The 85-minute movie follows the trio's journey through a very shoddy spotlight. It opens with the pissy, walleyed Jerkbeast (codirector Brady Hall) clubbing pedestrians from a bicycle, only to change his course once he commandeers Benny (codirector Calvin Lee Reeder) and Marty (producer Brian Wendorf) to do a public access call-in show where the premise is to merely insult everyone who calls in. After fending off a singular groupie, Jerkbeast's thirst for the spotlight grows increasingly insatiable, and the threesome form a band, looking for more fame, opportunities for verbal abuse, and acclaim than cable television can offer. Chancing upon a hit with their song "Looks Like Chocolate, Tastes Like Shit," the band navigates unscrupulous managers, a waning fan base, and Benny's obsession with dead chicks by delivering one crass punch line after another.
The idea behind Benny, Marty, & Jerkbeast--which came out last summer, and has since showed at various screenings in Seattle, New York, and L.A. --started as an actual public-access show that aired for two seasons on Seattle's SCAN TV back in 2001. The concept behind the half-hour show, simply called Jerkbeast, was the same as what eventually became the movie--random people needing a dial-an-insult fix. It starred Marty, Benny, and Jerkbeast--all of whom spewed constant streams of gruff vitriol at friend and foe alike. According to its creators, the show was a success. "The phone was always jammed," says Hall. "Every time you pushed the hang-up button there was a new call coming in. Sometimes it was just a 10-year-old boy who wanted to say 'fuck' on TV. Or we had a lot of white-power guys calling."
They never planned on the yelling marathons turning into anything beyond a cable show, though. "[After] the first series we did, we didn't even want anyone to see Jerkbeast again," says Reeder. "And then our buddy Andy McAllister made this movie Shag Carpet Sunset with a public-access sequence and we were totally inspired by it." Adds Hall, "We wrote out the story [for Benny, Marty, & Jerkbeast] at Burger King right after we saw that movie."
The trio had worked together on a feature-length film once before. In 2002, on a budget of roughly $5,000, they self-released Polterchrist, a B-grade horror movie about a bloodthirsty Jesus returning to Earth. The humor in that film, like Benny, Marty, & Jerkbeast, was a crude David Lynch meets Repo Man--warped shit that teeters between brilliant and stupid, spawned out of countless inside jokes.
They started filming Benny, Marty, & Jerkbeast in 2002, putting up $6,000 of their own money and casting a crew of friends and local actors, with a couple musician cameos thrown in for good measure. Although the film has had successful screenings, the group says it's been a struggle getting their offbeat comedy into the festival circuit--although, as of press time, the film had been accepted to the San Diego Underground Film Festival. "Rock-n-roll kids get it immediately," says Reeder, who also plays bass with local spaz punks the Popular Shapes. "Rock-n-roll kids go to shows and see fucked-up shit all the time, and they're like, 'Yeah, that's great.' But independent-film enthusiasts see it and they're like, 'This doesn't have a lot of focus.'" To that end, Hall says the team is trying to get distribution for their film--now available on DVD--through a record label instead of a film company.
They also claim that SIFF showed interest in Benny, Marty, & Jerkbeast but didn't select the movie in the end. "We were pissed because SIFF was telling us to submit it and then rejected us," says Reeder. "So we were like, 'Fine, fuck you guys, we're going to have a screening across the street. And we're going to promote the shit out of it and have a better time than you guys can have.'" The same DIY attitude and insult arsenal that spawned the Jerkbeast character seems instilled in its creators, and with the monster himself in attendance at this week's screening, the laughs will be at everyone's expense, SIFF or no SIFF.
Benny, Marty, & Jerkbeast screens with the shorts Practical Butt Cutter (starring members of the Holy Ghost Revival), and The Gibraltar Code at Oliwood Theaters, 910 1/2 E Pine St, Fri June 4, 7:30 pm, $7.
