A man walks into a talent agents officeetc and the punchline is The Aristocrats. Dont worry Im not giving away anything. The fun is the trip getting there. The film, The Aristocrats, takes a decades old joke that comedians riff much in the same way that jazz musicians or jam bands will improvise with a song. produced by master deconstructionist Penn Jillette and directed by intellectual comedian Paul Provenza, The Aristocrats tapes hundreds of comedians version of said joke such as George Carlin, Bob Saget, Drew Carey, Sarah Silverman, Susie Essman, Jake Johannsen and many more.
Check out the official site for The Aristocrats
Daniel Robert Epstein: Penn, this movie is a perfect example of the work you do because its a deconstruction of a joke and most of youre work is a kind of deconstruction, whether of magic or comedy.
Penn Jillette: I really think that its a human beings job to tell the truth as you see it. I think that everybody goes through a phase when theyre 16 or 17 where theyre obsessed with the idea of truth and youre supposed to grow out of that but I didnt. This movie started with a conversation Provenza and I had. When we get together, we dont go out and eat, we dont watch a movie; we sit down over a cup of coffee in a diner and talk really deeply and pretentiously about anything that is on our minds. We started talking about what improvisation in real time meant in listening to John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus. That got me thinking about improvisation in comedy. You always hear musicians improvising over the same song. You never hear comedians tell the same joke and all youre seeing now is an example of our conversation. Im always fascinated by the process that people create art and by the process that people bring the truth in their heart out to the world. The stuff I do with Teller is very much pro-science and a breaking down when people use the tools of magic in order to lie to other people which really offends me. This is a little bit more abstract and a little bit more intellectual.
DRE: To many of the comedians in this film, doing The Aristocrats joke seems very cathartic.
Paul Provenza: Freedom and joy is cathartic and thats what happens when creative people get together. In this case, they have a task. They were given a challenge or a toy as it were and then what you get is people just being free and being creative and for an artist, that is cathartic.
PJ: Just hanging out with your friends and saying whatever pops into your head is cathartic. It just so happens we filmed itbarely.
PP: Comedians have to deal with audience perceptions, they have to deal with their images, they have to deal with taboos, they have to deal with common denominators and communicating successful to many people. Those are the caveats that come with working with words and performing. Imagine going to a five year old and saying You know what, you can fingerpaint and it doesnt matter where you get the paint. It can go on the walls, on the ceiling, your clothes, up your nose, nobody cares. Just go crazy. Thats cathartic.
DRE: Since you spoke to so many people for this movie, how did you know when to stop editing?
PP: At some point, the voice of reason and Penns accountant spoke. I mean, we spent four and a half years shooting footage and we were running into the issues with who was available. We started running into the same scheduling issues with the same people over and over again and we also had accumulated so much. At that point, it was kind of like chomping at the bit.
PJ: Also art thrives on its limitations and we didnt have limitations. We could do whatever we wanted. As much as he says the accountant did this, we could have gone forever in this project, but at some point, you have to arbitrarily say Yes, we can wait until we get Lorne Michaels. Hes going to be great We had 40 people on the list who had said yes and that we wanted. Lorne Michaels, Mike Nichols, Conan OBrien and they were all ready to go and we just couldnt get in the same city with them when they had an extra hour. Finally we just knew we had to stop and make the movie.
PP: There was no one person that was more important than another.
DRE: Paul, how come youre not in the movie?
PP: Well, the movie is my version of the joke.
PJ: It took me a long time to get that. I kept saying to Provenza We got to do you, and Provenza kept saying no, no, the whole thing is my version and having me do it will confuse it and I didnt get it. And then I saw the first rough cut, which was 2 hours and 20 minutes and then boy, did I get it! OH, yeah! This is all Provenza. And when you come away from this movieIve known Provenza for yearswhen youre finished with that movie, that kind of affection and knowledge and history and friendship, what youre seeing there is Provenza.
PP: In the movie [chairman and CEO of HBO] Chris Albrecht says This is a joke where its impossible to gild the lily and I just thought that if I put myself in this movie, I would be the first person in the 100 plus years of this joke, to have gilded the lily!
DRE: Are any comedians not happy that the joke is getting out there?
PP: Its not really a secret handshake. Its not like theres some comedy illuminati thatll hunt us down with rubber chickens or anything. Its a secret handshake de facto. Its just that as people took this joke outside the world of comedy it became a lot riskier and you were faced with a lot of people who you had to explain yourself. But that is why most comedians are actually thrilled about this. I dont know a comedian worth his salt that wouldnt be happy to live in a world where everyone got the Aristocrats joke. The reason were all so frustrated in any way when were in high school or junior high school and then becoming adults is because everyone around us doesnt seem to get it.
DRE: Do you see this film as the great anti-censorship statement
PJ: No, my point is exactly the opposite. I dont theres any censorship issues whatsoever. I know that AMC guy did this little publicity stunt where he decided that he will ban the film from his theatres. Im banning it. I say to him that he doesnt have the right to use the word ban or censorship. Youre not the government. Youre a shopkeeper and youre a shopkeeper who has decided not to carry a product that some of his customers will want. Woo-hoo! Its so cynical and so transparent. He picks a movie that cant hurt him. If he picked War of the Worlds, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and the studio would crush him. He showed the movie Irreversible, which is a great movie, but its a depiction of violent anal rape. Hes already shown that he will show anything, but he wants to grab a little bit of moral high ground because he thinks he can get his name in the paper and then were supposed to play the side of victims. Its this game that is played in the US when 10,000 Christians with their imaginary friends write a lot of letters about how the country cant do this and cant do that and then Hollywood, a bunch of liberals, plays the other side. Eminem had the top album last year and hes not going to jail, unlike 2 Live Crew and Lenny Bruce. These Hollywood people are going Oh but the Christian Right is coming down to us. You are not Lenny Bruce! You are an old cocaine fucking head with a half a billion dollars! You are not oppressed! Go to Malibu and just live, you stupid old cunt! Theyre playing this game and people say stuff like The French laugh at us about the whole Janet Jackson thing and I go We laugh at us! Its 10,000 people total! Its not the United States! George W. Bush tells dirty jokes. He tells them to Kinky Friedman, Kinky tells them to me. The NASCAR drivers tell dirty jokes. The Christian Right is desperate, theyre dying, the Muslims, the Christians and the Jews are doing badly right now and thats why they are desperate and when theyre desperate, they get ugly and they get dangerous. One man, with a very small penis, says that his chain will not show our movie is not censorship.
PP: Its important not to exaggerate. Were not the kind of guys to repeat to you rumors about Ebola in the popcorn.
DRE: Whats going to be on this DVD?
PJ: For the DVD, you have to have a certain amount of theatrical success so well see. We kind of like to think that five years down the line, if anybody remembers this movie, maybe well do the six hour Aristocrats project using this footage.
DRE: Paul, when did you discover that you automatically turn into Teller when youre around him?
PP: Theres no mystery why Teller is silent.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site for The Aristocrats
Daniel Robert Epstein: Penn, this movie is a perfect example of the work you do because its a deconstruction of a joke and most of youre work is a kind of deconstruction, whether of magic or comedy.
Penn Jillette: I really think that its a human beings job to tell the truth as you see it. I think that everybody goes through a phase when theyre 16 or 17 where theyre obsessed with the idea of truth and youre supposed to grow out of that but I didnt. This movie started with a conversation Provenza and I had. When we get together, we dont go out and eat, we dont watch a movie; we sit down over a cup of coffee in a diner and talk really deeply and pretentiously about anything that is on our minds. We started talking about what improvisation in real time meant in listening to John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus. That got me thinking about improvisation in comedy. You always hear musicians improvising over the same song. You never hear comedians tell the same joke and all youre seeing now is an example of our conversation. Im always fascinated by the process that people create art and by the process that people bring the truth in their heart out to the world. The stuff I do with Teller is very much pro-science and a breaking down when people use the tools of magic in order to lie to other people which really offends me. This is a little bit more abstract and a little bit more intellectual.
DRE: To many of the comedians in this film, doing The Aristocrats joke seems very cathartic.
Paul Provenza: Freedom and joy is cathartic and thats what happens when creative people get together. In this case, they have a task. They were given a challenge or a toy as it were and then what you get is people just being free and being creative and for an artist, that is cathartic.
PJ: Just hanging out with your friends and saying whatever pops into your head is cathartic. It just so happens we filmed itbarely.
PP: Comedians have to deal with audience perceptions, they have to deal with their images, they have to deal with taboos, they have to deal with common denominators and communicating successful to many people. Those are the caveats that come with working with words and performing. Imagine going to a five year old and saying You know what, you can fingerpaint and it doesnt matter where you get the paint. It can go on the walls, on the ceiling, your clothes, up your nose, nobody cares. Just go crazy. Thats cathartic.
DRE: Since you spoke to so many people for this movie, how did you know when to stop editing?
PP: At some point, the voice of reason and Penns accountant spoke. I mean, we spent four and a half years shooting footage and we were running into the issues with who was available. We started running into the same scheduling issues with the same people over and over again and we also had accumulated so much. At that point, it was kind of like chomping at the bit.
PJ: Also art thrives on its limitations and we didnt have limitations. We could do whatever we wanted. As much as he says the accountant did this, we could have gone forever in this project, but at some point, you have to arbitrarily say Yes, we can wait until we get Lorne Michaels. Hes going to be great We had 40 people on the list who had said yes and that we wanted. Lorne Michaels, Mike Nichols, Conan OBrien and they were all ready to go and we just couldnt get in the same city with them when they had an extra hour. Finally we just knew we had to stop and make the movie.
PP: There was no one person that was more important than another.
DRE: Paul, how come youre not in the movie?
PP: Well, the movie is my version of the joke.
PJ: It took me a long time to get that. I kept saying to Provenza We got to do you, and Provenza kept saying no, no, the whole thing is my version and having me do it will confuse it and I didnt get it. And then I saw the first rough cut, which was 2 hours and 20 minutes and then boy, did I get it! OH, yeah! This is all Provenza. And when you come away from this movieIve known Provenza for yearswhen youre finished with that movie, that kind of affection and knowledge and history and friendship, what youre seeing there is Provenza.
PP: In the movie [chairman and CEO of HBO] Chris Albrecht says This is a joke where its impossible to gild the lily and I just thought that if I put myself in this movie, I would be the first person in the 100 plus years of this joke, to have gilded the lily!
DRE: Are any comedians not happy that the joke is getting out there?
PP: Its not really a secret handshake. Its not like theres some comedy illuminati thatll hunt us down with rubber chickens or anything. Its a secret handshake de facto. Its just that as people took this joke outside the world of comedy it became a lot riskier and you were faced with a lot of people who you had to explain yourself. But that is why most comedians are actually thrilled about this. I dont know a comedian worth his salt that wouldnt be happy to live in a world where everyone got the Aristocrats joke. The reason were all so frustrated in any way when were in high school or junior high school and then becoming adults is because everyone around us doesnt seem to get it.
DRE: Do you see this film as the great anti-censorship statement
PJ: No, my point is exactly the opposite. I dont theres any censorship issues whatsoever. I know that AMC guy did this little publicity stunt where he decided that he will ban the film from his theatres. Im banning it. I say to him that he doesnt have the right to use the word ban or censorship. Youre not the government. Youre a shopkeeper and youre a shopkeeper who has decided not to carry a product that some of his customers will want. Woo-hoo! Its so cynical and so transparent. He picks a movie that cant hurt him. If he picked War of the Worlds, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and the studio would crush him. He showed the movie Irreversible, which is a great movie, but its a depiction of violent anal rape. Hes already shown that he will show anything, but he wants to grab a little bit of moral high ground because he thinks he can get his name in the paper and then were supposed to play the side of victims. Its this game that is played in the US when 10,000 Christians with their imaginary friends write a lot of letters about how the country cant do this and cant do that and then Hollywood, a bunch of liberals, plays the other side. Eminem had the top album last year and hes not going to jail, unlike 2 Live Crew and Lenny Bruce. These Hollywood people are going Oh but the Christian Right is coming down to us. You are not Lenny Bruce! You are an old cocaine fucking head with a half a billion dollars! You are not oppressed! Go to Malibu and just live, you stupid old cunt! Theyre playing this game and people say stuff like The French laugh at us about the whole Janet Jackson thing and I go We laugh at us! Its 10,000 people total! Its not the United States! George W. Bush tells dirty jokes. He tells them to Kinky Friedman, Kinky tells them to me. The NASCAR drivers tell dirty jokes. The Christian Right is desperate, theyre dying, the Muslims, the Christians and the Jews are doing badly right now and thats why they are desperate and when theyre desperate, they get ugly and they get dangerous. One man, with a very small penis, says that his chain will not show our movie is not censorship.
PP: Its important not to exaggerate. Were not the kind of guys to repeat to you rumors about Ebola in the popcorn.
DRE: Whats going to be on this DVD?
PJ: For the DVD, you have to have a certain amount of theatrical success so well see. We kind of like to think that five years down the line, if anybody remembers this movie, maybe well do the six hour Aristocrats project using this footage.
DRE: Paul, when did you discover that you automatically turn into Teller when youre around him?
PP: Theres no mystery why Teller is silent.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 14 of 14 COMMENTS
drtoner123:
Penn & Teller's: BULLSHIT is the best damn show to hit TV, ever! It's not just entertainment, it's doing a service for the community. I tell everyone I know, especially ninnies, to watch the show.
jason:
just caught this the other night at one of those theaters where you can have liquor and smoke during the movie. anyway, i fucking howled for the whole thing. it was a riot.