gorilla flicks

last call: the 2017 gorilla flicks holiday party

This year, like every other for the past three to be precise, Tremaine locks down a location and rounds us all up from our various corners of the universe for a family-style night of drinks, food, and fun—the pinnacle of fun being a certain "White Elephant" gift exchange game that has only grown and amped up in energy over time. Catch LA was the restaurant of choice, and they wisely provided us with a room and bar all unto our own, thereby minimizing any collateral damage to other patrons of more intimate, eating minds and tolerances. But look at the photos, look at the silly little photos, and have yourself a good one this holiday season!

Please make note how all the photos are nicely composed and well lit, because it's not going to last long. This was still early in the evening, so Barry Smoler and Jen look pretty in black at far left; middlemen Wee-Man and Chris Pontius could be Dasher and Dancer; and Wayne and Shanna Newton came totally correct in their very formal party attire at very far right.

And it just wouldn't be a big time Hollywood night if Tremaine wasn't taking a call, so Sean Cliver and Mae Quijada adapted to the moment in kind at left, while Rick Kosick at right later caught him off the phone and in a shirt bearing his bang-a-gong likeness from jackass the movie!

Once the food hit the table, so did the people. At far left, Shad reflects upon his life choices and the watershed of reasons he doesn't allow people to comment on his Instagram profile, while Guch remains the eternal sage; Joe Oz ran the middle of the table in pitch perfect 1st AD form, while his next door neighbor David Siev made sure all the strings were orchestrated behind the scenes and running smooth, just as he does at the office; and then of course Amanda Adelson had to tell everyone to "Go To 15" via sign language amid an animated Spike Jonze, a bemused Kosick, and a confused Tremaine at far right.

Shanna and Spike eventually managed to coerce Amanda into not doing something unladylike for a photo at far left, while Lucky Pierre's Johnny Knoxville and Sean Cliver went the complete opposite direction. Wee-Man, on the other hand, grabbed the bull by the beef and filled his stomach accordingly at far right.

And so we finally arrive at the "White Elephant" game of thrills, where Dimitry Elyashkevich arguably came up on one of the true premiums of the night, a coveted #MAGA hat, at far left; or, did Shanna score the score of scores in the middle with Spike's original drawing of "Jeff and PJ Forever"? No, it was definitely Tremaine at far right who locked up the prize possession with some cockamamie if not outright disturbing Edward Scissorhands-esque straightjacket fresh off the racks of Hot fucking Topic.

Thanks again to Tremaine and Shanna for throwing down for the night of extended family fun. Thanks also to Kosick, Wee-Man, and Mae for having the presence of mind and wherewithal to take photos amid the revelry!

meet jackass fan artist jericho vilar

Kosick: Who are you?

Jericho: My name is Jericho Vilar. I’m just an average artist that has never done anything outside of Instagram, to be perfectly honest.  

Where are you from?

I was originally born in the Philippines, but I grew up in Glendale, California. I relocated to Santa Ana when I got married and had a family.

When did you start drawing and doing artsy stuff?

I started drawing ever since I was a kid. When I came over from the Philippines I got super enamored by American comic books and cartoons. I latched onto that as a way to learn about the language and the culture, and it stuck with me ever since. I’m super into the storytelling and the colors, the creativity and the imagination.

How would you describe your style?

It’s been changing over the years. I’m self-taught and I never went to college for art. I’m into loose portraiture… a little bit realistic but not too in depth because I don’t think I have the acumen to get in there with super crazy details for realistic stuff. But I try and change up stuff up and keep my style as loose as possible.

Who are some of the other artists you look to for inspiration?

Tony Harris is comic book artist that I always love. He did Starman for DC. Gabriel Bá, he did The Umbrella Academy and Casanova. A lot of Instagram artists that I follow have been a great source of inspiration, too, and my brother is a classically trained animator. He’s actually animating the Unkitty on WB, so he’s always been a major influence on me. Obviously there’s always going to be a civil rivalry between us, but I’ve always been a huge fan of his work.

Well, one thing you got over your brother is he’s not getting interviewed today.

Haha… Thank you again. This is an unbelievable opportunity.

What made you want to draw all of the jackass cast members? 

Earlier in the year, I did the same thing with The Lost cast. There are like 50 some odd creatures, so I went deep there. I did it for kind of a cool down, like a moment of relaxation, because I usually do this stuff at the end of the day just to wind down. I saw the episode of Epicly Later’d of Spike Jonze and that just kickstarted all of it. I was like, man, I have to revisit jackass, because it was such an important moment for me when I was in high school when I first saw it. Then I started watching all the movies and I thought, why not, I think it would be fun wind down my night by drawing the characters from jackass.

Who was the first one you drew?

Oh, it was Knoxville.

Where do you see yourself going with all of this?

To be honest, I don’t know. Recently in July I started a T-shirt brand on Instagram and that’s going okay. I just don’t think I have enough connections, because I came into this late in the game… especially with the social media aspect. I usually just draw for myself or my family. I was never really one for displaying my art to the public. A lot of it is just a hobby to keep myself sane and wind down. I guess I’m just focusing on the T-shirt brand and to put myself out there a little bit more. Hopefully something will pop and I’ll take it from there.

I don’t think it’s ever too late. It’s great what you are doing. I think if you’re consistent with it and keep going something will come from it, and right now this interview is a testament to it.

Awesome, and thank you again. I was completely blown away when you left a comment and liked my Instagram post.

Hey, you know what, sometimes it’s the little things that help people get going in life.

last call: the dumb screening at cinefamily

In Los Angeles. Last Friday. And Saturday, actually, but that was more of a public affair, whereas the previous night was the VIP extravaganza (with an extra helping of the vaganza). Anyway, as always, here is a smorgasbord of people photos to pick through and feast upon, kind of like the fried macaroni and cheese balls that Cinefamily served up as eventide whore dervz… or hors d'oeuvres, I suppose, if you want to get all fancy-pants about it.

Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine has since launched on Hulu and can be streamed on-demand in the privacy of your own home. Please be aware that this documentary features lots and lots of naughtiness, defecation, and full-frontal nudity—male full-frontal nudity—so maybe take Jeremy Klein's advice and not watch it with your mother. Historically speaking, Big Brother has never fared so well with the parental types.

Thanks again to Cinefamily and Hulu for pulling out all the stops on this West Coast event! Now on with the faces and traditionally dumb captions.

Left to right: Giovanni Reda may have wound up on the cutting room floor, but he was nominated to be the moderator of the post-screening Q&A; Johnny Knoxville was fresh off the boat from filming in South Africa; The Q&A panel consisted of almost all the mag's former staff, sans Chris Nieratko.

Left to right: Bret "Scan Boy" Banta with his twin-ish brother Bayard; Aaron "King of All Skate Nerds" with Mother Fuckin' David Deery; The Mansfield audio dudes.

Left to right: Rick Kosick curated a photography and ephemera show for the Cinefamily patio gallery; Keith "Blind Date" Hufnagel; Dave Carnie, Marc McKee, and Dimitry Elyashkevich anchored the left-side of the Q&A shitshow.

Left to right: Heather Lee Jones is now Heather Lee Dixon after getting hitched to Kenny; The one and only Earl Parker with Scott Manning, Jason Jessee, and the Carn Carn; Shanna Zablow Newton with the time zone-punched Chris Pontius.

Left to right: Longtime Dickhouse and Gorilla Flicks men Matt Kosinski, Barry Smoler, Seth Casriel, and Mike Kassak; Loomis Fall poses beside an original Wee-Man photo from 1995; Andy Roy did not have to goggle Dumb director Patrick O'Dell after all.

Left to right: Lionel Boyce makes a dwarf of Jeff Tremaine; Proud pee-er Kendra Gaeta and the barely present yet still accounted for Sean Cliver; The Beastie Boys were there! No, no they weren't. That's just Matt Probst and Josh Lingenfelter.

Left to right: Jason Shelton, Jason Searcy, and Bill "Not a Jason" Weiss; Duh, obviously; Photographer Tobin Yelland, artist Chad Muska, and musician Dave Roen cover all the creative bases.

(Photos by Rick Kosick and Jennica Abrams; courtesy of Cinefamily)

behind the music: "snapped" by the phunk junkeez

The other day, and quite out of the blue, someone asked me if I had appeared in the music video for "Snapped" by the Phunk Junkeez. I was shocked, because A) I'm not a face often (or ever) recognized; and B) I'd completely forgotten about the video as I thought it had never been released. So off to YouTube I clicked and there, by god, was the music video that I'd once participated in with Kendra Gaeta and Jeff Tremaine on a summery weekend day in 1995. We were simple, lowly folk then, working on Big Brother skateboard magazine, and our only minimal connection to the big time world of Hollywood was through our friend Spike Jonze, who was starting to make a real splash in the music video scene on MTV.

This was the era of the "wonder kids," and although Spike was the primary cannonball, there were a few notable others, like Harmony Korine and Jake Fogelnest, both of whom were making waves as well. Jake, famous for his homespun Squirt TV show in New York, was the director of the Phunk Junkeez video that day, but Spike was on set as well, and that's how our dumbasses got cast as extras for the day of filming at a retail shipping store on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. So we came, we did what was directed, and that was the last I heard anything at all about the video until asked about it the other day.

According to the official YouTube description for the music video it was "banned from MTV during the mid-'90s due to references of 'going postal.'" This is, of course, due to the fact "many postal occurrences happened during that decade, henceforth the catchphrase," and it also explains why I never heard a single word about the damn video. I'd just assumed it came out like a chunk (phunk?) of crap and never left the edit bay, but that's typical for cynical silly me. Mind you, this was also still years before the internet placed information and porn at our fingertips, and it looks like this video wasn't even uploaded until 2010.

My favorite part of the YouTube description, though, is the "Featuring Spike Jonze" claim. Spike, in modest disguise, appeared for all of 8 seconds or so at the very end of the video, but as any clever marketing guru will tell you, it's all about the hook and whatever it takes to get that almighty click. What they should have said, however, was that it featured the four-time number one box office champion movie director Jeff Tremaine, because the DP really managed to capture the magical allure of his award-winning blue eyes. I'm still mesmerized, and no doubt you will be, too. He's like Dracula! Or an Edward, I guess, if we're trying to make relevant references that aren't from the 1930s. Hashtag Team Tremaine. —Sean Cliver

a gorilla flicks holiday gift giving guide

Every year, well, not every year but almost every year, we like to recommend a few items for your holiday gift giving needs and/or desires. This year is no different and for all I know it will feature a lot of what was recommended in years of holiday past with but a few new shits on the block. Regardless, similar to diamonds, jackass is forever with Wildboyz being the ultimate rush, the ultimate high! And with every emerging country in this world there is a whole new market to be tapped like a keg and drained of all monetary sense, because, after all, that is what the holidays are for: yule logs to keep the economic fires burning hard—so hard.

Her

He may not have gold teeth, but he did win a golden award—an Academy Award, to be precise, so you know he's hardcore. He being Spike Jonze. Her being the movie he wrote and directed. Her will make you laugh at times, cry at others, but simultaneously make you ponder the fate of humanity as it dives down a technological rabbit hole of social self-absorption. It will also drop your jaw at the nifty job of Production Design through the creative eyes of K.K. Barrett. For classic Jonze kicks, though, you can always pick up his Director's Series collection of music videos and short flicks.

 

Wildboyz

For all of us that worked and traveled on Wildboyz it remains to be our crown jewel. I believe Wildboyz may also be the standard by which all other shows on Animal Planet and Discovery measure themselves, but that may also just be me writing shit out of my ass. Whatever the case, Wildboyz was that next great evolutionary leap in nature programming, the likes of which transcended the classroom and graduated to theme nights at a prominent gay club in West Hollywood. Chris Pontius and Steve-O commandeered four seasons of Wildboyz in all, covering most all regions on the globe in a generally uncovered fashion, with a bevy of guest-stars including Wee Man, Johnny Knoxville, Mat Hoffman, Manny Puig, David Hasselhoff, and more!

happy birthday to spike jonze!

It's Spike's birthday today, so it makes perfect sense to go 14 years back in time to the year 2000 ... aside from the bald-assed fact that one of these photos was shot in 1999, but if you take the Law Of Averages and apply it accordingly, well, you split hairlips and come out in 2000. Regardless, a/k/a who gives a shit, this diptych squared of one-chip digital spurts on the jackass television series shows Spike at work (filming a hydrocolonoscopy), at play (driving a hearse), and in cognito (upper left for a "poo poo platter" and lower left for a certain outlawed "convict" in West Hollywood). Damn it's a wonder what the simple change of a ballcap will do for one's appearance. Happy Birthday, Spike!

(All photos by Sean Cliver)

own bad grandpa .5 on blu-ray/dvd today!

Tactile by nature? Touchy and feely by consumer design? Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa .5 is out now in hard copy form, a/k/a a packaged and produced Blu-ray/DVD, and comes brimming with bonus crap beyond words. Well, not that beyond words, as I guess I can tell you about a roundtable (though there is no table) discussion between Jeff Tremaine, Johnny Knoxville, and Spike Jonze, where they dig in deep—so deep—with the who, what, why, and how of Irving Zisman's world. There's also a spotlight on the "marks", a/k/a the real life people who starred in a major motion picture without even realizing it, where you'll get to meet Cinnamon, The Penguin Guy, and a few other noteable faces that reacted to Irving and Billy's antics. And of course there's the extended story of the Academy Award-nominated makeup process, too. See all this and more by owning Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa .5 today. Order your copy here or here:

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa .5 Blu-ray/DVD

(Photo by Sean Cliver; 2012)

the evolution of irving zisman

It's out on Digital HD download and coming to Blu-ray/DVD in just under two weeks... Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa .5. A title that looks just this side of ridiculous when it's punctuated by a period at the end of a sentence. That's neither here, there, or anywhere unless you've a keen Strunk & White eye for the details, but more to the topic of point is a segment in the aforementioned all-new feature that is a trip down memory lane, where we retrace the steps and missteps of Irving Zisman, from his lowly origins on the jackass TV series to the Academy Award-nominated makeup masterpiece seen in Bad Grandpa.

We've worked with the same effects house the whole way through—Alterian Inc., helmed by Tony Gardner—and they are, without a doubt, the integral link in Irving's evolution. Without their mastery in the art of elderly transformation and deception, well, fuck, there's no way that Johnny Knoxville could've stood face to face with so many people in public (in broad daylight!) and gotten away with the shenanigans he did—all voice issues aside. So, once again, hats off to Tony, Stephen, Will, Bart, Jamie, and all the other artists that contributed to Irving's success!

Pre-order Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa .5 on Blu-ray today, so come July 8th you can put on some Depends and plop your incontinent ass in front of the TV for all the added bonus material, including an extended look at Johnny Knoxville vs. the makeup chair.

jackass presents: bad grandpa .5... available now!

On Digital HD, that is, and yes, you can get it now, NOW, NOW (it's really hard to replicate monster truck arena announcing in print, so please inhale some imaginary exhaust fumes and resound it as such in the confines of your head)! Click the link and catch a snatch of Gloria's proposed pink:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/jackass-presents-bad-grandpa.5/id879835146

P.S. Yes, that's Oscar-nominated makeup effects artist Stephen Prouty doing his due diligence in prepping Gloria, a/k/a Spike Jonze, for going undercover and over the top!

(Photo by Sean Cliver; Charlotte, North Carolina 2012)

pre-order your copy of bad grandpa .5 now

Never before has an in-office debate reached such heated proportions as to how our subsequent Bad Grandpa feature should be titled in the decimal sense. One faction was a staunch supporter of 1.5, claiming Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa took the "1" spot, so any follow up would logically land thereafter; whereas the other remained firmly entrenched in the .5 camp. In the inexplicable end, the .5ers took the title honors. So it goes. All you really need to know, though, is that Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa .5 is loaded with all the never-before-seen hot shit bits that had to be sidelined from the main feature. In addition to further naughty adventures of Irving Zisman, a/k/a Johnny Knoxville, we're talking full-fledged prank scenes involving big time Hollywood actress Catherine Keener (as Irving's wife "Ellie") and Oscar-winning screenwriter Spike Jonze (as "Gloria", pictured above)! Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa .5 also goes into the Oscar-nominated makeup effects, a history of the Irving Zisman character, and behind-the-scenes peeks at the idiocy it takes to make a hidden camera movie in public, so check out this exclusive tease and then pre-order your copy here.

(Photo by Sean Cliver; Charlotte, North Carolina 2012)