Entertainment Ave! In Your House - A video review of Blobus Festivus: The Movie.

In simplest terms, "Blobus Festivus" was a music festival, part of one of those city festivals we all know and love during the summer months. "Blobus Festivus: The Movie" is a documentary, detailing the events surrounding the development of Blobus Festivus" as well as the follow-up, namely "The Rest of the Festivus For The Rest of Us." "Alright," you may be saying to yourself now, "What is so interesting about seeing how some bands are brought together for a festival?" I’ll tell you this - if you invest a short 45 minutes to watch this video the preceding question will pale in comparison to the "There’s no fucking way this was really a city festival, was it?"

The documentary starts off simply showing how "Blobus Festivus" was sort of born, out of love for the theme from the movie "The Blob." It travels quickly from there to the introduction of a cast of seemingly unbelievable characters, through some rehearsals and pre-festival partying, finally leading us to the festival itself. All seems to be going well as The Poppycocks (or as Pedro calls them, "The Poopycocks") take the stage, Ralph Covert leads a group of adults singing a song about a cow, we get some Elvis, Gigolo Johnny delights the crowd, and how can I almost forget The Buzzards featuring Hank the Crank. Evil Beaver does its best not to scare the crowd, but then just as Buzz and The Blobs take the stage, well, mother nature shows who is in charge and this event, larger than life with a script you could never dream up, comes to a halt. But does it?

Buzz Kilman, always doing his best to please his fans, or at least have a good time, decides on the spot that the festivus must go on. We are then transported to a bar at a later date for "The Rest of the Festivus For The Rest of Us," featuring Hank getting a date with the hubba-la-bubbula Lisa, and the "it will forever stick in your head" cover of "I’ve Got You Babe" featuring Wendy Snyder and the one and only Piranha Man. Intermixed throughout the documentary we get Piranha Man’s view on life, B.S. just wanting a t-shirt, Pedro’s testament of his whereabouts in case some cars get broken into, and Buzz playing with his dismembered-finger key chain. Yes, all of this is real.

There was a fake documentary, a few years ago, about a small town beauty pageant called "Drop Dead Gorgeous." It was full of colorful characters, was slightly entertaining, but those "fake" people are nothing compared to the eclectic mix of individuals featured for "Blobus Festivus," and the best part is that this event really happened. You could have probably even added another 45 minutes out of the 30 hours of footage that was shot, made this thing into a full-length documentary, shown it at Sundance, and had a movie people would think was the greatest staged documentary as opposed to the people who saw "Blair Witch" thinking it was real, although I wonder what the MPAA would rate it leaving in the scene of Evie Evil in the bathroom?

Now, as big a fan I am of Wendy and Buzz, I didn’t go to "Blobus Festivus" mostly because I watch The Weather Channel and saw what was coming. And fine, curse me because I didn’t go to "The Rest of the Festivus For The Rest of Us," but honestly, after seeing the documentary, it was almost better not being there live. I think being there almost might have ruined the sense of awe that came over me as I watched the video.

There were a couple of things I found odd, or might have changed for the documentary. First, I found it odd that a documentary about a festival developed around the theme from "The Blob" didn’t include Buzz and The Blobs covering the song. Second, I still don’t know if I like the dimly lit bar footage, but I guess that gives it a degree of realism. And lastly, I would have preferred even more footage, maybe of the rainstorm, maybe more of the bands, and a lot more of Lisa. Maybe that will come on the director’s cut or the DVD version if they are ever made.

In the end, if you want to see a short documentary on a festival you will not ever have believed happened, drop the few bucks and order the video because it's not in your local video store (use the link below). It’s documentary making at its bizarrest. 4 ½ stars out of 5. Submit this one to the Academy and go for that short documentary award, although I don’t know if they’ll appreciate the reinforcement that women should always wipe from back to front.

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