The Con-Time Machine

Hello team,

I thought I’d share this little short film I made a month ago. It’s of marginal interest to I-man fans because A. I and jason Makiaris are in it and B. It’s sort of a spoof on H.G. Wells’ “The Time-Machine”, forefather of our beloved Invisible Man.

This was entered into the Channel 101 short film monthly competition, in which the top five voted films get to make additional episodes. This actually finished sixth, oddly enough, right behind my return series “Quest“, so it was a mixed evening to be sure.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Mike

http://one.revver.com/watch/155330

Urgent: The Sci Fi “Invisible Man” Forum Needs Your Vote!

Do you remember the great little board forum that The Invisible Man had at SciFi.com?  Remember how we grumbled and complained when Sci Fi deleted it?  Well, the I-Man forum has a chance to come back to the Sci Fi board, but it needs your vote!

Sci Fi is holding a poll right now to give fans a chance to vote if they want their favorite shows’ forums restored to the bulletin board.  As of this posting, Invisible Man has 11 votes, and according to Sci Fi, all a show needs is 10 votes, so technically we should see our old forum restored to the site in the near future.  Yay! 

So why am I asking you to go vote?  Well, because I’d love to send a message to Sci Fi that the I-Man audience is still here and still supporting their show.  I, for one, would love to see I-Man reruns back on TV and this could be a way to send Sci Fi executives that message (not to mention that reruns would help the movie project).  I think we can do a heck of a lot better than 11 votes. 

The poll is open until January 31, 2007, so there is very little time.  Please vote and spread the word to everyone you know and get them to vote.

To vote go to the SciFi.com forums and scroll down and click on the General Discussion section.  Then click on the New forums for old favorites topic near the top of the list to vote for The Invisible Man.  You must be signed in to vote.

Thank you for your help.

Eddie Continues His Role in “Death of a Salesman”

Death of a SalesmanIf you’ve missed Eddie Jones‘ previous performances in Death of a Salesman, you’ve got another chance to see him shine in this role.  Eddie has sent the following note, as well as a great review, that I’m passing on to all of you. 

Hello All,
I have been given the privilege of playing Willy again. I think I am getting pretty close to getting it right. Check our production out. Please.

Death of a Salesman at the Odyssey
A Review By Kelly Monaghan

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman enjoys iconic status in the American theatrical canon and justly so. However, in an odd way, its success has worked against it.  Revivals tend to attract mega-stars to the role of Willie Loman and the productions built around them tend to strive for operatic grandeur. The result is often less than successful, as perfectly illustrated by recent productions starring Dustin Hoffman and Brian Dennehy. The Willies we get in these bloated, star-driven vehicles are intriguingly idiosyncratic (Hoffman) or downright bathetic (Dennehy), but the play inevitably suffers.

Now Los Angeles’ estimable Odyssey Theatre is presenting a human-scale reading of the play that allows it to speak with the quiet power that I think Miller intended.

The Odyssey production, under the unobtrusive direction of Bob Collins, allows veteran character actor Eddie Jones to turn in a masterful performance that is quite literally heart-wrenching. I have never seen Miller’s merciless deconstruction of the American myth of success rendered more powerfully or more simply. I confess that I am unfamiliar with Jones’ work, but if this isn’t the greatest performance of his career then I feel cheated from having missed him in earlier roles.

Linda Loman, Willie’s long-suffering wife, is often portrayed as a beaten-down woman in performances that are muted to avoid drawing attention from the star. Anne Gee Byrd is something a revelation, giving us a Linda Loman who lives up to Biff’s description of her as a “woman with substance.” She is quite simply superb, every inch Jones’ equal and, through her love and loyalty, we are able to see the Willie that was in the sad, beaten man who is.

Ivan Baccarat (Biff) and Aaron McPherson (Happy) as the Loman’s flawed sons do a good job of making concrete the fatal flaws in the world view Willie wants so desperately to pass on to them. Baccarat works especially well with Jones. The scene late in the play in which Biff sees Willie at his most-human and most-pathetic is embarrassing to watch, which is just as it should be.

Miller, unlike most other playwrights, has the gift of creating small roles that allow good actors to score indelible impressions with a few scant moments of stage time. The supporting performers in this production seize the opportunity. Robert Machray (Uncle Ben), Alan Charof (Charley), Jeremy Shouldis (Bernard), and Lou Volpe (Stanley, the waiter) are all excellent. And Jill Jacobson (The Woman) makes Willie’s cruel betrayal of Linda perfectly understandable.

This is, quite simply, a superb production of a great American classic. If you are in the L.A. area, don’t miss it.

Salesman runs from January 20th through February 25th. Tickets are $22 to $26, with discounts for students and union actors. For more information call 310-477-2055 or log on to www.odysseytheatre.com.

See Paul Perform Live on Stage

If you’ve always wanted to see Paul Ben-Victor perform live on stage (what fan wouldn’t?), now is your chance.  The Good Steno is coming to the Hayworth Theater in Los Angeles, California.  It will be playing every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. from February 9 through March 25.  Previews will be on February 3 and 4.

The Good Steno was written by Paul and his mother, Leah Kornfeld Friedman.  Paul also directs and stars in this play.  Busy guy!

The theater is located at:

Hayworth Theater
2509 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 
MapQuest Map

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at Brown Paper Tickets via their website or by calling 1-800-838-3006.

Paul Ben-Victor

Mike Guest Stars in “Chad Vader”

There’s a fun little series going around the Internet called Chad Vader.  It’s a spoof on the Star Wars Darth Vader character.  Created by Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda of Blame Society Productions, the latest installment, Episode 5 (Holiday Special), features our own Mike McCafferty as a rather unconventional ghost.

Go check it out on YouTube and may the force be with you.

Mike McCafferty

U.K. DVDs

Of all the I-Man DVDs available for purchase, the U.K. version is the best one out there, in my opinion.  Not only do you get the episodes, but you also get some really great special features:

  • Interview with Vincent Ventresca, Paul Ben-Victor, and Mike McCafferty, with their commentaries on the episodes
  • Notes from Mike McCafferty
  • Episode trivia
  • Scripts for each episode as DVD-ROM content
  • Make-up gallery
  • Alternate opening to “Money for Nothing” (Part 2) 
  • Interview with Eddie Jones and Mike McCafferty

UK I-Man DVD 1

  UK I-Man DVD 2

Some pretty cool features, eh?  Well, we have Ian Atkins to thank for these beauties and, of course, let’s not forget our cast who willingly gave of their time to do those great interviews.

Now if you’re looking at the pictures of the two boxed sets (above) and thinking one set is season one and one set is season two, stop right there.  Unfortunately, they are not two seasons.  Both sets are of season one, which was divided into two sets.  It’s a rather common misconception and I want to thank Rebecca who reminded me to make that clear. 

The first box set contains the following episodes:

  • Feature-length Pilot
  • The Catevari
  • Ralph
  • Tiresias
  • Impetus
  • The Devil You Know
  • Liberty and Larceny
  • The Value of Secrets
  • Separation Anxiety
  • It Hurts When You Do This
  • The Other Invisible Man

The second box set contains the rest of the season one episodes:

  • Reunion
  • Cat and Mouse
  • Beholder
  • Ghost of a Chance
  • Flowers for Hobbes
  • Perchance to Dream
  • Frozen in Time
  • Diseased
  • The Lesser Evil
  • Money for Nothing – Part 1
  • Money for Nothing – Part 2
  • It’s a Small World

A few video and audio clips from the DVDs are available at the Gold Street Entertainment website.  Just scroll down to around the middle of the page to download them. 

A Little History and What About Season Two?

As I’ve already mentioned, we owe a lot to Ian Atkins for putting together such great sets.  Ian is a self-proclaimed “huge fan” of The Invisible Man.  As the former Product Manager of Contender Entertainment, the company that released the U.K. DVDs, it was his job to oversee the release of the DVDs.  He has even stated that he took the job “primarily to be involved in the I-Man DVD releases.” 

Now if you’re wondering why Contender never released season two on DVD, it’s because they had to see how season one sales went before they could make a decision about going ahead with season two…a logical business decision.  And even though Ian had said that he would “be fighting like crazy to get season two underway” as soon as possible, the season two DVDs never happened.  Since Ian no longer works for Contender and they never released season two, I can only surmise that sales of season one just weren’t strong enough.

I can’t say that surprises me.  The Invisible Man wasn’t well known in the U.K.  It aired on lesser-watched networks and didn’t get much publicity, so it’s fan base is relatively small in comparison to other countries. 

What does surprise me is that Contender was willing to take the gamble and commit to the season one DVDs in the first place.  It’s a gamble that I wish had paid off better for them.  Regardless, I’ll always be thankful for what we did get, because no other I-Man DVD releases have the kind of extras that Ian put together for this version.

Where You Can Purchase the U.K. DVDs

Following is a list of some of the online sites where you can purchase the U.K. I-Man DVDs.  I, again, want to thank Rebecca who gave me a hand with finding some of these sites.  This list is by no means complete, but it’s a start. 

Please note that as of this date, Amazon and HMV appear to be out of box set one.  You may wish to inquire about availability before placing your order.

Benson’s World

U.K. Amazon.com

German Amazon.com

French Amazon.com

HMV

IMPORTANT NOTE:  The U.K. DVDs are made for region two and are produced in the PAL format.  If you are ordering these from the U.S. and Canada (region one) or any other region, check to make sure your TV/DVD is compatable with this format.  I’ll be explaining the ins and outs of regions and formats in a future post.

Eberts, er, Collins Files.

Amanda beat me to the punch with her post.

I’ve uploaded my scene if you’d like to watch it. I don’t really consider this to be too illegal since Fox did everything in their power to kill this movie, including not spending a dime on advertising (the first film to have that distinction in 41 years) and waiting 2 1/2 years to release it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9k-OcviNNQ

As I said before, I played this as Eberts. There’s very little distinction between “Collins” and Eberts and in fact it’s very easy for me to believe that after the Agency Eberts transfered to the Army’s research division. The Army was good and bad to Eberts, he lost 20 pounds but got bad eyesight and grew a mustache.

Trivia:
*If you look of my right shoulder there’s a picture that’s mostly obscured. That’s a shot of my 3 day old son. Kiernan was born and two days later I was in Austin, TX shooting this. I brought a picture and they put it in the frame. His first big break in show business.

*I do say the “N” word, so be advised. About a year after we shot the film Mike Judge brought me to the Fox lot (The Marge Simspson recording room no less!) to record some additional dialogue. He gave me that line and I thought it was funny. I think in the context it’s not me or Collins being racist, but rather Collins trying to become a pimp by changing his language. I probably wouldn’t qualify any of this if Michael Richards hadn’t totally lost his mind.

*Mike Judge is an amazing guy and I’m sad his movies get treated so badly. He sounds exactly like Hank Hill in real life. He lives in Austin and records all his “King of the Hill” lines there.

* The pimp is rapper Scarface. He showed up for the photo shoot with an entourage of about 7 guys. Most of them passed out from being hung over the previous night. Scarface started hitting on Maya Rudolph during the photo shoot. He was probably just kidding but Maya wasn’t having any of that and looked pissed. It was funny, though.

* Some of the photo shoot of Collins with the pimp was in a real bar. It was about 2 pm and there were locals already there. They didn’t seem to notice or care when an Army Lt. Colonel, 2 pimps and 15 “ho’s” (Mike Judge’s words) walked in and began to take pictures.

As I said before, I think this character is probably Eberts. It’s a funny ending for his character…at least until the I-Man movie. Who knows, maybe while he’s rotting in a military prison, The Official will offer him a pardon. All he has to do is participate in a little experiment…

Well, that’s what I got for right now. You can check my MySpace blog to read about my auditions and I’ll stop by here occasionally to update you on the movie from my perspective and the doing of other cast members. Until then, Shoom on.

Mike