator Laurie Rosenwald. Laurie is a long-time Iron Mule contributor and she started off the night by showing two animations she made in collaboration with David Sedaris.  We'll be showing more of that series at our March 5th show.

Jay, Victor, and Laurie Rosenwald

Then it was time for the films in competition.  First up was Sylvia Apostol's animated film about a boy who gets revenge on the tooth fairy in A Faery's Tale, followed by comedian Joe DeRosa's short made for atom.com, The Jesus Fix, a film about a man who has nothing to complain about compared to Jesus.  Joe was at the show and had a brief interview about translating his stand up material to the screen before having to leave to go do stand up elsewhere.

Jay, Victor, and Joe DeRosa

Joe DeRosa waves goodbye to Jay and Victor as he leaves the screening to perform standup somewhere.

The next film in competition was the longest film of the evening, Adam Hall's musical extravaganza Sudden Death, about about a plague gripping Los Angeles in which people infected burst spontaneously into song and dance before dying.  Two dashing researchers struggle to find a cure while falling in love and incessantly singing about it all.  The film features John Larroquette in the pivotal role of a sort of Deep Throat of the Coast Guard.

Then it was on to our last block of films in competition.  First up was Eric Knobel's "I-can't-believe-I-saw-that" movie Root Beer.  One of the great pleasures of the evening was the moment when the audience broke into a fit of laughter at a certain point of this movie that built and didn't stop until it was over.  Who would be brave enough to follow this movie?  None other than our Romanian friend Mirel Bran with his one-minute film Hitchcock Reloaded (in French rather than Romanian this time).  The final film of the block was Stephen Neary's Cowboy Chicken, an animated tour-de-force about a chicken in the wild West who just wants to be a chicken but is forced against his will to become a hero.  We interviewed Stephen about how he made the movie, breaking the code of animators by appearing in your own movie, animation in general, and his other work.  Stephen will be back next month with another movie called Let's Make Out.

Stephen Neary, the creator of Cowboy Chicken

Victor, Jay and Stephen Neary

Before closing out the night, we welcomed old Iron Mule friend and film distributor Ray Privett, who showed a trailer of his upcoming movie Zenith, which opens on January 19th in NYC and then will screen across the US followed by a release on DVD and VOD.  We're not sure what Zenith is about (even after seeing the trailer), but it certainly looks good, and we were intrigued by Ray demanding that we view it as a comedy.  Make sure to watch for this movie at a theater near you!

Victor, Jay, and Ray Privett

Last up was our monthly "Wanna be a Star" movie in which we randomly select a member of the audience to star in a movie that is then shown at the following month's show.  Back in December, Amy Wolf was chosen to star in the movie Under the Robe.  This pitch-perfect movie about way too many audition experiences was written by Lin Sorensen and directed by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Galluci.  Giuseppe's English wasn't great, but that just made him a more charming interview subject following the world premiere of his movie.

Giuseppe Galluci

Then it was time for guest judge Laurie Rosenwald to announce the winners.  Both the judges' and audience's awards went to Cowboy Chicken!  And the prize was none other than Jay's copy of Lost Boys: The Thirst!

Jay (holding the prize of Lost Boys: The Thirst) and Victor

Then on to the after party in the 92YTribeca cafe and the secret after after party where more food and drink was had by all.  We have another great month planned for February and look forward to seeing fans old and new then.

Notes from our December 4th screening

Hello and welcome, Iron Mule fans!

This last Saturday we welcomed back many old Iron Mule friends, and also some new ones, for our monthly showcase of the best in short comedy films.  This month, as host Jay Stern explained, we tried a little something different: sampling work from a couple of different web series, interspersed with a few other odds and holiday-specific ends.

But first up, host Victor Varnado shared a trailer for the new "not-quite-reality" series he's producing.  The show follows a group of contestants engaged in Live Action Role Playing (LARP), which looks a lot like real life Dungeons & Dragons, in the woods, without dice.  It also looks like a lot of fun to watch.

Priming the pump for holiday season, local actor and Christmas Carol officianado Craig Wichman introduced his film, "A Christmas Carol in 8 Minutes," featuring every imaginable big- and small-screen version of the classic Dickens tale.  Craig shared some of his knowledge of the many liberties taken with adapting the novel to the screen, and host Victor was particularly smitten with the oft-repeated phrase, "Look under my robe!" which he proceeded to oft-repeat as well.


For our first block of films, we began with a new series by Iron Mule BFF, Dale Goodson, entitled "Things Could Be Worse," an animated series which takes an irreverent look at the debate over health care.  In between the three episodes of this series, we also presented Lake Cop II: Ripple Effect, a mock trailer by Graeme Morgan and Brent Cooper about a vigilante lakeside policeman that is now being made into a feature, and the first episode of another series previously seen at Iron Mule -- Old People News.  The latest iteration of this series, entitled "Tech Report" and created for Atom.com by Kevin Maher, stars Lynne Rogers and Arthur Anderson as the titular Old People, reporting on some perplexing 21st century technology such as the iPhone and the Twitter.

Dale Goodson was on hand to talk about his continuing forays into animation, and how he himself learned to use technology to straighten lines and get a smoother "hand-drawn" effect in his films.  With so many irons in the fire, between this, his occasional music videos and the continuing Man Without Shirt series, we're not sure what Dale will come up with next, but we're sure we'll see him again soon.

Jay and Dale

Next up, we featured a couple of episodes from the popular New York web series, "Broad City," by Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer.  This time, we showcased Ilana's advice on dealing with being a "Dick Magnet," and Abbi's struggle to get kissed "Under the Mistletoe."  We also squeezed in another episode of Old People News: Tech Report, examining the "easy way out" of Kickstarter.  One half of the Broad City team, Ilana Glazer, joined our hosts to talk about the many ways in which their show imitates life, and the future plans for the show, which include an upcoming second season and a short film.

Victor, Jay, and Ilana

For our third set, we presented "The Guarantee," another documentary by multiple award-winner Jesse Epstein in her series on body image.  This film tackles the true story of a ballet dancer who was told he needed to get a nose job in order to continue getting leads at his dance academy.  Since the subject didn't want to be filmed, Jesse worked with a storyboard artist to illustrate the story, lending an extra visual layer to the film.  Jesse joined hosts Jay & Victor to talk about the choice to use illustrations in the film, and the road from hearing the subject's story on a set to filming it many years later.

Victor, Jay, and Jesse

Rounding up the films in competition, we presented the final episodes of Old People News: Tech Report, and also revisited the perennial Iron Mule holiday favorite, "White Blood Cell Saves Christmas."  Kevin Maher & Lynne Rogers of Old People News came on stage to talk about the origins of the series and its potential future (including product placements).  Whatever form it takes, we look forward to more of Kevin's razor-sharp satire and more of Lynne using words like "sexting".

Victor, Jay, Kevin and Lynn

The audience was given a reprieve from laughter in order to vote for their favorite film of the evening, and while the votes were being tallied, they were treated to this month's Wanna Be A Star? film, "Peanut Factory," starring audience member Meredith Flood.  A parody of The Glass Menagerie, the film was directed by Gabriella Willenz and kept the audience in stitches as only making fun of Tennessee Williams can.

Gabriella, Victor, Jay, and Meredith

We had another double winner for the evening, as Jesse Epstein once again won both the Judges' Award and Audience Award for her film The Guarantee.  Congratulations, Jesse!

And we hope to see many of Saturday night's new audience members back for more short comedy films when we reconvene on January 8th for the next Iron Mule screening!

Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench

As some of you know, I am in pre production of my new feature film, a low-budget independent musical.

You may be asking, "Low-budget independent musical? Do they even make those?" Well, it turns out that they do, and successfully so.

Independent filmmaker Damien Chazelle's Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is such a movie. After a run on the international festival circuit, this film is now playing at Cinema Village in NYC. If you're in the NYC area this weekend come on out and support independent filmmaking! Damien will be there for a Q&A on Saturday.

And if you can't get enough indie musicals, also check out adventuresofpaulandmarian.com!

Movies We Like: Sans Dialogue

Of course the birth of comedy filmmaking is rooted in silent cinema, which relied on pure visuals to tell a story and create hilarious comedy.

There are several contemporary short comedy films out there that emulate silent classics.  Ones we like include Kevin Maher and Casimir Nozkowski’s silent homage Silas and Mange...

stunt-man turned Buster Keaton fan Cliff Cronan’s The Lucky Penny...

The Lucky Penny from Elusive Minds on Vimeo.

...and from one of our earliest shows, the very first collaboration between Iron Mule legends Jay Stern and M. Sweeney Lawless, Suffer the Little Children.

But you don’t have to just copy Buster Keaton to make a comedy without dialogue.  Animated films do this all the time.  Below are some short films that prove that good ideas and good comedy can be made without people shouting one-liners and saying funny things in words.

Flowerpot, from Austin, TX filmmaker Steve Collins.

flowerpot - watch more funny videos

Any movie by Hotdogboy, our favorite Canadian short comedy comedy film duo.

The Modern Daydreams films by Mitchell Rose are simply beautiful and also funny.

Modern Daydreams 1: Deere John from Mitchell Rose on Vimeo.

Jay Stern and M. Sweeney Lawless’ Turkey Shoot features the first appearance of Iron Mule regular Ramona Floyd who later became one of our producers.  Not using dialogue made it much easier to mask the fact that this film was shot entirely in Central Park.





Do you know of some good short comedy films (non-animated) that are dialogue-free?  Leave a link in comment section.

Notes from our November 6th screening

Welcome, intrepid Iron Mule followers!  Despite a few technical difficulties, the show did in fact go on last Saturday night, as hosts Jay Stern and Victor Varnado led an enthusiastic crowd through yet another fun-filled evening of short comedy films that at least one audience member described as, "intimate."  We're taking that as a compliment.

Running the show from a jerry-rigged laptop, Jay shared the trailer to his currently-developing feature film, "The Adventures of Paul and Marian," a romantic comedy musical adventure (if you missed the show, you can catch the trailer here).  Then, due to a last-minute cancellation, Jay & Victor solicitated material from the audience, to fill the time left by the missing film.  Unfortunately, nobody had come prepared!  Note to filmmakers: always bring a reel with you when out on the town, as you never know when the hosts of whatever you're watching may ask for, say, a comedic film under 10 minutes.

Guest Judge Ioli Andreadi with Jay and Victor

Continuing the program in earnest, Aaron Hughes was back with another pixilated film, "Strangers," about flowers coming out of strange places and the perils of smoking.  Aaron and frequent star Maori (previously of "Maori's Morning") talked a little bit about the process of shooting one of these curious films and how to make a person appear to fly out of screen.

interviewing Aaron and Maori

Jay then introduced a block of "Foreign" films; one from Romania, one from France, and one from a Seattle ex-pat.  "The Scream," from returning Romanian filmmaker Mirel Bran, features some unusual lessons about love and outdoor defecation.  From the acclaimed animation school in Paris, Gobelins l'Ecole de l'Image, we presented Oktapodi, a high-paced romp through an idealised Greek town following two octapi on the run from a hatchet-wielding butcher.  And rounding out the block, Iron Mule regular Dale Goodson presented the latest in his Man Without Shirt series, "Hangs Too Much."

with Dale Goodson

Checking in with the evening's special guest judge, Ioli Andreadi, a London theater director and native of Greece, she informed us that the town depicted in Oktapodi must be a very rich place because all the houses had swimming pools.  Shows what we know; we thought all Greeks had pools.  But Ioli seemed to enjoy the movie anyway, and we moved on to our final block of the night.

Starting us off was "Stages of Emily," written by and starring Danielle Uhlarik and directed by James C. Newell, from Chicago.  The story follows a newly-engaged woman who believes she has only 48 hours to live.  The filmmakers pull quite a few laughs out of this dark story of mortal wedding anxiety, thanks in no small part to a strong cast of Chicago stand-ups and improvisers.  And our last film in competition was, "Tombstoned," an SVA student thesis film by Dillon McCarthy.  The partially-animated sci-fi film follows three slacker astronauts who attempt a stoned moon landing.

Dillon McCarthy

But before the night is through, an Iron Mule show wouldn't be complete without this month's Wanna Be A Star? film (for more details, visit our website).  This month's retro-awesome entry was entitled "Secret Sunshine" and starred audience member Paula McDonald as a renegade lone-wolf secret agent named Sunshine.  Director Andy Brown and star Paula were on hand to talk about the concept of the film, shooting action scenes on the fly, and the original theme song that played over the end credits.  Stop by next month to see what director Gabriella Willenz can make out of the title, "Peanut Factory," starring lucky audience member, Meredith Flood.

Paula McDonald and Aaron Hughes

After all the ballots were counted, our Audience Award winner for the evening was "Oktapodi," and our Judges' Award winner was "Stages of Emily!"  Congrats to our winners, we're sorry the filmmakers couldn't attend the screening and receive all the accolades and free drinks coming to them.

And that's it for us this month, but join us on Dec. 4th at the 92YTribeca for a special holiday show featuring the return of "White Blood Cell Saves Christmas," a special 8-minute edit of every version of A Christmas Carol imaginable, new films by Dale Goodson and Jesse Epstein, and new episodes of Iron Mule faves Old People News and Broad City!

Notes From Our Oct. 2nd Screening

This last Saturday, Iron Mule made a triumphant return from our two-month hiatus with a gaggle of new short comedy films and all the hijinx you've come to expect.

Except one. Held over in LA due to an extended shooting schedule, regular host Victor Varnado was sadly absent from the evening. Fellow producer Lin Sorensen attempted to fill Victor's considerable hosting shoes, and while some may debate the merits of their respective styles, there's no denying Lin was taller.

Thankfully, host Jay Stern was present to provide the audience with some much-needed continuity, and the show began, in honor of Halloween, with a trailer for Jay's upcoming haunted house feature, "Spirit Cabinet." Producer/cinematographer Alan Smith and producer/writer Meg Sweeney Lawless were also on hand to witness the trailer's world premiere, and while it wasn't as funny as the films that came after it, it was certainly spookier. Stay tuned for more Spirit Cabinet updates as the team comes around the last bend of post-production and hopes to bring the finished product to a screen near you.

Our first film of the night, a pilot for Adult Swim entitled "Wunderkrafthaus," was put together by many of the folks who brought you the Mighty Five video, Check This Out! which premiered at our July 3rd show. As the creators Doug Olsen, Derek Muro and Patrick Groneman explained afterward, although the show originated with characters they portrayed, they were required to cast other actors in the roles. However, when the director went AWOL, they finished the shoot themselves, thereby regaining control of the project from the other side of the camera. The show follows the titular German art collective as they try to make the most of a mistyped ad describing them as "The Wunderkrafthaus of Pancakes."

The next block of films featured two documentaries, one real and one fictional. The first, "Wet Dreams and False Images," about the denizens of a Brooklyn barbershop who discover that the pictures on their "Wall of Beauty" are not as "natural" as they think, is part of a series of short documentaries about body image by director Jesse Epstein. The second, "Los Four McNifikos," from Spain, follows an aging breakdancing troupe as they struggle to keep the dream alive. Hosts Jay & Lin did a tag-team interview with Jesse and "McNifikos" co-writer Michael Dukes about making documentaries funny, their respective methods of engaging the audience, and the quirks of international collaboration. (Special thanks to Michael for flying in from Cincinnati for the show!)

Rounding out the evening, our last set of films showcased three very different kinds of animation. Continuing the wildly popular internet series (and oft-played Iron Mule favorite), Eun-Ha Paek and Erin Bradley Perkins returned with "Strindberg & Helium: At the Beach." This was followed by our second animated film from Argentina this year, "El Empleo," which follows a day in the life of an office worker and may hit a little close to home for those with day jobs. We finished the films in competition with the latest animation by Iron Mule regular Dale Goodson, a music video entitled, "Little Ghost." Dale was on hand to discuss the origins of the film, which is part of a series of videos aimed at toddlers and featuring music by Chris Ballew, formerly of the band Presidents of the United States of America and now performing children's music as Caspar Babypants.

But it wouldn't be an Iron Mule show without the famed "Wanna Be A Star?" competition, and tonight was no exception. Every month, our helpful audience shouts out a title for a short film, and an audience member is selected at random to star in the aforementioned film, to be produced for the next month's show. October's star was Orla Murphy and she was featured in Ant Farm, directed by Aaron Hughes, whose film "Backwards" won the Judges' Award at our June 5th show. The film was shot in Aaron's "pixilated" style, a kind of stop-motion cinematography that was also used in last month's, "Maori's Morning." Check back next month when audience member Paula McDonald will star in "Secret Sunshine," to be directed by Andy Brown.

And after an audience drumroll, the winners of the evening were announced. Jesse Epstein was the big winner of the night, taking both the Audience Award and Judges' Award for "Wet Dreams and False Images." Congratulations Jesse, and thanks to everyone for making us a part of your October weekend. Join us on Nov. 6th for more short comedy films, more raucous after parties, and more Victor Varnado.