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.