Comedian Tom Green is in New Zealand for shows as part of the 2013 International Comedy Festival. For those of us who grew up watching The Tom Green Show and his films, including the amazing Freddy Got Fingered, this is some fairly awesome news. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to talk with Green about Freddy Got Fingered, its infamously brutal critical reception, stand up, skateboarding and a bunch of other stuff. He was a bloody nice guy – read on, and go to his show.
FLICKS: Freddy Got Fingered is one of my favourite comedies ever. You seemed to play along really well with the bad critical reaction when it was released. What was it like going to Razzies and picking up your awards there?
GREEN: I was a creative kid who started a show on my own. And it got picked up by MTV and became one of the most popular shows in America. And for a period of a couple of years there, there was just a smashingly successful show. I get the opportunity to make a movie and many movies and I could have gone one of two ways with it. I could have taken the safe approach. I could have gone and done one of the really straight down the middle comedy movies that were being offered to me left and right.
Or I could have rolled up my sleeves and said, “No, I want to make a movie that’s crazy. I want to write a movie. And direct a movie. And make it just more ridiculous, and silly, and shocking, and outrageous.” And do more things that would sort of smash apart the conventional cookie cutter method of making films in Hollywood and take that risk.
And then I had the movie panned and had the sort of vitriol coming from critics. And had people giving it the Razzie Awards. Giving me some sort of award as if I was trying to make – I make a joke sometimes – as if I was trying to make The Jazz Singer. I wasn’t trying to make a movie that wasn’t disgusting and crazy. It really was sort of absurd to me that the movie got nominated for Razzie Awards, and won Razzie Awards, because it was obviously attempting to be an outrageous film.
It wasn’t trying to be, like I said, trying to win an Academy Award. So it made sense to go accept those awards because in a way it was sort of a true sign that the movie really, really did achieve what it set out to do. Which was to piss a lot of people off and really get a reaction from a lot of really boring people. And all the boring people could react and freak out and say that it was gross and disgusting.
We would screen the movie and just laugh the hardest. Myself and my friends would sit there when the movie was in the theatre and just wait. It was almost like it was very mechanical. It was really on cue – the baby delivery scene – when I bite the umbilical cord in half. Some old lady and her husband are going to get up and walk out of the theatre at that point. With her husband looking over a shoulder to try to soak in as much of it as he can. Or to go home and get crapped at for the rest of night by his boring, conservative, ball and chain of a wife. Who just can’t deal with something a little bit ridiculous.
So, here we are, ten years later, and I can’t go anywhere, literally in the world without somebody coming up to me, probably ten times a day. It’s like, what is it, 1pm here or something and I’ve only been outside for an hour in Las Vegas. And I’ve already had three people today come up to me and tell me that Freddy Got Fingered is one of their favourite movies. And it’s just a really amazing thing because it sort of proves what the movie set out to do.
And it proves my point. Which is that people just really take things too seriously and all that backlash that happened at the time was just people kind of being the way people are. You know, the way you see trolls on the internet. People like to say negative things about things that surprise and catch them off guard. Now, ten years later, people have found the movie because of everything these boring critics would say about it. That’s the reason people love the movie. It’s obviously found a huge audience and it’s been very vindicating and a great thing for me. I love it.
That’s great to hear. Apart from the utter insanity of the film, one of the things that I love about it is Rip Torn’s fucking amazing performance. Was that a hard part for you to cast? And what was he like to work with?
He was really great and a really cool dude. And was not a whole lot different than his character. He really is a gruff and rough and tumble kind of guy. But I love him for it. And he was great to work with, it was a lot of fun. And it wasn’t a hard part to cast because we just had an unbelievable outpouring of support from the acting community and the people that wanted to play that part. It was amazing. I mean, I’d been in Los Angeles for a year or something. And I wrote this movie. And I had William Shatner, James Woods, and Jon Voight all coming to meet with me. Sitting down with me, all having read the script and saying they wanted to play the part.
I was just sitting there going, “Wow! This is unbelievable.” And Rip Torn. It was really a hard decision choosing who would play the father. It wasn’t that I didn’t choose any one else obviously. I mean, any one of those actors – those brilliant actors – would have been incredible, but it just ended up being Rip Torn.
He’s ended up being one of the best asshole movies dads, I think.
Well, it was sort of a bit of a metaphor for what it’s like growing up, and wanting to be a creative person. In my life I wanted to do a wacky TV show and my dad was a strict military Canadian Army Captain. So we sort of all draw parallels to that in our lives. To having parents who were so stressed out about outrageous and silly behaviour, and the generational differences that exist. Where we’re sort of living on the cusp of this new generation of people that go, “I’m going to do something creative. I’m going to be a writer. I’m going to be a cartoonist. I’m going to be a comedian. I’m going to be an actor. I’m going to be a musician.”
When our fathers were kids that was just not something that was anything that anybody realistically set out to do. I mean, there obviously were far fewer people doing that type of thing back then. I think there were a lot of fathers out there in my generation, at least, that were just kind of befuddled by their son’s choices in life. And really genuinely concerned about our well being. As to whether not we were going to able support our selves, doing whatever it is that crazy thing that we ended up choosing to do. In my case, choosing to do comedy.
I couldn’t help thinking about that attitude, and having precisely Rip Torn in mind, while watching Bones Brigade: An Autobiography recently, especially the stuff with Rodney Mullen. Have you seen that film?
Yeah, absolutely. I loved it, exactly.
So people come up to you all the time, talking about Freddy Got Fingered, including today obviously. Does it seem like it has overshadowed your other films?
Well, not really. It’s – to be honest with you – it’s just different. A lot of people bring up Road Trip too, especially in America. Different types of people bring up different things. And certainly, the TV show is probably the thing that’s the most widely known. Freddy Got Fingered doesn’t overshadow it – I did really work hard on that movie and I did stick my neck out making that movie, and it was a sort of a life changing decision to make that movie because I decided to go left instead of right. I could have made the really typical movie that everybody was offering me, and then a bunch of those. And then probably I’d still be making a lot of movies and I’d be bored out of my tree.
Instead, I decided that I was going to stick to my guns and do what I believe creatively. And now I’m doing stand up and I’m having a blast. And I’m completely in control of my comedy and I’m not just going in and punching a clock and reading other people’s words. So, it’s actually really nice to see that people love it so much, because here we are. And I can sort of say, “Oh, look, I was right. It wasn’t as bad as those stupid critics said it was.” Right?
Yes! And I suppose just being able to keep making your own decisions, really puts it in kind of the same place where you started, in a way. Rather than getting tied up for years doing other people’s stuff.
Yeah. I love doing stand up. I love doing my podcast and my radio show. I started by just creating my own stuff. I didn’t start by being an actor and going around and auditioning for things and doing other people’s things. I always created my own show and I think that’s really what I do this for. Is for the creative fulfilment of just creating my own sort of content. And that’s what I love about this business. It’s not necessarily just that I like being up on a TV screen and having everybody look at me. Don’t get me wrong, I like that too – but it’s really the act of making the comedy that’s what I really love. And I just don’t get the same sort of fulfilment out of just sort of doing other people’s stuff.
You’re doing a few shows in Vegas at the moment. What’s it like being holed up there for a stretch?
It’s cool, man. I’m having a good time here. It’s fun because I’ve been doing this show on the road for the last few months. So it’s nice to come back to the same place and get to know the town a little more on a regular basis, because I’m touring all around, full time. It’s good to be in a different city and it’s fun. It’s great to travel. It’s great to get out and do shows. But it’s kind of nice to have a little stability and keep coming back to Vegas. I’ve got a lot of friends here. I went and saw Carrot Top’s show last night, which was hilarious. Went and saw Criss Angel’s show the night before. Yeah, it’s cool.
Apart from your hour on stage what’s your Vegas routine like?
I have friends here. Just pretty much the same thing I do during the day everywhere. Get up, eat some food, take a nap, eat some food, take a nap, stuff like that. But I’ve been kind of working on my show a bit too. I’m always writing new ideas. So I take time to write. Sometimes I’ll check out the city I’m in and go explore and make videos. I make a lot of videos when I’m on the road, too. I’ll be doing that in New Zealand.
Are you enjoying the lifestyle of having a show pretty much every night?
Yeah, absolutely. I’m having a great time. I love doing comedy and I’ve always done stand up. But the last few years I’ve just been doing it so aggressively – for the last three or four years – that it’s really become kind of a lifestyle for me. To be up on stage and getting those laughs. It can become very addictive. It’s great to be able to get out and see the world and see the people from around the world that responded to my comedy over the years. It’s sort of a real positive experience. The way we get to interact with everybody and hang out and do these shows. But also just really loving doing the comedy. It’s really been very inspiring just to be able to have that outlet to get up on stage every night and speak your mind and talk about things that you think are funny. But also I like to kind of just talk about things that are kind of ridiculous, or strange or unjust about the world that we’re living in. Then you can kind of vent about it and it’s cathartic.
What sort of things that are you most into during your set at the moment?
I always talk about all sorts of different kinds of things. Dissecting the addiction to modern technology is a big theme because I’m 41 years old and I have a pretty strong recollection of being an adult without technology being as predominant in my life. When I was in high school, we didn’t have the Internet. It’s an interesting age, being in your early 40’s, because you’re still young enough to feel much like the same way that I felt when I was in my 20’s right? But the world’s completely different. It’s given me an ability to kind of really compare what’s happening in the world to what it was like before.
I like to take a lot of different ridiculous and outrageous scenarios about some of the pitfalls that technology has created for people. Our addiction to our cell phones. Our Facebook pages and social media, and the Internet, and all the sort of negative implications that exist there too. Which I don’t feel really get talked about nearly enough. So I enjoy that, and really try to cover every broad range of subjects in my stand up and I’m always talking about new things just to keep moving forward.
I have a comedy special this year for Showtime in America. It’s been on for the last several months and it’s been really well viewed and well received. It’s kind of cool to have that out there. Now people know what I’m doing on stage and have seen my stand up before they’ve seen me live. It’s also given me sort of a little bit more of a desire to just write faster and more. And come up with new ideas. So I don’t just end up doing the same thing over and over again.
I guess it’s probably quite good having that special because it means as you go from city to city, you don’t have people going, “Oh, you just started doing stand up. What’s that like Tom?”
Yeah, exactly. I mean it’s kind of interesting because I think sometimes people think that I just started doing stand up and don’t realize that I actually started doing stand up 26 years ago – when I was 15 years old – and really did it for quite a while. I did it until I was in my 20’s. So I was really quite serious about it. But when I started doing my show on public access TV when I was 24 I really got so caught up in doing that show and putting that together.
I realized, I think at the time, we were on the cusp of a new wave of television – reality television – and it was a new kind of way of making television that was different than anything that had ever existed. And I just sort of threw myself into that – full force – and stopped doing stand up and didn’t really pursue that any more. But it’s been in me for years. And I’ve always jumped up and done things here and there over the years. To able to focus on it full time now, it’s just been amazing. And so many people are now seeing what my stand up is.
It’s also completely different, by the way, doing stand up when you’re 40 than doing stand up when you’re 20. I mean, it’s just a completely, much more fulfilling experience because I’ve been through enough stuff in my life at this point. I have opinions that I can stand by and that I really believe in. And have experienced a lot more things I feel I can talk about and really changed my perspective. I had cancer – I’ve survived cancer. That changes your perspective on the world and changes the way you approach comedy – for the better, I think. Just having that sort of outlook, the realization that we’re so fragile as creatures, that we could literally be gone in an instant. So on one hand, you want to stay positive and enjoy every moment of your life.
But, on the other hand, you are sort of living life in a little bit of a state of sheer panic because you realize that life is fragile. And it is scary. So, that makes me – I think – a little bit more, maybe cynical about the world. Sometimes even a little angry at the world, to be honest with you. That gives me a lot of motivation to go out and really criticize and critique and make fun of the things that I think are wrong with the world. That’s been cool. It’s been very cathartic, I think, doing stand up because you get up on stage and I talk about the things that I – and hopefully the audience – fear or dislike the most and find a way to laugh at the absurdity of it all. It can really be a nice release for me and for the audience I hope.
How have you found the stand up landscape, is it very different from when you were younger?
Well, when I was younger I was a huge fan of Norm Macdonald and Harland Williams, Canadian comics who went on to great success. I was really inspired by them at the time. In the 80’s, comedy was really very structured. Very mechanical and – in a lot of ways – very straight. And to have guys like that come on – who were ground breaking revolutionaries in a way where they were sort of really taking things to a dark and absurd places – that was a lot different than what you were seeing on TV or in the sort of traditional stand up world. It was always inspiring to see those guys come out of Canada, to go from being touring comics to being on Saturday Night Live and then major movies.
There’s always been a lot of great comedy. I mean, people could argue that comedy was better back then. But there’s a lot of great comedy now too. It’s an exciting time. The Internet means it’s an exciting time to be a stand-up comedian because you can really connect with your audience in a lot of ways. Not only just by going to the city and doing the show live. But after the show too. I just launched a brand new podcast. I’ve been doing a web show for years and I stopped doing the web show, which I’d been filming in the living room. I built the set in my living room, and did shows there.
I just launched this podcast this month. It’s available for free on iTunes and on www.tomgreen.com. It’s me with comedians and other interesting people. It’s cool because you’re able to go do the stuff on the Internet and connect with people worldwide and then you can go to New Zealand and actually get up on stage and tell some jokes and do your show. And after the show, I tend to go out after the show and meet everybody. So we’re getting some great conversations, meeting a lot of great people and making a lot of friends around the world. It’s funny. It’s sort of surreal going to a country you’ve never been to before. I’ve never been to New Zealand before. I’m very excited about it.
I really feel that I’m becoming used to the idea now of going somewhere that I’ve never been and having people know your podcast or your web show or the TV show that I started when I was in my 20’s and doing a little public access station in Canada. And now I can go to Australia or New Zealand or any city in America and people know every little bit. Not just the stuff from the movies and the stuff I did on MTV but people know these really obscure things that I filmed 20 years ago. Really surreal things.
So there’s this real cool connection that I’m having with people. When I’m travelling it’s really rewarding and a nice feeling because you go out, you do the show and have great shows where everyone is just having a great time and we have a lot of laughs. People have a lot of references and things that they remember from things that I’ve done over the last 15-20 years. Then after the show, it’s like a bit of a celebration and I have beers with everybody and everyone’s sort of a fond recollection of these things that they grew up watching. It’s a whole new audience of people that are watching for the first time now on the Internet so it’s really fun.
I think it’s great that you’ve made the effort to keep a lot of that content from your TV show online rather than it either disappearing, or being reliant on other people re-posting it. Although I did post Slut Mobile on Facebook this week…
Yeah it’s awesome. Thanks for doing that. It’s cool. It’s cool because all those bits that I did for my show were really – I was doing that 10-15 years before YouTube existed. But they were really made for YouTube, more than they were made for television, really. They really are more perfect for YouTube and the Internet because they’re these self-contained bits that are all sort of outrageous on their own. And they don’t really have to connect to the rest of the show or they don’t interconnect with one another. It’s just all these little slices of silliness and insanity. It’s perfect for the online era that we’re living in. It’s fun being sort of, able to put things out there that have a life. They basically come alive.
Back when I was doing my show on TV – I’ve joked about it in the past, I’m not really serious when I say it – but I’ve said, “If I knew the Internet was going to come on and be the way it was, I would have never done half of that stuff.” It was always sort of the different mentality. When you were doing TV back then it was like, “Let’s do something completely outrageous and put it on the show so people will see it and then they will tell everybody about it and have to talk about it.” But it’s not like everybody’s going to be able to see it. It’s only going to be sort of, almost like this rumour, this bizarre thing that somebody says they saw. Then people have to tune in next week to see what we do that week.
You could hump a dead moose in Canada and put it on MTV and think that’s going to be crazy and get people talking. But I didn’t know it was gonna be able to haunt me for the rest of my damn life! But it is actually really cool that it’s haunting you for rest of your life because I’m really proud of all the crazy videos we did. I really feel like we did something really innovative at the time and to be able to have this stuff live forever, essentially, is really cool.
Going back through some of those clips this week, I was thinking about how differently we perceive them today. You were really doing a new thing at the time and there’s an attitude absent from the other people who followed, your comedy’s a lot less mean spirited.
There was always a kind of mixture of things that I was inspired by growing up. I mean sure, I was inspired by technology and the fact that we could go film videos with video cameras. And I was inspired by skateboard videos. But I was also very inspired by comedy, by stand up comedy. By outrageous and hilarious films like Monty Python and all sorts of things like that. We just sort of culled it all together and then all four of us were sort of doing it raw – without any real television infrastructure – just us kind of making it up.
It became something that was sort of a special thing. Certainly for me and the people that responded to it. I always made an effort to make sure that the show wasn’t mean spirited. I never felt things were funny if you were unjustly assaulting people with a video camera. It was – always to me – was funnier when we could catch people off guard or surprise them. But nobody really got hurt or shamed.
When people would get angry at me on camera, it was funny to me, really, only if they were getting angry unnecessarily. Like they were overreacting because it was sort of poking fun at the sort of pettiness of people and the fact that we all take life way too seriously and how people can sometimes over-exert their authority on the world. And I always felt that as a kid growing up, in school or on my skateboard. You would have security guards telling you not to skateboard. You have certain things, certain areas and you just would be sitting there like, “Why? Why? It thought we were living in a free world here. And all of a sudden I can’t skateboard on these stairs or on this parking lot somewhere?”
It just never really made any logical sense to me. And I think growing up – when I was a skateboarder – it has had a big part of shaping my personality because we were doing something that was really creative as kids. Really creative and really liberating and free and fun. And obviously that’s what the world is supposed to be supporting and that’s what life is about, really. But you’d be treated like an outcast or like a criminal almost, because you’re riding around on a board with wheels on it.
Back in those days, skateboarding was new. So it was really being part of a really almost surreal, strange thing. It was really like that scene in Back to the Future when Michael J. Fox whips the handle off the scooter and turns it into a skateboard and takes off down the street and everybody in the town is staring at him. “Oh, he’s on the board with wheels.” And they’re just amazed. Like it’s some alien form of transportation. That’s sort of what it felt like in the late 80’s early 90’s. It was just really exciting to go skateboarding because, not only were you having fun, but you were also kind of, really confusing people. It was not a mainstream thing in Canada. It felt like me and a handful of people at first before it really took off in the 90’s. There were 20 skateboarders in a city of half a million people, depending on how you measure it.
And so you’d go skateboarding and people just were pointing at you like you were some sort of magician. Some sort of wizard flying down the road. And it was just really comical. You would have security guards coming out and screaming at you and kicking you out of things. And you’d sort of walk away from that and scratch your head and go, “Why am I not allowed to ride the skateboard here? It’s not harming anybody.” And that made me confront some of the petty and ridiculous rules that we have in society. That’s why a lot of times on the show – and a lot of times in my stand-up – I’m sort of critical of the media and critical of sort of things that we do as human beings. That are sort of unjust or don’t make any sense, and I think that all comes from being a skateboarder.
And hence why there’s the amazing opening sequence in Freddy Got Fingered…
Yeah. Exactly. Absolutely.
If you’re still reading this, you should check out the current issue of Rip It Up where Tom Green also talks about his experience at The Gathering of the Juggalos.
Check out the video below and read on for details about his NZ shows:
Catch Tom Green’s New Zealand stand up shows:
Auckland’s Skycity Theatre – Wednesday May 1st
Wellington Opera House – Sunday May 5th
Christchurch’s Aurora Centre – Monday May 6th
Tickets for all shows are available from Ticketek
