The Toxic Avenger, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, Tromeo and Juliet, Cannibal! The Musical, Surf Nazis Must Die, the list goes on. Even if you haven’t seen them, you’ve probably heard of them. They’re legendary movies in cult circles, as is the company behind them, Troma Entertainment, co-founded by the one and only, Lloyd Kaufman.
“He’s very much out there, like a P.T. Barnum-type of guy,” Mathew Klickstein says. “Provocative and evocative.”
Formerly of Boulder, now residing in Greeley, Klickstein has authored, co-authored or edited more than a dozen books to date. His latest as editor, Lloyd Kaufman: Interviews, for University Press of Mississippi, is a collection of press interviews and profiles of the independent filmmaker from the 1980s to the 2020s.
“He’s always been this real firebrand who is going to speak his mind very loudly, very irreverently, and he’s not going to mince words,” Klickstein says of Kaufman. “It’s no wonder that he was, in many ways, an early mentor to Trey [Parker] and Matt [Stone] because he has that same kind of politically agnostic sensibility that they have on South Park.”
‘A complete outsider’
Klickstein first met Kaufman in the mid-2000s at the TromaDance Film Festival, a free event Kaufman used to counterprogram in Park City, Utah, during the not-so-free Sundance Film Festival. From there, a beautiful friendship was born.
“We would end up crossing paths a lot,” Klickstein explains. “Wherever I was, if he was in the same place, we would go and grab some coffee, or we’d go and check out a movie — just basically go and hang out.”
And though Klickstein admits that Kaufman “can come off sometimes as very curmudgeonly and jaded, bitter, angry and forceful,” he’s “often very prescient” and “always got a certain love to him.”
“Very funny and charming,” Klickstein says of the 79-year-old filmmaker. “He really is kind of like your old Jewish grandfather — who you love, but sometimes is going to be an old man raging at the clouds. But doing it in a very funny and charming way that tends to even have a fresh angle to it.”
That probably comes across strongest in Leslie Pariseau’s 2018 article for The Ringer, “Troma: a Love Story,” which was a standout discovery for Klickstein while he was putting together Interviews.
“She completely nailed it,” Klickstein says. “Really got to the heart of who Lloyd is, what Lloyd’s all about, what Troma is. Leslie’s article was very helpful in even giving me a broader perspective.”
As Klickstein points out, that’s partly because of Pariseau’s perspective.
“She explains in the beginning [of the essay] that she actually wasn’t familiar with Lloyd and what Troma was when she started the story,” he says. “She was a complete outsider and newbie to the world of Lloyd and Troma.”
The inclusion of Pariseau’s article is what makes Interviews a valuable read for fans of Kaufman’s films and for those who have yet to discover the madness within.
‘Shakespeare doesn’t sell’
For those unfamiliar, one of the best introductions might be Kaufman’s 1996 low-budget riff on Shakespeare: Tromeo and Juliet, which will screen at the Dairy Arts Center on Feb. 14 and 15. Klickstein will host both nights, with Kaufman joining remotely for the Feb. 15 show.
Written by James Gunn — known these days for his Guardians of the Galaxy installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — Tromeo and Juliet is not your average take on the star-crossed lovers. Kaufman had a difficult time selling his perverse take on the Bard because theater owners told him, “Shakespeare doesn’t sell.”
But then came Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, and Kaufman got a ride on the coattails. A few theaters even mistakenly booked Tromeo and Juliet, thinking they were getting the Luhrmann fantasia instead.
The Dairy’s screening of Tromeo and Juliet is just the beginning. Klickstein has several local events and signings planned for the near future, including a March 8 stop at Boulder’s Time Warp Comics and Games, where he’ll be signing copies of Lloyd Kaufman: Interviews as well as his new graphic novel, Daisy Goes to the Moon. For dates and locations, check mathewklickstein.com to stay in the know.
ON SCREEN: Tromeo and Juliet, presented by Mathew Klickstein, 8:30 p.m. Feb. 14, and 5 p.m. Feb. 15, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., 80302. Lloyd Kaufman: Interviews will be released Feb. 17.