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BUKOWSICAL!
DIRECTOR DEAN CAMERON TALKS TO
RETROCRUSH ABOUT THE HIT NEW MUSICAL
Bukowsical! is self described as
"Delusion, heartbreak, necrophilia, drunkenness, cirrhosis of the liver
and some catchy tunes." We caught up with the talented director of
Bukowsical! Dean Cameron to discuss the creative spark behind this
groundbreaking, critically acclaimed musical playing now through June at
The
Sacred Fools Theater in Los Angeles.
Why use Charles Bukowski for a
musical?
 The
writer Spencer Green, and Gary Stockdale the guy who wrote the music they
were joking in e-mail to each other about bad musicals. Sort of e-mailing
bad musical titles back and forth and Bukowsical! just came out. Then Gary
and Spencer they wrote this medley of songs that lasted about 5 minutes
long. It was really, really funny. That’s how the show came about.
You thought it would be great to do for Sacred Fools?
I thought if we expand it to
about an hour we could get it done at Sacred Fools. Low and Behold it’s
done.
Why do you think after all these years that there’s still
a big interest in Bukowski?
First of all the main part
of the show has nothing to do with Charles Bukowski. It just touches on as
if you were to do a xxxgaggle search on Charles Bukowski and just scanned the
results. Not even click on them just look. That’s about as much
information as you get from our show. There’s nothing about him in the
show except other then what you’d learn from watching "Barfly".
It’s influenced by him, but it isn’t a direct history of
his life.
The show is more about the
American Musical and American Musical comedy and how much they suck. It
can be about anything. If you lift it up and the construction of the tunes
fit in a certain mold you can have a hit show and we do.
You’ve been getting a lot of crowds going?
We’ve been selling out every
show and we’re going to extend through July. Then in September we’re going
to run it on the main stage show probably Thursday through Sunday.
Next stop Broadway.
Yea, exactly it’s
interesting because it’s following the same trajectory as "Spam Scam". It
started off as a joke in e-mail. I tried it out for a couple of nights and
it took on a life of its own. So I will now only do shows that begin as
jokes in e-mail.
Then you’ll know it’ll be a hit.
So, I’ll be doing
"retroCRUSH: the show".
Sounds great! There’s Cannibalism, and Necrophilia in
Bukowsical!. All the good stuff right?
Yea, there’s a little story
about fucking a corpse. There’s not really Cannibalism. There’s cirrhosis
of the Liver. That happens to alcoholics. The delusion is the theater
company that thinks a musical about Bukowski would be a good idea.
The fact that Charles Bukowski is so brutally honest is
what makes him interesting.
 The
juxtaposition of that with the songs which are these bouncy, happy numbers
with lyrics like: "What’s the feeling you get when you’re down on your
luck and too drunk to fuck?" It’s funny. That’s funny stuff.
Its pure genius that someone would come up with a musical
like this. You’re good at thinking outside the box.
Every young actor goes
through a very intense Bukowski period. I was no different. I’m actually a
bigger fan of his novels than his poetry.
So you were working at a Post Office and picking up big
fat chicks? He just seems graphically honest.
The book he wrote, "Ham on
Rye" is really funny.
That’s the one about him growing up?
Exactly, it’s a great comic
novel. If you want to take about Misogyny and women is the way to go. As
far as writing books about hating women.
He seems to have a love/hate relationship with women.
It’s more hate/hate.
Fuck ''em and beat 'em?
Yes, exactly.
He seems to be able to zoom in on that mundane-ness of
working at a really crappy job day in and day out and nobody gives a shit
anyway.
For me it made me understand
why people go crazy at the post office. When you have some sort of
suggestion to make the process better, quicker, or more efficient they
don’t accept it. There’s all this government bureaucracy built into the
post office. That’s just how we do it and if you have to do five other
steps then do it. Rather then just walking over here and putting it in the
bin.
That’s why there’s so many shooting there.
 Although,
actually there aren’t as many shootings at the post office as you think
there are. They’re just reported.
You recently bought a house?
Yea, it almost made me lose
my fucking mind. We bought a house and we’re loving it so far because we
can make our mortgage payment at this point.
There’s a lot of lying and weird stuff that goes on with
loans.
These loan brokers are
amazing. There’s this one guy who’s still calling me.
He still thinks he can get a loan out of you.
Yea, and I said, "I got a
loan, I bought the house, and I don’t want to talk to you again." He goes,
"Okay, I’ll talk to you again." The guy is out of his mind.
Your blog is great. You’ve had some frustrations with
getting a TIVO. I don’t mean to upset you today.
They’re fine problems to
have. I try to stay aware of that. I’m not dying or I’m not shitting
myself to death while drinking Gatorade.
Like Bukowski you seem to open up about things like that.
 That’s
why I like Bukowski because he’s honest. There is thirty years of darkness
about him, but he had a sense of humor about it. I sure do identify with
that. I don’t feel a lot of darkness, but I understand how it can be
funny.
You have to use humor in life or you’ll go completely
batty. Did you enjoy directing "Bukowsical!"?
I had a great time. I always
believed that the most important thing is to pick the right material and
cast. Then you don’t have to do anything. They literally do all the work
and you just take credit for it.
They pretty much did it on their own.
I choreographed a bunch of
stuff. I originally I hired a choreographer. I don’t know if you read
about it in the
blog
or not.
It sounded gut wrenching because it sounded like a good
friend?
Well, he wasn’t a good
friend, but it was an older guy who had done a lot of stuff. He just
wasn’t cutting it.
He was doing it as a Broadway musical?
He didn’t "get it" which I
mentioned that could work if you’re really going for it and trying to do
it. As a Choreographer or a Director you have to be able to adapt to your
material and your actors. I didn’t cast dancers. I cast singers so they
can’t really dance very well. He was doing some intricate dance steps. I
just wanted bone head, crappy high school musical choreography which is
all I really know. That’s what I ended up choreographing and I love it!
Apparently even in Variety and LA Weekly you got some good
reviews.
Yea, they mentioned it. Who
knew?
What’s next for Dean Cameron?
We’re taking "Spam Scam" to
New York in June and they’re actually giving us money to do that. The big
news is this thing called the "Just for Laughs" festival in Montreal which
we’re going to. They’re flying us up there and they’ve created this
special spot for us. We’re in a section of the festival with some really
heavy hitters.
Are you going to be naked on stage?
 No,
I won’t be naked on stage this time. These guys I’ve seen in Scotland are
going to be there: Dimitri Martin, Stewart Lee, and Phil Nickel. Nobody
knows who they are over here, but their huge and really, really great
comedians. We’re in the same section of the festival as they are. It’s
quite an honor. That’s in July. After that I don’t know.
It seems like you bounce back and forth between coding and
acting.
I’ve been consulting at a
web company called Skilljam. I’m doing coding for their e-mail.
It’s always good to pay your bills. I wish I could do more
of that.
I can make a real nice
living doing voiceovers and I do. The coding money is my retirement fund.
Are you going to do anymore gay roles?
I dunno. My wife works for
this company and one of her friends looked me up on internet and imdb.com
has this discussion about my sexuality. I thought that’s pretty cool. I’m
married to someone named, "Jessie". That could be a guy.
Maybe you’re not telling us something. Could be a Tranny?
Could be.
 Hopefully,
you know that by now?
Trey Parker and Matt Stone
said, "We’re all a little gay."
Some of us our a lot gay.
I’m meeting to talk about
directing a movie next Friday for sometime next Spring.
Do you tend to like directing better?
Yea, it’s good to shake
things up. I think I find when I act I get bored. I look around and watch
other actors. I think how they could do it so much better.
You find yourself wanting to direct automatically. You’re
so brilliant with your musical stuff.
Ah jeez.
I love you for Rockula.
People love it.
I’ve interviewed other people and my friends don’t know
who they are. I mention Dean Cameron and they say, "Oh yea, I see him on
cable all the time!"
It’s amazing.
Bukowsical! sounds very cool and I think other people
should go see it.
I do too. If you’re in the
area go see it. Come say, "Hi" because I’m usually there.
You had a cool thought on Immigration.
 It’s
not my own it’s Julian Simon who’s an Economist who was very influential.
It’s how I formed a lot of my opinions. He died a few years ago. He had
interesting things about immigration and the environment.
I want to read that now. See, I have nothing else to do,
but read your blog. I’m your ultimate stalker. When you do the
"retroCRUSH" musical you can have me singing about Dean Cameron and
reading everything about him.
You have very good taste.
I’ve traveled to other countries although Europe is sort of like the
United States in a white, light skin sort of way. I totally get people
wanting to come to the United States. We’ve got plenty here. Let them in!
Continued success in your career and Bukowsical!
Rock on!
-Randy Waage
randy@retrocrush.com
Support alternative, way
cool theater by seeing
Bukowsical!
Tickets are
only an amazing $10!
Check out Dean's TOTALLY AWESOME WEBSITE & BLOG:
http://www.deancameron.com/blog.shtml
Completely gratuitous web gallery of the handsome Dean
Cameron:
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