CANNED HAM

Last night, I attended a preview performance of Tom Judson's auto-biographical solo show “Canned Ham”. The show documents hunky Mr Judson’s strange trajectory from Off-Off Broadway composer and performance artist to Broadway actor to this surprising career turn as gay porn superstar Gus Mattox!

In between wonderful accordion arrangements of familiar showtunes, Tom recounts working with such folks as director Rob Marshall, stage goddess Ann Magnuson (who was in attendance), actress Teri Hatcher, and porn mogul Chi Chi LaRue. Show biz stories, male escort adventures and touching remembrances of his late partner Bruce make for an evening of both laughter and tears.

“Canned Ham” is opens tonight - Friday, April 30 at 9pm and will run Fridays and Saturdays at 9pm and Sundays at 7pm through May 16. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door and are available online here. The Cavern Club Theater at Casita del Campo is located at 1920 Hyperion Avenue in Silver Lake.Visit Tom's blog here.

SOMETIMES AUNT MARTHA DOES DREADFUL THINGS

As I continually deal with my lack of free time to blog, I proudly represent one of my very first posts from way back in 2007.
So, imagine THE ODD COUPLE if Felix sometimes dressed in drag, had a crush on a hunky bi-sexual hippie Oscar and murdered every young woman who literally tries to unzip Oscar's snake-skin jeans. Well - that's what SOMETIMES AUNT MARTHA DOES DREADFUL THINGS is all about.

Set in suburban Miami, this 1971 campfest is full of slutty, horny stoned pizzeria waitresses and nurses with small tits and big Eva Gabor wigs who are trying to fuck Stanley (our sloppy roommate) and one by one, they disappear after his manly Aunt Martha pays them a visit.

You see, Paul is "protecting" Stanley from the police since he's convinced Stanley that he was responsible for killing Mrs. Johnson for her jewels. Paul has been disguising himself (with bad wigs, blouses, skirts, and orthopedic shoes) as Stanley's elderly Aunt Martha (but looking much like Stockard Channing as Rizzo), in an effort to hide from the authorities. The nosy neighbors (one who is very pregnant) are a constant annoyance to Paul - especially when they mention how attractive Stanley is.

Stanley, despite being a slob AND never changing his clothes ever (much like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character) - even though the film takes place over several days and nights - is very sexy. Paul, on the other hand, looks like the illegitimate child of Karl Malden and Judd Hirsch. Stanley, sadly never does get naked - though there are are at least three scenes where women attempt to get into his pants, but he freaks out.

Things veer off in several directions including subplots involving a blackmailing heroin junkie from Baltimore who becomes an unwelcome third roommate and several encounters with Stanley's group of beer-drinking, pot-smoking, coke-sniffing friends - one of which is totally buff and always shirtless (save for a little leather vest) and looks like Steve Perry from Journey.

There's a disturbing turn of events involving the pregnant neighbor and a predictable climax that takes place on (of all places) a movie set!!! MARTHA is a bit slow at times, but its blend of campy humor and horror shocks kept me interested despite the homophobic undercurrent. Directed by Thomas Casey.

If MARTHA is your cup of tea - you can purchase it from the incredible Five Minutes to Live website. Rating: 8 outta 10.

THE MIKADO PROJECT World Premiere

Hey gang, my production company Velvet Candy Entertainment's co-production of THE MIKADO PROJECT, a feature film directed by Chil Kong (SCREENING PARTY) will be premiering this coming Saturday May 1 at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival at 9pm at the Directors Guild of America Theater. I also worked on the film a bit as a designer and set decorator, and I look forward to seeing the film on the big screen.. This event marks the World Premiere of the film and cast and crew will be in attendance, and will be followed by a Q&A session.

THE MIKADO PROJECT is a musical comedy (based on the stage performance written by Ken Narasaki and Doris Baizley and adapted for film by Chil Kong) of a struggling Asian American theater company that, in a desperate publicity stunt to save their company, decides to produce a modern reconstruction of Gilbert and Sullivan’s, The Mikado, to stir controversy and jolt ticket sales.

The Mikado, one of the most beloved comedy operas by legendary collaborators, Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert, first opened on stage in 1885 in London . The story was set in Japan (considered an exotic land to the British during that era) which allowed Gilbert & Sullivan to satirize British politics. However, by doing so, Asians around the world and Asian Americans today have found this opera hard to embrace—making the notion of Asian American actors performing The Mikado controversial and palatable only through a comedic reconstruction.

With new hip-hopera versions of the Gilbert & Sullivan’s original compositions and dance numbers choreographed by members of the dance troupes, Kaba Modern and Jabbawockeez, from MTV's AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW, this is not your grandma's Mikado.





The talented cast includes Raymond J. Lee (from Broadway's Mamma Mia), Allen Liu (Broadway's Flower Drum Song), Rizwan Manji (Charlie Wilson's War), David Lee McInnis (Never Forever), Gerald McCullouch (CSI, Law and Order, NCIS), Erin Quill (Screening Party, Broadway's Avenue Q), Freda Foh Shen (Primal Doubt, Red Doors), Yui Tag (America’s Best Dance Crew), Tamlyn Tomita (Tekken, The Eye) and Ryun Yu (Kissing Cousins).

For more information on THE MIKADO PROJECT visit www.themikadoproject.com.
Tickets can be purchased directly here.

BLOODY BIRTHDAY

For Earth Day (and my birthday week), here's something recycled from last year. Renjoy!

For my friend Tony's birthday, we got together with him and a bunch of his painfully cute friends to eat pasta and watch BLOODY BIRTHDAY, a little-known 1981 horror film directed by Ed Hunt. (The director of such gems as UFOs ARE REAL, STARSHIP INVASION and one episode of NBC's GREATEST HEROES OF THE BIBLE).    The story begins in 1970, as three babies are born during a total eclipse. Apparently when the sun and moon team up to block Saturn - any infants that a born instantly become "demon seeds" - without a conscience. Good to know.Fast forward to 1980 and the three babies have now blossomed into the brattiest kids in town. As preparations begin for their big 10th birthday party, strange things begin to happen in the town of Meadowdale or Fernwood or whatever. Think VILAGE OF THE DAMNED on a smaller scale.

First a teen-age couple are brutally killed while having poorly-lit sex in a cemetery plot, setting off a string of ghastly random and Rube Goldberg-esque deaths. Then we meet our unsavory trio : Curtis, a young Stephen Colbert lookalike; Debbie, a dead ringer for a child beauty pageant loser; and some quiet, bowl-cut blond kid who takes orders from the other two. These three madcap mini-MacGyvers manage to turn any found object (jump ropes, skateboards, shovels, baseball bats, etc.) into a murder weapon and soon the deaths begin to add up. Debbie is quite the young entrepreneur, as she charges the neighborhood boys a quarter to watch her sister Beverly (Julie Brown - who goes full T & A) dress and undress through a peep hole. Debbie's dad is the local sheriff, but not for long - as he becomes victim number two. Two constant targets of the trio's shenanigans are camel-toe sporting amateur astrologist (and sometimes school teacher) Joyce and her misunderstood little brother Timmy. The whippersnappers try to run Joyce over in a junkyard with a remote-controlled car (thanks to the bespectacled young inventor Curtis), and then try to make her seem crazy and paranoid when four-eyed Curtis makes her believe that he poisoned the birthday cake frosting with ant killer. It looks just like the Skinny & Sweet!

Daughter of acting legend Lee - Susan Strasberg of MANITOU fame- makes a brief appearance as a schoolteacher - who looks just like Andrea Thomas from ISIS, but sadly, she never gets the chance to transform into the Egyptian goddess before she's shot to death by Curtis- with the gun he stole from Debbie's dead dad. He's very clever, cause he wears glasses.There's a few other deaths, including Julie Brown's encounter with the wrong end of a bow & arrow - and another teen sex scene in bad lighting.

Overall, a pretty creepy and somewhat fun example of early 80s low-budget horror. It definitely helps to watch it with a gaggle of attractive young men. On my old scale of 10 "Huhs" - I'd give BLOODY BIRTHDAY a solid 8, just for have the moxie to show 10 year olds killing people with reckless abandon. The child acting is pretty believable, making me wonder about the trio of ten-year olds sitting at the table next to me at the Whole Foods cafe while I write this.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Time...

Hey readers, just letting y'all know that I am totally swamped - between my day job and pre-production for a new feature film (a zany STRAIGHT sex comedy!) that my production company is involved with - leaving very little time for anything else. I will hopefully be back blogging real soon. I've got so much cool stuff to share with you guys. In the meantime, ponder this...

Weekend FUNSPREE!

I spent my birthday weekend (dubbed a "Funspree") in San Diego with some good friends at the Filmout film festival, where three films that I was involved with were programmed. On Saturday night, David Kittredge's PORNOGRAPHY, which I was the production designer on, screened to a packed house. (The film also is running theatrically in New York's Cinema Village).

On Sunday, a fun animated short (that I helped out on a bit) by my pal Dennis Hensley called DIPSHITS starring 4 notorious young "celebrities" screened. This was part of a program that included the wonderful musical BOY CRAZY by my other talented friend John Sobrack. BOY CRAZY is now on dvd as part of a shorts package that includes the wonderful DISH by another friend, Brian Harris Krinsky.

On Sunday evening, another Hensley-directed short, REUNION, which was produced in 2008 for HBO through my company Velvet Candy Entertainment screened before the acclaimed feature HOLLYWOOD J'TAIME.

But an unexpected highlight of the weekend was a little late-night screening called ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

Yup, just your average flick about a gay couple fighting religious fanatics, homophobes and a horde of zombies while a spunky Iranian chick combats prejudice and post 9/11 hysteria in small-minded, small-town America. It's a comedy, a horror film and  smart political commentary all rolled up in a bloody good time.

Add all this to non-stop laughs with good friends and an awesome thift store find - a Farrah Fawcett fashion doll - and you have a great way to spend any birthday. Support independent queer filmmaking, thrift stores and your local zombies.

Doc Savage - Part 4 Star of All Media

Today, I conclude my look at the history of Doc Savage.

Doc Savage starred in 2 radio series during the pulp era. The first was a 15-minute serial which ran for 26 episodes in 1934. A second series aired in 1943. No tapes exist from either series, although some scripts have been collected. In 1985, NPR aired The Adventures of Doc Savage, as 13 half-hour episodes.
In 1975 Doc finally made it to the big screen in a campy Warner Bros. feature that owed more to the BATMAN TV show than James Bond.

The film was released internationally and was supposed to launch a franchise, but it's lackluster performance put the kabosh on any hope of a sequel.

The posters were pretty sensational though.

TV Tarzan (and future FACE THE MUSIC and MISS AMERICA PAGEANT host) Ron Ely was cast as The Man of Bronze.

The film was released on VHS.

And was recently made available on DVD on demand through the Warner Archive Collection.
The movie is a mid-70s curiosity, as is the soundtrack by John Philip Sousa!

As an addendum to my look at Doc in comics, you may want to check out Wildstorm's brilliant and recently completed PLANETARY series, which featured a thinly disguised homage to Savage named Alex Brass. That's all I've got on Doc, hopefully someone out there appreciated this exhaustive (and exhausting) look that the classic pulp character. I know I enjoyed pulling it all together!

Doc Savage - Part 3 The Cape-free Crusader

Continuing my look at the history of Doc Savage, today let's look at the many comic book lives of the character.

In this Gold Key issue from the 60s, Doc wraps his hands around a spitting cobra! Get you minds out of the gutter!

Doc headed over to Marvel in the early 70s with an all-new series done in the mighty Marvel style.

Readers (such as I) were introduced to Doc's team of fearless friends in this campy take on the character.

Doc is depicted as a "heart-stopping sight" - and his costume consists of tight white slacks and a skimpy black leather vest.

The text page in Issue #1 goes into detail about Doc's loyal teammates: Monk, Ham, Long Tom, Renny and Johnny!

Issue #2 featured the fearsome foe called The Feather Serpent!

Some dude called Silver Death was the villain in Issue #3.

Doc went topless and took on the Hell Diver in #4.

And then he faced the Night of the Monsters in Issue #6.

A giant sized adaptation of Warner Bros.' feature film  DOC SAVAGE: MAN OF BRONZE  followed. (More on the movie tomorrow!)

And oddest of all, Doc teamed up with The Fantastic Four's very own Thing in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE.

A magazine-sized movie tie-in featured this iconographic image of Doc in all his manliness.

Doc donned rocket-powered skis for this magazine-sized adventure, but his tenure at Marvel was nearing it's end.

Years later, Doc & company showed up at DC, starring in an acclaimed four-part miniseries (recently collected into a trade paperback. Oddly enough, DC will be soon reprinting the Marvel stories in another trade collection).

A monthly series followed and ran for a while, but soon Doc was in comic book limbo once more.

Next he resurfaced in a short-lived series from an indie publisher called Millennium.

The homoerotic covers continued to follow Doc during this brief run.

So, that brings us right back to DC, where the new DOC SAVAGE comic debuted yesterday. Doc also recently teamed up with Batman in a one-shot special and is featured in a miniseries called FIRST WAVE, which I covered in my tribute to Rima, the Jungle Girl. Come back tomorrow for my final Doc post.

Doc Savage - Part 2 Paperback Pulchritude

Yesterday, I briefly traced the pulp magazine origins of Doc Savage. Today, let's look at the gorgeous painted covers that graced the popular Bantam paperback series which ran from the 1960s through the 1990s.

As I mentioned yesterday, Doc often was depicted with a ridiculously torn shirt barely covering his massive heaving manboobs.

 Though at times, the climate called for more appropriate attire, as seen above.

Or sometimes less clothing was required, as in the case of The Frightened Fish!

So apparently Doc took on Hiltler, Hercules and some frightened fellow, all of whom cause him to thrice again tear his shirt apart. What was this guy's clothing budget?

Here Doc looks like he's waiting for someone to, ahem, bow down before him, and then he meets his torn shirt-wearing twin in The Land of Fear!

Here Doc experiences deja vu as the cover painting is recycled. At this point the story titles seem to have gotten a bit silly as well: The All-White Elf?, The Angy Canary?, The Running Skeltons? and The Swooning Lady?

Yikes! What the hell is that bird creature? And just who is The Metal Master? Ozzy?

Before you know it, Doc is back underwater and then he's fighting off a giant case of the crabs.

At times he even explored religious and mystical themes such as resurrection and black magic.

And finally Doc took some shirt-busting disaster movie plots. I wonder how I would look on the cover of a Doc Savage novel...

Now I know. If I haven't frightened you away, come back tomorrow for a look at Doc's comic book career.