Category Archives: Interviews

Jerry Buckner brings “Pac-Man Fever” to the inaugural Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo

A week or so ago, a pinball enthusiast friend of mine told me about this weekend’s inaugural Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo. Though I’m not an avid gamer these days, I did spend more of my youth than was likely healthy playing a variety of arcade games, pinball machines and home consoles. While my friend’s main interest in the SFGE is the International Flipper Pinball Association-sanctioned Southern-Fried Pinball Tournament, attracting pinball players from across the country, I soon realized there’s much more pop culture relevance to this event than one might expect. Sure, there’s a gaming area, high-profile gaming sponsors and other attractions for the Xboxers and Playstationers. But there are also film screenings, podcasters and other activities with enough pop cultural relevance that even casual video game fans are likely to find something of interest.

One of the more intriguing aspects for me is an appearance by Jerry Buckner, one half of the Buckner & Garcia duo responsible for the ’80s hit single “Pac-Man Fever” who has gone on to have an award-winning career in music, broadcasting, voice acting and more. Come to find out, he also happens to reside in the Atlanta area, not far from where I spent many days listening to my “Pac-Man Fever” record as a child. Buckner will be appearing at the SFGE for the first public screening of The King of Arcades on June 20, as well as a panel and meet-and-greet on June 21. Before he slides the proverbial quarter into this weekend’s festivities, Buckner talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about his power pellet of a hit, almost writing music for WWE and returning to the video game world with Wreck-It Ralph.

First of all, until a few days ago I was unaware that one of the guys who wrote “Pac-Man Fever” lived in the Atlanta area. How long have you lived in Atlanta and why did you move here?

I’m originally from Akron, Ohio. I had a guitar player/singer friend from Akron who moved to Atlanta and shortly after convinced me to come down and work here. This was back in the ’70s and he said there were some things going on in the music business here. I was very interested in that as a songwriter, so I came down and played in some local bands. Eventually, my schoolmate and friend from Akron, Gary Garcia, followed suit and came down with me and we began doing jingles, commercials and writing songs. That’s how “Pac-Man Fever” came about in 1982. We actually had a few minor successes prior to that, but nothing of the magnitude of “Pac-Man”. So that’s how I ended up in Atlanta and I never left. I’m still here.

I actually still have my 7-inch copy of “Pac-Man Fever” and never knew, as a kid, that you guys lived right down the street when you created it.

I lived in an apartment in Doraville when we wrote the song. We had been working at a studio in Marietta doing jingles and various things at the time and we went to dinner at this little place on the Marietta Square and that’s where we saw our first Pac-Man machine. We started playing it like everybody else and got hooked on it. At some point we thought, “Hey! Maybe it would be cool to write a song about this.” So we did and took it over to Arnie Geller and Buddy Buie. Buddy was the songwriter/manager/producer for the Atlanta Rhythm Section at that time. They liked the idea and we worked on the song in the front room of this little apartment in Doraville, then went in and recorded it. That’s how it all started.

So it wasn’t something you were hired to do to promote the video game?

No. We just took a shot at it. What we tried to do with that song was, we didn’t want to just do some kind of throw-out song and throw some sound effects in. We wanted to write a pop song that could stand up on its own legs pretty well musically, then add things in. It was just an idea we came up with and we did it.

Being from Akron, you’re certainly familiar with Devo. During that time there seemed to be a lot of bands like Devo and “Weird Al” Yankovic that were doing parody songs and things of that nature. Did any of that stuff influence you guys?

I didn’t know Devo personally, but we had a connection to them. I had a band called Wild Butter in 1970 and the bass player’s brother opened up a studio and a bunch of groups came through the studio. Devo was one of the groups, unknown at the time, that came over and recorded. There were several groups from Akron that came over. In fact, Chrissie Hynde used to come out to where we used to play and she told us, “I’m going to be a star one day.” And eventually she was. Anyway, there was that time period when all those groups were recording in this little studio and it was pretty interesting to hear some of that early stuff. I can’t say there was influence, though. Gary and I grew up with the Beatles, pretty much like everyone else in our age group. And we loved blues and a lot of different kinds of music. We played together as a duo, we were in different bands together, you name it, we did it. We weren’t necessarily trying to write a novelty song as much as it was just an idea that came and we decided to do it.

We were working with an artist named Steve Carlisle, who also was from Atlanta, and he sang the theme to WKRP in Cincinnati. We were working on two different projects and recorded the extended version of the theme song with Steve. In fact, “WKRP” and “Pac-Man Fever” were, at one time, side by side on Billboard. But we weren’t necessarily influenced by Devo or any of those other groups. We just liked pop songs and tried to write a pop song utilizing Pac-Man.

I understand that the success of that song resulted in an entire album of songs inspired by video games. Tell me a little more about that.

We recorded “Pac-Man” and Buie-Geller shopped it to every label and nobody wanted it. They didn’t really know what Pac-Man was, which was part of the problem. So they put it out themselves, it got played on a local station and the song just exploded. People went crazy for it and within a few weeks CBS Records purchased the master and released it nationally right before Christmas. Right after the first of the year, when it became apparent it was going to be a national hit, they said, “Look, we really want an album to go with this.” We started working on an album and we wanted to do some regular songs. We recorded two songs and they sent the vice president down to listen to what we were doing and, “Oh, no. We want it to be all game songs.” We knew if we did that we would get labeled as just doing that, but we wanted to go along with the program. So we converted two of the songs to game songs, then created the rest of them and that was the album. It’s kind of an amazing thing because people know those album cuts, I’m not going to say as well as “Pac-Man,” but they know those cuts pretty well and like them and request them. So the whole album became kind of a pop culture phenomenon.

I read something about a song you wrote for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial that confused me a little. Explain that song to me, if you don’t mind.

That was our nightmare story. E.T. came out the summer of ’82 and “Pac-Man” was a national hit while the movie was out. We went to see the movie and we were drawn into it like everybody else. It was a great film. I had this song I was working on about a family pet I had lost and out of sadness wrote this little melody on the piano about this dog. We got the idea we should do a song about E.T., so we took this melody and switched the concept to E.T. It came out as a very pretty ballad. They took it to CBS, CBS loved it and said, “This has got to be the next single.” Our manager flew to California to meet with Steven Spielberg to get his approval. They had the meeting and our manager told us Spielberg played it over and over again and Spielberg said, “I wish John Williams had come up with this song for the film.” When Arnie came back to Atlanta, he said, “I think they’re thinking about pulling the film back and putting the song in the film. Spielberg loved it!” We were all excited because that was going to be a major thing. Suddenly there was a fly in the ointment and within a couple of days problems developed. Neil Diamond, who was a huge artist at the time with CBS, had the “Heartlight” song. When CBS found out he had the song at the same time, of course he had the juice to get his song released ahead of ours. So CBS declined to release ours and “Heartlight” came out and took all of the thunder of the movie. They released our E.T. song a few months later and, ironically, where it was played, it still got tremendous reaction. But they didn’t promote it. They just let it die. So it was a very sad thing and we were very upset about it. It really drove a wedge between us and CBS and we got out of our contract because of it.

Did it appear on your next album?

Well, we didn’t do any more recording for CBS. We thought we had a deal with RCA, but we didn’t. So we decided just to go into production of other artists and groups. “E.T.” came out as a single, but was never on an album. We redid the Pac-Man Fever album in 1999 when CDs became big, we did another version of “E.T.” and it is on the current Pac-Man Fever
album as a bonus track. But it’s not the original.

What are the main differences between the original Pac-Man Fever album and the 1999 version?

When we did the original album, back in those days we didn’t have the ability to download stuff and get stuff off machines. We had to actually record it live off the machine. Those sound effects were kept with the masters and the masters were kept at Studio One, which I think was eventually sold to Georgia Tech. By 1999, those masters were so old that they could have brittle. They couldn’t find the sound effects track anyway, so we weren’t able to get those original soundtracks and we had to go in and try to find them. Some of them weren’t so easy to find in 1999. Most of them sound pretty close, but they’re not exactly the same. People who really know the album are kind of critical of us for not using the same thing. The problem is, CBS would not put the album out again because we had to get different licenses for that album from the different companies and they didn’t want to have to go back through all the legal problems to re-release it. But people wanted a CD version of it, so we decided to do it ourselves. So we had to try to recreate everything and it’s not going to sound quite the same, as hard as we try.

So, you also did a bunch of songs for the Waffle House jukeboxes. I always loved those songs.

I appreciate you saying that. They’re the type of pop songs Gary and I liked to write. Gary didn’t work with me much on that. He did do vocals on some of the tracks. That came about because Mary Rogers, who was married to Joe Rogers Jr., the owner of Waffle House, was an excellent singer and having a lot of success on her own. They got the idea to do some songs for the jukebox, so in ’84 she asked me to help out. We began doing songs for the jukebox and it turned out to be a good idea – people liked them and it was kind of a novelty when you came in there. We ended up doing a lot of those songs. Funny thing is, all my kids and their friends were more impressed by the Waffle House jukebox songs than anything else I’ve ever done. People seem to think that’s a pretty cool thing and I enjoyed doing them. We were still doing them up until about a year and a half ago. They’ve kind of put it on hold for now, so we’ll see what the future holds. Of course, they’ve changed that whole system and don’t have jukeboxes. It’s more of a digital computer thing that plays through the speakers.

A couple of years ago things kind of came full circle for you when you did a song for the video game-inspired movie Wreck-It Ralph. How did that come about? Was that a song you were already working on or something you did specifically for the film?

It was an amazing thing that occurred. I got a call from Tom MacDougall at Disney, who’s in charge of music, and Tom said they had this movie coming out and there was a song they were working on and it would be great if we did the song. Gary passed away suddenly in November of 2011, just prior to when Disney contacted us, so I wasn’t sure how it would work out. One of the guys in the band, Danny Jones, who plays drums and also is an excellent singer, talked about it with Gary’s widow and decided Danny could maybe sing the song. Disney was happy with that as long as it said Buckner & Garcia and it had the Buckner & Garcia sound. We all agreed to do it and there’s a producer in L.A. Disney used named Jamie Houston, who worked with a lot of big acts and several of the American Idol winners. He started on the song and sent it to me, we worked on it and completed it, then he flew in and produced the song. Disney loved what we did and included it in the soundtrack – it was actually the title track to the movie – as the number two song on the actual album. It was so sad Gary could not be part of that. He would have just been thrilled with it. But it’s opened a lot of new doors for us, which is greatly appreciated. To sit in the theater and see your name in the credits of a Disney film is just fantastic.

Just out of curiosity, have you ever done any work for WWE or anything wrestling related?

No, but I almost did. Funny you would even ask that. Back in the ’80s, after “Pac-Man Fever,” Arnie, our manager, was in New York and became Cyndi Lauper‘s manager. Of course, Cyndi was one of the main people that got that whole wrestling thing happening on TV in the ’80s with Vince McMahon. Arnie used to laugh about some of the guys that would come by the office to see her. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper used to come by all the time and Arnie liked Rowdy, said he was a pretty good guy. At one point, Arnie said they needed a theme song. So we put something together and sent it up there, but they really were looking for more raw rock ‘n’ roll kind of stuff and we were more pop/top 40 kind of stuff. So that didn’t work out for us at that time, but we almost did it.

They have an in-house composer named Jim Johnston who does probably 99 percent of WWE’s music now.

If there’s one guy doing it, I think he’s doing a great job. I love watching Monday night Raw. It’s fun to watch and the music matches up great with each of the characters, so I’d say he’s doing a great job.

The inaugural Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo is this weekend and you’re going to be a big part of it. What exactly will your role be at this event?

When I was approached last fall, they wanted me to come by and hang out, maybe do some question-and-answer deals, sign some autographs, talk to people and just kind of be there on Saturday. In addition to that, there’s a documentary called The King of Arcades. Sean Tiedeman, an independent filmmaker, co-produced it with Adam Goldberg, who does The Goldbergs show on ABC. They put this film together and asked me to be in it to talk about our album, which I did. They’re screening that film on Friday. It’s a great film about ’80s video games and a guy named Richie Knucklez, who is very well known in the game industry – he’s had arcades, he’s had a band. Richie re-cut “Pac-Man Fever,” but it’s a straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll kind of thing, and that’s in the film at the end. Billy Mitchell’s in it, he’s the top video game player of all time, with a bunch of other people. So I’m looking forward to that and looking forward to meeting people and hanging out. Incidentally, these conventions are starting to happen more now and we’ve had invitations from Houston and Dallas later on in the year and they want the band to come play. We really weren’t prepared to do that at this show in Atlanta, but we may actually go play in Houston and Dallas and see what happens. It’s fun to be part of all this. We kind of became a part of pop culture with the video game attachment and it’s fun. I love doing it.

You’ve also done a lot of voice acting. Do you have any new or upcoming projects in voice acting, music or elsewhere?

I got into radio for a while by accident. I did it for fun, then people said, “Hey, we’ll pay you.” Then I got into voice acting, which is a little bit different than doing voice-overs because you’re actually doing characters. I enjoy doing it. As far as that goes, I’m doing a variety of different things. I was the narrator for a History Channel show called Big Shrimpin’, which ran for eight episodes. What I’m really excited about musically, because of the Disney track, we’re working on some new stuff. I really can’t say the names of the projects because they don’t want us to. But there’s going to be a couple of new songs about some huge games. It won’t be Buckner & Garcia; it’s going to be younger artists singing. We’re working on that project and that should be a lot of fun once we get that out.

www.jerrybuckner.com

Zenescope Entertainment makes its Atlanta debut at Wizard World Atlanta Comic Con

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Wizard World Atlanta Atlanta Comic Con takes place at the Georgia World Congress Center May 30-June 1 and brings with it a multitude of pop culture icons such as Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, WWE‘s Big Show, Run DMC‘s Darryl McDaniels and The Walking Dead‘s Norman Reedus. Amidst all that hoopla are some of the biggest names in independent art, comics and wrestling, all of which can be found at Zenescope Entertainment‘s booth (#330).

Zenescope is best known for its contemporary re-imaginings of fairy tales and fables such as Grimm Fairy Tales, which celebrates its 100th issue in July. But at Atlanta Comic Con, Zenescope will be offering Wizard World exclusives of the fifth and final issue of its Code Red series (with cover art by Jason Metcalf) as well as the trade paperback that collects the entire series.

“Code Red is our Red Riding Hood series,” says Zenescope president Joe Brusha, who co-creates most of Zenescope’s titles. “She’s a more edgy adult Red Riding Hood. She’s kind of a werewolf hunter mercenary and just all-around badass independent female. The Wizard World exclusive is limited to 500 copies, then there’s a little sexier version limited to 250 and they’ll both be on sale at the convention.”

Zenescope has become a mainstay at most Wizard World events around the country, handing out thousands of free comics to film, video game and pop culture enthusiasts.

“It’s our first time in Atlanta, so we didn’t do a ton of exclusives,” says Brusha. “We’re just trying to get out there and get new readers and new fans. We’ll hand out about 2,000 free comics at our booth.”

In keeping with the provocative nature of Zenescope’s heroines, those looking for a “sexperience like no other” will be delighted to see Pro Wrestling Resurrection Tag Team Champions the Rock ‘n’ Roll Models (Matt “Sex” Sells and Johnny Danger) making appearances at the Zenescope booth troughout the weekend.

www.zenescope.com

“Dracula: The Concert” offers a simpler version take on the vampire rock opera

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Dracula (Rob Thompson) and his brides! Photo by Stungun Photography.

Since emerging from its theatrical coffin three years ago, the Little 5 Points Rockstar Orchestra’s staging of Dracula: The Rock Opera has been seen in a few monstrous forms. While the music, a hybrid of Andrew Lloyd Webber-like majesty and classic rock power, has always been an important part of the production, it hasn’t been quite the focal point that it is in this Valentine’s Day weekend’s performances at 7 Stages.

Described by members of the cast as being akin to VH1 Storytellers or a plugged-in version of MTV Unplugged, Dracula: The Concert strips away some of the theatrics of previous performances for a more raw interpretation of the love-and-lust at the heart of Dracula. But these concert productions also serve as CD release parties for Dracula: The Rock Opera, the double-disc set of all the music (as well as some pretty cool packaging and photos) from the previous Dracula productions.

“It’s more to illuminate the rock ‘n’ roll side of it,” says co-creator Naomi Lavender, who portrays Mina Harker. “We’ve done the first act, we’ve done the full show and because this is a CD release party we’re taking it more to a concert level. It is a really good show, but it’s also really good music. It’s just really special because Bram Stoker was such a brilliant writer and we get to bring it to 2014. All of the lyrics are pretty much verbatim from the book with only a little bit of changes to make them rhyme or things like that. But for the most part they are lyrical on their own, straight from the book.”

In true rock ‘n’ roll fashion, there will still be some theatrics such as props and costumes from the rock opera production. Plus, there will be other insights into the making-and-progress of this ever-growing endeavor.

“With this concert version, we have some interludes with some funny stories from the production, some hopes for the future, people playing multiple roles, things like that,” says 7 Stages artistic director Heidi S. Howard. “We’re keeping it very simple because one of the things we don’t want to do is recreate what the production is because we’ll end up hurting it. We have some elements [from the original production] that we’ll have set around. Other than that, we’ve got a band, some stools and some microphones.”

“We enjoy the music, so it’s fun to get to play it and not have to act it out or be worried about all the other things,” says co-creator Rob Thompson, who stars as Dracula. “We get to just go out and be loose, sing the songs and have fun. We don’t even have the full cast, so we have some people singing other people’s parts. I sang most of these songs when I was writing them and we were doing our first rough recordings of them. So it’s fun for me to get to sing some of those parts again.”

www.7stages.org/dracula

For Nicole Johnson, Scooby-Doo’s driver is no Monster Jam mystery

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When Monster Jam went snooping around to find a driver for its new Scooby-Doo truck, the mystery was solved pretty quickly when Nicole Johnson was revealed as the person behind the wheel. And with an impressive debut last weekend in Houston, Johnson is ready to show the Georgia Dome what she and Scooby are capable of when Monster Jam returns to Atlanta Jan. 11. Having previously driven another animated pop cultural icon (Tasmanian Devil), as well as spending some time behind the wheel of Advance Auto Parts Grinder, Johnson and her cartoon canine are looking for more than just some Scooby Snacks in one of the season’s most crucial events. As she prepares for this challenge, Johnson talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about her career, her trucks and the possibility of following a mud-strewn yellow brick road with the monster truck of her dreams.

You’re the driver of the new Scooby-Doo truck, but you previously drove a truck based on another animated pop cultural icon, Tasmanian Devil. Do you just have a thing for wacky cartoon character trucks?

I started driving the Tasmanian Devil in 2011 and part of 2012. Then I drove Advance Auto Parts Grinder for about half the season in 2012, filling in for an injured driver. That was great because at the time Advance Auto Parts was our title sponsor and it was a really fun truck with a pretty high profile. At the beginning of last year we introduced Scooby-Doo. This will be Scooby’s second year, but the first time the truck or I have been to Atlanta to compete at the Dome.

How did you end up behind the wheel of Scooby-Doo? Was that something you were you asked to do or did you want to do it?

It’s a partnership with Warner Bros., it’s their officially licensed Scooby-Doo truck. Through Monster Jam I was asked to drive that truck and it’s been a really fun experience so far because I find that adults and kids all know Scooby-Doo and we all grew up watching Scooby-Doo. It’s still relevant because they’ve got new shows on now, which I didn’t realize before. I thought it was just from the ’70s. I thought, “Do kids even know who Scooby-Doo is?” Oh, yeah! They totally do. It’s pretty popular.

The Monster Jam season began last weekend, and you did fairly well in your first event of the season. What are your goals for Atlanta?

Last Saturday we were in Houston. I live in Las Vegas and I’m lucky enough to get to fly home for the shows. My crew will be on the road for three months with the trucks. It was fun [in Houston]. My goal was to not destroy the truck. Fans probably want to see the truck destroyed every single time. But it was my first weekend back after not being behind the wheel since July and zero practice or seat time. So my whole goal was to hold it together. I didn’t break anything and I didn’t roll, which makes my crew very happy because they have to do a lot less to prepare for Atlanta and keep it entertaining.

You come from a four-wheeling background prior to driving a monster truck. What was the transition like for you, especially considering that the only practice you get driving a monster truck is during actual Monster Jam competitions?

My background is rock crawling competitions and extreme four-wheel drive vehicles. I’ve also done some off-road racing, so I’m used to being in the dirt and on rocks and gnarly terrain where sometimes you’re completely vertical and can only see sky or you’re doing a completely vertical drop-off where you’re side-hilling. In rock crawling competitions it’s about finesse. It’s not necessarily about how fast you get through the course, it’s about getting trough the obstacle course without hitting a cone. Sometimes we’d be down on time and my husband is my spotter and I’d look at him and say, “Move out of my way. I’m going to monster truck it!” Then I would just jump off the rocks because I had no other choice. There was no finesse. I think it was a great background for moving into Monster Jam trucks because you’re often not completely on stable ground. In monster trucks you’re either jumping up in the air or you’re on two wheels and I learned a long time ago how to save it on two wheels in my rock crawler. So it seems like a really seamless transition, truthfully. There’s just a lot more height involved, but the components are very similar. I feel like it’s one of the more natural backgrounds to have come from as opposed to something where you’ve never left the ground and you’ve never been sideways.

Part of the reason you got into Monster Jam was simply that they were looking for more female drivers. There has been a bit of an influx of female monster truck drivers in recent years. Why do you think Monster Jam is looking for female drivers and why are more women becoming interested in it?

I think there’s probably a stereotype out there that women can’t drive. This is a pretty male-dominated sport, motorsports in general are male dominated. You can see what kind of attention Danica Patrick has gotten in NASCAR and Indy, and I think fans like to see something different and want to root for the underdog. Women and girls can relate in that I’m showing them you can do anything you want to do, regardless of whether or not there’s a gender stereotype in that profession.

When I met the folks at Monster Jam and heard they were looking for females, I hadn’t really paid much attention to it before. I had never been to a show and I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. About two weeks after meeting the folks at Monster Jam, I was test driving Grave Digger in North Carolina and after two days of driving they offered me the job. Six weeks later was my very first show. It was funny because after they offered me the job I was like, “What does that mean?” They said, “Well, you go on tour every single weekend and we start in six weeks.” Then I said, “OK. When will I get to practice again?” They go, “Oh, you won’t. Your first show will be the next time you drive.” I’m just glad to have been able to fill the position. You’re right, there are a lot of women coming in lately. You’re going to see more and more and I think the goal is if we can get a female at every show, there’s that representation across the board every weekend.

During your time in Monster Jam, have you developed rivalries with particular drivers or do rivalries emerge based on the trucks you drive?

No, not really. I think everybody takes a big team approach. Even though we’re out there racing against each other and trying to get the best freestyle scores, there really is a huge camaraderie among all of the drivers and crew. We are collectively focused on trying to make sure the show is fun for everybody and that everybody leaves there having had a good time. I don’t have any rivalries. I’m actually touring with Dennis Anderson this year. My truck and his truck share a crew, so we’re going to be at all the same shows together. For me, this is probably the biggest opportunity to learn. So I’m not looking at it as, “I’m going to go out there and crush the competition,” although that sounds really cool to say. I’m really going into it thinking, “I want to absorb as much as I can from Dennis. I want to learn.” He’s got 32 or 33 years of experience doing this. This’ll be my fourth season, so I’m definitely still feeling like a rookie compared to a lot of these guys.

I heard that your favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz. Has there ever been talk of having Wizard of Oz-themed monster trucks in Monster Jam? If so, I’m guessing you’d be happy to drive one of them.

I would be that Wicked Witch in a heartbeat! Man, I’ve never even thought of there being a Wizard of Oz Monster Jam truck. But I would be all over that. I would be a huge nerd. I can recite every line from the movie. We were doing the Path of Destruction tour over the summer and we were in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which is right across from New York City, and I had a chance to go into the city and see Wicked on Broadway and that was a huge treat. Yep, I am a nerd. I love it.

So you’d want to drive the Wicked Witch truck, if there was one?

Oh, I would be Glinda, I would be the Wicked Witch, I’d be a Munchkin, I’d be the Cowardly Lion, I’d be anything.

After your stop in Atlanta this weekend, where are you competing next?

After Atlanta, Dennis and I are going to Tampa, then Orlando, then back to Tampa. So I get to spend three winter weekends in a row in Florida, which isn’t too shabby. After Tampa we head out west for Anaheim. I’m from Southern California, so I’m excited for that show because I’ll have lots of family and friends there.

www.johnson4x4.com

Marko Polo discusses Fernbank’s “Marco Polo: Man & Myth”

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Marco Polo was a 13th-century Italian world traveler whose journeys were made famous upon the publication of The Travels of Marco Polo. “Marvelous” Marko Polo also claims to have traveled the world as a male model while simultaneously showing off his physique in wrestling rings throughout Georgia. After recently winning the Pro Wrestling Resurrection United States Championship, Marko took a rare respite from wrestling and modeling to spend some time at home for the holidays. As part of his vacation, Marko accompanied Wrestling with Pop Culture to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History to check out the Marco Polo: Man & Myth exhibit of artifacts and writings (on display through Jan. 5). After spending a day at this museum with one of indie wrestling’s most cultured characters, the following exchange occurred.

I suppose the most obvious question, at least given the subject matter, is if there is any relation between “Marvelous” Marko Polo and Marco Polo, the explorer that is the subject of this exhibit.

“Marvelous” Marko Polo poses with the original Marco Polo. Photo by Jesse Pollak/Dizzy Focus.

There is no family history or anything like that. I chose the name because of the person himself. What I didn’t like about the exhibit was they made it too educational. I want to hear about the women he traveled around the world to meet. That’s the stuff I want to hear about. Everything else is too educational and I couldn’t care less about it. I can read a history book to find out about that stuff. I’d like to see the stuff they didn’t show.

Jonathan Williams, you asked me to do this interview. But what does this have to do with wrestling? I want to talk to you about what’s going in with Marko Polo in wrestling right now. That’s the stuff I thought we’d be talking about.

We’ll get to that. But given the similarities between your lives and, uh, explorations, I wanted to get your thoughts on the Marco Polo exhibit.

There are a lot of similarities. I’ve traveled the world; I’ve been to France, Spain, Canada. You travel around, you meet a bunch of women, you do a bunch of stuff that … the difference is he wrote it down. I don’t like to put my business out like that. I do it with a little more swag than he did, but he was 100 years ago.

Well, a few more years ago than that.

A few more then. So I updated it. Probably a few years from now – a hundred, a thousand, whatever – they’ll do an exhibit on this Marko Polo. Then there will probably be another one come around in a thousand or so years after that. That, in itself, is awesome because they can finally call it Man, Myth & Legend. They just have Man & Myth on this one, but now they can add the moniker of Legend and that will be me. Then they’ll have my black face scattered across all these billboards rather than that Italian guy looking like Lanny Poffo.

What’s the inspiration between the slight variation of spelling between Marco Polo and “Marvelous” Marko Polo?

The slight variation is the right way to spell it. It’s spelled just like it sounds. Mar-ko comes from a K, it’s not Mar-so. People need to understand that a little more and the way I spell it they know exactly how to say it. Marco Polo was a world traveler. I also am a world traveler. So it’s a match made in heaven. It’s a no brainer.

Your travels are a result of your male modeling career. How did that segue into pro wrestling?

Marko Polo models some of the fine linens in Fernbank's gift shop. Photo by Jesse Pollak/Dizzy Focus.

Marko Polo models some of the Marco Polo-inspired fashions in Fernbank’s gift shop. Photo by Jesse Pollak/Dizzy Focus.

Like I said in the Georgia Wrestling Now interview I did with you before, pro wrestling saved my life. Me being bullied in school and fighting every day, it was pro wrestling that helped me keep the bullies away. When my father took me to a house show at the Joe Louis Arena and I saw Hulk Hogan, the wheels were already turning. So the first change I got to get into the ring and learn, I took it. Now I’ve been wrestling for three years and I take on all comers.

Marco Polo is known for collecting silks, pottery and other cultural artifacts during his journeys. Having now seen the exhibit, how do his journeys compare to yours? What will be featured in the Marko Polo exhibit?

I’ve seen the silks of women’s panties all over the place, but I don’t know if I kept those. Somebody will make it educational and fit for kids, but my memoirs will probably have to be edited down at some point to make it TV friendly.

You’ve touted the lavish lifestyle you live, so I wouldn’t expect you to be much of an outdoorsman. Yet you did seem particularly drawn to the ger he lived in while traveling. What was it that drew you to this particular part of the exhibit? How does that lifestyle compare to how you live when you travel?

“Marvelous” Marko Polo relaxes in Marco Polo’s ger at “Marco Polo: Man & Myth”. Photo by Jesse Pollak/Dizzy Focus.

Oh, yeah. I could put that in my back yard or down in my spare room. Do you know what kind of freaky stuff I could do? Just keep going with that thought right there. That is just too awesome to pass up, so I may see if I can buy that thing at some point. When I travel I stay in a hotel. Something like that is just different. Of course I’m not going to sleep outside, but when we went to this exhibit I told you that ger reminded me of the Jeju Spa. Just going into those spa rooms and having aromatherapy in that room would let me max out and relax. If all those people hadn’t been in there, I probably would have fallen asleep in there. It just seems comfortable.

As is pointed out in the exhibit, there is some speculation about the accuracy of some of Marco Polo’s writings. How much of his legend do you think is truth or myth? How accurate will your claims of world travel and other exploits be once you decide to fully share them with the rest of the world?

When you start doing things that nobody else has done before, a lot of people are going to say it’s bullshit. But I know what I’ve done and he knows what he’s done. So what if he embellished it a little? You weren’t there, how are you going to prove it? Same with me; if I go to Japan or even to Florida and I do something and come back and tell my friends about it, the only people who are going to know are me and the people who were there. There’s no way to prove it unless you have video, and there there’s no video from back then to prove what he did and didn’t do. Me, myself? I’m a private person. I don’t like to do videos. I can prove it if you want by doing it again. But what’s the fun in that.

Some people might pay good money to see the Marko Polo sex tape.

No. I don’t need a sex tape to be famous. I’m already famous.

Aside from the ger, what other parts of the exhibit were particularly impressive to you?

Photo by Jesse Pollak/Dizzy Focus.

There was a quote where Marco said he saw a unicorn, which was actually a rhino. It’s awe inspiring for someone like that to do what had never been done. Traveling the world was just unheard of aside from Christopher Columbus, who was a convict. But for someone to just travel around and be welcomed in by all these tribes and all these different women, if you really think about the artistic value of it, that’s pretty much Captain Kirk. That’s what they based Captain Kirk off of was Marco Polo. He traveled around, goes to these different lands, has sex with these alien beauties – what’s the difference? They just updated it.

Are you implying that your life is similar to Captain Kirk’s?

Yeah!

You wanted to talk more about your wrestling career earlier in this interview. So, where will you be wrestling in the near future?

I am now officially the PWR U.S. Champion. I stole it before and I’ve got no problem saying that. But I officially won it fair and square by defeating Kevin Blue. Kevin Blue was a worthy task. He rocked me a couple of times and even hit me with my own cane. But I broke that cane on his leg and now he gets to be one of the many who have fallen to the Beauty Mark and it sucks to be him. Now there’s a level of class to that title. When you see a picture of that belt around my waist, there’s a level of prestige that’s added to that belt just because I’m wearing it. And that’s true of any belt. So you’ll see me looking to obtain other titles the first and third Saturday of each month at Platinum Championship Wrestling. When I return to NWA Atlanta or Syndicate Promotions Wrestling remains to be seen, depending on the dates of their events. I’ll be doing some traveling to Mississippi, Florida, Kentucky and a couple of other places. I’ve also been contacted by Southern Fried Championship Wrestling. A lot of the indies from all around are calling, so I’m pretty much going to be appearing everywhere at some point in time in 2014.

Marko Polo could learn many things from Marco Polo’s travels. Photo by Jesse Pollak/Dizzy Focus.

I don’t think Marco Polo ever claimed to have competed in a wrestling ring. If you were able to somehow come face to face with Marco Polo, what would the relationship between the two of you be? Do you think you’d be opponents, tag team partners or might he provide managerial advice to “Marvelous” Marko Polo?

With somebody like that, I can’t really say he wouldn’t be a good manager. I mean, he’s been there and done that, so he could teach me. I can sit here and meditate and channel his ghost and learn some different stuff. From the stuff I’ve seen in this exhibit, I’d definitely like to know more about the ancient Chinese secrets that he learned.

A holiday deal with the devil? It wouldn’t be a “Krampus Xmas” without it

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Christmas is almost here, which can only mean one thing when it comes to 7 Stages. That’s right, it’s Krampus time! For those who aren’t familiar this demonic figure from German folklore, he’s Santa’s helper, of sorts. Only instead of simply leaving naughty kids off the gift list, he beats them with sticks and steals them away in a basket! But when the Little 5 Points Rockstar Orchestra joins forces with Syrens of the South, the 7 Stages Handbell Choir and various other creative groups that dabble in the darker arts to bring the fourth installment of the Krampus Xmas Dec. 19-21, it will be a devilishly different take on the story you may have seen over the past three years. And before the Krampus creeps onto the stage, Wrestling with Pop Culture talks to script writers Andrew McGill and James McDougald about how surprisingly nice this otherwise naughty holiday tale will be this year.

This Krampus show has an elaborately varied cast each year. What are your roles in this year’s show?

McGill: We are the co-writers. We do an original script every year. This year I am fortunate enough to star in it and also direct it.

McDougald: He’s really pulling double duty on this one.

McGill: Quadruple.

McDougald: Triple.

McGill: Quadruple. That’s more fun.

McDougald: The process this year has been phenomenal. We have such a long history working with this show at 7 Stages, going back seven or eight years now…

McGill: Oh, five years. But it started with 7 Stages coming to Rob Thompson, owner of Java Lords, to do Jesus Christ Superstar. After that, at least once a year there’s been a collaboration between Java Lords and 7 Stages. Christmas with the Devil was our first Christmas show and that was a combination of an original show about Santa getting crucified and an adaptation of Iron Maiden‘s The Number of the Beast. After that, we learned about this very bizarre Christmas character named Krampus. We took that and put together a show the next year about him. Then it was just, like, “Well, obviously we need to do that every year.” But we’re very adamant about not doing the same Christmas show every year. It’s very important to us. A lot of theater companies run a Christmas show for two months and it’s their money maker; they can just pull the same actors and do the same show they’ve done all their lives. So it’s not hard.

McDougald: This is a three-day rock concert event that also acts as a fund raiser for 7 Stages.

McGill: When people come to see it, they expect to see the same people and the same music, for the most part. But it’s crazy different every year.

McDougald: This year it has kind of acted as a response to a number of things we’ve seen on stage this past year, as well as to help the show grow. In the past, we’ve just kept making it more and more violent and bleak. This year we decided to keep a little bit of the cynicism because it’s funny, but I wound up seeing quite possibly the worst show this past year, which was a production of Doctor Faustus. I went, “Oh, this would be so funny if the guy was just aware of the things associated with making a deal with the devil.” So I brought the idea to Andrew about two months ago and I went, “We need to scrap pretty much everything we’ve done. It’s going to be Faust this year. You’re going to be Faust.” Slowly the pieces started falling into place for everybody else.We decided that Satan would have a daughter this time around, the joke being that God put his kid up for adoption, basically. [Satan] decides to raise Damian on his own, so she’s 14 or 15, really coming of age, and he’s trying to teach her what it is to be the Antichrist.

McGill: That was actually in our original script. So when we decided to introduce this character of Faust, he obviously summons the Devil. The problem is that the Devil is too busy raising his teenage daughter and they’re at the mall. So he sends Krampus, who is a newly acquired demon because Santa works at the mall, as well. All of the normal characters are trapped in the mall and are trying to do Christmas. So we have Krampus and this new character of Faust basically trying to get all these people back to them so they can find the meaning of Christmas. But it never works out, then there’s a dance party.

Is Rob reprising his role as Satan this year?

McDougald: He’s absolutely brilliant. This year he has a lot more to play with because in the past he’s primarily been focused on the music. The band has incorporated more singers so he can be more in the show. So we get to see a little more of his character. We’ve gotten pieces of who he is over the past five years, so he’s like a rock star party god. But when we meet him this year he’s in a slightly more domesticated place and he’s really rediscovering how awesome it is being the Lord of Darkness.

McGill: It’s just funny to put Satan in a place where he is horribly uncomfortable. There’s a line where he literally talks to God and says, “You will never know the joys of fatherhood.”

In a Christmas show?

McGill: Yep. We wanted to take all these characters and have the show, but not pound down the Christmas message. It’s obviously Christmas. There’s nothing you can do about that, so we might as well have a show that has all these familiar characters people have seen over the last four years. At the end of the day, it has a good message, which is, “Life is meaningless. Might as well party.”

McDougald: That’s what Christmas is about. In the past it was the last festival before the lights were turned off until spring. Yes, enjoy things to the fullest. Enjoy the season. But also don’t forget about family. All the scenes with Satan and Damian have this nice sweetness to them.

McGill: Honestly, it’s really weird to hear Rob come at these lines with this little girl, being like, “I’m so proud of you,” while in full Satan makeup with horns. To hear him be tender inside that character is really weird.

McDougald: And you’ve got to feel bad for the guy because number two down in Hell is trying to stage a revolution because [Satan] hasn’t done anything in 14 years, and he’s just trying to maintain his family and career.

McGill: Then you’ve got this guy who’s literally performing every magical ritual ever, out of boredom, to get [the Devil] there. And the Devil’s like, “Ugh! This guy again? Send the Krampus. He doesn’t want that Krampus? Send him sexy Krampus.” Krampus comes and Faust is like, “No. I want something with tits to come and talk to me.” So Krampus goes back to the mall and tells the Devil, “This guy doesn’t want me.” So he gets transformed into a chick with tits. So it’s the same character, but with tits.

So we’ll see multiple versions of Krampus this year?

McDougald: We wanted to go sexy with it this year as opposed to just violence and poop humor. You’ll see the phenomenal work that Shane Morton has done for us in the past. You’ll see cameo appearances from past characters and costumes. There’s a very high respect for the way things have happened, but this time’s there’s more show.

McGill: We’re trying to move away from trying to take the songs we’ve done over the last couple years and introduce them into the show. There’s only so many ways you can do some of these songs and so many ways you can beat up Santa Claus. Trust me, I’ve been Santa Claus three times and have been beaten up three times! We just wanted to go somewhere else with that and I think we’ve found subtle ways of having the songs be in between scenes where the songs are vignettes. You’ve got Faust trying to be evil and Satan desperately trying not to be good. Then they meet at a point and decide they are both OK.

McDougald: We have the Baphomettes coming back this year, Shane’s creature creations, which are awesome, and the Little 5 Points Rockstar Orchestra is awesome.

McGill: We have Prentice Suspensions coming back. We have them every year because there’s nothing crazier to look at on stage than someone hooking themselves in their flesh, then getting hung 20 feet in the air. And they do it because they love that. The looks on their faces when they’re swinging in the air suspended from hooks through their flesh is honestly fascinating and beautiful. It’s crazy.

http://www.7stages.org/special-events/krampus-xmas/

Netherworld’s Goblin King discusses The Dead Ones and MCW

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Since 1997, the creatures of Netherworld have helped make Halloween quite a frightful time in the Atlanta area. In recent years, the hideous Goblin King has been a sinister presence whose singing or sheer terror have had souls surrendering to his control. As you traverse the aquatic agonies, undead horrors and other malevolent maniacs (including a giant roach!) in this year’s main haunt The Dead Ones, be wary of what resides inside the Goblin Cave. At Netherworld, the Goblin King is just one of many monsters vying for your demise. But this year the Goblin King is venturing into another monstrous realm as Monstrosity Championship Wrestling takes over the Axis Arena in Gotham City at Six Flags Over Georgia for Six Flags Fright Fest. As both attractions get under way Sept. 27, the Goblin King takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about his cruel intentions for anyone who crosses his path.

The Goblin King emerged from the Netherworld a few years ago. Tell me a little bit about yourself and why you’ve chosen to enter our realm through the Netherworld.

The Goblin King is from the Dark Night. This is my third year at Netherworld, sitting on my throne in the Goblin Cave terrorizing people as they come through. I warn people as they wander through my cave that they’re lucky if they make it through.

I visited Netherworld on Friday the 13th this year. As I entered the Goblin Cave, you were telling people to “Bow down to he Goblin King.” Is that a request you often make as people enter your cave?

Oh, yes. I want all to bow to me. You’ve entered my kingdom, so you must bow and surrender yourself at my throne., Everybody must bow to the Goblin King.

Sometimes you greet people in a very different manner, such as with operatic singing. What’s the story behind that?

My first year at Netherworld, when I became the Goblin King, I would sing opera to hypnotize people as they came in to lead them towards me. Once they came towards me, I’d have them bow at my feet and surrender their souls.

This year the Goblin King is part of The Dead Ones. Tell me about The Dead Ones and where the Goblin King fits into this attraction.

Oh, the Dead Ones. That’s my favorite one. The Dead Ones are all the ones from the past who are coming back to take over the Dark Night again. The Goblin King is going to usher you into the new realm of what we call The Dead Ones.

When the Goblin King takes someone’s soul, what becomes of that person’s soul?

You become one of our servants and worship us. We mostly take the souls that will make us more powerful and stronger than ever.

Rumor has it the Goblin King is also involved in professional wrestling. Tell me a little more about that.

Oh, the Goblin King loves professional wrestling. The Goblin King takes over everything he goes to. He’s going to take over the world and take over the souls of those within the squared circle. Beware the Goblin King! Wrestling is my main strength because I love to take on anything that comes through my path.

Does wrestling exist in the Goblin King’s realm? If so, is it similar to the wrestling we know on this plane?

Yes, it does. It’s very similar. The Goblin King can not be controlled because I’m the king! Everywhere I go, people will be hypnotized by by my presence because I will take the souls of anyone who crosses my path.

I understand the Goblin King will be making his Monstrosity Championship Wrestling debut this weekend at Six Flags Over Georgia. What can you tell me about your involvement with MCW at Fright Fest?

Oh! When I come to MCW, prepare to bow to the king. Prepare to surrender all souls to the Goblin King. I’m coming to terrorize everything that comes through my path. Six Flags, beware! I’m looking for someone creepy that I can cast under my spell to add to my kingdom. I will turn monsters and human wrestlers alike into my goblins!

www.fearworld.com