How do you think the internet has built upon or enabled your success?
MST3K and the internet are both about a lot of data. In MST3K, you have a lot of information and references in a short time. So the appeal isn’t too different.
How do you take bad reviews?
I haven’t really gotten a bad review in a long time. But if you look on the internet, it seems like there’s something negative said for everything positive someone says, so you’re always at zero. When we were announcing our new live DVD, East Meets Watts, we had a lot of people that hadn’t seen it saying really negative things. But once they saw it, they understood what we were doing.
Have you ever felt a movie riff was ‘too easy?’
A few. We didn’t do Plan 9 from Outer Space because of that. But with movies like Bride of the Monster, it was really easy. We didn’t see it as too easy, because we were riffing a movie every seven days. When it’s your job, you don’t have too much pride to take an easy riff.
Have you ever met a filmmaker that you’ve riffed?
We’ve met some, and a couple of actors. Sam Simons, who produced a number of movies we’ve used in Cinematic Titanic, deals with us regularly. The only weird thing is, he has us change the titles of the movies. I don’t know why that is.
We did meet with the director of Hobgoblins. He came to a filming, we talked a little about doing a riff of his upcoming sequel. I don’t know if it was finished or if he was in the process.
How is Cinematic Titanic different from MST3K?
The biggest difference is, we come up with the material on the road. With our new DVD, East Meets Watts, we had riffed it at eight cities first, so the audience response really affected what went into the product. So it’s much more tested.
Obligatory MST3K question: Who do you prefer, Mike or Joel?
I’m going to have to say Mike, because nobody’s expecting me to say that.
And chances of an MST3K reunion?
I won’t say it’s never going to happen. But a lot of things have to come together before we could do that.
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I want to say thanks, Joel. If you’re in the Philly area, you’ll want to be at the Keswick Theater on New Year’s Eve. The whole cast will be riffing three movies live. It should be a blast. If you want a taste of what Cinematic Titanic is like, you can find a trailer teaser here.
We've mentioned East Meets Watts during the discussion. You can purchase the DVD or digital download here.
For more MST3K goodness, you can check out my interview with Michael J Nelson, the later host of the show, here.
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