Well, sort of. At least my hands have finally made it to the big screen.
The trailer for the next Adam Sandler film, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, is playing in front of Will Smith’s I Am Legend in theaters right now. If you watch REALLY carefully, you’ll see my handiwork.
Or you can click on the movie poster below to watch the trailer online at movies.yahoo.com. Just search “Zohan” and it’ll pop right up.
When you see Adam spinning mister bottles, and shooting sparks off his scissors, those are my hands. Aw, yeah.
You can freeze frame it and see my distinctive, slightly chubby jawline… clearly not Adam Sandler’s. I’m sure they’ll fix that in post so nobody can tell it’s not him. In fact, my brother-in-law’s company may wind up landing that post digital effects contract. It’s a small world.
I’m excited to see what footage makes it to the final cut of the film. I did a bunch of scissors (and hair care product) spinning and flipping for Adam Sandler in the movie: gunslinger style and knife thrower style… but I didn’t get to actually throw the scissors like I wanted to.
Adam Sandler and the director Dennis Dugan were very complimentary and appreciative of my work. They were also kind and conscientious to work with. A very positive experience all the way around.
Apparently I’ve got a thing against cucumbers. After all, I destroy at least one in every show.
So, in between shots for a Japanese television show, Tonya Kay, Vegan Raw Foods Crusader Extraordinarie, decided to ambush me and interview me about it.
Just got back from sunny Columbus, Ohio, where I nearly froze my cajones off. No human should ever be that cold. It’s rediculous.
Anyway, we were pretty warm inside the studio, so that wasn’t so bad.
And on the flip side, I got to see some snow coming down the morning we left, which I’ve only seen once or twice in my life. Pretty magical. Those of you from the north, or other wintry climes, don’t make fun of me. I’ll kill ya. I’m from Louisiana and I live in LA now, we don’t GET snow, so back off!
And now, pictures…
First of all, when we landed late in the afternoon on Monday, we were met by the wonderful John “Eclipse” Thorne, PA extraordinaire.
http://www.myspace.com/thornevideo
We quickly dropped off our crap at the hotel, then hot-footed it (in the freezing cold) over to Home Despot to start building the target board. Ya see, a target board won’t exactly fit into my carry-on luggage, so I get to build one pretty much everywhere I travel. It’s my albatros. But I got it down to a science.
What I DON’T have down to a science is dealing with the frickin’ cold! We were trying to paint the damn target in near-freezing temperatures. Paint takes a long time to dry when it’s humid and freezing. Who knew.
Fast forward to the next morning. Here we are putting the finishing touches onto the target, i.e., the uprights and such.
Tonya’s “Third Eye” will not distract me, Tonya’s “Third Eye” will not distract me…
The director, Mr. Otsuki, said, “Throw as close to the camera as you can.” So I did.
Here we are with Mr. Otsuki. I must have just stabbed him in the eye or something.
Lots o’ cameras means Tonya gets to look good from lots of angles.
And smile.
Mr. Otsuki and his crew look on.
For a tighter shot, I had to keep the knives all at hip level and above. Not bad spacing if I do say so myself.
Then it was time for the patented JACK KNIFE – CUCUMBER SLICE (that’s not a very clever title, but I’m working on it. Got any suggestions?). This is my claim to fame, it’s something nobody else in the world can do.
Tonya’s still alive, so we pose like mighty superheroes. It happens.
And sometimes we show our true IQ, too.
Then Tim “Ricochet” Jester (http://www.myspace.com/j6studios) gets in on some Tonya time.
Indy waits patiently.
Now it time for some more dangerous stuff. Catching knives. But first I gotta pull a splinter out of my finger. Or whatever it is I’m doing in this pic. While Tim prays or something.
Here’s a temporary video of the knife catch. The high quality stuff will be available after the episode airs in January.
And here’s what that looks like in super slo-mo. It’s a video of the playback monitor, so the quality isn’t the best. But hey, it still looks cool.
Then for some pick up shots. Mr. Otsuki said, “Throw here,” so I did.
Lastly, we took a group photo. This crew was AWESOME to work with. Very professional, very friendly.
And after a long day of shooting, we deserved some Outback Steakhouse. No, Tonya didn’t eat steak. She brought her own stuff. Note the disembodied head of a red pepper in her fist.
Back at the hotel, Tim gave Tonya one of his custom-designed 8-color t-shirts. You can find more groovy “Ricochet” artwork at j6studios.com.
The next morning, as we were preparing for our pre-dawn departure to the airport *grumble*, we had a little treat waiting for us. It looked like this.
Tim in the snow.
Me and Eclipse in the snow.
That’s all for now, folks! Thanks for tuning in. Now leave a comment or I’ll stab ya.
