Tag Archives: Interview

Lance Oppenheim Offers the Latest Updates on HBO’s ‘Ren Faire’

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Documentarian Lance Oppenheim last hung out with us just a few months ago to talk about Spermworld, his Hulu documentary about unlicensed sperm donors. At the time he teased us with news of his next project, Ren Faire, a documentary series about the eccentric owner of the Texas Renaissance Festival, one of the largest renaissance festivals in the world. Well now that documentary is here. Ren Faire, produced by the Safdie Brothers and Ronald Bronstein (Uncut Gems, Good Time, etc.) follows George Coulam, an eccentric octogenerian ex-Mormon who dresses in a self-designed military-inspired uniform who everyone calls “King George.” King George is the capricious ruler of the TRF, who says he wants to retire while his long-suffering employees scramble around trying to please him while plotting against each other and trying to set themselves up to become the heir apparent.

Ren Faire‘s main characters include Jeff Baldwin, the portly theater kid entertainment director who has recently become general manager, Louie Migliaccio, a steampunk energy drink addict who runs the festival’s kettle corn empire (but dreams of more), and Darla Smith, an elephant trainer-turned renaissance faire capitalist. Lance opens up about how he shot Ren Faire, what all the Ren Faire characters are doing now — big scoop on Jeff Baldwin and the rest of the staff in there — and how many energy drinks Louie Migliaccio consumes in a day. Oh, and about how King George’s sugar daddy dates at the Olive Garden actually went down, and whether George asked them any questions beyond whether their breasts are real.

Ren Faire is a great docuseries and the ultimate show for anyone who wants to know how unhappy rich people actually are.

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Interview: Killers of the Flower Moon Author David Grann (from 2017)

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As loyal Frotcast listeners may have already known, I interviewed David Grann, author of the best-selling book on which the new Martin Scorsese movie was based, back in 2017. We got deep into what the book meant, the  characters involved, why he wanted to write it, what it means, and how  he reported it. At the very least, it’s a nice little  background/companion piece for the film (which is much different than  the book, even if most of the facts are the same).

Here’s how I described the book in my review that I haven’t finished writing:

Flower Moon the book is a lot of things,  but mostly it’s the story of a genocide told through the structure of a  true crime tale. Grann delivers a barn burner of a murder mystery about a  greedy landowner, his cat’s-paw nephew, his nephew’s Osage wife, and  the FBI agent who uncovers it all, before zooming out to reveal that it  was all part of a larger-scale plan of dispossession and erasure in  which virtually the entire state of Oklahoma was complicit.

Anyway, enjoy the interview, I certainly did.

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Frotcast Bonus: Ti West on ‘Pearl,’ ‘X’, And ‘Maxxxine’

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Well, it’s that time of the month again, free feed Frotcast fans. That’s right, I did an interview and now I’m sharing it with you. Perhaps you saw X when it came out in March? That was about a group of kids making a porn in the seventies who travel out to an isolated farmhouse where terror ensues. Now, just (*counts on fingers*) six months later, the sequel is opening. Or rather, the prequel. Pearl tells the origin story for the creepy old lady played by Mia Goth in X (who also played the porn starlet), again starring Goth in a story set in 1918, just after the Spanish Flu pandemic. Both movies were directed by my interview subject, Ti West. If you’re a long-time Frotcast listener, you may remember West from my interviews with him for The Sacrament and In A Valley Of Violence. Which is to say that Ti and I known each other for a bit, even though 90% of our conversations are generally about MMA, including the very end of this one. I admit it feels (and probably even sounds) a little weird when I do my Teri Gross act, but I’m also genuinely curious about the insane process of shooting two (and soon to be three, since the X/Pearl sequel, Maxxxine was greenlit shortly after we recorded this) horror movies back to back in New Zealand. And it’s nice to hear it from someone you know who isn’t just giving you the stock press tour answers.

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Frotcast Bonus: BJ Novak On ‘Vengeance’

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Hey, Frotcasters. Nice little treat for the free feed this week: I got to talk to BJ Novak for his new movie, Vengeance. You most likely know BJ Novak as Ryan from The Office, and that was about all I knew about Vengeance before I put it on. It turned out to be a funny riff on NPR and the podcast world, and making fun of NPR is of course very much up our alley here on the Frotcast (staaaaaged). BJ plays a wannabe Ira Glass type who goes to West Texas to do a podcast about the death of some girl he was hooking up with but doesn’t remember that well. It sort of evolves from a fish-out-of-water, Doc-Hollywood-with-a-podcaster type comedy to something almost resembling a thriller. It has Boyd Holbrook from Narcos and Ashton Kutcher, both doing some of their best work. It should be playing in a theater not too far from you right now. Anyway, I talked up BJ about NPR, working on Punk’d, and that quote about him saying going to Harvard made it harder that went around last week.

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Bonus: Party Boy, AKA Chris Pontius From Jackass

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It’s Party Boy! Who doesn’t love Party Boy? That’s right, I got to interview Chris Pontius from Jackass this week for the Jackass Forever movie tour, and I figured you’d probably want to hear his voice and not just read his words. Jackass is obviously one of my greatest joys in life, and if they would’ve let this interview go one for an hour and a half I never would’ve run out of questions. It’s only about 20, but we had fun nonetheless, asking Pontius all about his early days at Big Brother Magazine, getting fired from that and becoming a Charles Schwab intern before returning to the Jackass fold and becoming the go-to guy for all things penis-related. Here Pontius explains his worst penis injuries, the most painful Jackass stunts, why nudity is a comedy superpower, and the time he got cornered by a fan and found out it was Leonardo DiCaprio. I had a fantastic time and I hope you will too. How often do you get to ask someone how horse cum tastes?

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Interview: Bobcat Goldthwait And Dana Gould On Their New Comedy Doc, ‘Joy Ride,’ And All Of Their Showbiz Beefs

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Hey, Frotcast fans. Here’s another fun interview: Bobcat Goldthwait directed a concert slash road trip movie where he and Dana Gould go on the road and do stand-up together. Like… they get onstage together and do it as a duo, not just one dude at a time (just the way your mother likes it). Regular listeners will note: Matt and I are normally pretty averse to comedy specials, which oftentimes just feel like doing homework. BUT, and I can’t stress this enough, this one was great. It’s hard to even call it a “comedy special,” mixing as it does, footage of Bobcat and Dana onstage, them on the road, and even some historical footage of them as younger comedians. It’s more like a brand of loose storytelling. It doesn’t feel like having to sit through a comedy special.

Once again, the movie is called Joy Ride, and it will be out as a streaming rental this weekend. It should be available for pre-order now. Remember the name, JOY RIDE: just like your mom’s nickname in junior high.

Aaaaanyway, I think that’s all you need to know. Just listen! At the beginning here there’s a part that gets cut off, I was asking Bobcat about the poster he has of Barry Crimmins behind him. I got to interview Bobcat about his Barry Crimmins documentary a few years back, and then I interviewed Barry for his special when that came out a bit later. Barry died in 2018 (RIP to a real one, for real), that’s why Bobcat calls him “a drunk ghost.” I still don’t really understand who the Duffy twins are, but maybe some bright listener out there can fill me in? We love our obscure references, don’t we folks? Anyway, I always love talking to Bobcat, and Dana Gould was a delight as well, so… enjoy!

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Frotcast Bonus: Teaching Nic Cage To Cook, With Gabriel Rucker, Food Consultant for ‘Pig’

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Hey, Frotcast fans. Here’s an interview I did with Gabe Rucker. He is the chef/owner of Le Pigeon, in Portland, and recently he worked as the food consultant on the movie Pig, with Nicolas Cage. Nic Cage plays an ex-chef who is a hermit that lives in the forest with his pet pig foraging for mushrooms. Anyway, Gabe got to be the guy who taught Nicolas Cage to cook and created a dish for him to make in the movie. We talk about creating dishes for movies, why chefs seem to hate restaurant movies, how Gabe taught Nic Cage to smell a mushroom, and much, much more. Please to enjoy.

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Frotcast Bonus: Billy Corben On ‘Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings Of Miami’

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Hey, Frotcast fans. I have this interview for you I did with Billy Corben this week. He directed The U, the Cocaine Cowboys movies, Screwball, Broke on 30 for 30 — I think this is the third time I’ve talked to him, so we sort of know each other by now. He’s a great talker and always a great interview. His latest is called Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings Of Miami, and it’s out on Netflix. It’s about these guys Sal Magluta and Willy Falcón who were trafficking cocaine in Miami in the 80s and 90s. Beyond that I don’t think there’s anything you need to know to understand it. My voice sounds a little weird at first because I was getting an echo and I had to put a filter on my track, but hopefully it isn’t too bad. It also goes away about halfway through.

We haven’t done many episodes on the free feed lately, just because we’ve been busy doing Pod Yourself A Gun, and those are all free. If you’re still thirsty for more content, you can always subscribe on Patreon at Patreon.com/Frotcast. Do that! It’ll be awesome! Anyway, here’s me and Billy Corben.

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