MEDIA BLITZ
Rocking in the
shadow of the
grim reaper,
Bill (Alex
Winter) and
Ted (Keanu
Reeves) party
on at Devil's
Rock (above),
in a scene from
their latest
most awesome
flick, Bill &
Ted's Bogus
Journey. Like a
scene from a
Halloween
nightmare,
Barrie Evan's
toy and mask
collection
(right) looms
ominously
from the corner
of his room.
Notice the
actual mask
from Predator
plus assorted
other scary
monsters
standing
ready to repel
all trespassers.
TS: And they want to get down and
suck your dick
AW: They're tough to deal with
sometimes
TS: MTV pretty much gave us free
reign on the Idiot Box I thought that
was brave considering their history
of people showing their toes naked.
You aren't allowed to show that big
toe when it's got all that hairy
fungus on it.
AW: Toe jam is found to be unap-
pealing to the demographic.
Do either of you guys skate?
TS. Yeah, I skate, but I don't realy
perform tricks of daring do
AW: I used to skate, but I don't real
ly skate anymore. Not since I took
up needlework.
TS: I skate around the Venice area.
AW: And I crochet pillows and wait
anxiously for his retum.
What kind of kind of examples
BODACIOUS BLOODLETTERS they're living in their own apartment do you guys try and set for the
Two hip and swinging dudes, Alex
Winter and Tom Stern, have
worked together on various projects
for awhile now. They've directed
videos like Impact Magazine (in
cluding a tasty Butthole Surfers
barbeque), the Chili Peppers
"Taste The Pain, Ice Cube's
"Who's The Mack?," a new pro-
gram on MTV called Idiot Box and
many other projects too numerous
to mention in this feeble introducto-
ry space. Alex is best known for his
part in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adven
bure (and now Bogus Joumey) and
as a teen vampire in The Lost
Boys. Brian Brannon cornered
them for a phone interview
If you've got anything important
to say, you have to say it now.
AW: Can I hang up?
No, dude, tell me what you've
been up to.
AW: Weil, right now we're doing a
movie we hope to shoot in the fall,
a comedy about freaks. We'll be
writing all through the summer then
hopefully make it in October
Like the old movie Freaks?
AW: No, it's about a brat pack actor
who goes to South America and
gets turned into a freak.
Are you trying to get away from
your image from Bill & Ted's
Excellent Adventure?
AW: No. I'm trying really hard to get
back to it, I just keep getting dis
tracted. I'll get there, you'll see.
What about this new movie Bill &
Ted Go To Hell or whatever?
AW: Bil and Ted's Bogus Journey
Well, it's a big improvement on the
first one It's funnier, the scope is
bigger, it's a better story. They're
more pathetic in this one and the
stakes are higher, which makes
them funnier. They're trying to hold
down jobs, they're out of school,
72 THASHER MAGAONE
and they're still completely incom
petent. It's like Bugs Bunny-no
matter how much you beat him
down he just keeps coming back as
if nothing was ever wrong. I think
that's why they're funnier, because
things are so pitful, yet they're still
so unflappable. They're smiling in
the face of ridiculous odds and the
irony is funny.
Do you ever have to compromise
when working with the big wigs?
AW: Sometimes I want to jitterbug
and they say no.
TS: They want to fax-trat
AW: Other times you want to do a
Flamenco.
youth of America?
TS: I don't know, a lot of drug use.
AW: Senseless sex and violence.
Worshipping the hooted one.
TS: Helping kids.
AW: That's right, kids are important
We do all this stuff for the kids.
TS: Just like Jerry Lewis. I hope the
loot Box is something different that
kids can find exciting. A lot of adults
don't get it or think it's senseless
violence. But, when I was a kid. I
loved watching Monty Python, and
that seemed senseless and ridicu-
lous. But I think it had a good affect
on me, because I grew up and did
something equally senseless.
Is the senseless violence part of
the marketing technique for the
idiot Box?
AW: Personally I just find sense-
less violence really funny
Does it have to be senseless to
be funny?
AW. No, but I think violence helps
it's slapstick, and in slapstick the
joke is usually that it's senseless.
Funny violence isn't harmful: it's
maybe helpful. It's cathartic, it
helps you get out the aggression
and hostility that everybody has in
a funny way.
TS: Except me, except Alex.
AW: Im a peace loving man.
TS: To him the funny violence just
gives him ideas that he would have
never thought of.
AW: Cooohhh, I like it. (laughter)
TS: But you know what I say in the
long run is fuck 'em.
will you do more stuff in the
same vein?
AW: Well, this movie Freekz is a
work on the arteries... No. but it's
in the same neck of the woods and
it's the same style of black comedy
basically, but it's really absurd,
wacked-out, fast-paced, and filled
with violence. Actually, this really
isn't going to be as viclent as the
Idiot Box in the long run.
What kind of advice would you
give to people that want to get
into what your doing?
AW: Tell 'em to get out! We're
doing it! Join the Army, they need
some discipline.
TS: Want a piece of our action?
Get lost, you creeps! I'll gouge out
your eyes!
TOY COLLECTING: (OR, SORRY SALLY, I JUST BLEW ALL MY CASH ON GODZILLA)
Every pack rat worth his weight in cheese knows how
much fun it is to collect stuff. Whether it's something as
common as discarded shoe shine bottles or as expensive
as vintage stock Ferraris, the
fun is in the hunt, the kill and
finally, in mounting the trophy
above the mantle.
One thing that's cool to col-
lect is toys. Ever since Disney
went popular, fantasy has
been marketable and toy com
panies have been raking in the
bucks. It's even worse in
Japan because they crank out
stuff faster and cheaper than
America. This is due to the popularity of cartoons like
Astroboy, Speed Racer, 8th Man, and ive action shows
like Ultra Man, Kikaida, and Kamen Raider
Some of the Japanese overflow has hit our shores as
American companies buy the rights to make them. For
instance, a million toys exist on Godzilla, from small
pocket-size models costing one dollar, to a three-foot
figure big and ugly enough to keep your little brother out
of your room which costs a whopping 150 bones. There
are telephone rests that talk, cigarette lighters, lamps,
squirt guns, banks, and hundreds more.
If monsters are your bag, try old Aurora model kits of
the 60s and the 70s like Frankenstein, Dracula and The
Creature From The Black Lagoon, If models are boring,
collect latex masks. Believe it or not, there is even a mask
collecting club called "The Halloween Society." These
guys are hardcore fanatics
who make and trade their own
heads. Robots are cool to col-
lect and fun to screw around
with, but Japanese toys are
expensive and sometimes
hard to find. Some of the best
are transforming robots that
blast through ship hulls.
skragging hundreds of dirtball
aliens, and motorcycles that
form battle suits. American
versions usually don't have missiles that shoot after a kid
took a Battlestar Galactica Viper Jet, tired the missile
down his throat and choked to death (the dumb le
shit!). I guess Japanese kids aren't that stupid.
What's Raideen without his shooting fists. Go on with
out his blazing sword, or Aphrodite "A" without her balis-
tic boobs? Let's face it, Americans lead dull lives! Look at
what we have: GI Joe, Rainbow Brite, and worst of all,
Cabbage Patch shitheads! Let's talk mindwarping! I'd
rather have my kid growing up with robots that save the
world than stupid bean brain dolls that do nothing but
waste money and get drooled on. I'm gonna grab my sis
ter's Barbie and do a grind across its head! -Barrie Evans
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