Rifftrax Live Plan 9 DVD released, featuring JoCo as musical guest
For anyone who doesn't know, Rifftrax is what Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett from Mystery Science Theater 3000 are doing these days to make fun of movies that need to be laughed at. Earlier this year, they did a live show that was broadcast to movie theaters nationwide where they riffed on Plan 9 From Outer Space in front of a live audience. During an intermission, Jonathan Coulton was onstage playing his music for the crowd and the cameras. And now, that Rifftrax Live show has been released on DVD. It's on sale through the Rifftrax website, and you'll find it here: http://www.rifftrax.com/dvds/rifftrax-live-plan-9-from-outer-space
There's a story that goes along with this Rifftrax Plan 9 Live show for me... the first time that it was broadcast, I went to the show and I laughed at the "Flying Stewardesses" short film that was hilariously ridiculed by the Rifftrax crew, and soon after that JoCo was brought on stage, and he started playing "The Future Soon" and this was my first time seeing a JoCo show being performed live and life was good... until the video feed started getting staticky, and then it cut out completely! An unbelievably severe rainstorm had hit our area that night, and it was bad enough and badly-timed enough to cut the satellite feed to our theater just as JoCo was halfway through his first song. As the entire audience waited, frustrated and impatient, hoping against hope that the satellite feed might be restored sometime soon, I pulled up a YouTube video on my Iphone of JoCo performing "Still Alive" and sang along with it, and heard most of the rest of the audience singing along with me and they applauded when the song was done. That part of it made for a nice consolation prize.
Not too surprisingly, someone from management came into the theater not long after that, apologized for the interruption of the show and told us that they weren't going to be able to restore the satellite link with the monsoon-like rainstorm going on outside that showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. They sent us home, in the monsoon-like rainstorm, with yet another consolation prize: coupons for free movie tickets. But those coupons couldn't be used for a special event, like the Rifftrax Plan 9 Live broadcast was. Or like an encore presentation of Rifftrax Plan 9 Live would be, if the show turned out to be popular enough that they'd decide to rebroadcast it.
As it turned out, the Rifftrax Live show *was* popular enough for them to make a rebroadcast worth their while, and they *did* rebroadcast it. I bought another ticket for the encore show as quickly as I could, feeling peeved that I'm ending up paying twice to watch the show once but still happy to get the chance to actually see the show. But something else kept me from seeing the encore show too! See, I learned after I had bought a non-refundable ticket for the encore that Ben Folds, the other musical love of my life, was going to be in town playing a live show with the local orchestra on the same night and at the same time as the Rifftrax Plan 9 Live rebroadcast! Ugh. This is a position that no geeky music lover should ever be in... Ben Folds and JoCo on the same night at the same time! Why can't real life have a TiVo for moments like this?! And Ben Folds live in a music hall playing with our orchestra for two hours in a show that was not going to be taped for a DVD release was a show that I just couldn't pass up, not when the alternative was JoCo broadcast on a movie screen for a half-hour interlude in a show that might very easily be released on DVD sometime in the near future. So I gave my encore ticket to a friend of mine who is a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan from way back, bought a ticket for the Ben Folds show and enjoyed the hell out of it and felt like I made the right choice for that night, despite feeling even more peeved that now I've paid *twice* for a show that I only actually saw 1/3 of the way through!
So now, as I hoped it would, the Rifftrax Plan 9 Live show has been released on DVD. I now have the opportunity to pay a *third* time to see this damned show and to see JoCo play the rest of his set. And the only thing I can think of at a time like this is... once I buy this DVD, what's going to happen next that will prevent me from seeing the show *this* time?!
ETA: As you might have seen from JoCo's recent Twitter message, if you didn't already know, Rifftrax is running another live theater broadcast tonight, featuring many short Christmas-themed films to riff on, and also featuring Weird Al Yankovic as their musical guest. I've got my ticket for this show too, and I'm heading out to the theater right about now... wish me luck in actually getting to *see* this show this time! I'll have my Iphone with me and some Weird Al videos cued up and ready to go, just in case! :-)
There's a story that goes along with this Rifftrax Plan 9 Live show for me... the first time that it was broadcast, I went to the show and I laughed at the "Flying Stewardesses" short film that was hilariously ridiculed by the Rifftrax crew, and soon after that JoCo was brought on stage, and he started playing "The Future Soon" and this was my first time seeing a JoCo show being performed live and life was good... until the video feed started getting staticky, and then it cut out completely! An unbelievably severe rainstorm had hit our area that night, and it was bad enough and badly-timed enough to cut the satellite feed to our theater just as JoCo was halfway through his first song. As the entire audience waited, frustrated and impatient, hoping against hope that the satellite feed might be restored sometime soon, I pulled up a YouTube video on my Iphone of JoCo performing "Still Alive" and sang along with it, and heard most of the rest of the audience singing along with me and they applauded when the song was done. That part of it made for a nice consolation prize.
Not too surprisingly, someone from management came into the theater not long after that, apologized for the interruption of the show and told us that they weren't going to be able to restore the satellite link with the monsoon-like rainstorm going on outside that showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. They sent us home, in the monsoon-like rainstorm, with yet another consolation prize: coupons for free movie tickets. But those coupons couldn't be used for a special event, like the Rifftrax Plan 9 Live broadcast was. Or like an encore presentation of Rifftrax Plan 9 Live would be, if the show turned out to be popular enough that they'd decide to rebroadcast it.
As it turned out, the Rifftrax Live show *was* popular enough for them to make a rebroadcast worth their while, and they *did* rebroadcast it. I bought another ticket for the encore show as quickly as I could, feeling peeved that I'm ending up paying twice to watch the show once but still happy to get the chance to actually see the show. But something else kept me from seeing the encore show too! See, I learned after I had bought a non-refundable ticket for the encore that Ben Folds, the other musical love of my life, was going to be in town playing a live show with the local orchestra on the same night and at the same time as the Rifftrax Plan 9 Live rebroadcast! Ugh. This is a position that no geeky music lover should ever be in... Ben Folds and JoCo on the same night at the same time! Why can't real life have a TiVo for moments like this?! And Ben Folds live in a music hall playing with our orchestra for two hours in a show that was not going to be taped for a DVD release was a show that I just couldn't pass up, not when the alternative was JoCo broadcast on a movie screen for a half-hour interlude in a show that might very easily be released on DVD sometime in the near future. So I gave my encore ticket to a friend of mine who is a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan from way back, bought a ticket for the Ben Folds show and enjoyed the hell out of it and felt like I made the right choice for that night, despite feeling even more peeved that now I've paid *twice* for a show that I only actually saw 1/3 of the way through!
So now, as I hoped it would, the Rifftrax Plan 9 Live show has been released on DVD. I now have the opportunity to pay a *third* time to see this damned show and to see JoCo play the rest of his set. And the only thing I can think of at a time like this is... once I buy this DVD, what's going to happen next that will prevent me from seeing the show *this* time?!
ETA: As you might have seen from JoCo's recent Twitter message, if you didn't already know, Rifftrax is running another live theater broadcast tonight, featuring many short Christmas-themed films to riff on, and also featuring Weird Al Yankovic as their musical guest. I've got my ticket for this show too, and I'm heading out to the theater right about now... wish me luck in actually getting to *see* this show this time! I'll have my Iphone with me and some Weird Al videos cued up and ready to go, just in case! :-)
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