[eerie music playing]
[VCR clanking]
[man] We are now on the record.
This is the video recorded deposition of Joseph Pickett.
This is the video recorded deposition of Nicholas Prueher.
[woman] Would you mind raising your right hand please?
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony given in this matter will be the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help you God?
[both] Yes.
[woman] Did you develop a backstory for K-Strass?
-Yes. -[woman] What was that story?
[dramatic music playing]
I don't remember a lot of it, but...
I think we did say he had won some yo-yo championships.
[woman] So it was a lie that K-Strass was a yo-yo champion?
I wouldn't characterize it that way.
[woman] It was not true that K-Strass was a yo-yo champion?
[woman] Yes or no, Mr. Pickett?
Oh, it was not true that K-Strass was a yo-yo champion.
K-Strass is a fictional person.
[woman] So this entire press release is false?
Yeah, it's based on fictional characters who don't exist.
So nothing you'd say about them could be true.
It just seems like a question of semantics because he's not a real person.
But in his fictional world,
yes, he was a yo-yo expert, do you know what I mean?
-[woman] Do you see the second email from the top, from you? -[Nicholas] Mm-hmm.
-[woman] You write, "Also, those fuckers work from 4AM to 10AM." -[Nicholas] Yep.
[woman] Who were you referring to when you said "fuckers"?
I don't know, but I assume whoever he'd signed the press releases to.
-[woman] Do you use the term "fuckers" a lot? -Yes.
[Albertina Rizzo] It was one of those things where like your first reaction is...
"Well, of course, this was going to happen eventually.
You can't get away with this stuff forever."
[rock music playing]
Joe has sort of always pulled pranks.
I mean, he's been doing it since he was a child.
[Sara Pickett] That is probably his main goal in life, are pranks.
As a mom, just was so scared that they were going to get in trouble. Hmm.
[Jeanne Prueher] Nick, I always say he was our challenge child.
He's a grown up boy. He's responsible.
Is he?
Nothing surprises us anymore.
I know a lot of stories of, like when Nick and Joe were young.
It was all like light-hearted fun.
This is Joe and myself, and Joe giving me the finger.
[Dan Prueher] This is the picture Nick took for his yearbook.
Nick does not play the trombone.
Putting the mustard in the ketchup and the ketchup in the mustard at the A&W.
We got a police visit for that.
In sixth grade we put together a humor newspaper.
I use the word humor very loosely.
[Nick] No I think it holds up, as funny as the day we wrote it.
And then we did a prank phone call tape in high school.
[on phone] This is Steven Gorgon from the University of California, Berkeley.
-[man] Yeah? -We have reason to believe that under your house,
is prehistoric dinosaur bones.
-[man] No, no, no. -No, we have reason to believe this.
It's just the cruelest thing.
Now that you listen to it, we're just like waking up old people.
-No, again, I think everything holds up perfectly with that. -[Joe laughs]
[phone voice] Do you know what time it is mister?
[man on phone] Well, yes, I do.
[phone voice] Are you crazy? We're in bed.
-We actually made money off that. -Sold that to teachers...
-Yeah, that was... -My social studies teacher loved it.
For years,
he was always the one just getting friends
to do silly things and make idiots of themselves in public.
[Nick] And I just remember being at a grocery store
and you daring me to go running into a thing of cans and then apologizing.
The board and I would like pass you a note saying,
-"Three dollars If you do this." -Yeah.
I always call him the Puppet Master,
just like pulling the strings.
-I did that with Mark too. Mark worked for cheap. -Yeah.
He could lead a cult. [laughs]
When they were in Eau Claire, they were doing break dancing on the campus.
Joe "Ozone" Pickett and Nick "Turbo."
Nick and Joe had a booth where you could unregister to vote.
They started an improvisational rock band, and it was cacophony.
[fast-paced metal music]
And I said, "Well, Nick, what's the name of your band?"
-He said, "It's the Beatles." -[drum sting]
College, we had permed our hair as a joke.
Like two weeks later, it was just kind of ratty.
-Yeah. -And I just chopped the shit out of it.
I went down to the DMV and got my photo taken.
Ever since then, I've always done a dumb picture for it.
I remember when I moved to New York, I did this one.
Went down and got a neck brace.
The key is you gotta go like right around five o'clock,
usually on a Friday, when everybody wants to get out of there.
That's what I did with this one, I dressed goth,
put a safety pin through my lip.
This is my current license. I got custom grills made.
But the worst part was having to get cornrows.
It was pretty painful.
Went to a Catholic supply store and bought a priest's collar, and nobody even questioned it.
We were doing a show out in the middle of nowhere, cop pulls us over.
I handed him my ID and he goes, "Dude, is this for real?"
And I was like, "Yep." And he goes, "You're a priest?" And I said, "Yep."
And then he goes, "So how much heroin do you have in the car?"
[Joe] Nick and I have known each other since we were in sixth grade,
and I went over to your place, and I found out that you were
a big fan of Pee Wee Herman and you were actually part of the Pee Wee Herman fan club.
-Yeah. -And I was interested in that.
Yeah, and I remember bonding over the television show Small Wonder,
-[Joe] Oh yeah. -About the robot little girl.
[Joe] And we both thought it was so stupid.
And we both loved how stupid it was.
[Nick] You know, 10-year-olds usually are kind of appreciating things at face value.
-But... -[Joe] We hated things.
-We hated things very early on. -And we realized we both hated
-very similar, loved to hate, yeah. -But loved to hate, yeah.
[Nick] We started finding VHS tapes.
Found a McDonald's training video
in the break room of the McDonald's I was working at.
It was this guy and it was his first day
on the job in the video, and he cleaned really hard.
The overly perky crew trainer said that he could see "McC."
-Well, what's next? -Garbage.
[Joe] Which they never defined what that is.
[Nick] No, they invented their whole, their own mythology for this whole thing.
Don't stop cleaning until you see McC.
[Joe] Well, we got obsessed with that tape, I stole it.
I took it home in my backpack and we showed it to friends on a Friday night,
And we developed a running commentary of jokes to go along with it.
[thinking to himself] Make it shine, guy.
Make it shine.
[Joe] The obsession grew with McC even further.
Then we started looking out for other videos.
[Nick] We started finding VHS tapes at thrift stores and garage sales.
[Joe] Yeah, like the '90s, that was the golden age of VHS because it was so cheap.
Anybody with, like an inkling of an idea could get it produced.
[man] Sky starts to light up with stars to the music from "Smoke on the Water."
Dum-dum-dum, dum-dum, da-dum.
[Nick] So we started finding these videos.
You know, nothing to do in our hometown on a Friday night.
Go over to somebody's parents' living room and we'd pop in whatever video we had found.
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Koreans.
[voice] Corinthians!
[Joe] After college, I got a job at a video duplication house.
Companies would come in
and they'd bring in these safety videos or industrial training videos.
I'd always make an extra copy for myself.
The collection grew exponentially from there.
[David Cross] [laughs] I've been to their office.
It's crazy, it's beautiful, it's wonderful.
It's a museum. It's inspiring.
It's a stunning collection of videotapes.
It's... one could say too much.
We'll take you around to the different categories we have here.
-This is religion. -These two walls are all religion.
This one is called Hey Kids, it's Jesus!
And then it's animals down here.
Whiskers, the Cat with the Magical Attitude.
Martial arts, self-defense, then we go into the holidays and Christmas.
Kenny and Corky Singing "Nuttin' for Christmas."
So there's a lot of videos about how to be a better gambler.
You know how there's a lot of strategy in winning the lotto?
Andy always puts himself on the cover of these videos.
Well, sex sells.
This Michael's training video I actually stole on my wedding day.
Then it segues into sexy stuff like nude golf, nude yoga,
nude bowling party, and they're not good bowlers, either.
There's a sea of children's videos.
It's basically a video so parents don't have to have
the sex talk with kids, and guiding you through this, Howie Mandel.
And then eventually we just had enough tapes
that in 2004 we were like, let's take this thing we do to entertain friends
out of our living room and put it into a theater somewhere.
[audience cheering]
One time, Austin!
-Hey, welcome to the show. -Welcome! Thanks for having us.
Welcome to the show. My name's Nick, this is Joe.
This is the Found Footage Festival and what we do,
if you haven't seen the show before, we travel around the country,
we look for old VHS tapes, exercise videos, and other people's home movies
and you know, stuff that wasn't meant to be shown in public.
And then we show it in public. Been doing it 15 years.
And we have no backup plan.
-This is our career. -This is all we're doing with our lives, this is it.
[crowd cheering]
Monkeys are very affectionate animals when they want to be.
[crowd laughs]
I'm looking for somebody I can feel special about.
I'm looking for the goddess.
Life is a playground, and I want somebody to play with.
Hi, Mom.
[crowd laughs]
The Found Footage Festival's always hilarious.
Everybody comes into it
not knowing what the hell is going on and then still not knowing
what the hell is going on, even while they are watching.
Don't be surprised if you're surprised.
Just prepare for chaos.
Hi, I'm Ben Dover from Computers Northwest.
Just let it out. Aaah!
This video, when your mom and dad break up...
Follow instructions carefully.
Excellent health, full of energy.
[yells]
[crowd laughs]
[woman] What's involved in having a litter?
The bitch is into heavy labor. Comforting the bitch.
You want to reassure your bitch.
Milk the bitch. Calm the bitch down.
[crowd laughs]
[Kurt Braunohler] Everybody is screaming laughing.
It's like a circus-like atmosphere.
There's a niche interest with broad appeal.
I drink my urine every morning.
[audience groans]
I think Jesus was an incredible person, but I also feel that he did urine therapy.
[exhales and screams]
Finding the Found Footage Festival was like being
a Star-bellied Sneetch and I found the other Sneetches.
It's like, oh you guys watch the same crap?
They curate all these moments from the garbage heap of pop culture.
Check this out.
In 19 years of representing our roster, plus seeing what everyone else
in the market is doing, there's nothing like Nick and Joe.
[Davy Rothbart] It's not like they're just a successful band and
and they're good at their music.
They made up this genre and they're the world champions.
[Nick] We just did Edinburgh for a show at night for a month.
You know, we do shows that are like 600, 700 people.
We do shows that are 50 people.
We've done shows for zero people, didn't we?
For one.
We don't have a traditional job.
[Joe] Our job is, I mean, we see each other every single day.
[Nick] We do the show for an hour and a half.
The rest of the time is spent traveling from a city to the other city,
or hanging out in thrift stores looking for VHS material.
This is one we find a lot, but I always like the title. Come on, Geese!
Here's one about how to play the mandolin.
-I think we have it. -Do we?
-Yeah, we do. -We have this one?
[Nick] It's a decent haul.
[Joe] Yeah, it's not bad, it's a decent haul.
[Nick] We're on the road for 130 days a year,
[Joe] And we're like five feet away from each other at all times.
On long drives, like if we're on a sevené\-hour drive,
we won't say a word the entire time.
[upbeat guitar music]
As far as our relationship goes, I'd say it's moreOdd Couple than anything.
Like, I will fart in front of you, but you won't fart in front of me or anybody.
You were with a girl for eight years?
-Eleven. Yes. -Eleven years?
-You never farted around her once? -Nope. Didn't happen.
It takes me like a week.
We get to a hotel.
I'll try to get to sleep early because I know Joe snores.
-I do. -So I go by the radiator,
or the air conditioner, and I get the bed closest to that.
-And it's just an unspoken. -We have this whole routine.
You'll watch an infomercial
-and give me a half-hour head start so I can fall asleep. -Yep.
[Joe] We do like close to 120 shows a year.
Send out press releases to local news stations and stuff.
[Nick] We'd go on the local news and talk about our show.
[man] Savage beauty. Look at that powerful body.
[news host] Most people cleaning out their storage units, their closets,
they toss away those old VHS tapes.
Well, that's like throwing away gold
to the creators of the Found Footage Festival, Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett.
-[Nick] You specifically don't like doing the morning shows? -I hate doing the morning shows.
[Nick] Well, they are early.
[Joe] It's like still dark out when we would have to wake up for these things, it sucked.
It's nice to have you guys back in town, welcome.
-Thanks for having us back. -Good to be here.
-We were in Missouri or somewhere like that. -It was Kansas City.
-Kansas City. -Yeah.
And we had a morning show interview and you didn't want to drive to the station.
So our UK tour manager, Michael, who has a thick northern English accent,
he came on as you and he tried to do an American accent.
When did you start doing all of this?
-Joe? -Yeah, we went to high school together.
We've been best friends for, you know, since back in the day.
[Joe] He didn't do a very good job either.
So that was the main challenge.
-[Nick] It was a disaster. -I was just happy I didn't have to do the morning news show.
[Joe] I'm looking at some of these morning news shows,
and I mean, they just make it so easy, like look at it, Monica Quintero.
That's such an anchor name, too, isn't it?
And they tell you what their hobbies are. It's way too much information.
And feel free to contact her at hdavis@kxxv.com.
Shit, their emails are right there.
We hated doing these because we got the impression that the news people
were not listening and doing their homework
because the chyrons would have our names wrong below us.
They'd always call it the Found Film Festival.
Right. There's no films here.
[Joe] So as an experiment, we sent out a press release
for someone other than us.
Me and my buddy Mark, we invented a character and pitched him to morning news shows.
Well you probably owned a yo-yo a kid, but our next guest has turned it into an art form.
[Nick] And this fake person got booked on more shows than we did.
[Joe] Yeah, we wrote up a press release
saying that we've represented a guy named Kenny Strasser
who was a yo-yo expert
who traveled around the country to schools, teaching kids about the environment with his yo-yo.
They totally bought it and we got him booked
on seven morning news shows and our buddy Mark played the yo-yo expert.
I am just a 35-year-old kid at heart, you know, twice divorced.
I have no kids.
I don't have a girlfriend, don't want one.
[Joe] And Mark has no idea how to yo-yo at all.
See, you have the up and down.
-Okay. -Okay, pretty basic.
-And then... -Oh!
-Oh! You all right? -Yeah.
What I say is, you know, life has a lot of ups and downs
-and... -[yo-yo thumps on ground]
Oops, lost one.
Then into a Huey.
And we get going.
Oops.
[whispering] What should I do?
I mean that yo-yo guy. Oh, my God, what a train wreck.
-Let it drop. -All right.
What am I doing?
[Andy Bichlbaum] Just seeing super, self-serious people
face to face with this
hilarious thing that they don't know is hilarious,
it like shines a light right through the whole news industry I think.
They have to be happy and excited, even though something is failing.
There is my yo-yo trick, right there.
-Well, kind of. -We'll be right back.
The pressure is on, you've done it once and then people want more
and you want more because it's the excitement of doing it.
People who are compelled to do this over and over and over again,
it's just horrific.
It's got to be some kind of like, serious adrenaline thing.
[laughs] I mean to think of a prank and execute it,
it's just, it's the biggest rush in the world.
There is something addicting
and you need to go bigger and bigger.
We had fun doing that.
And we're like, man, let's see if we can do something else stupid.
So we wrote up a press release saying that Nick was a celebrity chef
who had just written a book on what to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers.
Chef Keith Guerke is here,
author of Leftovers Right: Making A Winner of Last Night's Dinner.
Pretty good title, right?
-That's a great book title! -Thank you very much.
[Nick] I just checked my email before and I might have to cancel
the signing because the books have not arrived.
[host] Okay, well never mind then.
First of all, mashed potatoes. Boring, right?
-Right. -How about a mashed potato ice cream cone?
-What do you think about that? -That's fun.
The fun part comes with the toppings.
These are your sprinkles. I think of this as like a sundae bar.
-Like corn sprinkles? -Yeah, so put on some...
I love it when pranks are very, very silly.
I think that that helps people loosen up the idea of their everyday reality.
Of course, don't forget your cranberry cherry on top.
Because then you got your mashed potatoes and it's all in one.
First of all, getting on a morning show and pranking,
I mean, it takes balls, it's not easy.
You have to walk a tight line of being funny, pathetic,
and believable enough to sustain that
and for them not to suss out that you're fucking with them.
It's quite a talent.
There's a Judas Priest song called "Turbo Lover."
Well, I call this Turbo Gravy. It's a spoof on that.
And it's basically taking gravy to the next level.
-You can really make it out of any leftover. -Right.
So put like some of your ham in here.
-Put all of it in. -Perfect.
Just put a bunch of like green beans and turkey
and mashed potatoes and always skim milk in the blender.
Fried chicken, put it all in there and then add more gravy.
-Gravy to gravy. -Of course, we need more gravy to make the gravy.
-There we go! -Yes.
I'll just let you try this. And this is so fun.
My daughters Spirit and Curtis Anne love these smoothies.
Maybe not as blended as we like, but just try a little bit of that.
[Nick] Most of the anchors actually ate it.
Like gulped down a smoothie with chicken in it.
[Joe] They don't think about it. They don't want the show to keep moving.
-You're gonna have whipped cream left over, right? -Whoops.
[loud crashing and clattering]
I am so sorry.
-It's okay. -Oh, God. Live TV.
We're going to throw things out to Mark for a check of our weather.
Putting them on the defensive and having to watch them
make a decision about whether or not they're going to eat shit,
it calls into question everything about the legitimacy
of that whole endeavor of the morning news source.
So you can watch that and think, "This is crazy."
But then you might, the next thing that's on,
you also have to question.
This is the Halliburton SurvivaBall.
In the event of extreme catastrophe, there might be a scarcity of resources.
[applause]
These kinds of interventions, this kind of mischief,
is something that
plays a really important role in changing the world.
[Joe] I'm waffling back and forth.
[Nick] The fans have come to expect a new prank,
and they want to know how you can top yourselves.
And we're like, "I don't know. Any ideas?"
[Joe] Hey, do you wanna get in here to coach me a little bit on the shaving?
It will look stupider if you go further up.
I know, because then you'll see my second chin.
-Yeah, yeah. -Yeah, okay.
-I think that's the... -See, I'm glad you're here.
Oh, I know. What about male pattern baldness?
Shaving male pattern baldness.
-Should I? -I mean, what does it add to it?
It just makes it, makes you look stupider?
Yeah. The laughs would increase, I think like 72%.
-Yeah, well, I say go for it. -Yeah.
Do you have a message?
No. What happened?
Well, no, well I had a question for you about the, about shaving
because I know that facial hair was the big concern.
[Albertina] Yeah?
What about like if I shaved male pattern baldness?
-Because I feel like it would, -No.
it would step up the comedy like 82%.
[Albertina] No.
Not right before the holidays, not when there's like shit to do.
And we have people to see.
You're not doing that.
My only requisite for the characters is like I have to live with the person.
I remember, he did this prank where he had like a tiny mustache.
It was a Hitler mustache, but it was not a Hitler mustache,
but it looked like a Hitler mustache and no sideburns.
So he really looked like Sling Blade.
And I had to, like, go out with him looking like that.
All right, I'm not going to do it.
I'll look normal when I come home.
No, you're not. You're gonna look like an idiot.
[laughs]
[Joe] So this year we're a strongman duo and we called ourselves Chop and Steele.
[Nick] 12 or 11 news stations all wanted us on that same day.
[Joe] Within 24 hours we got 12 responses back, all interested.
[station ID] Hello Wisconsin! This is WEAU 13 News.
[newscaster] A plane with dozens of people on board,
including a soccer team, has crashed in Colombia.
Also, if your breakfast needs a side of muscle,
this morning, the strongman duo Chop and Steele.
Chop and Steele! Been waiting for this all show long.
I know, I'm excited.
I was a rich guy from the suburbs.
He was a skinny little boy from small town Wisconsin.
[Nick] We made it work. This turned out to be a slam dunk.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...
[Nick] It was already preposterous.
I mean, if they took one look at us, they would know we were not strong men.
And then we also claimed that we were on America's Got Talent,
and they clearly didn't even do a Google search.
Now you were on America's Got Talent and you showed your stuff.
So tell us a little bit about what you do.
We work in a pretty rough roadhouse in Missouri
called the Double Deuce.
Our buddy Dalton got us a job there.
And it was great. We're good bouncers.
There was a local business guy,
he started throwing his weight around at one point.
You have to be in character the whole time, so it's a little nerve wracking.
It's like doing a play, but your co-actors aren't in on the play.
-Ready? -Yep.
One, two...
[Bobcat Goldthwait] What's really beautiful is when
you listen to what the news hosts are saying.
"All right." "Amazing."
"Oh, we've been waiting all morning for this."
It's like, "Have you? Have you?"
I'm enjoying this too much to comment on it.
Now is this North Dakota or South Dakota, because that makes a big difference.
-One! -All right, perfect.
Two!
Three!
It's a little big.
Feel it in your, whatever the back muscle is.
Yeah, this is just basic turbo gravy that you would have in your house.
Especially with Chop and Steele, you're like...
Come on, that's obviously fake.
One, two, three.
[Bobcat Goldthwait] When I watch those two guys,
I know that same energy where you're going,
"Well, I guess we're doing this."
"Yeah, we're really doing this."
"OK, they haven't caught on yet. We'll just keep doing this."
There's only been one that we showed up,
and the guy looked at us and he's like, "You guys don't really look like strongmen."
And then we were like, "Well, we are. And we're here to perform for you."
And he's like, "Hold on, let me, I'll be back in a second."
He goes to the back room like ten minutes and then comes back and he's like,
"No, I'm not gonna have you on."
[Bobcat Goldthwait] I've done a lot of things over the years
like smash up Arsenio Hall and done all this crap.
We'll be right back!
[Bobcat Goldthwait] When I do it, there's always a buddy with me,
just so I know I get out of the building.
I feel like I'm robbing a bank whenever I do these things.
It's all in the name of laughs.
[audience laughing]
[Albertina] I just remember thinking like, I don't know how you have
the balls to do this because it's so cringe-inducing
and also like, how do you not feel bad?
In a weird way, you're doing them a favor.
I mean, no one gives a shit about channel...
Bing Bong in North Dakota, like no offense to North Dakota,
but I'm saying not a lot of people might watch the 5AM show.
Now those people that do that show every single morning are known on the internet.
I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
I mean, I don't know.
It's not mean, it's just funny.
And we'll take, we'll have more Good Day Dakota on the way.
Oh, I was gonna also say,
-I'm so sorry about this. -No, it's okay. Don't worry about it.
No sweat at all. No problem.
Thank you so much for joining us.
-And we have weather with Amber coming up. -Oh, sorry.
[Joe] One of the news stations didn't find it funny.
Actually, the news station that we did it, they found it funny.
But their parent company, didn't find it funny.
Yeah, so four months after we were on, we found out in the New York Post
that they were suing us in federal court for fraud,
-Copyright infringement. -copyright infringement, fraud and conspiracy.
Conspiracy to commit fraud.
Most of our friends were very... just angry for him
because they thought it was bogus and stupid, and some friends,
it's not like they didn't support what he did,
they were just sort of saying, "Well, that's the consequence you pay for...
you know, fucking around."
[Bobcat Goldthwait] I may have this in common with them.
I think I'm one of the few guests on a television show
that had charges because I got convicted of arson
when I set The Tonight Showon fire.
Well it is sweeps, and I love Jay very much.
And I thought, "Well, what if I, I don't know,
-what if I set his furniture on fire?" -What are you doing?
-Don't set that on fire. -[audience howls]
[Bobcat] There's always that window of time when you do something
and charges are brought up where you're like going,
"This isn't really funny anymore,
because you're like, I could actually go to jail."
When I became aware that they were getting sued,
I actually donated to their GoFundMe.
I feel a kindred spirit.
Hey, I'm Joe. This is Nick.
We do a show called the Found Footage Festival.
Last March, we were slapped with a frivolous lawsuit
after appearing on a news station as a strongman duo called Chop and Steele.
That's right, a giant media company decided to sue us because they were embarrassed.
That's why we're seeking $80,000 to cover all of our expenses.
It's a lot of money, we know, but it's actually more money
than I think we've ever made doing the Found Footage Festival.
To give an idea of what we're working with,
Joe once found a block of cheese on the ground and brought it home.
-And you ate it. -And I ate it actually, like that day.
-Thanks in advance, everybody. -Thank you.
[USA anthem playing]
[Anderson Duff] They were the defendants I was born to defend.
I think Chop and Steele are performance artists.
I think what they're doing is absolutely social commentary.
And the fact that it is hilarious and perhaps a bit silly
does not take away from the underlying point that they're making.
When you get sued,
there are a bunch of things that are scary about it.
For one thing, you realize that during the discovery process,
they may ask to read any of your emails ever.
And you think, "Oh God, like, who's gonna see that?
And what are they going to ask for?
You start thinking about everything that you've ever done.
[intense music playing]
I could see it being a thing that would really make you shit yourself.
[Anderson Duff] This lawsuit was incredibly disruptive.
They are working comedians.
They are on the road while all of this was happening, and in the back of their minds,
they have to be thinking, "Well, this could be the end of Found Footage Festival."
We sold one, right?
[Joe] Here's the thing. We're broke right now.
Even if we win the lawsuit or we settle or whatever,
we're still going to have all these fees.
And if we get sued again, we're done.
All right so yeah, it's 20 bucks.
[soft guitar music playing]
[Nick] You have to vacate the room within three minutes of going in.
So here's where you can microwave your chimichanga
and then If you need to, you can pick up an American Defender.
Well, if it wasn't out of order, you could pick up the American Defender.
Look at that, believe, dream, imagine.
Believe, dream, imagine a better hotel room.
[laughs]
[Nick] I know it's something I struggle with for myself.
I wish I was more successful, and I want to be successful and I want to be a star.
But you just kind of need a perfect storm.
You need several perfect storms to hit in a row.
And you see that, like that actor Mark Proksch,
who was sort of catapulted into success
after the Kenny Strasser videos went viral.
-[host] Uh-huh? -And you're like this, you know?
[audience laughs]
-And that was Kenny Strasser. -Yeah.
That was the first experiment, right?
It went big, and so, like, Hollywood came calling and Mark got on The Office.
And then he got on Better Call Saul.
And now he's on What We do in the Shadows.
And we're here selling Frisbees. Yeah, a trunk full of Frisbees.
-That's fine. -Yeah, we're not bitter at all.
I'll turn on the TV, and every so often Mark will pop up in a show.
Like he was on Portlandia.
And he was making out with Carrie Brownstein in a scene. It was like, "Oh there's Mark!"
-I had fun last night. -Yeah, me too.
-Yeah. -It was a good time.
Yeah, and Mark's doing that, and it's all based on the yo-yo thing.
And the writers at The Office, they flew Joe and Mark to go there, you know?
So hey, if you want to submit writers' packets, Joe wasn't interested.
I didn't necessarily want that.
I didn't really like that show.
It was never a dream of mine to write on that show.
I don't like having a boss.
-Dondeare you from? -Scranton.
-Ybefore that, La Philadelphia. -You speak English?
Yes. I'm really good at English.
Okay. Good, me too. Get in the car.
Mark was interested in acting, so they basically wrote a part
based on the yo-yo expert for Mark on The Office.
But I wouldn't want to be, I mean, I had the opportunity to do that.
I liked what I was doing. I like Found Footage.
You're just with somebody for a long time
and in Nick's case, I've been with him since we were in sixth grade.
So it's going to be hard to say like I'm going to move across the country.
and potentially do something else.
What's admirable is that they listened
to the voice inside them, that little voice that says,
"No, I don't want to do this," and they stuck to their guns.
I doubt they're mega millionaires by doing the Found Footage.
[Joe] I'm not driven by money, luckily.
Maybe I should be a little bit more.
Best of all, they wanted 20 dollars for each VHS tape.
So this is the most we've ever spent on a collection of tapes.
So you better fucking enjoy it!
[imitating animal calls]
[Nick] In a way, I do wish that we didn't have to work so hard to make money.
I would've jumped at the opportunity to write for The Office.
But Joe wasn't interested in doing that.
[spray paint hissing]
We were talking last night and like, what was my dad doing at my age?
He had three kids.
He was like the principal of a juvenile delinquent home.
And my grandpa,
in Okinawa in World War 2, his friend was shot in a field,
so he ran to save him and drag him back.
And then he got shot and was left to bleed out.
And then somebody, a medic found him and rescued him,
and he was nursed gradually back to health.
Was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for valor in the line of duty.
And I'm gluing pom-poms on the positive and negative parts of the car battery.
-Here's the glitter. -Okay, thanks, buddy.
He got a Bronze Star?
Yes, for valor. From the President.
[laughs]
[man] We are now on the record
in the matter of Gray Television Group Inc.
v. Found Footage Festival LLC.
[Anderson Duff] Nick and Joe were both deposed individually.
Found Footage Festival was deposed and Nick served as the deponent,
which meant that Nick was there for something like 12 hours.
-[woman] Found Footage does derive revenue from these? -Yes.
And selling merchandise?
-Yes. -And the merchandise is Frisbees?
-Mm-hmm. -What do the Frisbees have on them?
They are a reference to a clip from an adult film we found called Frisbee Fuckers.
Nick and I clearly are not strongmen, we don't look strong.
[woman] What's a strongman?
Uh, a strong man.
It's an awful experience being sued.
It really is like a shocking, sobering slap in the face.
You know, ice water thrown on you like, "Hey, you think you're funny?
How's this, funny man?"
You're walking around thinking I'm going to go bankrupt.
How am I gonna feed my family?
What am I going to do? This is crazy.
I'll never work again.
The emotional roller coaster you're on is insane.
-[Anderson Duff] How you guys doing? -Good.
Are we on hugging terms, or we just shaking?
I don't know what you guys are comfortable with.
Okay, all right. Yeah.
You know, I already talked to Nick about this a little bit,
but I wanted to mention it to you.
I can read it, but I think that we shouldn't do that with the cameras here.
You know, we should do it in a more informal setting.
[ball thumping]
I have here the apology that Gray Television initially
wanted Nick and Joe to read.
"Journalists like the Morning Crew at WEAU
and other Gray television stations have a difficult and important job.
We now appreciate that in not telling WEAU journalists
Chop and Steele were fake performers,
that we undermined the hard work of these journalists.
That certainly was not our intention."
They asked that that statement
be the only thing that you say from here on out about the case.
My impression is that that's a no-go.
-Yes, for sure. -Yeah, no way.
That's so, no. That's so dumb.
It's like something we would read, like I said this earlier, but
it's like something we'd read if there was a gun to our head
right off camera.
It does not sound like us, and everybody would sniff right through it.
It's like, so preposterous.
We've been willing to settle for reasonable terms,
but there hasn't really been anything reasonable put out there for us.
There's a part of me that really wants it to go to trial, have Chop and Steele up on the,
Yeah, I'd love to have a formal bandana.
-Up on the witness stand. -A Zubaz tuxedo.
[Anderson] Yes, you guys make this decision.
I was talking about this to my partner, Eric, last night.
He said, "I hope this fucking goes to trial."
I said before, I'll say it again, he's the greatest lawyer of all time.
[rock music playing]
We have a lawyer now, we're emboldened.
And then the next day, somebody sent us a clip from the show The Talk,
-that daytime talk show. -All of a sudden, we were
part of like this national conversation about the First Amendment.
[Julie Chen] If they had done their due diligence,
that I feel like is the responsibility of a news organization,
they would have known this was a goof.
As activists, when you get sued by somebody more powerful than you,
they give you a platform, it's like they're giving you some of their power.
After Chop and Steele duped Hello Wisconsin,
the station's parent company got mad and sued them
for posing as fitness experts.
They have a YouTube channel
with all of their shenanigans on there, right?
And they look like an SNLsketch. I mean, it's so funny.
So the suing, I actually think, is beneficial to them creatively,
because it makes their act seem larger than it was.
Please welcome Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher.
[Jimmy] Nick and Joe, how did this start?
I was in high school working at a McDonald's in my hometown in Wisconsin,
-and I found a... -All right.
-[audience cheering] -McDonald's fans?
Suddenly you have a David and Goliath story that you can talk about, and then it becomes fun.
It becomes another form of being Chop and Steele. [laughs]
[Vice host] Pranking the media is nothing new.
What makes Nick and Joe's case unique
is that this is the first example we could find
of retaliatory legal action being taken by a media company.
I think what it was is they're like, "We need to make an example of these people."
[host] We reached out to Gray Media and were put in touch with their lawyer.
After trying many times to arrange an on-camera interview, something unexpected happened.
I think because the people at America's Got Talentsaw the video just out of the blue.
America's Got Talent emailed us and were like,
"You guys need to be on the show."
I wasn't that excited about it. And then my wife also was not very excited about it.
She's like, "Those shows are beneath you."
You guys have achieved something.
I don't think she's right about that. I don't think we've...
Well, I've never seen the show. But 20 million people see it.
And that's not how many people come to our shows.
-No, it's true. -It opens it up to a new audience.
[phone ringing]
You gonna do AGT?
Yeah, so what do you think about that?
When we first pitched this idea in the press releases,
we said that, you know, Chop and Steele had won
America's Got Talent.
And now we're thinking "It's all coming back, full circle."
Now we actually play.
They do, they absolutely do.
Yeah, the producers do.
Right.
Yeah.
You're narrating the sticks part.
So I have intro, you narrate sticks.
-Yep. -Count out loud.
Then we do this, we count out loud.
[David Cross] They've already done it.
What value is there in, no, there's no, there's no value
if everybody, if the producers know it's a prank.
Should we do a bow after each exercise?
Like that, or like...
I was vehemently against it because I think it's a shitty show.
And I work for NBC, so sorry, but it's a shitty show.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
-You say strong, I say strength. -Okay.
The fact that they reached out to Joe and Nick already has me feeling weird about it.
You're making fun of the establishment,
and then the establishment says,
"Come on, will you give us more of that?"
And you're like, "No, that's not how this works."
That happened to me, like I set the Tonight Showon fire.
I got more bookings after that.
Here he is, Bobcat Bob Goldthwait.
You know, I'm on Regis and Kathie Lee and they go,
"Oh, we're going to give you a fire extinguisher.
Wouldn't that be funny?" And I go, "Sure."
Hey! Hey!
Bobcat! No, Bob.
Basically the establishment
that you're making fun of says, "Hey, come on, do that to us."
We're giving you the middle finger and you're saying,
"Yeah, can you do it more?
That's the type of thing that would have gone through their heads as like,
"How can we do something subversive on America's Got Talent?"
[Joe] There's one idea we had.
Should I talk about the ideas or should I keep them a secret?
-Yeah, I just, I have to go. -Okay.
But so to make it more interesting, I was like,
we've got to bring something back with us.
They might blur it.
They might pixelate it, I guess they would pixelate it.
But I'm gonna do it at the beginning of the segment.
It'll be a Rockytraining montage on that.
It's kind of hard when you're in debt to risk another lawsuit.
It's really scary.
Getting sued wasn't that bad.
We got so much press out of it, it's like...
It's tough to go back out and risk that again.
I guess I'm not that concerned.
The show has a lot of viewers.
I think that they can do something really awesome,
you know, it's like it's their Andy Kaufman moment.
The audacity to do it is so cool because you have to commit to it
once you're there, you can't back out. That's your one shot.
Are you kidding? They should only do it if they do the double prank.
My fear is that they're going to go on this show and do something.
Producer is going to be like, "Well, that was embarrassing.
Let's cut it out and just make them look like
two idiots who are coming on and make fools of themselves."
I don't know, I just don't, I don't trust Howie Mandel. [laughs]
[jet engine roaring]
[chattering]
[clippers buzzing]
[Nick] We are here in California.
Hard to believe, but America's Got Talent
called us up a day ago,
and said, "We want you on this Thursday."
[knocking]
-Hello. -About time.
Party time.
Oh, I'm fucking exhausted.
Yeah, my mom texted me.
[Sara] I was terrified of the lawsuit.
I was hoping that that would be the end of pranking.
Then he told me what they were going to do and then I went full on mother.
My mom said, "It's too gross for grown men."
Don't you dare do that, Joe.
And then five exclamation points.
And then she said, "Good luck."
[upbeat music playing]
And I think I'll chime in and you say...
And we'll do it under ten seconds.
[upbeat music playing]
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, okay.
-Yeah, yeah. -But we had to do that on the news stations,
just show up and leave still in character.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, super excited.
[driving dance music]
[Nick] This is the holding room at America's Got Talent.
We only have about eight hours before we go on, so they'll get B-roll.
We'll probably have to make asses of ourselves.
Like the Wizard of Ozcast.
It's going to be a long day.
[photographer] One, two, three, go!
One, two, three, go!
[crew] All right, let's go for it. So let's do an introduction first.
"I'm Chop and I'm Steele.
-We're from New York," is that right? -Wisconsin.
And then let's just do one with your ages, too.
So I'm Chop, I'm 41.
Just tell me, so strength became an obsession for you guys.
Tell me, sort of about that. We've been working,
we've been training, you know, all that stuff.
Like all this since we were six years old, you know that.
Talk about what a huge opportunity this is.
There's nothing like us in Las Vegas.
Give me that. There's Celine Dion.
There's this, you know, Blue Man Group, whatever.
You know, there's nothing like what we do in Las Vegas.
We are so ready, or we couldn't be more ready, that kind of thing.
We're...
We are so ready to get out there and show the world,
-show the judges what we can do. -Let me at 'em.
Amazing.
Here we are backstage. You hear the audience
Tyra Banks just introduced herself.
-It's horrifying. -Yeah.
-And we're about to go out, -About to go out,
-for real this time. -we're feeling it.
We're really feeling it.
[audience cheering]
[Howie Mandel] And you are?
Chop and Steele. We are a professional strongman duo.
-[man] Yeah! -Tonight we're gonna be performing
amazing feats of strength that you have never seen.
[audience cheering]
We've known each other since we were little, since second grade.
We watched the Incredible Hulktogether,
and that was our bonding thing.
And we're like, one day we're going to be the Hulk, and here we are.
-Did you want us to start? -[Howie] Yes, please.
All right. We're doing a little act we call Buddy Lifts.
And all you need for this one is a sledgehammer
-and your best friend in the world. -Your best friend in the world.
And this is why we stress, do not do this one at home.
Unless you're really strong.
If you're strong, give it a shot.
Watch how the pros do it first.
All right, you ready? All right.
Now while Chop does this, it's actually gonna be working...
[audience cheering]
[judges' buzzers sounding]
All right, that was something.
But now it's time to break a world record.
[audience cheering]
One! Two! Three!
[audience cheering and booing]
[audience cheering]
[audience booing]
[Howie]
This will happen.
[Simon Cowell] Did you get nervous during that...
-That's the problem. -[Simon] There's something on your trousers.
You're gonna see what we do in Round 2.
This is so uncomfortable.
-It happens. -[crowd laughs]
[Simon] Oh my God.
[Sara] Joe told me that they drank lots and lots of water and held their...
But they peed their pants, though, I don't think they...
What's the difference?
Well, they didn't open their zipper and pee on the floor.
I just want to make it clear he just peed his pants
-There really is no difference. -and it ran onto the floor.
-There's a huge difference. -Might as well pee on the floor.
-Well, he didn't expose himself. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He didn't expose himself, but, gee, I wonder why they didn't make the top ten.
Have to leave a tip for the maid, for sure.
Yeah. You know, that was the one thing that I didn't anticipate
with everything was the fact that somebody had to clean up our piss at the end.
I didn't even think about that, you know?
It was like, I kind of wish I would have had a towel standing by
so that I could go out there and clean it so somebody else didn't.
I feel bad about that.
They wouldn't have allowed you to do it anyway.
No, but it would have been at least a gesture.
[Dan] I kind of wish they hadn't told us, but...
I just want to crawl in a hole.
It's so cringeworthy.
That's really impressive, that they peed on camera.
Congratulations boys.
[Reggie] I didn't see that coming.
That is a level of commitment that is pretty sick.
[crew] By the way, no one on our crew wants to clean that up.
Have you noticed that?
No, it's not real. There's no way.
[Joe] Right when we came off the stage, the producer came up to us.
Her first question was,
"Is that real pee or is that water?"
And told her the truth.
It was like, it's real pee, but we had an accident.
So I tried to play it up like, "Oh, I'm sorry."
And she said, "You guys can't do that."
She goes, "You have to run that stuff by me."
-Yeah. -But see, here's the thing.
Our pee was so clear because it was all water.
That was barely even pee.
Like you used that defense with the producer.
"It's mostly water," Like it doesn't matter, it's piss.
[Joe] I haven't texted Albertina yet.
Like she, and she hasn't texted me.
I think that she kind of, I think she buried her head in the sand a little bit with this one.
I don't think that she, I don't know.
I text her right now. I'll see what she says.
"We peed on AGT."
Good news, honey!
[laughs]
I think they're probably not going to sue.
[laughs] Watch, five years from now,
I'm like living in a box because they sued.
But like I'm just worried that's going to be,
like I'm going to be the lady who's married to the guy
who just peed his pants for comedy.
Yeah. She goes, remember it's a family show.
Public urination isn't funny.
I actually have to pee right now.
Now I feel emboldened by all this.
Oh yeah, let's just keep doing what we're doing.
So...
[train clattering]
I have no idea what the next five years looks like for Found Footage Festival,
for me personally, I don't think that far ahead.
Neither does Joe.
This card that came in the tape says
"This is developed by the USDA."
That's who you want in charge of your rap music.
For the first time in my life, I have no savings.
I am in debt.
There's no business plan.
There is no long-term strategy.
There's no conversation about whether it's going okay or not.
Joe and I, we've been doing it 15 years.
We've never had a conversation about delineating responsibilities at all.
Growing up it was like this, too.
Joe's got subversive, hare-brained schemes
and sometimes I was like, "Okay, fine, whatever."
The annoying part is now for the first time,
we went all the way to L.A.
and did the prank and you know, Joe thought, "How can you take this over the top?"
[crew[ There's no way.
That was weird. We're not going near that.
I do wish that Chop and Steele could be on TV.
I'm really proud of it. But...
[crew] There's no way.
[Nick] It'll be a challenge.
[ AGTtheme music playing]
It's two hours long. It's such a long show.
I really doubt that they're going to include the peeing.
I doubt it too.
See, that's why I'm not really looking forward to seeing it,
because I feel like they're going to make us look dumb.
Well, we'll see. I don't know.
I think there's gonna be a lot of fast forwarding
because I'm not going to watch the whole 2 hours.
Fast forward is disabled for the duration of this content.
-Oh no! -Fuck.
[singing with vibrato]
Ugh, this show is just a cringe-fest.
The only comfort is that he might have been
playing in a puddle of our piss at this time.
[laughs]
Oh, this is like the bullshit guys.
Yep, yep, yep. This is where we're going to be.
I don't get it.
-Oh, there was us! There's us. -We were there for a second.
[laughing]
-You got me confused. -That's how she wakes up.
[Mel B] Who's next?
We just stomped on a bag.
-That was it. -For one second.
-So it is... -Rewind it.
[Mel B] I don't get it.
Is this comedy?
"Is this comedy?"
So we were used to illustrate the point that Mel didn't get a lot of comedy.
-Fourteen million people saw that. -We finally made it.
-Oh, that's it. -That's it.
That's it. Half a fucking second.
Yeah, well, it's something that we can put on our resumes,
-that we were on America's Got Talent. -I'm not gonna.
I didn't like anything about the show.
There was zero that I liked about the show.
The whole day was just torturous.
It was the most stressful day of my life.
We had to be holding in our pee all day long, and it was just constantly doing interviews.
And it was just a long, tiring day, and I was like, I don't know if this is worth it.
And I was like, "Do you still want to do these pranks?"
Because they're always stressful.
What if we didn't pee our pants
and they played our entire segment?
Wouldn't have made a single difference.
I think if you were to sell it to college students,
maybe, you know, you could use that.
And what, we get, like six more college shows a year?
-Yeah. -Who gives a shit?
[loud stomping]
Hello. Hi, Hi.
Come on. Come on.
Hi, buddy, I know.
I wasn't gone that long.
When I adopted Marty, I was like filling out the paperwork
and they're like, "Oh, by the way, he has a little thing with his penis,
you just have to apply some some lubricant on it, you know,
keep it protected from the elements."
And I was like, "Oh, okay.
Seems like a kind of a big deal to mention late in the game."
But I do this because his penis is basically like one of those sticky hands.
It just picks up all the dust.
And so I take lube, I apply it on there.
And he just kind of sits there and has a knowing look.
And then I take some wet wipes and kind of get it back
into the sheath and hope it stays and it never does.
What I get is, "Oh, he's adorable," and then, "Whoa!"
Or I also get, "Boy he's happy to see me," I'm like, "Don't flatter yourself.
It's just, it's a condition."
-[waiter] So this is our dedicated dog menu. -Great!
I highly recommend the ribeye. Marty looks hungry.
He always is, yeah.
-Well enjoy, all right? -Okay. Thanks, man.
I like doing the shows and being in front of an audience and performing.
But the other parts, the travel, everything else really has taken its toll.
And like, I mean, I've been engaged to be married twice.
Those have ended. I've been, I can't...
It's hard to maintain a relationship when you're on the road all the time.
That's why I'm trying to transition to be on the road less
and that might mean getting a regular job at the end of this tour
and be home to do penis maintenance on my dog.
That's my priority.
I know that Albertina has been living in Los Angeles.
I think it would throw a wrench in things if Joe moved to L.A.
In the back of my head, I knew it might be a possibility,
but I don't think Joe wants to move there.
He doesn't like L.A. much.
Hello and welcome to my home.
This is the soulless Airbnb.
It's very generic. It feels like a movie set.
Our refrigerator has absolutely nothing in it.
Nothing.
Albertina got a job last March.
We're bouncing back and forth. She's visiting me in New York.
I'm visiting her here.
I don't know. Maybe I'm due for a change.
That's going to be a good one.
-I mean... -I've been, yeah.
You've been saving blackheads?
-Yeah. -I think that maybe your body filth
should not be front and center
at all times.
But you're saying that I shouldn't talk about it anymore or I shouldn't...
No, I think that, stop showing people your body filth.
-Oh, okay. -Maybe.
Yeah, sometimes I feel like I have to choose between Nick or my wife.
But the answer's easy that I'm always going to go with my wife.
I think both of us tend to avoid heavy conversations like that.
Ah! Ah! Anything?
-Yeah. Oh boy. -Oh boy.
-Oh. -Oh, Jeez.
-It's like a forest. -That is a rain forest.
What should we do with this?
-I mean, you throw it away. -No.
This is Gilbert.
Is this a good holding technique here?
Okay, it's kind of It's kind of the ventriloquist's dummy.
[laughing]
I mean, do you think Nick feels like abandoned in any way
-or like... -I don't know, that's what I kind of worry about.
-Like, yeah, -I mean, you're allowed to.
-your life is allowed to evolve. -I know.
It's one of those things where I think every little like small thing that he does
-irritates me. -Slightly diverging paths.
Yes, well, I think that that personality difference is good for the show.
If we were both, like gross picking our nose,
then it would just be a gross show.
-Yes. -But if we were both like Nick,
then I think it'd be a boring show.
There's real consequences to what they're doing, and they are really
putting themselves on the line in a pretty courageous but a dangerous way.
And it could be that maybe one of them doesn't want to risk it all.
And that would be kind of heartbreaking, because I think of Joe and Nick, Nick and Joe.
That's like a team.
I kind of had this thing where it's like, "Look, we tried this experiment.
We've done it for two years.
It's not working. We've got to come up with something else."
I think if I didn't work in comedy, I would go into the board game industry.
I love it. I'm a huge board game fan.
[Joe] We don't scream at each other unless it's a board game.
He called me an idiot a couple weeks ago.
Pointed at the rule book. He's like, "It's right here you idiot!"
That's a line we don't cross.
We don't call each other names.
[chattering]
What about being a cheesy rock and roll guy playing like an air guitar?
Just kind of like being an idiot? Yeah.
We're in Austin, Texas, at the Alamo Drafthouse headquarters
and we're shooting hunky guys
for a board game I'm working on called Dream Crush,
which I think can go either way.
It could be your dreams are being crushed or this is my dream crush.
We have to have our outside things, to you know,
keep ourselves interested, and so I've been kind of workshopping
this game and pitching it around and playing it with friends.
So I am excited for, like this project and to kind of have my own thing.
Certainly Leonardo.
[Tim League] I mean, I'd hate to see them break up.
You know, selfishly, I love great collaborators, and I've really enjoyed
working with Nick on this game and, you know, we've talked about other ideas.
I just want to do cool shit and make cool things.
And so I see there's a path here for Nick to do that if he wants to.
I wouldn't want to do that if it ended up being the force that broke apart
the Found Footage Festival because that's also important to me.
I don't know what it would mean if I ended up moving to Austin
because, like Joe and I don't discuss anything.
We haven't talked about any moving or what's going to happen after this tour wraps up.
I've expressed the fact that I need to take a break after that.
For me, I'm kind of just trying to get out of debt right now.
We haven't been making much money at the Found Footage Festival
and I just realistically, I need to get a job.
[slow piano music]
[reporter] Movie theater screens went dark when businesses deemed nonessential closed
in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
[Tim League] It happened so fast.
Over the course of about a week, it became clear that it's not safe.
We have to shut down. So we furloughed
I think 5,000 people in one day, which was a really bad day.
[slow piano music]
[Joe] I always thought our show was recession-proof
because people will always want to be entertained.
It's not contagion-proof,
is what I'm learning through this whole thing.
It's kind of weird. I'm kind of going a little crazy.
I've been talking with my cats a lot.
We've been having full-on conversations.
Tiny, I think she's getting tired of me.
It is day 16 of self-isolation, quarantine.
Just me and Marty here in the apartment.
And Marty is loving this actually.
I'm worried about the fact that we had to cancel 40 dates on our tour.
We are supposed to be doing a show like right now.
Instead, I am eating my...
eh, I don't know if it's, it's good, it's fine.
I think if there's anything that's good about this whole thing
is that I'm learning to cook for myself a little bit more
because you can't go out to restaurants.
So yeah, I'm grilling.
I grilled up some food.
This is like the end of the Twilight Zoneepisode where the guy who loves to read
breaks his glasses because I'm stuck in an apartment
with 500 board games that I want to play.
If this goes on for a full year, things are going to get very weird.
I mean, it's only a week and a half that I've been here, and it's already weird.
Got the Murder She Wrotegame.
Mr. T, the Urkel game, the Chippendales game.
Tiny Tim made a game.
We got the Alf game of course. Ziggy put out a game.
I'm still here. I'm in Brooklyn.
It's been three months.
I miss Albertina.
I never thought I'd say this, but I actually miss Nick.
This break was kind of refreshing.
But now I'm like, "I wanna play games with the dude."
You know?
I woke up this morning kind of,
I don't know, maybe a little bit panicked.
Just about everything's just setting in.
Just wondering
what the future will hold.
Anyway, I gotta feed the cats because they're bugging me.
[slow piano music]
[slow guitar music]
[Joe] I haven't seen Nick in person in like two months
-probably that I've seen him. -Yeah, since mid-March.
And humans in general. We're in a parking lot
right now, getting ready to meet perhaps the biggest guest
we've ever tracked down from one of our VHS tapes.
The janitor, Chris, from McC, this video
that started us thinking that VHS tapes might be funny.
We figured out that he actually is the president
of the Joyva Candy Company, which is right nearby here.
He's been in our backyard this entire time.
It's honestly, a 15-minute drive from our office to meet McC.
It's a mystery that has plagued us for going on 30 years.
And I'm sure he's thought a lot about it.
He's got the answer.
But that's another thing about this movie, how influential it was on our career.
I call it a movie.
-You call it a career. -[laughs]
There he is.
That's him. How you doing?
[Chris] I'm all right, how are you? I got Nick and Joe, right?
Yeah. Yeah. I'm Nick here.
Are we allowed to elbow or not?
-We can elbow! -All right, why not?
I want to hug you.
I know. We've got to hug and kiss.
I mean, this is just unbelievable.
Wow. Is this the first time anybody's ever approached you about the training video?
Of course! Are you out of your fucking mind?
No, I get calls a lot about that industrial film
-I did in Gurnee Illinois. -Oh man!
You started the Found Footage Festival.
-Right? -Yes.
And you are partially responsible for that.
This is the video that started it all for us.
-I just can't believe I'm talking about this. -[all laugh]
We've always wondered what McC is,
because at one point she says, "Did you see me see McC?
I'm sure he's around here somewhere."
So like, did you have an understanding of who McC or what McC was?
Ugh, no.
We've been waiting 30 years for this answer.
I think that McC was this spiritual,
looking-over being, God-like thing
to make sure that everyone did their job right
and there's someone watching.
-Yes. -And it wasn't exclusive to janitorial custodian videos.
I think McC was in all of us.
[thinking to himself] Make it shine, guy.
Make it shine.
-I'm tearing up at this. -[laughter]
I mean, you don't have to put it on, but if we could just hold it up.
-That's... -Oh man!
-That is like... -I think I see McC, guys.
I definitely see McC.
Worst thing about these is you can't see me beaming and smiling.
I know, now it's just like, it's not even veiled.
The fact that these guys found this tape,
the fact that they've made a creative career out of these kinds of films
and commenting on and having an audience, to me is unbelievable.
God bless Nick and Joe for what they did.
Make it shine, guys. Make it shine.
[dramatic music playing]
Hi.
Can I just say something? I think that you guys are funny.
Let me talk.
I think that they're funny.
-[Mel B] No! -I think, yes.
[crowd cheering]
Whoever shot it, they weren't supposed to be shooting.
Already I like it because you know, you're not supposed,
if you come to a taping of America's Got Talent,
you're not supposed to tape.
This is a great comedy act. It's really funny.
My favorite moment in the whole act, was you asking me,
is this comedy?
I think a lot of people in the audience laughed.
I would imagine a lot of people at home were laughing.
Thank you.
Wanna know what? I'm going to say yes, it's funny.
[audience cheers]
If you do watch the tape, I was laughing.
And honestly, my favorite thing in the world is pranks.
I hired a company to put an addition on to the library in high school.
So I'm sitting in math and watching these people out there measuring
and the principal going out and saying, "What are you doing?"
And I get called to the office and the principal said,
"Did you authorize an addition onto the library?"
And I said, "Well, I'm getting three estimates."
But the point was, I never acted like it was funny.
And they called my parents, and even in front of my parents
and throughout my life, people have said, "Who is this for?
Where's the joke? Where is it?"
And it was just about me.
So when I see these two guys, I mean I love what they're doing.
I wish everybody had a sense of humor, you know,
at the darkest, humor always just by nature, only comes out of misfortune.
I think it was hysterical.
Did the show? No.
That to me is funnier than anything.
[Joe] I'm not an emotional guy, but I did,
there was something that kind of just hit me a little bit.
-I was just like, "Oh, this is..." -Yeah, I'm speechless.
It was amazing.
He had a good perspective on it, and that totally re-energized me for Found Footage Festival.
You know, we can't perform. That's where we get a lot of our energy to keep doing this.
It really made me excited to get back on the road whenever we can do that again.
[upbeat music playing]
[Joe] This is our first show back.
Do we still got it?
-Did we lose it? -[Nick] Did we never have it?
It's the wildest show on wheels!
It's good to be back!
-This is our first show back in a long time. -Our first show!
-Thanks for coming. -Thank you!
Yes, you're just the best.
Last time we were in the area,
we were in the middle of a federal lawsuit.
It would not have taken long for anyone at that television station
to have verified that these two guys were pulling a prank.
They're not in very good shape!
-Darlene! -What the hell? Come on Darlene.
Oh, boy.
[Joe] Happy ending to the story.
So we ended up settling out of court, and we won.
We didn't give them anything they wanted.
-We didn't give them anything. -We won!
So and at the end of this whole ordeal,
we were filling out paperwork with our lawyer,
and there is a box you could check.
He's like, "Did you want the footage from your depositions?"
[audience laughs]
And that gave us an idea.
[woman] Who do you refer to as a fucker?
Uh, my niece and nephew.
Joe's parents. I'm sorry, what?
These are all real. We paid $700 for these.
He's not seriously suggesting we could come up with a way to have this reporter
with his pants around his ankles holding a big lollipop.
Nick and I clearly are not strongmen.
We don't look strong.
[woman] What's a strongman?
Uh, a strong man.
Nailed it!
-All right, we gotta go. Good night. -Take it easy!
[audience cheering]
Come say hi to us over at the merch table.
Hi guys, how ya doing?
[woman] We've been following them for years now, probably over a decade.
It is fun, though, to see it live because their energy is like really strong.
They're historians, they're comedians, they're presenters.
Just the most sincere,
ludicrous, real, look at people.
I hope that they keep finding ways to make people laugh,
because that's really the stuff that brings us together
and that's sort of what we need right now.
When Nick and Joe need bail money, I would definitely contribute to that GoFundMe.
[Nick[ Well great, it was fun, it was good.
[Joe] It felt good because we could do no wrong.
Yeah, like people are just happy to be out of the house.
So they're very charitable.
Go home tonight. We drive back three hours and right back in it.
Yes, I think we have like,
six or seven shows left in this fall.
-Yeah. -And no, I'm excited. It's gonna be fun.
[Nick] I think after a year and a half, we have a different
perspective on the pranks, and we can say, like frame it
and put a nice little button on that.
[Andy] I'm not really surprised to learn that Joe and Nick
don't want to do any more pranks because it's stressful
and there's a lot of occasions for personal conflict.
I think it's okay to not do this.
I think Joe and Nick are going to have a very hard time quitting.
They will feel a great sense of relief for stopping for a while,
but they'll still have that itch.
They'll need to scratch it.
They'll go back to it.
I think you have to keep upping the stakes for yourself.
It makes sense they wouldn't want to do the same thing again.
[John] How do you top urinating on the biggest show in America?
I don't know. Good luck.
[Joe] We rented a place in L.A. This is the place.
And there is a hummingbird in the grapefruit tree.
There's a grapefruit tree, what have I been doing my whole life?
I always think about what the Coen brothers said about having their corner of the sandbox.
-Oh yeah, yeah. -I think he has his corner of the sandbox.
And that's like, there's a freedom in that.
[chuckles]
[Allie Carroll] I actually have made residence
-in his apartment. -Who believes in residence?
[Allie] If you walk into here, It's not really that kind of Zen feeling
that you would get.
[Nick] It makes me happy. I feel very calm here.
Kids like it. [laughs]
Why would they want to stop?
As somebody who has sat on that stage for 17 years,
you see all these people come out swallowing fire and hanging upside down.
But when a human being comes out
and just bares their urine,
I think that's a gift.
Laughter is the best medicine.
And now more than ever it is needed on this planet,
and that's why I said yes to doing this documentary.
I want to see where they're going next.
I'd love to work with them. They're brilliant.
And it's my cup of tea.
Thank you.
We have a pretty great job. We don't have a boss,
we don't have any of that stuff, and it took being
away from it for so long to really appreciate it.
I wouldn't trade this job for anything.
I'm happy with life.
-Yeah. -[laughter]
[guitar music playing]
[Nick] Stop it Marty.
-Hey. -Okay.
I got this, it's a choker.
Oh, great.
It's such a blue. I've been doing it too much.
There it is.
Hi, how are you?
So there's a bank statement with proof of address.
Passport and social here.
No one questioned my nose tubes, my long flowing locks, my tan or my pouty lips.
So in that sense, great.
It's just like you're an ageing rocker who has health problems.
Kind of like Criss Angel who has emphysema, maybe something like that.
I was happy. I kind of did psycho eyes, kind of bugged out eyes.
-I'm pretty happy. -Pouty lips too?
Pouty lips.
-TSA is going to hate you so bad. -Oh yeah. "This isn't you."
-Uh, Donkey Training. -California Big Hunks.
It's Eroticise.
You play a lot of more erotic videos.
Yeah, I'm into eroticism.
-You're a sexual man, aren't you? -Yeah, completely.
And I like people to think of me that way.
Barbershop quartet, we got the outfits and the straw hats,
but it's only the two of us.
A couple guys who specialize in life hacks,
but they all involve toilet paper.
Parenting experts who don't have any kids, and it's clear they're afraid of children.
Male belly dancers we talked about.
Yeah, a toy expert could have a baseball attached with a rope
to a basketball and be like, "This is the hot new toy."
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
I am a male crafter.
All my friends are having children
and I can't afford to buy them all a fucking present.
So I started making stuffed animals.
I make these fur sharks, I buy fake fur
and make animals that don't have fur out of anyway.
That's the part that keeps my wife and I together.
I still look cool.
We've both been to therapy before.
But not together.
And so this is going to be a first.
Well, I really, really want to be helpful.
I was going to ask, have you seen the Metallica documentary?
No.
They went to seek therapy because they've been on the road constantly.
And I don't remember how the movie ends.
Did they, were they healed at the end?
-They fired the therapist. -Oh, they fired the therapist?
Okay, all right.
Yeah, I liked Irina. I think she tried her hardest.
-But... -Yeah, we're never going to see her again.
Yeah. [laughs]
And by the way, we have enough VHS tapes about therapy.
-We didn't need this. -Yeah, we could have just popped in one of those.
So this one, okay, so we're lifelong zoologists,
we're touring a show called the Zoo Disco.
We promise to bring on a variety of animals and dance with them, live on air.
But then we show up, we forgot the keys to the zoo
on our way here, and we weren't able to grab the animals.
-And then we can launch... -Pretend I'm a raccoon.
All right, now I'm on my hind, on my back paws, and we're going to walk.
Okay? All right.
I'm a little worried that Metallica is going to sue us, though,
because we took their idea of getting a therapist, but...
-And they're litigious. -Yeah.
Hey everybody, we're Chop and Steele.
This is what we do for our job, and we play to a lot of audiences.
But not one quite this big, and I have to be honest with you.
I normally, I get a little nervous when it comes to bigger crowds like this one.
Well, I'm usually cool as a cucumber.
It's not a problem for me, but first, first thing we're gonna do
we're gonna... it's all over my foot.
-It feels so hot. -It really is, my shoe is just full.
I don't like anything about this.
[laughs]
The whole conversation for months was,
"I think that was real piss."
"That was real piss."
"That guy pissed himself."
Nothing, like nothing else happened that day
but some guy pissed himself on our stage.
[watching Chop and Steele's appearance on AGT]
Was it real piss?
You know.
[Joe] I feel like, let's just close the book on it and just chalk it up as a win.
I mean, it's the perfect ending to the story.
We got sued, and then we won the lawsuit.
Yeah.
So, but there's still a part of me
that we have this idea ready to go.
It would be so easy to get on, and we came up with this pretty cool idea.
Thanks for staying with us, everybody.
I'm joined now with Geoff Byrd and Nick.
How are y'all doing this morning?
Good, yeah, real good.
Thanks for having us on.