Photo courtesy of foundfootagefestival’s Instagram
Have you ever wondered what the milk crates full of VHS tapes at Goodwill contain? If so, the Found Footage Festival is your place to be this weekend. Hosts Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher are in the business of resurrecting old VHS tapes from thrift shops, warehouses, and dumpsters throughout North America. The Found Footage Festival was created in New York in 2004 and Picket and Preuher have since gone on to perform hundreds of shows across the U.S. and Canada. What is primarily a comedy show, the critically acclaimed festival has been featured on both late-night Jimmy shows, NPR, the New York Times, and many other publications.
The 80’s and 90’s were the golden age for easy, inexpensive videos. From how-to instructional training videos to public access television, Pickett and Prueher’s archive of hilarious, stupid, and hilariously stupid videos follow two rules: 1) the footage must be physically found and 2) it needs to be unintentionally funny, failing at what it aimed to accomplish.
Pickett and Prueher are no strangers to comedy. Pickett, a writer/director, has written for The Onion and Entertainment Daily while Prueher got his start doing research for the Late Show with David Letterman uncovering old, embarrassing footage of celebrities. Together, with college friend Mark Proksch, they came up with numerous aliases to prank TV morning shows throughout the Midwest. (Proksch, who currently plays Pryce in Better Call Saul, also played Nate the Handyman in The Office.) From Chef Keith to Chop and from Steele to K-Strass the Yo-Yo guy, clips of these characters on local news stations went viral back in 2010.
The Found Footage Festival is a 90-minute guided tour through Joe and Nick’s VHS collection, with commentary introducing each clip. The festival will be showing at the awesome Central Cinema this weekend, November 11th-12th at 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM each day. If you miss the show in Seattle, you still have chances to see the FFF. It’s on twice a week in a popular web series on The Onions A.V. Club, in the documentary “Winnebago Man,” , and in their book “VHS: Absurd, Odd, and Ridiculous Relics from the Videotape Era.”
If you’re in the mood to get lost in some videos check them out on http://www.foundfootagefest.com/. So sit back, relax, and get ready for a nostalgia filled ab workout. You can find tickets and other information for this event here.
JORDAN CHAN | KXSU Arts Reporter