Just when I thought there were no more reasons for me to feel superior and arrogant as a native New Yorker, along comes the Kevin Geeks Out series at the 92Y Tribeca in downtown Manhattan. A very unique comedy-variety film clip show, it was first brought to my attention back in October by Tenebrous Kate of Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire, back when Emmy-nominated comedy writer Kevin Maher was hosting an installment of Kevin Geeks Out pertaining to Vincent Price.Sadly, I couldn't make it to that particular event, but I did leave my suburban stronghold last night to at last take in the majesty that is Kevin Geeks Out. The subject of last night's event: Visions of the Future! And let me tell you, I never realized the future could be so hysterically funny.
Dressed as Orson Welles from when he narrated the 1981 Nostradamus "documentary" The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, Kevin regaled the unsuspecting audience with a series of vintage film clips, and brilliant presenters who walked us through various bizarre interpretations of the future from pop culture past, including lots and lots of stuff about the world being destroyed by nuclear war. In fact, Kevin's co-host, Scott Christian Carr, is an award-winning author and filmmaker whose favorite theme is the post-apocalypse.
What really got me down to Tribeca was the participation of Kate herself, who introduced some inspiredly awful clips from the Italian post-apocalypse cheese-fest The New Barbarians, featuring Fred "The Hammer" Williamson and that little boy from The House by the Cemetery. Clearly I need to track this film down post-haste and watch it from beginning to end.But we also got Daily Show writer Elliott Kalan taking us through his own personal obsession, the 1939 World's Fair, complete with stories from his own grandmother, who attended the event. This fascinated me very greatly, as I too, had always heard the stories of this legendary futurist extravaganza, and even own an authentic collector's coin from the exhibition given to me by my grandfather.
Plus, Popular Mechanics technology editor Seth Porges was a riot dissecting his periodical's woefully inadequate attempts to predict the future over the past 100+ years. Real-life psychic Jane Doherty enthralled the crowd with some creepy Criswell-like predictions of what is to come (woman president in 2020, and a vegetarian fast food chain by 2015, who knew?) And of course, we learned all about the sad saga of Electro the smoking robot (pictured at top).And there was much more, including perhaps most importantly of all, generous servings of Dippin' Dots, the Ice Cream of the Future, for everyone on-hand. So generous, in fact, that I was actually given the rest of the unconsumed Dippin' Dots to take home to my appreciative kids in a giant styrofoam case filled with dry ice. Said case was later mistaken for a container of body parts by a g
roup of inebriated party-goers who spotted me walking back to my car. To prove them wrong, I happily shared my Dippin' Dots with said drunken revelers before disappearing into the night, the mysterious Dippin' Dots Guy, as I'm sure they'll forever remember me...But back to Kevin Geeks Out. If you happen to be in the NYC area, I implore you to check this show out. You can find out more about it on the 92Y Tribeca website, where you will also learn that Kevin's next installment, Kevin Geeks Out About... Monkeys!, is coming up next month. Judging by the trailer alone, I will say it's a safe bet I will be there again. I had a blast watching the brilliant Kate do her thing, and also enjoyed the company of Emily I. from The Deadly Doll's House of Horror Nonsense, as well as Dylan and Christine of Paracinema Magazine. In short, a splendid time was had by all, and I look forward to geeking out with Kevin more... in the future!