Is Crispin Glover insane? Psychotic? Merely eccentric? A genius? A student of Andy Kaufmann? I got definitive answers to these questions tonight but oddly, the answers didn’t clear much up for me.
We spent the evening with the one and only Crispin Glover tonight.
Crispin is currently touring with the first two films of his “it” trilogy What is It? and It is fine! Everything is fine! He’s personally bringing the films to as many cities as he can. Besides the film content, he treated us not only to an amazing reading of several section of each of his eight books accompanied by a slide show of his illustrations and photographs, but also to an extended Q&A afterward along with a book signing.
Like almost all my friends, I’ve been fascinated with Crispin for years and years. Ever since the famous David Letterman incident and maybe a bit before, he’s been a gawk-worthy one-man sideshow act, a modern day freak. Listening to his music, reading his books, seeing him in interviews, even through most of the acting roles he’s picked, it’s impossible not to imagine that he is way beyond eccentric... waaaaay beyond. But he’s also seemed somewhat more complex since he somehow manages to get roles in many of my favorite films and his performances are incredible. We often fantasized about what Crispin the person was really like? What would it be like to hang out wit him? I never imagined that one day he would take himself out on the road for all to come gawk at up close and in person!
The film itself didn’t disappoint in the slightest. It was precisely what we expected, except perhaps we were surprised to see an actual narrative that could be actually followed. But even so, the film’s weirdness quotient was off the charts and up there with the weirdest of all time. And it wasn’t just generic weirdness that you can get on any public cable channel...it was that well-known Crispin Glover exclusive, mesmerizing brand of weirdness. All the hipsters in the audience who came just so they could say they saw the crazy Crispin Glover film with the down syndrome cast and the mass killings of snails went home happy I’m sure.
But for me, the most shocking thing wasn’t the film at all, but two very unexpected things:
The first, was that his performance (it was more-or-less a poetry reading) of his books and the accompanying artwork/photographs was genuinely amazing. I mean we were laughing “with him” at the right spots, hanging on his words. We were no longer gawking at the sideshow freak but instead marveling at the (admittedly bizarre) works of art that he’d created. I’ve only ever seen excerpts from his books, which were designed to make them seem like the scrawling of a madman. But the fact is, those books have legitimate artistic merit and I recommend them sincerely.
The second, came during the QA session in which Crispin revealed himself to be very very far from insane or even strange-for-strangeness’s-sake. But instead he proved he is incredibly smart, very articulate, and absolutely nothing like the persona we see in interviews. I have a whole new opinion of the man now, no kidding.
But while much of the enigma that is Crispin Glover was cleared up for me, the fact of the movies, books and music he makes remains. Please understand these things may be the strangest works any human has ever created. I am not exaggerating. And although I maintain they do have legitimate artistic merit (some of them may even be great), they are so over-the-top strange that it is almost impossible to imagine that the same man I heard in the QA is the author of these works. Crispin very clearly and succinctly explained his take on the problems of the systems of the mainstream hollywood studios in general. More specifically, he convincingly detailed the barriers that exist (even before the sad ratings system gets involved...at the level of the green light) to filmmakers who wish to include taboo topics without simultaneously making it clear that the filmmaker is calling those topics out as bad. Watching him reason so well and speak so clearly was startling. It was like a scene in Flowers for Algernon. So while much of the enigma was removed, the new paradox makes him an even larger enigma to me.
However the highlight of the evening, for everyone I’m sure, came at the very end. The lights were flashing indicating he was way over due to wrap it up, but he took one last question. A slacker-looking guy asked “What were you thinking when you assaulted Merryl Streep in the green room of the David Letterman show?” He was all “uh.....what?” and we all thought it was just that he didn’t want to go there and talk about the Letterman thing. But then he said, “I think you have some wires crossed, but if you wanted to ask me about that night, I’ll tell you guys the truth. I never do to the press because I like mysteries, but I’ll tell you here, now, if you like.” He then launched into an unbelievably detailed first-person account of the entire week leading up to the show, and let us know exactly what happened that day and why. And it was awesome. :)
