The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: Out & About

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If life were a movie, there are probably moments people would rather leave out. No one wants a theater full of strangers to see he or she after they lose a term paper in cyberspace or rear end someone on Broad Street.

Jack Rebney, a local run of the mill R.V. salesman, had the nightmarish experience of watching himself at one of his worst moments on the big screen.

Unbeknownst to him, Rebney had become famous in cult circles as "the angry R.V. man."

Longtime friends Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett (The Colbert Report and The Late Show with David Letterman) paved his road to fame with their comedy routine, Found Footage Festival (FFF).

The comedic pair met in sixth grade and quickly realized they shared the same sense of humor.

"I think we both appreciated the so-bad-it's-good sort of thing and loved to torture ourselves with the worst culture we could find," Prueher said.



Skip forward a few years to a McDonald's break room where Prueher took a breather from his mediocre high school job. The unassuming teen stumbled upon a training video for McDonald's custodians that he immediately stuffed in his backpack and brought home to Pickett.

It was love at first sight. The friends started having people over on Friday nights to watch the training video while they made witty remarks.

"It became kind of a cult thing. That got us thinking, if there are videos this stupid right under out noses, imagine what else is out there," Prueher said. "And so we began searching high and low in out of the way places for more discarded VHS nuggets."

As their repertoire of forgotten videos grew, Prueher and Pickett's friends encouraged the duo to select the best ones and showcase them in a sort of comedy show.

The friends skeptically rented out a theater in New York, and to their surprise tickets sold out.

The overwhelmingly positive crowd reaction to this show spawned an international tour of FFF and clusters of adoring fans everywhere they performed.

Now Prueher and Pickett are back on tour with the second installment of FFF.

Continued...

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