Help Penn Jillette-Update 7/6 - Red Carpet Premier - Chicago

[Brian]

The movie is finally complete and in the can. Now they are looking for distribution.

[Brian]

Slamdance film festival picks ‘Director’s Cut’ as opening-night film

[Daehawk]

Thats off Penn's Twitter. He's looking old, sick, skinny ? Hope he is ok.

https://twitter.com/pennjillette

[Brian]

He's looking old, sick, skinny ? Hope he is ok.

He's fine. He's 60 and went from 315lbs down to 200 or so. That kind of weight loss will have a dramatic effect on anybody.

He also went from taking six different blood pressure meds to one and from a couple of cholesterol meds down to none.

I'm waiting for his book to come out about his weight loss. It should be an interesting read.

[Daehawk]

Ah ok thats great to hear. He looks a bit worse but seem much healthier. Not a bad trade off.

[coopasonic]

It looks like I will be seeing this on 4/1. Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox (you know, the Borderlands people), was the #1 donor to the project and worked with the team to get a screening for backers about 12 miles from my house. Ok, he may not have been trying to get it close to my house, but it's a happy coincidence.

[Brian]

He's looking old, sick, skinny ? Hope he is ok.

He's fine. He's 60 and went from 315lbs down to 200 or so.
I'm waiting for his book to come out about his weight loss. It should be an interesting read.

The book is now available for preorder. Presto: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Magically Disappear

[coopasonic]

I saw the movie Friday night. It was not what I expected. I can't see any way it could get a theatrical release. The Q&A with Penn and the director was more entertaining.

[Brian]

Red Carpet premier in Chicago tomorrow night and I'll be there. Unfortunately my wife couldn't get the time off so I'll be attending with a friend instead.

So, expect pictures sometime Friday night after I drive back to Omaha.

[tjg_marantz]

Cool

[hepcat]

Once you get a taste of all the modern conveniences city life has to offer, I doubt you'll go back. Indoor toilets, hot AND cold water from a tap, and stores where you can buy everything from underwear to wine? You'll never wanna go back to Omaha!

[Brian]

Underwhat now?

[Zarathud]

You CAN buy it, even though you WON'T.

[GreenGoo]

Underwhat now?

It keeps the poop in.

[Brian]

Poop doesn't want to be held in. Poop wants to be free.

Anyway, now that I'm home I can post some pics and give my review.

First, the final movie drifted considerably far from the original pitch as a horror/drama and ended up being more of a comedy/gorefest. That said, it worked for me and I enjoyed the heck out of the movie and think it's probably one of the better movies that Adam Rifkin has done. Teller absolutely owned his brief scene which I won't spoil here.

The timing of the movie premier was rather unfortunate given the recent events in Dallas as one of the scenes is basically a reenactment of the Charles Whitman University of Texas clock tower shootings and we found out about the events in Dallas immediately after the movie ended. However, it's not like they could have anticipated this.

So, that said, I think the movie is worth a watch when it becomes available for streaming/DVD as I'm fairly certain it's not going to get a wide theatrical release if any.

The event itself was fun and we were afforded the chance to mingle with Adam Rifkin, Penn, Penn's wife Emily, and even Teller. There was a 30 minute Q&A session after the movie which I recorded and then accidentally erased because I am a colossal idiot but offered a lot of insight into how we got to the final version of the movie from it's original concept.

Adam was a really nice guy to chat with and was somewhat impressed when I mentioned that I had followed his work and was a fan going all the way back to The Dark Backward which came out in 1991. (The Dark Backward is not, incidentally, a movie I would really recommend as it's really strange and not terribly compelling as far as storytelling goes but then I tend to like weird indy movies that are off the beaten path)

Penn was pleasant as always and I was happy that I actually got a chance to relate some anecdotes that I had meant to tell two years ago when the wife and I got to spend some time backstage with P&T but ended up instead talking mostly about leopard geckos.

Penn's wife Emily was also a treat but was a bit harried as she was the primary organizer for this event and was super busy keeping everything running but she was still willing to slow down and chat for a bit as well as pose for a selfie.



The event package included a movie poster signed by both Adam and Penn as well as some murdered cupcakes. (The cupcake was delicious.)



There was also a photo session featuring Penn and Adam.

From left to right - Adam Rifkin, my friend Andrew (who stood in for my wife who was unable to get the time off), some fat bastard named Brian, and the new, slimmed-down Penn Jillette.

[Brian]

Also, while I'm on the subject, I would like to once again thank everybody that contributed and helped afford me the opportunity to not only help make this movie happen but to also have the chance (twice now) to meet and chat with Penn Jillette and Adam Rifkin.

I truly appreciate your generosity. Cheers to you!

[cheeba]

That's awesome. Did Penn cut his hair? Or is his ponytail hidden?

[Isgrimnur]

Season 3 of Penn and Teller: Fool Us starts next Wednesday on CW. He still had it at the end of season 2.

[Brian]

That's awesome. Did Penn cut his hair? Or is his ponytail hidden?

One of the highest crowdfunding levels was for $25,000 the contributor got the privilege of cutting off either Penn's or Adam's ponytail.

Randy Pitchford of Gearbox came up with the 25K back when this was announced and I believe, recently came to collect.

[tjg_marantz]

Thanks for sharing! Glad you enjoyed yourself.

[Unagi]

Sounds like a great time. I'm a little confused with all the clothing.

[KKBlue]

Happy to help with a dream Brian. Glad you had fun. Thanks for sharing!

[Moliere]

[Jeff V]

The last guy who posed like that is in prison now. Just sayin'.

[Isgrimnur]

Yeah, it took me a moment to realize that it wasn't Jared.

[Brian]

I believe that's the back cover of his new book.

It comes out in just under two weeks. Looking forward to reading it and possibly trying to apply the lessons to myself.

The front cover:

[mori]

Last year I used his methods he described on his podcast and lost 30 lbs. in 10 weeks. I did not go as hard core as he did and did not stick with it but have maintained some of the more important concepts and have not gained much of it back. It was not that hard to lose the weight but I just wanted to go back drinking beer and eating BBQ.

[Moliere]

Penn Jillette: Loses 100 pounds, doubles down on libertarianism, and gets replaced by a robot

I'm a libertarian. My political beliefs are way outside the mainstream. My religious beliefs are way outside the mainstream. My musical tastes, my theater tastes, my book tastes are way outside the mainstream, and yet I was eating fucking pizza and hamburgers. It's very odd that the one area that I chose to be the most typical American possible was food and diet. And once I got sick enough, my doctors said that I should consider getting stomach band surgery, and all of the sudden I realized I could be weirder. And I realized that not only am I not good at moderation, but I also simply don't respect moderation. If you're good at moderation, I don't like you.

[mori]

I believe Penn stated that Amazon and Netflix passed on Director's Cut.

[mori]

Director's Cut is on Amazon Prime. I watched the movie. I did not think that it was that crazy or meta. I just did not think it was very good.