Drag City

This withdrawn concert film showcases Neil Hamburger, America's Funnyman, at the top of his game before a sympathetic Sydney crowd.

The Pollard family is calmly discussing their impending death by atom bomb when Mrs. Pollard recounts a dream in which she sensually bathes herself in the "Tears of Neglected Children."

After many years of selling LP's and CD's full of the wild mystery of music with no explanations and fewer apologies, Drag City is pleased to finally be able to give something back to the legions of wanna-be musicians that form our listening audience around the world. Complicated Drumming Technique is a first for us; an educational DVD teaching the craft of drum work (aka drumming) to beginners and experts alike. Respected comedian and television personality Fred Armisen brought percussionist Jens Hanneman to our attention with an ingenious DVD that opened our eyes to the responsibilities an million little victories that drummers everywhere experience behind the kit, unbeknownst to us. If we knew so little about it, then the rest of you are probably completely in the dark! Don't worry; Jens Hannemann's Complicated Drumming Technique can easily be yours as well.

Neil Hamburger is a two-bit stand-up with a bad comb-over--an aging, phlegmy jokester with a penchant for cheap celebrity jabs. He's also the brilliantly odd creation of Gregg Turkington, a decidedly more gifted comedian who has found a loyal cult following for his Tony Clifton-esque character. In this concert release, Hamburger performs a handful of twangy country tunes alongside the Too-Good-For-Neil-Hamburger Band, a name that speaks the truth: the back-up group includes veteran rockers Prairie Prince, David Gleason, and Atom Ellis.

Neil Hamburger, clearly has a larger following in Australia, where these performances were taped, than he does in America. In Los Angeles, small, dingy nightclubs host Hamburger, the nervous, nerdy comedian who clumsily delivers one-liners about rock musicians ranging from Britney Spears to Madonna to Michael Jackson to Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. But The World's Funnyman boasts footage of Hamburger cracking jokes at a huge music festival, and footage of his main act reveals a near-stadium-sized Sydney club packed with fans. This DVD contains two "concerts," a short, fictionalized performance in which Hamburger takes on a Malaysian crowd, some music video clips, and a Canadian documentary analyzing Hamburger's genius. Hamburger, part Jerry Lewis, and part Andy Kaufman, has a fiercely commanding stage presence despite his cultivated meek demeanor, making his talent apparent. Sometimes funny, sometimes too weird for words, Neil Hamburger is definitely a character.

In a psycho-musical experience, The Man mutates as he walks across Los Angeles.

Supremely addled mix of live footage, wasted home movies of the Truxes and their nose-rubbing junkie pals, and a police procedural.