Big Time Questions No.7

Can you tell me about an extremely memorable moment in your career?

My favorite moments are thinking up ideas. After that it's all downhill. The actual execution is generally more boring than the idea. Not to say that the end result or the execution are expendable, but you never match that level of excitement as when you get that initial spark. Thinking up pretty much everything we did as YTM resulted in me on the floor of our kitchen or wherever sobbing and crying because I had been laughing so hard. The guinea pig and the banana video especially. Sometimes great stuff can come in the end though. I love that I have those stories to tell now, and I love that I have those pictures to show off. I still crack up every time I think about one of those activities. And it's just chasing feelings like that. Trying to outdo the last one. Humor is one of the biggest motivators for me. I have a fear of taking anything too seriously, so if I can find a way to make anything into a big joke, I usually do. Funny that fear and horror are my two big motivators. I find they're actually quite similar. They are both linked to surprise and being caught off guard. I could happily catch people off guard for the rest of my life. It will always be fun weather they're laughing or crying.

But that's cheating, you asked a specific question and I gave a general answer. Probably one of my favorite moments was "climbing" the "mountain" (or crawling on the ground, if you want to be literal). There was supposed to be a bunch of people for that. It was supposed to be a kind of big thing. And this is a case of the execution being way better than the idea. So it was supposed to be a lot of people climbing this ...grass. But it was a cold and drizzly day, and my friend Matt and I were the only two people who came out at all. We had on these stupid fake beards, and had some frozen Icee Pops up at "base camp" with a little flag that said "Human Beings." And we just decided, "what the hell" and went for it; started our ascent. We got really into it, and we're in character and yelling at each other in these crappy accents and stuff. People were walking by, and had no idea what to make of it, they thought we were out of our minds. Meanwhile we're cracking up and soaking wet, and bloody and muddy, and just gross, and frankly, stupid. We got about halfway "up" and this kid runs up to us and kind of cocks his head inquisitively. I just yelled at him "Kid what the hell are you doing standing on the side of the mountain like that!!" He just goes "oh." and instantly drops to the ground and starts climbing with us. Then a bunch of his friends (all like 5- 10year olds) come running over and start climbing up with us. It was just fantastic. The kids were totally into it. Way more so than we even were at that point. It took us a goddamn hour and 15 minutes to get across that field on our stomachs. We cracked open the box of Icee Pops and handed them out to the kids (who wanted to do it again) which I was totally opposed to. It's amazing how sore you get not climbing a mountain. Anyway, because of the kids, all these other people got really into it, and came up and were joking around and having a bunch of fun with us at the end. Asking us how long we'd been climbing and stuff like that. But it was great. Kids don't have any (or at least a whole lot less) barriers. They can just let go and have fun, or be amazed by something. And they got everyone else to let down their defenses too. I love that we were able to disarm so many people, and trick them into having a really good time by nothing but our own stupidity. That's probably one of my favorite days period. It was a shitty day too, but by just saying "fuck it" and just going through with something, and letting go of everything like image, and comfort, and warmth, and security, and safety (because one of us could have fallen and been seriously injured) I had this great experience. And now it's a great story, and a great memory. If it's art or not I don't really care.It's something that happened, and I was there.