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Tom Green at the DC Improv
August 9, 2010, 9:13 am View Comments
That’s my friend Josh on the left, Tom Green in the middle, and me on the right.
Let’s flash back to 2001. Tom Green’s movie, Freddy Got Fingered, was playing in theaters. Josh and I, both students at Salisbury University at the time, drove to the mall to see the movie on opening night. Besides for me and Josh, there was only one other person in the theater. That other person, clearly not someone with the capacity to appreciate high art, walked out midway through.
Josh and I loved it. In fact, we still love it. The movie is absurd, surreal, sometimes gross (yet never scatological, which is why I can call it high-brow), and very hilarious. But clearly, it’s not for everyone. Here is Roger Ebert’s reflection on Freddy in his review for Stealing Harvard (which is a criminally underrated movie):
Seeing Tom Green reminded me, as how could it not, of his movie Freddy Got Fingered (2001), which was so poorly received by the film critics that it received only one lonely, apologetic positive review on the Tomatometer. I gave it—let’s see—zero stars. Bad movie, especially the scene where Green was whirling the newborn infant around his head by its umbilical cord.But the thing is, I remember Freddy Got Fingered more than a year later. I refer to it sometimes. It is a milestone. And for all its sins, it was at least an ambitious movie, a go-for-broke attempt to accomplish something. It failed, but it has not left me convinced that Tom Green doesn’t have good work in him. Anyone with his nerve and total lack of taste is sooner or later going to make a movie worth seeing.
So, hearing that Tom Green was on a world-wide comedy tour, we drove down to the DC Improv to see him perform. We had no idea what kind of a crowd would show up for him, but we were delighted to discover that the place was packed with kindred spirits. People were electrified for Tom Green, and his stand-up act was awesome. He told some stories from his childhood, the MTV days, the five months in which he was married to Drew Barrymore.
After the show, he took time to sign autographs, take pictures, and chat with fans until everyone had left. He couldn’t have been a warmer, friendlier guy.
I don’t want to spoil his act, so I highly recommend you seek him out if he’s coming to your area. If you can’t see him live, word is that there will be a tour DVD next year.
Speaking of next year, Tom Green has revealed plans to release a director’s cut of Freddy Got Fingered in honor of the movie’s tenth anniversary. Yes, please!