Kevin Geeks Out On Dummy Deaths: Recap and Recommendation

I remember reading somewhere recently that the word "funnest" had been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. As it turns out, this was either a beautiful dream or a piece of misinformation. I KNOW--you're thinking this is damn near unpossible, considering the general reliability of randomly acquired internet knowledge. Technically, this means that my plans to describe the Kevin Geeks Out On... series at 92YTribeca as the funnest screenings in New York City would be incorrect.

IN SPIRIT, however, the sentiment stands.

Comedian Kevin Maher has a marrow-deep understanding of and love for cinematic nerdiness. Each month, he selects a topic and assembles a crack team of enthusiasts to share the joy with his audience in a presentation that is part film montage, part interview, and part comedy show. With the aid of the Flying Maciste Brothers of The Destructible Man blog, Kevin has created a presentation that distills the glee of watching frequently-grisly, often-silly, and sometimes-shocking dummy destruction into a blissfully cathartic two hours.

From the opening salvo of the "Jerk Scientist" from "Dawn of the Dead" ranting about dummies, Dummies, DUMMIES to the finale of Joe Spinnel's grisly demise in "Maniac"*, it was non-stop mayhem. The Flying Maciste Brothers carefully culled the best moments of falling dummies, decapitated dummies, head-explodey dummies and even deceased child dummies from the history of cinema. Let me just tell you that, taken out of the context of the rest of its odious run-time, the "baby dumped off a bridge" scene from "The Third Mother" is one of the GREATEST THINGS EVER.

In addition to the dummy death montages, there were dummy death experts on hand who had been replaced by dummies ON FILM! Matt Mitler, Final Boy in "The Mutilator," had some choice anecdotes well-told and Kevin Scullin of an unseen-by-me-but-now-TOTALLY-coveted necrophilia cult flick called "Dead Mate" told of his experiences almost falling out of a bell tower as an ill-fated priest. Filmmaker Matthew Glasson shared his experiences choreographing a dummy death in his short film "The Family Tie," which looks to be an incredible bit of microbudgeted awesomeness.

OH AND! There were dummy death cupcakes, with lovingly crafted sugar dummies and red frosting blood. Just in case you need to convince any of your galpals to attend a Kevin Geeks Out... screening, be sure to underscore the presence of theme cupcakes at each event. SHOWING CLASS, people.

What was probably a terrible night for dummies and their families (I really need some sensitivity training, y0) was a fantabulous night for everyone else. There was much continued nerdery after the screening, when I got to chat with the host, the Maciste Brothers, Chris from Temple of Schlock, and Ivan of Ivanlandia. In fact, here I am with Chris (left) and the Brothers! Special thanks to Tofu Girl for snapping our photo.

I'm very much looking forward to next month's Kevin Geeks Out Holiday Grab Bag presentation on Friday December 18th. It's in PEN on my calendar, folks!

*I missed the NYC Horror Film Festival screening of this very same movie the very next night. Eeeeeeriiiiie...!