For more than 10 years, Wisconsin natives Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher have been bravely scouring America’s cut-out bins, Goodwills, and dumpsters in order to find some of the most bizarre and delightful VHS oddities this side of that “Hairdresser” lady. Their Found Footage Festival collects their finds in a riotous live show that is a must-see for fans of stilted industrial tapes, retro workplace training tapes, and ill-conceived workout tapes. It’s like YouTube, but better: affectionate, curated, hosted by Pickett and Prueher, devoid of ads.
Now, The Found Footage is scheduled to return to Milwaukee’s Turner Hall on Wednesday, November 25 with its so-called “Salute to Weirdos.” Included in this year’s pre-Thanksgiving show:
• An arts & crafts instructional video by a woman who is psychotically enthusiastic about sponge painting.
• A montage of exercise video weirdos, including Angela Lansbury, Traci Lords, and a bearded hippie named Zar.
• Highlights from 24 years of public access TV weirdos, featuring a woman singing about hairdressers, a piano playing rabbit, and a visibly annoyed bagpiper.
• Consummate weirdo Arnold Schwarzenegger in a 1983 travel video called “Carnival In Rio,” seductively feeding a woman a carrot.
General admission tickets are $12, and go on sale Friday, October 16 at noon. See you there, Tease-a Louise.