Post by kkt2 on May 11, 2019 19:04:54 GMT -5
Context: This Q&A took place after a performance of The Mads at San Francisco Sketchfest on
January 19th, 2019. Unfortunately, Trace Beaulieu was ill and losing his voice. While he soldiered
on through their performance (the Arch Hall Jr. hot-rod car/gang film 'The Choppers'), he did
not stick around for the brief Q&A afterwards, so all questions were answered by the other half
of the duo, Frank Conniff.
___________________________________________________________________________
Audience Questioner #1: What was the process for your books? Of writing them, I mean.
Frank: Writing my books? The process is sitting down and writing them.
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: And rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. I think the key to
any kind of writing is just rewriting. Just doing lots of drafts. That's all it is. Thank you for
asking though. Usually we're here with our merchandise table. Selling our merch, or, as I like to
call it, 'whoring' ourselves. We don't have that tonight, but thank you for bringing that up.
Anyone else?
[Brief but distinct moment of silence]
Frank: Oh, without Trace here nobody's interested!
[Audience Laughs]
Audience Questioner #2: What was one movie you guys riffed where you got done and it was like:
'That's not bad, I'd watch that again'?
Frank: Believe it or not, and this is how our minds have gone crazy; we kind of like this movie
['The Choppers'].
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: I mean, it's really bad, but we like all the actors in it. Well, not Arch Hall Jr. so much.
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: Bruno VeSota, you might recognize. He was in a lot of movies we did.
[Audience Claps for Bruno VeSota, 50s-60s character actor who appeared in five MST3K episodes.]
Frank: It's fun. We do 'Glen Or Glenda' [an Ed Wood film], it's a movie we love and we riff a lot.
We have to live with these films, we have to go on the road with them. So if we didn't have some
affection for them, it would be really hard to do.
Audience Questioner #3: How many times have you seen 'The Choppers'?
Frank: We're at about 20 times at this point. No wonder why Trace lost his voice.
[Audience Laughs]
Audience Questioner #4: Can you guys come back here to San Francisco a little more often please?
Frank: I would love to come back here more often.
[Audience Clapping]
Frank: We love coming to San Francisco, we've played it a lot. We used to play here when we were in
Cinematic Titanic. We've come back to the Sketchfest, god bless 'em, they almost always ask us to
come. We'd do it all the time if we could. It's one of our favorite cities.
Audience Questioner #5: It's been said that you selected a lot of the movies for several seasons
on MST3K.
Frank: Yes, that was my job.
Audience Questioner #5: I was wondering if there were any movies, besides 'Child Bride'-
[Frank chuckles; other MST3K cast-members & writers have cited 'Child Bride' when asked about films
they'd passed on using for the show.]
Audience Questioner #5: -that stuck out, but that you just didn't do for one reason or another?
Frank: There's a few of them. The only one I can remember this moment was a film called, 'Chevy Van'
[aka 'The Van'], I think it was called. Danny DeVito was in it, before he was on 'Taxi'. They screwed up
the sound, so they just kept playing the theme song over and over.
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: It was really, really bad. There were a lot of them like that, but fortunately we've tried
to [inaudible].
Audience Questioner #6: Have you gotten any interesting feedback from directors or cast-members
of any of the movies?
Frank: All of the feedback we've gotten has been good. Kim Cattrall, when we did a film called
'City Limits', Crow sang a love song to her. Kim Cattrall sent flowers. Not to Trace, but to Crow.
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: But then Trace and Kim became friends. I've become friends with Kim lately too. We did a show
at the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn, and she introduced us. There's been a few people like that.
Beverly Garland. Miles O'Keeffe, he really liked what we did. There's an urban legend that Joe Don
Baker wants to beat the s*** out of us. That might be the case, but I'm not sure.
[Audience Laughs]
Audience Questioner #7: I know it's really hard to gauge this kind of thing, but of the three Arch
Hall Jr. films which one do you think is the worst?
Frank: The worst? Besides this and 'Eegah!' there's what, 'The Sadist'? Is that what you're thinking
about? I haven't seen that. I actually like 'The Choppers' better than 'Eegah!', personally, but like
I said I've lost my f****** mind. But isn't there one called 'Wild Guitar' or something like that too?
I think there's about four or five of them I think. So go check that out, I'm sure you will.
[Audience Laughs]
Audience Questioner #8: What's a film, through your entire career with this kind of stuff, that you
guys wanted to do but couldn't? That's just lost to time?
Frank: There was a point in the show where we actually thought we were going to get to do an Elvis
movie. 'Charro!'. It's a western. When we watched it we just riffed it off the top of our heads. The only
line I remember was Trace, it was some female character. She's waiting for Elvis to come and she goes
"Did I smell Elvis?"
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: But we didn't get to do it. Anything like that with a big star we usually wouldn't be able to
afford to do. So there were a couple like that that we thought we were going to do. 'Moment By Moment'
with Lily Tomlin and John Travolta. Which is really awful, although I'm glad we didn't do it actually.
Because I love Lily Tomlin and I don't want to make fun of her s***, y'know.
Audience Questioner #9: I don't want to ask a question, I just want to say thank you. I've had so many
great moments watching you guys on TV as I grew up and everything. I'm just so happy to have you as
part of my life and I've loved every minute of it.
Frank: Oh, well, thank you so much!
[Applause]
END
Note - Feel free to repost anywhere, just please be sure to credit me! Thanks.
January 19th, 2019. Unfortunately, Trace Beaulieu was ill and losing his voice. While he soldiered
on through their performance (the Arch Hall Jr. hot-rod car/gang film 'The Choppers'), he did
not stick around for the brief Q&A afterwards, so all questions were answered by the other half
of the duo, Frank Conniff.
___________________________________________________________________________
Audience Questioner #1: What was the process for your books? Of writing them, I mean.
Frank: Writing my books? The process is sitting down and writing them.
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: And rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. I think the key to
any kind of writing is just rewriting. Just doing lots of drafts. That's all it is. Thank you for
asking though. Usually we're here with our merchandise table. Selling our merch, or, as I like to
call it, 'whoring' ourselves. We don't have that tonight, but thank you for bringing that up.
Anyone else?
[Brief but distinct moment of silence]
Frank: Oh, without Trace here nobody's interested!
[Audience Laughs]
Audience Questioner #2: What was one movie you guys riffed where you got done and it was like:
'That's not bad, I'd watch that again'?
Frank: Believe it or not, and this is how our minds have gone crazy; we kind of like this movie
['The Choppers'].
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: I mean, it's really bad, but we like all the actors in it. Well, not Arch Hall Jr. so much.
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: Bruno VeSota, you might recognize. He was in a lot of movies we did.
[Audience Claps for Bruno VeSota, 50s-60s character actor who appeared in five MST3K episodes.]
Frank: It's fun. We do 'Glen Or Glenda' [an Ed Wood film], it's a movie we love and we riff a lot.
We have to live with these films, we have to go on the road with them. So if we didn't have some
affection for them, it would be really hard to do.
Audience Questioner #3: How many times have you seen 'The Choppers'?
Frank: We're at about 20 times at this point. No wonder why Trace lost his voice.
[Audience Laughs]
Audience Questioner #4: Can you guys come back here to San Francisco a little more often please?
Frank: I would love to come back here more often.
[Audience Clapping]
Frank: We love coming to San Francisco, we've played it a lot. We used to play here when we were in
Cinematic Titanic. We've come back to the Sketchfest, god bless 'em, they almost always ask us to
come. We'd do it all the time if we could. It's one of our favorite cities.
Audience Questioner #5: It's been said that you selected a lot of the movies for several seasons
on MST3K.
Frank: Yes, that was my job.
Audience Questioner #5: I was wondering if there were any movies, besides 'Child Bride'-
[Frank chuckles; other MST3K cast-members & writers have cited 'Child Bride' when asked about films
they'd passed on using for the show.]
Audience Questioner #5: -that stuck out, but that you just didn't do for one reason or another?
Frank: There's a few of them. The only one I can remember this moment was a film called, 'Chevy Van'
[aka 'The Van'], I think it was called. Danny DeVito was in it, before he was on 'Taxi'. They screwed up
the sound, so they just kept playing the theme song over and over.
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: It was really, really bad. There were a lot of them like that, but fortunately we've tried
to [inaudible].
Audience Questioner #6: Have you gotten any interesting feedback from directors or cast-members
of any of the movies?
Frank: All of the feedback we've gotten has been good. Kim Cattrall, when we did a film called
'City Limits', Crow sang a love song to her. Kim Cattrall sent flowers. Not to Trace, but to Crow.
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: But then Trace and Kim became friends. I've become friends with Kim lately too. We did a show
at the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn, and she introduced us. There's been a few people like that.
Beverly Garland. Miles O'Keeffe, he really liked what we did. There's an urban legend that Joe Don
Baker wants to beat the s*** out of us. That might be the case, but I'm not sure.
[Audience Laughs]
Audience Questioner #7: I know it's really hard to gauge this kind of thing, but of the three Arch
Hall Jr. films which one do you think is the worst?
Frank: The worst? Besides this and 'Eegah!' there's what, 'The Sadist'? Is that what you're thinking
about? I haven't seen that. I actually like 'The Choppers' better than 'Eegah!', personally, but like
I said I've lost my f****** mind. But isn't there one called 'Wild Guitar' or something like that too?
I think there's about four or five of them I think. So go check that out, I'm sure you will.
[Audience Laughs]
Audience Questioner #8: What's a film, through your entire career with this kind of stuff, that you
guys wanted to do but couldn't? That's just lost to time?
Frank: There was a point in the show where we actually thought we were going to get to do an Elvis
movie. 'Charro!'. It's a western. When we watched it we just riffed it off the top of our heads. The only
line I remember was Trace, it was some female character. She's waiting for Elvis to come and she goes
"Did I smell Elvis?"
[Audience Laughs]
Frank: But we didn't get to do it. Anything like that with a big star we usually wouldn't be able to
afford to do. So there were a couple like that that we thought we were going to do. 'Moment By Moment'
with Lily Tomlin and John Travolta. Which is really awful, although I'm glad we didn't do it actually.
Because I love Lily Tomlin and I don't want to make fun of her s***, y'know.
Audience Questioner #9: I don't want to ask a question, I just want to say thank you. I've had so many
great moments watching you guys on TV as I grew up and everything. I'm just so happy to have you as
part of my life and I've loved every minute of it.
Frank: Oh, well, thank you so much!
[Applause]
END
Note - Feel free to repost anywhere, just please be sure to credit me! Thanks.
