Two years ago, Drew Prochaska and his friends started SPOILER, a film comedy project in which selected funny participants had two months to produce a 5-minute short using a topic voted on by all involved. At the end of those two months, there was a night of screenings and drunken shenanigans -- which felt more like a wild, fun party than it did a film fest. Basically, SPOILER rocks and Gothamist makes sure never to miss one any of their quarterly shows. The upcoming SPOILER 8: "Deadline," on Wednesday, November 30, will feature plenty of heavy drinking and original comedy shorts by Slovin & Allen, The Cowboy & John, and The Wicked Wicked Hammerkatz at the UCB Theater.
What inspired you to start SPOILER, a comedic film short festival?
It was a liquor-fuelled New Year’s Eve promise to myself back in 2002. I was 28, and had been hanging out with a crowd of really funny fellas, and all we would ever talk about is all the funny shit that we should be doing. I even started outlining a screenplay for us called “You Know What We Should Do…?” So, one boozy night, I decided we all needed a good kick in the ass, and I booked a night at Void and challenged all of my friends to make a five-minute comedy short in under two months. Three years later, we’re still at it, and we’ve met some pretty amazing filmmakers along the way.
NYC’s been through a lot. Don’t you think there’s been enough “film festivals” established?
I guess that depends on what you mean by “film festivals”. If we’re talking about markets for folks to shop around their films to prospective buyers and pat each other on the back – then, yeah. I think New York has enough of those. But then there are festivals like SPOILER, and Channel 102, and the 48-Hour Film Project, where the goal of the show is to challenge people to create new material. As far as I’m concerned, there aren’t enough of those.
Your last fest boasted such great comedians as Gothamist-fav Aziz Ansari, Andrea Rosen, and Nick Kroll. How did you bribe NYC’s finest?
We also had Slovin & Allen, who are really awesome and are making a film for SPOILER 8. We’ve been fans of Aziz and Andrea’s for a while. Aziz was already on board to make a film (check out “Wallpuncher”), and luckily he volunteered to do a set at the show for us. We also have Aziz to thank for introducing us to Nick Kroll. He killed that night.
What makes an excellent 5 minute short?
I really wish I knew the secret, but what seems to matter most to our audience is laughs. We’ve had folks spend thousands on their films, travel huge distances, and go to painstaking efforts to make the best-looking film possible, only to be completely overshadowed by some guy who pulled a film out of his ass with a Hi-8 camera the day before the due date. Eye-candy is great, but in the end, folks just want to laugh. This is shits-and-giggles filmmaking, here.
Are you content with your seasonal SPOILER fests empire or do you intend to expand?
I’d really like to have a monthly or bi-monthly show. I might go bald and get cirrhosis from all the nervous drinking, but I love this little show of ours and I’d like to do more. I’d also like to open the show up to more new filmmakers.
You're originally from Canada , and some of your favorite comedy troupes, such The Kids in Hall, relate back to your home country. How much of your humor and attitude are shaped by your un-American upbringing?
I was born in Montreal, but moved to the States when I was one, so I can’t say that I picked up much in my time there. But I do love beer, John Candy, maple syrup and am fascinated by moose, so who knows?
By the way, I just looked up the plural of “moose”. It’s indeed moose, and not mooses or meece. There’s my American public school education shining through.
It's been said that mankind uses comedy as a means to deal with suffering and tribulations, and therefore, comedians are the most screwed up of all. Would you say that's an accurate observation of yourself and the SPOILER hosts?
Honestly, we’re a bunch of middle-class white kids, what do we know about suffering? I couldn’t say what fuels anyone’s sense of humor, but I can say that the core team behind SPOILER – which is myself, Aaron Wilson, and Jonpaul Riggle – are pretty competitive bastards and the show has really become a private little competition to one-up each other and clamor for the coveted ugly ballerina statuette for Best Picture.
Questionnaire:
Of all the dirty movies ever made, which would you liked to have directed?
“Party at Kitty and Stud's” with Sylvester Stallone – which is also one of the funniest movies ever made.
Best NYC bar:
The Bushwick Country Club. I’m hoping I get a free shot or two for that.
Comedic influences:
Bill Hicks, David Cross, Patton Oswalt -- too many to mention
Preferred heckler's retort:
The post-show sucker-punch.
In a battle to the death, who would win: Robocop or Megatron the Transformer? And what song would best capture the fight scene?
Robocop, hands-down. It’d have to be to “You Got The Touch” by Stan Bush from the Transformers: The Movie soundtrack. Did I just fail the geek test?
The soundtrack to the movie of your life would consist primarily of:
Kenny Loggins
The funniest thing about living in Brooklyn:
The hipster-haters.
