Blieden+Galifianakis+Kanye
My old friend and collaborator Michael Blieden has made a name for himself not only as an actor, but also as a director of documentaries with and about stand-up comics, mostly in LA’s “alt. comedy” scene. One of his frequent collaborators is the inspired Zach Galifianakis, and together they made a “mock” (yet very earnest) music video with Zach lip-synching to the Mary J Blige song “You Bring Me Joy”. Please check it out. This video became a cult YouTube hit and lead to another one, only slightly less mock, where Zach performs alongside Fiona Apple. Somehow, in turn, this lead to Zach getting a call from Kanye West about doing a video for a song from his new album. Mike directed. Kanye does not appear in the piece himself. Is it mock or is it not? I don’t know, but the result (above), which also features Will Oldham, is one of the oddest, funniest, and strangely disturbing music videos I’ve ever seen. It immediately crashed Mike’s site (he had to get a bigger server) on which he has also posted his version of the story. The whole thing represents a beautiful, and truly unique, example of cultural cross-pollination: urban music to alt. comedy back to urban music back to alt. comedy … And there is more to come. Stay tuned.