#Deepdive: We are back chatting with Everything is Terrible Kidz Klub Part 2
Now that society is collapsing, Everything Is Terrible! is reborn with their new and fantastical expedition into found footage... but this time the adults can stay home! EIT! has unearthed thousands of forgotten DVD & VHS tapes aimed at yesterday’s youth to bring you their most mind-melting movie to date. Watch in awe as all colors of the rainbow join forces to destroy the tyranny of adult civilization once and for all! All of your oldest friends will be there; skateboarding web-surfers, rapping math equations, gigantic baby ducks, and maybe even a wizard or two! And what EIT! show would be complete without a live experience that makes the Ice Capades look like a stupid piece of trash! Finally, an all-encompassing extravaganza created for kidz... by kidz!
We had the chance to chat with the other half of Everything is Terrible Commodore Gilgamesh. (Want the interview with Dimitri: Check it out here)
Hashtag: Have to ask, why do it all over again?
Commodore: Well, multiple reasons. The last time was, was closer to the heart of the pandemic, and I think a lot of people Missed the show because of that. And then also we missed some of our favorite spots around the country, so we're just swinging back through and getting them. And then we had to throw our other few of our other favorite spots back into that. We just wanted to go to New York and stuff again.
Hashtag: Anything different to this tour in comparison to last year's tour?
Commodore: Every night, we're improving every moment. It's always getting better. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've been tweaking for sure. Tightening, tightening, tweaking.
Hashtag: Why incorporate a film into this kind of production?
Commodore: You know, honestly, that's another reason why we did it again, because besides the fact that I think many people didn't see the show, it takes a long time to put together a show like this. So, you gotta, we gotta milk it for all it's worth. You know, the video takes years.
I mean, it took us over two years to make this movie. The costumes do take not quite as long. It's just me and another person or two that do all the costumes. Usually, once we are almost done with the movie, we kind of have a pretty good sense of all the themes, through lines and such that we want to pull out and use in the live show.
So it is, not an afterthought, but in the process, it comes after the the movie is nearly complete, but this is by far the most significant stage production we've put on the largest puppets. I mean, they're just, they're so big and ridiculous.
Hashtag: With all of this production value, does it get exhausting lugging around all of these costumes, puppetry, etc?
Commodore: That's one of our, our tricks. Um, we're pretty small these days. I mean, we're just one, uh, I don't know, what is it, like a 17-passenger Ford E3 50 Econo line van, and three people. And we just, um, have figured out some pretty good systems for creating the illusion of a much larger production.
It's a lot. It really is. I mean, we have often joked slash been very serious that. We wish that we were just like a person with an acoustic guitar who could just walk away. 'cause it's just a ton. It's a ton of work. Um, and every night I'm fixing costumes and, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's a lot. But it's also like what we.
We can't imagine a show with less. It's every time I'm at a show, I'm oftentimes bored. I'm oftentimes wishing that like they would fill the space that they would like, you know, honor the moment more by like going as hard as you possibly can. And that's just who we are. We get bored easily. We like, we need every, every inch, every, every sense to be just like as full as possible.
Hashtag: What’s been the most memorable moment on this tour so far?
Commodore: Well, you know, I mean, the crazy thing about doing this for as long as I have and as many shows as I have, I. I'm gonna say that we went swimming the other day in a river and we saw a giant snake eating a giant fish. It was so cool. It was crazy. And then we jumped in the river.
Hashtag: And you still went in?
Commodore: I mean, it was so hot. We had to, we had no choice. We went to like a slightly different spot, like. 10 feet away. So, so far on the steward, that was my favorite moment, but honestly, it's like The show is like so many different things. It's, it's meant to like, make people laugh and feel joy and also feel this like dread and terror because our world is, is just so messed up.
Hashtag: Since our last conversation, found footage short films have seemed to finally found their roots on social sites like YouTube and TikTok. What makes EIT stand apart from these new players in this game?
Commodore: Yeah, it's really interesting. I mean, you know, On TikTok, there's like young people who are just doing, found footage constantly who don't even think about it in like the way that we do. I think for the most part, they don't think about it the way that we do or within the, like, history of found footage that, that we see ourselves.
There's like a proliferation there that it's like, expanding into this way that it's, what we always kind of envisioned was that we're all. Taking and remixing, or whatever you wanna call it, everything in the world to like, you know, change the meaning to whatever your intention is.
Hashtag: What are you looking for when you are looking through these tapes?
Commodore: We use clips for a variety of reasons and you know, oftentimes we use clips because we don't like what the people, the original creators intended. And that's when it becomes complicated, you know, when you're, lampooning. Criticizing, you know, this is stuff that oftentimes I don't think it should be seen, but yet we're dragging it out from, from the trash can and, showing it again.
So we have to be really careful about how we're showing it and what the context is so that like, it's clear that. What we're doing is, you know, one, we're punching up, not punching down, and two, that we're like being critical of the, the media.
Hashtag: With that being said, trying to change the narrative into ultimately Kids Klub, how did that story form?
Commodore: it's really interesting to be a kid and see, see something that was made by adults who are supposedly smarter than you, who have money to produce this thing. It's a whole group of people. And look at, you look at it as a kid and you're like, this is dumb.
You are smarter than them for, for that moment. And I think we're really tapping into that with Kids Club. I think it is that feeling of being like, there's a wisdom that we had as kids and we knew that we were being manipulated even though we didn't have like the language to say that.
Hashtag: Now, we were first introduced to EIT from a Vice interview in regards to the collection of Jerry Mcguire VHS tapes. What is the current count?
Commodore: It's hard to say because they just keep coming. Um, we're definitely in the neighborhood of 40,000, over 40,000, which is like an unbelievably huge amount of a singular v h s tape. Yeah, so I mean, we've had a few already on this tour where we've gotten more than a hundred, so they're getting harder to find, but they're still coming.
Hashtag: Since most of these tapes are coming from the fans bringing them to the show, how are you fitting them into the already-packed trailer?
Commodore: Space is tight. Like our days are tight, you know, and it's, uh, it is an idea that has caused many, many problems. For our, for our physical existence. I'm just gonna say it causes a lot of problems. That's, that's all I'm gonna say. We do, we mail 'em back to ourselves. Yeah. And we, we've contributed many, many dollars to the United States Postal Service, and we're very happy about it. We're very thankful for the media mail. It's like it has saved our lives.
Hashtag: Speaking about this, are you familiar with a Tiktoker who is collecting all of the copies of the Titanic on VHS?
Commodore: There are a few that have sprung up there. I think there's two collections of Titanic that I'm familiar with. There was another one that I can't think of right now, and it's funny because we're always like, We're excited that somebody's doing it, but we also kind of wanna warn them 'cause they'll be like, look, I have a thousand.
And we're like, you gotta stop. You gotta stop now. It's like the difference between 40,000 and a thousand, like visually, like I feel like the human brain cannot understand more than a thousand VHS copies of Jerry Maguire. So, There's no need to keep going. You gotta just stop. Because it becomes an addiction.
It becomes destructive. You're gonna ruin relationships. You're gonna lose your home. Just you gotta stop. Everybody's gotta stop.
Hashtag: It’s hard to tell if this person is doing it for fun or what.
Commodore: I was saying earlier, It is, it's a criticism of a system that produced millions of this object convinced millions and millions of people that they needed it, you know, you work a job to purchase this thing and then threw it in a landfill within a year.
So it's like, I hope, I just hope that everyone else who is doing it is also doing it, through a lens of criticism and not some sort of like, Perverse celebration of this like destructive, horrible system in which we live.
Hashtag: Speaking on that, I saw that Kids Klub is available on VHS as well.
Commodore: You know, we always forget to promote the downloads. It's kind of a problem. We honestly, we just have too many things happening. We can't keep it straight. Yeah, absolutely.
Hashtag: What’s next for Everything is Terrible?
Commodore: We're already working on a couple of different projects that hopefully in the next, you know, year and a half or so, we'll get, we'll get out there in the world. One that I am ready, I think to talk about is, that I think Satan and kids go together really well. They feel like they're like kind of a continuation of the same. we kind of have been joking about it.
More about EIT
EIT! is the video and performance art collective that is responsible for culling some of the bleakest video memories of the internet’s horrid history. Cat massage, The Pedo-Hunting Dino, Duane, Gerbert, and the French pubic hair styling tutorial are a few that have wowed and confused millions of viewers around the globe. Everything Is Terrible!’s (now 8!) feature-length found footage films compile endless pieces of forgotten ephemera into a psychedelic retelling of the American myth that is both hilariously sickening and endlessly compelling. 2018’s The Great Satan was called “a masterpiece’’ by Film Threat and The Chicago Reader. EIT! has also collected over 35,000 Jerry Maguire VHS tapes that will one day live in a permanent pyramid in the desert. Their Jerry Maguire Video Store immersive art installations in LA and Denver have been praised by The New York Times, Vice, The Paris Review, and more. Their permanent installations for Meow Wolf have been seen by millions.
