Post-Nuclear Expressionism: A Stephen Sayadian Sampler

Still from "Red White Acrylic Dream"

Imagine a time where filmmakers were shadowy figures of mystique, only mentioned at awards shows and, if they were really unlucky, clucked about in rags written by harpies like Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. (And boy, if ever a name was built for literally harpy-ing, it was Hedda Hopper, but I digress.) In this day and age of social media and artists tweeting the exact specs of their brunch at Barney's, it is rare to see a living filmmaker still shrouded in mystery and falsehoods bordering on urban legend, but yet, all of this and more applies to Stephen Sayadian.

Album cover for Wall of Voodoo's "Happy Planet." Note the fish, a motif that appears again and again in Sayadian's work.

For the unfamiliar and unconverted, Sayadian is a former ad-man and current filmmaker and artist whose best known works include the post-apocalyptic, science-fiction adult film, “Cafe Flesh,” as well as the neon-expressionist sequel-in-spirit to the German silent film classic “Cabinet of Dr.Caligari,” “Dr. Caligari.” But his resume is much more than that. In addition to working with Francis Delia on the classic “Nightdreams,” in which Sayadian himself appeared in one of the most joy-happy moments in cinematic history as a dancing piece of toast, (In wingtips, no less!) Sayadian got his big start working as the advertising art director of Hustler Magazine, though the masthead often lists him as assistant art director. He made his official debut in the December '76 issue, with the article “Hustler's Sleazy Shopping Guide.” Starting off with a sense of humor that at times played out like Mad Magazine meets Grand Guignol, it wasn't long before Sayadian's distinctive visual eye and wholly unique thumbprint would come into full play at the magazine. 

From the January 1977 issue.

One of the most amazing things about seeing Sayadian's work in Hustler is realizing how young he was. Born on October 18^th, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois, Stephen was all but 23 years old when he started at Hustler. Coming from a commercial background that included writing the fortunes that were included in the individual pieces of Bazooka Joe gum, he truly was the Madison Avenue Wunderkind when he was brought into the fold at Hustler. Sayadian left the magazine for awhile in late '78, right after the assassination attempt on founder and editor Larry Flynt. But as Larry healed up and became more involved directly with the magazine again, Sayadian returned and created some of the best and most memorable layouts in Hustler's history. This included “Red, White Acrylic Dream” in the July 1984 issue, which famously invoked such American advertising brand stalwarts as Bob's Big Boy, the Morton Salt girl and Aunt Jemima, coupled with text by frequent Sayadian collaborator, Jerry Stahl. It takes the “erotic nightmare” aesthetic that was used so beautifully in his films and in turn, he created something simultaneously poetic and ghoulish about our own culture. So much of modern American pop culture is completely riddled with advertising and commercial tactics, which is one of many layers in Sayadian's creative keenness. 

Cover for the "Thing Fish" spread in Hustler

 Another hallmark layout was the collaborative piece with Frank Zappa for “Thing Fish” in the April 1984 issue. Based on Zappa's three-LP album of the same name, the spread featured model/comedienne Annie Ample, spaghetti used as a lewd metaphor, a giant reproduction of the infamous Pat Boone exposing his penis photo and, of course, the titular “Thing Fish.” (The latter was voiced by Zappa-regular Ike Willis on the album, but here is portrayed by a glorious creature designed by Jene Omens.) Frequent Sayadian collaborator, intensely skilled Austrian photographer Ladi von Jansky, lensed this spread, as well as the cover for the actual album. (Ironically, it is von Jansky's birth date and homeland that are often erroneously listed as Sayadian's, despite them being very much two separate individuals. In fact, von Jansky went to school with Milos Foreman and was, in his youth, the Austrian equivalent to James Dean.) 

Two geniuses: Sayadian & Zappa. Photo by Ladi von Jansky.

In addition to his print work, he also worked on a number of music videos, including both Wall of Voodoo's pioneering “Mexican Radio” with Francis Delia, as well as the latter-day incarnation of the band and their cover of The Beach Boys “Do it Again.” (Complete with Brian Wilson cameo and a Keene-faced beach bunny.) But it is his film work that has made the deepest and most seismic-type impact. In a world of remakes, personas, reboots and pretensions, there is no filmmaker, living, dead or demon that is like Stephen Sayadian. His fingerprint is unmistakably his and while Sayadian has influenced numerous artists since making his debut with “Nightdreams,” no one has ever come close to touching him.

While he has flown under the radar for the past several years, Sayadian himself has been surfacing more and more, between an appearance at last year's L'Etrange Festival in Paris and showing up for one barnstormer of a Q&A session with Stahl at the Cinefamily Event showing “Cafe Flesh” in Los Angeles. Could it be a sign of fresh and bigger things afoot? Absolutely, with a new film entitled “May's Renewal” in the works, which for the handful that have read it indicated that all signs point to it the being the best and most transformative Sayadian film yet. If 2014 has been the year of Jodorowsky's return, then 2015 will be the year of Stephen Sayadian.

Thanks to David Arrate for the Red, White Acrylic Dreams scans and super-special thanks to Stephen Sayadian for everything. 

© Heather Drain 2014

Weekly Mondo Round-Up: The Movie Music Edition

One of the absolute biggest rewards about writing are those rare and wonderful lucky moments when something you have written ends up moving another writer. I was blessed enough to have this very thing happen recently with the last Weekly Mondo Round-up, with my friend and fellow film writer, Goregirl's Dungeon, when she wrote a fabulous post about the independent music scene in Vancouver in the late 70's and early-mid 1980's. If you have not read her site before, please check it out. It's full of fun, quality film writing and you may just learn something.

Speaking of music, one of those dreaded yet masochisticly compelling Rolling Stone lists popped up the other day, this time covering the top 25 soundtracks of all time. In fairness, it wasn't as heinous as I was expecting, but there were some glaring omissions, to say the least. Music and film are like peanut butter and chocolate. The combination, when done well, is luscious and kinetic.

Since part of the reason I write in the first place is some strange moral compulsion to right the cultural wrongs of the world, I figured I would contribute my own personal list of superb soundtracks. The key difference with this list, other than being naturally quality, is that I refuse to put anything in numeric order. How art hits you can be really mercurial, all depending on your mood, the position of the moon, how the postman looked at you, etc etc. So with all of that in mind, here's just a taste of some of my favorite movie music!

“Repo Man.” Alex Cox's cult film, in a lot of circles, is almost better regarded for its soundtrack than the film itself. (Though don't get me wrong, the film is great. How could anything with Harry Dean Stanton, Fox Harris and Zander Schloss be bad?) Staring off with the mean title track by Iggy Pop, the rest of the album is a like a paen to early 80's West Coast punk, including such titans as The Circle Jerks, The Plugz (God love Tito Larriva!), Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies and Fear.

Speaking of punk rock soundtracks, I would be remiss to not mention either “Return of the Living Dead” or “The Great Rock and Roll Swindle.” The former was actually my early introduction to bands like The Cramps and The Flesheaters. That alone is terrific, but it also features the indomitable The Damned, 45 Grave and an early incarnation of synth-outfit SSQ, which later on morphed into the solo career of Stacey Swain aka Stacey Q. It's a great soundtrack for one of the most fun and well-made non-Romero zombie films.

“The Great Rock & Roll Swindle,” a film whose origins begin with being the aborted Russ Meyer project “Who Killed Bambi?” ended up being one fascinating mess of a music film. There are moments of greatness within the film, with some of the the highlights being Steve Jones romping in a neon bed with a half-naked lovely in gold undies to “Lonely Boy,” only to have coitus interruptus via a talking dog (!), the tribal-disco fusion band, The Black Arabs, doing a “Stars on 45” type medley of the Pistols hits and, of course, Sid Vicious beautifully butchering the old standard “My Way.” The latter has become particularly iconic and a great example of how one can really deconstruct something old, hence making it new. Especially when it is the musical equivalent of using a ball peen hammer and some crazy glue. Which is never, ever a bad thing!

Of course, Tenpole Tudor's "Who Killed Bambi?" does have a huge place in my heart.

One of the most striking soundtracks to have emerged in the last thirty years is absolutely Mitchell Froom's work for Stephen Sayadian's post-nuclear masterpiece, “Cafe Flesh.” Released as “The Key of Cool,” Froom's score, much like the images and story it is accompanying, are not easily forgotten. It's jazzy, infernal and is in dire need of being back in print. One of my dreams is for not only “Key of Cool” to get a nice, new re-release, but for “Cafe Flesh” itself to get the loving, uncut and remastered treatment it so desperately deserves.

The soundtrack for Richard Elfman's “Forbidden Zone” was an absolute staple of my latter high school years. While I loathed high school, this film and soundtrack both were one of the balms that got me through. At the time, I had only seen the film once, renting a severely out-of-print copy from the long defunct Hauser Video, but it was love at first site and sound. It is a great insect-in-the-amber document of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, right before they became less Cab Calloway and more New Wave as Oingo Boingo. Anyone who loves black & white film, expressionism, old music, nudity, dancing frogs, Susan Tyrell, Herve Villechaize, the Kipper Kids, my beloved Joe Spinell and Danny Elfman dressed up as ole scratch himself the way that I do, must pick this up.

Absolutely one of the most underrated films and soundtracks ever has to be Bob Rafelson's “Head.” Better known as the one film the Monkees ever did, “Head” is one of the most exquisitely edited, subversive, dark humored rock films ever. It initially flopped, with one of the biggest factors being their fans expecting something just like the TV show: cute, zany and fairly safe. Instead, they got the ole “the money's in, we're made of tin” soft shoe, Vietnam war footage and Timothy Carey at his most intense and out-of-bounds. (Okay, what am I saying? Carey was always that magnificent!) The music matches the proceedings inch by inch, with the absolute highlight being the haunting “The Porpoise Song.”

Some honorable mentions that I will write about at a later date include:

“Shock Treatment”

“Urgh! A Music War”

“Christiane F.”

“Bram Stoker's Dracula” (Not counting the Annie Lenox song. The score itself is gorgeous and much better than Coppola's muddled effort.)

Anything Italian between the late 50's and mid 80's

Anything with the names Les Baxter or Angelo Badalamenti attached.

There's obviously way more, but consider this piece to be a little bit of a taste of the proper. Now as a bonus, here are two of my favorite songs from a movie. 

The first is Mort Garson's theme from Larry Hagman's “Son of Blob.” I have no idea how the film is, but I do know that this song is a little slice of esoteric heaven to my ears. I never need happy pills as long as I have access to this delight. Also, Mort Garson was a genius whose library is itching to be rediscovered.

The second is from the original “In the Heat of the Night.” Featuring the uber-fantastic Anthony James, “Owl on the Prowl” is like a hillbilly version of Sam the Sham's “Little Red Riding Hood.” In other words, awesome. (Also, this is for a friend of mine, whose taste surpasses even my own.)

You can also find me on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest & Google+.

 

Shadow Worlds of Cinema: An Interview with Susie Bright

 

Every art movement worth its salt is going to have its share of detractors and controversies. Chances are if a work of art has caused at least one parent's group ire, then it is something worth checking out. (And if it's caused a riot, then it is a masterpiece. But that's for another article.) The best kind to stoke the fires of status quo morality is often “lowbrow” art. Whether it is horror comics, pulp novels, heavy metal music or fringe cinema, these are often the works that are critically panned, if paid attention to at all, they repulse the ethically insecure and when they're really good, give the social rebel hope.

One of the writers that has been an essential part of these needed fringe worlds of art is the one and only Susie Bright. A name that should already be familiar to most that will read this article, she has been a keen figure in the world of feminism, zines, erotica and LGBT rights. Something that not everyone reading this might know, though, is that she has written a number of great film articles and reviews. It feels like that the cult film world has not given this woman enough credit and that day is changing now, especially with her recent book, SusieBright's Erotic Screen: The Golden Hardcore & The ShimmeringDyke-Core. This e-book is indeed shimmering, making it a must read for anyone who has a deep love or at least, a curiosity, about a time period when cinematic erotica had a number of ambitious artists and filmmakers involved.

If you are looking for something prurient, go elsewhere, since this feast is more focused on great writing, cinematic history and peeking into cultural corners. I loved this, since it fed my inner Murray Head. (“I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine.”) 

Ms. Bright was extremely kind enough to agree to answer a few questions, via e-mail. Enjoy!

–First of all, I love the quote on your blog from Rolling Stone, “Could not be accused of shutting up.” A magazine that toothless should be grateful to have someone smart and with actual informed opinions talking! There is a fine art of the un-quiet, which shines in your book, “The Golden Hardcore & Shimmering Dyke-Core.” Being an open and honest writer, did you ever feel any resistance from editors and/or publishers?

Oh, all the time; but I consider that a healthy tension— to a certain degree. If someone fawns all over you, there’s probably something amiss.

But you are probably asking something more difficult, which is, “Have I ever been discriminated against?”

Yes, all the time. The prejudices are well known.

I rarely hear the blunt rejection to my face-- it’s usually told second-hand, or in hoary euphemisms. I remember one editor got very drunk and called me in the middle of the night to weep and confess every awful prejudice that had been uttered against my work in their publishing chambers. Feminist, whore, queer, nigger-lover, communist, pervert, etc.

And that’s from the “liberals.”

I guess the main thing to say at this point is, “Who cares what ‘THEY’ say?” The old gatekeepers to the publishing empires are irrelevant today.

My latest book in point: No one in mainstream publishing would’ve bought the rights to “Erotic Screen”-- they can’t even wrap their minds around a topic like that, the golden age of porn and the origins of indie erotic film making.

But it doesn't matter. I know who my audience is; they’re eager for it, and I can self-publish and reach them myself. By the time it becomes “big news,” I will have established the beachhead. I already have. 

Honestly, nothing new ever happens waiting for the Big Boys to “discover” you sitting on a soda fountain stool. You have to come up with your own little revolution and then watch and see what happens!

 

-Also, what kind of reception did you initially get from other writers?

Oh, I’m in a longtime supportive community of working writers. People who’ve been supporting their families for decades with their writing are not prissy about anything. "If you’re working, good for you—" that's the attitude among the craft. There’s few writers that haven’t tackled sexual subjects at one time or another.

Jamie Gillis

-Classic era adult films are the living definition of fringe cinema and like all fringe cinema. A lot of it does not deserve to be put in the back room ghetto. Being an artist and being marginalized because of your own private milieu is incredibly unfair. How did a lot of the actors and directors that you knew in this field handle this critical prejudice?

Well, I think many of the names you know today, like Nina Hartley or Annie Sprinkle--- or the late John Leslie or Jamie Gillis— are household names because they have been outspoken and militant, in addition to prolific.

The people who are articulate, charismatic, dogged, lucky… they’re the minority. But you could say that about every actor working anywhere.

Most people in porn, like everyone else in the Hollywood colony, just drift in and out, rather unheralded, never becoming famous. It is a tough business where you often feel used and thrown out like yesterday’s dishwater, after a very brief period of time. I would say the same holds whether it was TV sitcoms or porn flicks.

People think porn is some nether world that has nothing to do with the rest of show business, but it’s quite the opposite.

 John Leslie

-Any post-Silent film worth its salt will have some sonic goodness and the classic films of this era are no different. (Directors such as Cecil Howard, the Dark Brothers and Stephen Sayadian are especially standout in this arena.) What are some of your favorite soundtracks of the adult era?

Oh, definitely Night Dreams. (Editor Note: Indeed! Any film that features Wall of Voodoo's “Ring of Fire” is something very, very special. Also, Mitchell Froom's excellent soundtrack for Rinse Dream/Stephen Sayadian's Cafe Flesh is worth checking out.)

 Speaking of Cafe Flesh....

-Were there any adult films that you were initially excited about, only to be disappointed with?

When a director is good and does something new, there’s so much pressure to pump up the volume, just churn stuff out. How many people can be Andy Warhol? I really can’t think of any!

Almost all my fave directors got burnt out at some point and did less than stellar work in their later years, unless they had refreshing break!

In that vein, what are some of the most overrated titles? (In my opinion, Debbie Does Dallas would be the ultimate. How titles like FIRESTORM and MEMORIES WITHIN MISS AGGIE are semi-obscure and that smut-for-mongoloids is famous is beyond me.)

Yeah, Debbie is one of those Texas cliches that is “all hat, no cowboy.” It’s all “title” and no film. Someone poured ten times the marketing budget into that film than they did on the actual production.

Actually, it presages the current porn vogue for jumping onto current events and trends, be it the Sarah Palin parody, Nailin' Palin, or Avatar. Debbie was an attempt to jump on the tremendous heat behind the Dallas Cowboys, the biggest thing in the sports world at the time.

Firestorm is one of Cecil Howard’s greats, and luckily, he kept all his rights, kept masters of all his films. Thank god. He and Radley Metzger were unique that way.

If someone made a porn film right this minute starring a Jeremy Lin lookalike, just imagine the pandemonium. I’d go see that!

As for Miss Aggie, that was Damiano’s third film, his followup to the excellent Devil in Miss Jones, and really when he felt like he was moving into mainstream theatrical film territory.

During those times, the money was accessible, and it was a HUGE production— all the stops pulled out. They thought that the Ratings Board and the puritanical rules regarding film were coming to pieces-- that sex and drama put together in professional creative manner was here to stay!

Well, unfortunately, they were wrong. The 70s were the biggest high water creative mark for American films since before the Hays Office meltdown.

And they were crushed. It wasn’t just porn, it was everything that brought indie cinema into fruition in the 70s: Scorsese, Cronenberg, Altman, Fonda, Hopper and the whole bit. Those famous names survived and adapted, but the revolutionary erotic spirit… not so much.

I see it opening up again only now, when technology has just ripped apart the old expectations again.

 The Man, Gerard Damiano.

-On a more positive note, did you encounter any films that you went into expecting the worst and walked out being pleasantly surprised?

Oh sure, all the time. I would say I was surprised by virtually every film I saw theatrically. When I saw video innovators like Chris Rage, and Rodney Werden, and the lesbian stuff my comrades were making, it was "goosebump time."

-One of the titles you have a lot of love for in the book is Smoker, which got a DVD release last year. Unfortunately, VCA, which is also responsible for the substandard DVD release of the sci-fi/art film classic Cafe Flesh, has excised over 20 minutes of footage.

Yes. It reminds me of all the silent films that were destroyed in the 20s. (Ed. Note: Not to mention a lot of the pre-Hays code talkies. See, CONVENTION CITY.) I'm writing about this for Volume 2 of The Erotic Screen.

 

In the days of the Meese Commission scare, it is halfway understandable, but in these days of the Whitman's sampler of lurid hell you can find on the net and in ones local video store legally, what is your theory of why many film companies are releasing these films censored and with battered prints to boot? Is it laziness or fear or just a complete lack of caring about their archive?

When Russell Hampshire, the owner of VCA (the biggest XXX video distributor at the time) got of of jail on obscenity charges following the Meese Commission bust, he told his lawyers, “I never want to go to jail again. EVER. Tell me what to do.”

His lawyer, Paul Cambria, wrote a memo…

Followed to the letter, the advice from the memo would destroy most of their back catalog.

And they did.

There were voices who said, “But this is art! Someday the Criterion Collection is going to want this! Scholars will study it!”

But they were ignored with the same mandate.

This really is just like what happened in the Silent film days after the Justice Dept went after them.

The rest of the companies, besides VCA, hadn’t been forced to send anyone to jail. So they just decided to wing it and see if anything happened. Nothing did. They kept their catalog intact and only VCA destroyed theirs. Since VCA had so many classics, it was a holocaust.

-Working and writing about these films, did you ever receive any backlash from some of the more politically correct members of the feminist community?

Oh yes. See my memoir. Endless, endless, ad hominem attacks, multiple assassination attempts (no fooling), unrelenting smear campaigns. What a complete waste. What did the feminist movement get out of it? Look at the horrible state we’re in now, fighting for fucking birth control all over again.

-Every interview needs at least one fun and semi-cheesy question and this one is no exception. What is your classic era dream team? (Actors, actresses, directors, writers, composers, etc etc)

Oh gee! Well, Radley directing Sharon Mitchell, I’d like that. Jamie Gillis with Robert De Niro. Chris Rage making a Disney movie.

 The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann

 

 

-The decline of the classic era is often attributed to the rise of video. However, filmmakers of all types have been able to use professional video equipment to make some unique and good movies. I've always felt that it is more supply and demand. If the public at large demanded better movies (of any genre), then the people with the pocketbooks would be forced to financially back more intelligent and creative efforts. However, that's just me being opinionated, so what are your feelings on this?

You’re right. You see that in gay movies, where there IS a more discriminating audience, and they get better movies.

-Where there any particular artists that you always wanted to meet and/or interview, but never did?

Damiano! Alex D’Renzy. And it’s weird that I washed Linda Lovelace’s car in high school, but never saw her again. When I was 15, I had no idea I’d be covering her career someday.

Andy Nichols in Cafe Flesh

-Any ongoing, new or vintage projects you would like to mention or promote?

I'll be publishing The Erotic Screen, Volume 2, at the end of this year. It will include such classics as "Stalag Porn," and "The G-Spot Fraud Detection Squad." If you'd like to be on the mailing list for its debut, mail me at susie@susiebright.com

I cannot thank Susie enough for taking the time out of her busy schedule to answer my questions. Feel free to check out her Amazon store for an assortment of her available works and of course, her website.

 

Dagwood Goes to Hollywood: An Interview with Paul McGibboney

Synchronicity. It’s more than just a title of a Police album. (Apologies to all of you Ghost in the Machine fans.) It is one of those intangible quirks of living that can bless us and curse us in the most surprising of ways.

Case in point, a few months ago I conjured up a little tribute piece to one of my favorite films of all time, Rinse Dream’s Café Flesh for one of our biggest local papers, the Little Rock Free Press. A good publication whose vast readerships presumably aren’t too hip towards incredible cult films, especially of the adult variety. Which is exactly why I wrote it. Hey I like to think I do the lord’s work in some weird way.





So when I got an email a few weeks after it hit the stands from one of the main players in the film, you can imagine my shock and awe. The likely hood of Paul McGibboney, the lead hero with the weight of the post-nuclear world on his broad shoulders, finding my piece, reading it, liking it, and hunting me down to tell me was pretty damned slim. Yet I somehow got blessed by the gods of synchronicity and got to interview the man.

Come to find out that he is a fellow Southerner, Texas born and transplanted as a kid to Louisiana. So how exactly did an athletic, Southern kid get into acting?

“I may have been influenced by The Little Rascals features, because I remember my brothers and sister (I’ve got 4 brothers and one sister) and I along with one or two other kids, putting on variety shows in our neighborhood. The adults always made time to watch whatever we kids chose to stage. But, if you wanted to find my brothers and I, on any random day, you just needed to look in the nearest open field or vacant lot and there is where we would be playing full speed tackle football, without pads, with the other blue collar kids in town.

So, it was really no jump for me to become a thespian and play football in school and run track at the same time. Interestingly, though, it really wasn't the fashion in those days (50s & early 60s). I mean most kids were either one or the other (or neither). For me, I played ball because I loved it and I performed because I liked the attention. Then I fell in love with performing. In high school, I actually preached a couple of sermons as part of the youth program at the church I belonged to! These were full sermons! Myself and another guy would alternate each week delivering the hellfire and brimstone. He became an international Evangelist and I became an actor. Same thing in many ways. (laughs) Religious I am not, but there is nothing like the stage! I suspect this is at the root of many of the Bible-Thumping Preachers across America...well that and scratch.”

The acting bug ended up taking a now grown Paul from the South to that great city of tarnish and glitter, Los Angeles. In a country the size of the US, culture shock can be almost inevitable, especially when going from Louisiana to Hell-A.

“It was total culture shock. When I first arrived in Hollywood and would walk up and down Hollywood Blvd., every pimp, panhandler, dope drummer, every kind of street creature would approach me. I might as well have had a neon sign on my forehead, just off the bus. It took me a few months to desensitize myself enough to be left alone. I remember once, I was trucking down the Blvd (Hollywood Blvd, the boulevard of broken dreams), wearing shades and with my head down looking at the names of the stars and dreaming of where I would place mine someday, laughs, and one of those street people guys (in a long raincoat, seriously) stepped in front of me, opened his coat and on one side he had sunglasses pinned to the inside of his coat and the other side “gold” necklaces. He said, You need some sunglasses, brother. I said, I have some brother, I'm wearing them. He said, How 'bout a nice gold chain, the chicks really get off on 'em, brother. I said, Get the fuck away from me, shithead. He yelled, He's a cop! He's a cop! Hide your shit, he's a undercover man! hahaha. It's true. Scared the fuck out of me. I just kept walking at the same speed until I couldn't hear him anymore.

There weren't any people like that on the streets where I came from. Hell, every town had a street drunk (not counting the closet "society page" ones), but they were usually harmless and tended to leave the kiddies alone. I couldn't get over the orange Mohawks, tattoos and piercings (I still have none) and how hip the young people were at very young ages.”

The big issue a lot of creative folks face is how their families are going to handle it them transitioning from 9-5 daywalker to struggling artist. Some are more supportive than others, especially when it comes to said artist having to leave a spouse and kids behind to follow their dreams.

“I think I threw everyone a curve by heading to Hollywood as a husband and father of two toddler sons at age 28. It's just one of those things that only artists understand. I felt I finally needed to give my life long dream a shot, at least, or I would have regretted it forever. It was extremely difficult leaving my family back, but I was naively optimistic that it wouldn't be long until we could all be reunited. It never happened. Subsequently I would fly back for a month in the summer and at Christmas or the best I could. After 6 years, it became increasingly difficult to leave my sons and wife to go back to L.A. until, ultimately, I felt I had to choose to continue my "career" or go home and be a family man. This is fairly typical with a lot of greenhorns with dreams. They become the prey of Hollywood vultures. Of course, not everyone in Hollywood is a vulture...laughs...

I was way better prepared for the journey than some of the kids I met and observed while working out there. I was better prepared because I lost my father at 12 years old and my Irish American brothers and I kind of got in the fast lane and began learning life the hard way...on my own. The streets in L.A. can indeed be mean, particularly to the uninitiated.


Cowboy circa '78


My mom, who has since passed as well, begged me to come back to real life. laughs My sister called me once and asked that I hurry up and make it big because she had seen a guy, whom she hated, from our old neighborhood and he laughed in her face about me when he heard what I was doing. My younger brother was married and he and his wife had moved to New York to pursue similar goals as me, except in Theater. He was the Actor and she the Dancer/Actress. As far as friends and business associates, there were two reactions, Go get 'em, Tiger and What the fuck? Are you fucking crazy?"

Speaking of fucking crazy, some actors prefer the thrill of the live stage while others go for the nuance of the silver screen. It can be a battle between the ham and the subtle. There are the hardy few that develop a taste for both.

“Well, they are two completely different animals, really. I have more theater experience than film and TV, but if I had to choose I would love to make a living in film. It's kind of like your children, you love them all equally and at the same time they are all unique in their own way. There's nothing like the challenge of the stage. The whole process is simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating. Through weeks of rehearsals, you build your character, adding layer after layer until, hopefully, it springs into a life of its own. You take what the writer gives you, and you pull from your own life experiences and your own soul, plus the Director's notes, and a third person is born. Sort of like that, at least in my own experience.

I am a performer that needs direction, the Director is very important to me. I may get attacked by those more knowledgeable than myself, but in my experience there seems to be two basic kinds of Directors, one that has his/her vision placed firmly in their mind as to the way they want the story to flow and cast people to fit this vision. The other type would have the actor’s improv and try all sorts of things to try to root out a character, leaving the actor to create mostly his or her vision of the material.

Some of the more exciting plays I performed in at the Hollywood Actors Theater (H.A.T) were ensemble pieces. The Boys In The Band By Mort Crowley, which won a Tony on Broadway, and In The Boom Boom Room were the two Los Angeles Premiers that I had leads in. A third was Subway Incident '69, which was the stage version of a Live Teleplay back in the early 60's, which then became a film, as did Boys In The Band. I had to literally convince the Head of the Theater group, Ron Bastone, to let me even audition for Boys In The Band as it is about a group of gay men having a private party which turns ugly. Big deal. But back when it was first produced on Broadway, it WAS a big deal. It was the first time Americans got a look at the private world of gay men. Ron laughed his ass of when I was begging him to at least let me read for it, declaring, "If there's anyone in this Theater Troupe that isn't right for ‘Boys it's you’.

Well shit like that there just gets me more juiced so I got my mojo workin' and got in to read and landed one of the two leads, Donald, to great reviews. I got to meet the Writer Mort Crowley at our after-the-show hangout, Two Guys From Italy Restaurant and Bar, who told me I was the only person he ever saw play Donald the way he had Donald envisioned in his mind. That's the stuff Actors live for; to be legitimized by key people in your industry keeps you going to say the least. At that time, he was co-Directing the TV series Hart To Hart and invited me to call his office to come in for a reading.

In The Boom Boom Room by David Rabe is a dark play about abuse, physical and mental, and offered me the most challenging role for 1982, maybe of all I have ever done. I played Big Al Royce (don't ya just love that name), which was played in the New York Premier by Christopher Lloyd. Coincidently, the open cattle call for Big Al, brought in over 1500 Actors, it eventually got down to me and Richard Belzer. I got the role, he got famous...laughs. As you know, he also has a Cameo role in Cafe Flesh.


Two cool dudes-
Paul & Jerry McAffee in David Rabe's play "In the Boom Boom Room"


Big Al is a violent ex-con who has a psychotic acid-head sidekick name Ralphie. He meets up with the leading lady of the show, Chrissie played by Sandi MacGregor, an incredible (but aloof) actress from Australia, in a strip joint in the play. After hooking up with her, their relationship becomes part of the abuse in the play. In fact, our version of the piece had Big Al beating her to death at the very end of the final Act. You know, it makes for a scary curtain call with a final scene like that. laughs This is truly an Actors type of play, but beware if you're thinking of staging it...ANYWHERE. It requires a high level of performance from every character. This is when I met and got to work with the fabulous Julie Newmar! She played the dance captain at the club where Chrissie strips in The Boom Boom Room. God, she's so beautiful (even now) and graceful, a really sensitive (but tough) lady, it took me a couple of weeks to get used to being in her presence. All I could think of was the woody I had every time I would see her as Cat Woman on the Batman TV series...laughs...seriously. Then to actually work with her was just another exciting moment in my life.

Ron Bastone directed Boom Boom and Subway Incident '69. I loved that guy. He and his son, Dondi Bastone, became close friends of mine. Coincidently, Dondi's two best friends were Anthony and Flea in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. At the time he and I shared a house and I got to know them pretty well. I know they got a kick out of me being from Louisiana and all, but I am glad to have gotten to know them before they were famous. They played here in my town one time a while back, and I thought about trying to get in to see them, but changed my mind just in case they might say "Paul Who"? laughs (Writer’s Note: Dondi went on to play Nick’s best friend, Spike in Café Flesh. Small world, eh?)

Bastone employed a very unique and ahead of its time Electronic Theater technique in Subway. The cutting edge back then was videotape, and Bastone shot scenes with all the characters dialogue in various parts of New York right up until the moment they enter the Subway on stage. We had a big screen (for then) TV mounted on either side of the stage and it really created drama to hear the sound effects of the subway screeching to a halt and as the curtains open the Subway seems to be moving and coming to a halt, but in actuality the actors were on a moving platform and it gave the illusion of the subway moving and coming to a halt. Radically cool Theater, I must say. Director Bastone also had all the actors constantly moving as if we were on a real train and we had to rehearse which direction each our bodies would lean as the train came to a halt. That added another layer of realism to a brisk and comparably short stage play. The play was based on a true-life incident that happened in on a subway in NY. Two punks jam the doors and terrorize the people on the train. This play, if staged correctly, would be relevant even today for obvious reasons.” (Writer’s Note-This play was the basis for the excellent 60’s B&W film, The Incident, starring Martin Sheen and Tony Musante. And yes, Mr. McGibboney would have been awesome in it.)


Café Flesh is that rare bird that intertwines the worlds of science fiction and adult film seamlessly into one amazing and melancholy world. It’s new wave noir that is highlighted by Dream’s (aka Stephen Sayadian) and Herbert W. Day’s (aka Jerry Stahl) talent with both dialogue and casting. Given what an unusual film it is, I asked Paul how exactly he ended up in such a thing.

“It was during the run of Subway Incident '69 that I mentioned earlier. A still relevant ensemble piece in which I played a Marine soldier home on leave who is taking in some sights in the Big Apple with a boot camp buddy from New York. During a ride on the subway, a couple of punks jam up the subway doors and begin to terrorize the people on the train. This was based on a true story, and the film version starred many names including Beau Bridges who played the same role that I played Felix Teflinger.

Felix becomes increasingly disturbed that nobody on the subway car, several men, women, and a baby (played by a doll to avoid intermittent crying and diaper changing), including his Marine buddy, not only weren't trying to stop the punks, but cowering to them. Even though the two punks showed no weapons. Felix, being a Southern dude, is seriously freaked by the lack of folks stepping up to the plate and nailing the little shits. Well, eventually HE does. The play ends with Felix, sporting a couple of knife wounds and asking the subway occupants, What kinda people are you? As plays go, this one was relatively short, just over an hour I think, but it was crisp, well acted, and the drama built so well, that one night we had a guy in the audience leap onto the stage to assist Felix as he opened his can of Southern whoopass on the two punks! Great stuff. So, anyway, one night Mr. Steve Sayadian appeared in response to the great reviews the play was getting and sent word backstage afterward that he wanted to see me, could we set up a meeting. I told the stage manager to let him in my dressing room if he was still in the Theater, and he was, so he came back. He said he had a big part in an unusual film that he would like me to play if I was interested. He said that he needed an actor who could capture a certain simpatico and that he saw what he was looking for in me in my role as Felix and wanted me to be in his film, Cafe Flesh. Cafe Flesh? I thought, sounds really gory, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something. So, he handed me the script and asked me to read it and call him with my thoughts about doing the movie and exited my dressing room. I think I still have that script somewhere, or at least pieces of it.


After reading the script, I thought, WTF? What the...I'm not sure I get this, it seems like sci-fi, but SEX NEGATIVES and SEX POSITIVES sitting around an underground cafe after the nuclear kiss watching people do the dirty hula? Is this porno? Is this avant-garde, is this film noir, is this some kind of art experiment...WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THING??? It turns out, it's all those things, but at that time, at that moment, it felt to me like Killer Tomatoes. I mean it just sounded too weird on paper for me. In that original script, my character takes a bowie knife and not so surgically, removes his favorite male appendage. I'm extremely liberal but there's was no way I was going to do a film where I become some sort of a self-inflicted eunuch. I turned it down. So, I called Steve, and not allowing me to argue with him, he said he would rewrite the ending and get back to me. The rewrite had Nick hanging himself above the bed as Lana (legendary cult film actress and glamour model Michelle Bauer aka Pia Snow) shivers through multiple orgasms with some super-stud Johnny Rico (the late Kevin James, who was also in the Sayadian produced, Nightdreams) at Cafe Flesh. I turned him down again and figured he would just get bored with my ridiculous attitude and get someone else. Not Steve, apparently he really wanted me to do this film so he told me I COULD WRITE THE ENDING, and that he had added a great sort of Escape From New York type exterior scene where Nick goes after the sex police that have arrested the character Angel (played by Marie Sharp) I didn't really trust this little guy to be honest, but those two things, and the fact that I had just got evicted (starving actors get evicted frequently) and Steve said he would pay me in cash, well...I finally said yes.”


Negative Sex with Sex Negatives: Paul and Pia Snow (aka Michelle Bauer)

Nick, perhaps other than Max Melodramatic (more on him in a minute), is one of the most complicated characters in Café Flesh. While unlike guys like Max, he has true love in the form of his girlfriend Lana, he has been robbed of physical love by a war he didn’t start and certainly did not ask for. Voyeurism is a poor substitute for sex but it’s the only one he has and if there was ever a self-loathing junkie, it is Nick. Playing such a role, especially one that serves as the bleak yet moral lynchpin of the movie, but Paul pulls it off to the point that one cannot imagine anyone else in that role.

“Film acting is completely different than stage acting and at that time I was involved 100% in stage acting. So, right off the bat I had to make the adjustment from stage to screen. Screen acting is much more subtle in many ways, ask Clint Eastwood, who early in his career, barely even talked at all in his spaghetti westerns and those have become classics. (Writer’s Note: Having Sergio Leone didn’t hurt. Not to take anything away from ole ironsides Clint.) The scary thing for me is that I am an actor that needs direction. I need the Director at times to figuratively reach down inside me and pull it out. I take direction very well, but my mind is so, I don't know, scattered, laughs. I think of too many things at a time and I have to check myself on a regular basis to keep from rambling and drifting. I'm sure it has to do with gray matter losses that I contribute to my youthful search for truth at which time I may have experimented in different ways, including inserting paper acid under my headband at concerts, like the Allman Brothers, Ten Years After, The Rolling Stones, Johnny and Edgar Winter, etc.


Steve Sayadian said to me on the set that he thought I might know more about acting than he and left me to direct myself. As I have explained, this struck some fear into me as an artist that needs a certain amount of guidance and illumination. I had to make some quick choices and here was one of the major differences in having to do a character with NO rehearsal, AND not knowing the actress I was playing opposite. Trusting in each other’s ability is huge in acting. Usually in a play and major films you have generally six weeks to rehearse and build a character. I showed up for this film only to find that I am on my own and there might be a million directions I could take it and we're gonna do it right now, Hoss. So I say to myself, WTF am I gonna do with this deal? I started thinking, and remembered I am in the prime of my own real life and I starting thinking WHAT IF. What If...I...suddenly...without ANY warning...was robbed of one the most important and enjoyable forms of human communication...fucking. What If I suddenly couldn't do the hot whirling dervish at will. Depending on if there was an available person who would let me dervishly whirl them? What If? You know, that would really piss me off. It was something I was good at, that is to say, acquiring female partners to skip the horizontal light fandango. So I chose to feel deep anger and resentment capped with the realization that I, Nick, was helpless to do anything at all about it. Massive reasons to roll up into a big ball...and die.”
Pulling off any film successfully is very much dependent on the relationship and vibe of cast and crew. A shoot can be either a pleasant day or something that’s the mental and physical equivalent to 120 Days of Sodom, minus the smiles. How a cast and crew get along is especially vital when it comes to independent cinema.


“I have to say that from the moment I went to that building on Hollywood Blvd to shoot this film, that I tried so hard to get out of doing, I may as well have taken a rocket ship to Mars and discovered life there...humans, yes, but humans...unlike me. Unlike me, Joe Heartland recently off the turnip truck...humans from another planet. But, I mean that in an endearing way. But they were all respectful and courteous and helpful and it worked out great. The truth is, most of, if not all, of the extras in this film, were people off the street and people living in halfway houses. I’m sure Steve Sayadian knew each and every one of them on some level. You will find that geniuses have a vast scale, a wide range of friendships. Geniuses may show up today with the Queen of England and tomorrow with that guy that sleeps in the alley near his pad. I can identify with that, though I am no genius, I have always liked people that challenge me in some way, on some level, or just interest me, wherever they come from or their station in life, as opposed to the birds of the feather flock together crowd.


So my interest went very high as I looked around at the cast and crew, some of which I am sure were very high as well. I got even more excited after meeting and talking with Michelle Bauer and I'll tell you why. I had never met a porno queen before. At first, we made small talk like everyone does and then a question and answer period between each other, a sort what do you think about the script, etc. Somewhere in there I began to realize that this woman was not dumb, that she was not only very smart, but that she had a certain charisma and I felt a sort of relief come over me because then I knew that I had something to work with and maybe I might find even myself needing to work up to HER level. She indicated that she had been a Penthouse centerfold. Anyway, she whipped out a copy, which she just happened to have with her, and showed it to me. And, well, pardon me, but this just doesn't happen to most fellas every day. I mean, the girl IN the centerfold, the girl that IS the centerfold showing you a copy of her hot naked self, IN PERSON. Ok, yeah, my heartbeat did increase a bit, in vivid terms, I felt my chest rip itself open and my heart leap out and slam itself up and down on the floor, I became momentarily speechless.


More than good looks: Michelle Bauer as Lana

Smiling, but still, for a moment, I didn't know what to say. That's a great picture, I eeked out after clearing my throat. I will never know to this day whether she was clever enough to try to motivate my character to her character, or if she was just proud of her centerfold status, or both or neither. But then it hit me, that's it dude, that's it! How nice it would be to have a centerfold as your partner in life! It gave me the motivation I needed because then (as Nick) all I could think about was wrasslin' nekkid with Lana...but I couldn’t. I was definitely impressed with Michelle Bauer and her work.”

One of the most compelling dynamics in Café Flesh is the interaction between Max Melodramatic (the unforgettable Andrew Nichols) and Nick. They both are the heart of the film, with Max being the cynical, acid-tongued, bizarre Greek chorus of sorts and Nick being your heavy but good hearted hero. These are two men who were robbed of the capability of physical love by the war, in very different ways. It’s a case of the haunting and the haunted, but the real question is which is which?

One of the most haunting scenes in "Cafe Flesh."-Max delights
in Nick's pain.

“We had neither seen nor heard of each other prior to this film. We ‘ran lines’ a couple of times to make sure we had the dialogue down, but the acting was done on screen with no real rehearsal. I have been around, and worked with many talented people and all them have their own ways of preparing for their work. I have worked with actors that stay in character 24/7 until the end of the run. Quite frankly, it's very bizarre having an off stage or off screen conversation with someone when they are in their character's zone.


For example, I once interviewed, back when I was a Radio DJ, the person representing Disney as Snow White. She was in town promoting the Disney Ice Show and was doing publicity in the local media. So, our live radio interview ended and I thanked her. We made small talk while she was waiting for her person to come back in the control room and get her. I couldn't help but notice that she stayed in character as we were casually talking. So, I began to question her about that, and she answered me by insisting that she really was Snow White and worked for Mr. Disney her creator, etc. etc. Well, I couldn't get over that. I was still pretty young and my mischievous side unexpectedly took control out of nowhere. I fought it, but, it overpowered me and suddenly I blurted out, like I had tourrettes, Well, like what would happen if I were to, say...PINCH YOUR ASS? There was one of those incredibly awkward moments when time seems to stand still and you feel as if you might implode and I expected her head to start spinning around and around spewing hot green slimy vomit like Linda Blair. But just then, I think I saw her just about to break character and crack up, when her handler entered the control room. As they left she glanced back and winked at me. If I would have had about five more minutes with her, there might have been eight dwarfs instead of seven.

The reason I told you that story is because I didn't know Andrew Nichols at all, and the time I was around him, during the shoot, he seemed a lot like his character, Max, off screen. It was sort of what it might be like to be around Robin Williams I think, you didn't know what to expect, very, very entertaining, but there was this edge he had with me also. Like he might be trying to intimidate me, not so much in a bad way, just to see if he could. It was a subtle thing, but it was there. I realized later that he was paralleling his character, or possibly staying IN character and that was his method, his actor's MO, trying to get to me, just like Max is trying to get to Nick in the film.


The Cafe's Master of Ceremonies-
Andy Nichols as the unforgettable Max Melodramatic

This whole thing was done in about ten days; most of my takes were first takes. Had I known the eventual success of this film I would have pushed for a few takes for each scene. This was an Independent film shot on a shoestring budget. There were no contracts, just cash in an envelope. SOMEBODY has made, and is STILL making, a lot of money off Cafe Flesh, but it ain't me...damn it. (Writer’s Note: its more than likely VCA, with their poor DVD release of this great film, are the main ones making any mint from it. It’s doubtful that anyone associated with the film is making anything substantial, which is a crime. Can someone release this film proper and truly uncut?)

Café Flesh, despite some of the odds against it, like having a low budget, explicit sexuality, and being completely unlike anything else, was released to critical acclaim. Yet despite this, to this day you have folks who are scared away from it just because of the unsimulated sex element. (Funny how true crime is more acceptable of a genre than anything with hardcore sex. Lenny Bruce was right in oh so many ways.) These things can be even stickier when it comes to the reactions of friends and family.


“That was my first shock on this film really...the attention and positive reviews it initially received. Everyone from America's Foremost Casting Newspaper, The Hollywood Drama-Logue, to the prestigious and most famous Industry bullhorn, Variety, legitimizing it instantly. Shockingly, Variety called me a ‘James Dean-like’ character! Wow, that totally blew me away, no kidding. I've been looking at me in the mirror for 59 years and I never saw James Dean there. My personal feelings are that Andrew Nichols and Michelle Bauer carried this film for the most part, but I hope my modest contribution added another layer to it. Cafe Flesh was eventually rated as the number one film of it's kind...ever, and that thrust it into the category of Cult Classic forever. Whether you think it belongs with Killer Tomatoes or has a place in film noir history, it has been immortalized for eternity. Water seeks its own level and though there are people out there that trash this film, the fan base has done nothing but grow and grow as the years go by. I'm sure right wing nuts and religious zealots find it less than viewable (as they view it over and over and over), but I take that as an endorsement. I’ve heard it was Hunter Thompson's favorite film and that's good enough for me. I'm not ashamed of having been in this film, and my kids already know this, but for the record, I wasn't involved in any of the hard-core parts of the film. Nobody ever believes me when I tell them that I requested attending one of those shoots. Sayadian said, uh, no, that's a closed-set shoot, because I was trying to learn filmmaking from behind the camera and I didn't care WHAT was in the lens, just so long as I could learn something. I guess I wouldn't believe me either, so fuck it.


Paul's Headshot

For the others involved in the making of the film, I really don't know what they thought about it. I do remember that we went to the Premier showing at a movie theater in L.A. (I can't remember which one, but it was huge), IN COSTUME, and stayed in the lobby during the showing. Nobody really paid us much attention going into see the film (we didn't look out of the ordinary being in Hollywood laughs), but it was a kick in the head following, giving autographs and pics with people and all that other Hollywood stuff. I actually saw Cafe Flesh here in Louisiana, in the city where I live now, right in the middle of Cajun country, at a mall theater! A friend called me and told me it was showing (a midnight showing, along with Rocky Horror Picture Show) and I thought he was foolin' me, but he wasn't, so, we got up a crowd of close friends and went to the mall to check it out. I couldn't believe it, the lines stretched into the mall parking lot! Seriously. My sadistic friends needled me into going up to the theater manager to tell him I was in the film in a primary role, so after three or four seconds of prompting, I...reluctantly...did, and his reaction was, Get back in line. laughs”
In addition to Café Flesh, Paul has also worked on a number of other independent films. Big budget filmmaking may get all the mainstream press, but it is the Indies that always has the best stories behind them.


“I somehow, landed three or four lines in an Independent film with the working title Running Together. It was being shot at the Joshua Tree in California, about 300 miles, I think, outside L.A. It's a familiar place to a lot of people in the film business. There have been countless films shot in that area over the history of Hollywood, so I was thinking on the drive over there how cool it was that I would always be able to say, oh, yeah, I did a shoot there too. The film was about two female parolees who find themselves on Highway 101. On their way, they see a good looking guy in a tuxedo hitchhiking, so naturally, like any two parolee Gidgets would do, they pull over and gave him a ride. I don't know why he was in a Tuxedo or why he was hitchhiking, but it turns out he’s a diamond thief on the lam, who stashes his stolen diamonds in one of the chicks' purse. The girls find themselves in a country bar in the desert and end up getting arrested for what ensues, so they call their pimp back in New York to come bail them out of jail and they go right back to the bar. Which is where my part came in.

The bar is inhabited by two types of rednecks, ‘rowdies’ (Californianese for cowboy) and ‘Hard Hats’ (construction workers). Everything is hunky-dory at quittin' time, but inevitably, after a few pitchers of beer, the tough-guy substitute for sex, a barroom brawl breaks out. The lines I had became irrelevant to me when I overheard the stunt-coordinator complaining that he was one man short. The barroom brawl type scene is choreographed in such a way that it has to be done THAT way or it won't work and being a man short is like a football team having a one-legged place kicker. The stunt man that was scheduled for that particular fight bit, had since gotten a gig on a major feature and didn't show for this less paying Indie film. I don't want to reveal any business secrets, but Union people in film often change their names to get extra jobs on the side in Indies for cash, which is why I am not mentioning any names in this story, laughs. It's the American way!

So I stood up and said, hey I can do it, I can do the fight scene. Total quietness fell for a few seconds, but then the stunt co-coordinator sauntered over with a wry smile on his face, Aren't you one of the Day Players? I said, yeah, but before that I played football and boxed a little bit, I can handle it. He slammed my shoulders with both his hands, then punched me pretty good right in my mid-section. I'm not going to lie, it hurt like sonofabitch, but I knew better than to let on, so after a pause I said, steely-eyed, is that your best shot? A collective uproarious laughter came from the other stunt men followed by the rest of the crew, and the game was on.

In the bar there was a three-foot tier and in the film it separates the Rowdies from the Hard Hats until the nightly fight starts. I was already cast as a rowdy (wearing my own bull-riders cowboy hat) so some time during the fight, I'm sitting at a table and I look at the Hard Hat sitting at the table opposite me, separated by the tier, and he looks at me, and we both stand up simultaneously. Except he keeps going up as he is about 6 foot nine, and I am 5 foot 10. As my characters' face indicates I might be in "over my head", Hard Hatzilla picks me up by my shirt, pulls me over the three foot tier, and slams me down on my back on the barroom table. This was a low-budget film and they apparently couldn't afford breakaway tables. But this big guy was a real pro, and he slammed me in such a way that it didn't really hurt. He had my shirt tight in his car-engine-sized-fists and sort of pulled back as my body hit the table, actually breaking my fall. Later, I wound up partying with the stunt men, and became friends with a couple of them. I'm fond of that memory because THE most respected people on the set, other than the ones you HAVE to respect are the stunt men. Just another day at the adventure office.”

Being an artist AND a parent can be two weird worlds, often dooming you to either “cool dad status” or to traveling ghost figure who pops up randomly to say hi. Despite his tenure in the industry, Paul managed to be in the former, a status he very much enjoys to this day.

“ My kids are the reason I left California, and I am glad that I did because now I have a daughter that I did not have then. I actually had a chance to sign with a very big agency (which shall remain nameless because the agent that wanted to sign me has probably expired from old age anyway) a week before I left Hollywood. This is something I have discussed with each of them to let them know that they are far more important to me that anything else and that I would never change that decision even if I could. My oldest son sings in two different bands, mostly in and around the New Orleans area. They have even appeared at the famed House of Blues in the French Quarter! He is also a chef and can cook his ass off. My second son has a degree in Journalism and a Master's in English, and is the online editor for a large market Newspaper. He has the most incredible encyclopedic mind you will ever find. Ask him a question and he'll give you an hour's worth of info. His dream is to one day have his own political satire magazine. My daughter, the youngest, is now a freshman in college and majoring in political science. Yes, we are very politically motivated. It ain't easy being Lefties in Deep South Louisiana. I cannot overstate that. But, somebody has to educate the unenlightened and I'm not that shy.


Still kicking ass-Paul in 2009

My kids are lucky, even when my two sons were toddlers, when I was away chasing the celluloid ring, they had Mom and Grandpa and Grandma and two old maid Aunts to fuss over them. So they have had a really good family structure. They are all gone now, except for their mom, who probably wishes I was gone...laughs. If it weren't for their mother, my first and second wife (we were married-divorced-and remarried), I would probably be emceeing a stripper act in a seedy Hollywood cabaret or something. She's the real anchor in this family and I owe her for it.” As for the future, things are looking better and better for this character actor, especially residing in the boot of the South. “Hey, the film industry is burgeoning here due to the fact that the state lets film makers work tax free. That can save millions! We've got several TV shows being done down here as well, including a sci-fi series right here in my town. So I have plans to acquire representation for starters. I am in the process of auditioning for Big Brother, the TV show right now. I'm not above doing one or two of those ‘near’ celebrity reality shows either. At my age, it's all a great adventure. I don't really need to win the contest; it's the competing that counts, eh? Life is the adventure you make it.”

Indeed.


I cannot thank Paul enough for granting me such an awesome and in-depth interview. I could not have asked for a nicer or easy to work with interviewee. Feel free to visit his very visual Myspace page and let him know that he rocks.

*By the way, if anyone out there has either the uncut or softcore copy of Cafe Flesh, please feel free to contact me!