Someone had an AM Happy Hour. For some odd reason I find it hilarious he posted this to the wrong thread. I don't know if that's because it's her or that he did it. On topic blah blah blah the ole Tucker hate will bubble up more and more. Who cares? Are you going to go see it?
We had a thread a while back about Tucker in relation to this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2012/01/18/tucker-max-is-less-of-an-asshole/ I seem to recall the entire gist of the article was, other than a ball washing, that Tucker was a changed man. Tucker had decided to give up on being immature and was turning the page on a new chapter in his life...........This begs the question: What the fuck? Predictably, just as the article was about money, so to is this. He isn't going to change.
Actually, the play is apparently a satire of Tucker Max and he doesn't know it yet. The director wrote this email to Jezebel after they covered the story. Spoiler Dear Katie, I appreciate you writing about my play, and thank you for your pithy and entertaining post. As you know, we in the theater relish such attention, which is often the purview of other art forms. And as they say, any ink is good ink. But this is more than a just thank you note. I am writing collegially to correct an error on your part. Because you have not only misstated fact, but really missed the entire point. You strike me as a writer who would want to get it right, whether you then condemn it or no. Tucker Max knows nothing about doing what I am doing with this show. I have taken his source material and reinterpreted it via the transformative medium of my art, theatre. I am, aided by my wonderful cast and designers, the sole creative force behind this work. To be very clear: Tucker Max has absolutely nothing to do with this play. In fact, I think if the play is done correctly, I am really not sure Tucker Max the person is going to like the character of Tucker Max that he sees on stage. I know that may seem unusual, considering that it is based on his books. Believe me, I understand how the mistake could be made easily. But I see his book as a vessel for a great theatrical work and the articulation of an artistic vision quite beyond the source material. For whatever you think about Tucker—and much of it is true, and I agree with most of it—you must see that his books are possibly the best anthropological text we have about modern American "frat" or "bro" culture (and which perhaps passes for the dominant form of masculine culture as well, sadly). My play is an exploration of this culture that is so pervasive and dominant in America, yet so understudied and misunderstood. That exploration is not being done by members of that culture, obviously, Tucker's book included. I believe this play can show that bro culture as it truly is—sexist, misogynist, exclusionary, but also vulnerable, sad, and ultimately doomed—and not how it is represented in beer commercials or Hollywood movies. There is also an inclusiveness being evidenced already by the incredibly diverse cast that may be the best teaching tool of all. Even our most “bro” actor is a New Yorker and a theatre artist; as a person, he has none of the negative traits of these characters. Please let me be clear that I intend to make a comedy, and to entertain the audience: the diverse, multi-cultural, many-gendered theatre audience. I am a director, and my first and foremost goal is that this audience enjoy my shows. That is exactly the reason I choose Tucker’s book as source material; I find the situations he describes to be very funny. Even the people who do not like it agree (the NY Times called his first book "highly entertaining and thoroughly reprehensible"). I believe passionately that I can take the core structure of the situations that he writes about, and put that bro humor in a context far beyond what Tucker could have envisioned. I can show the things that surround Tucker and his frat buddies, but they never see: the hurt, the sadness, the trauma, the tragedy, even how their own culture and behavior is just a defense against their own psychic pain. And as I hope you will agree, the best way to show a truth is through humor. The only way I would have agreed to bring my art to bear on this project was by securing complete creative control of the theatrical product. Because Tucker had never seen a play before and has no understanding of theatrical art or its practitioners—in fact, he called me, to my face, a "theater fag"—he agreed to give me full creative control in all aspects of this project. He has not seen the script, nor will he even attend a rehearsal. The first time he sees the show will be opening night. He might show up expecting crass; what everyone will get is High Art, delivered by a Black, Latino, GLBT, musical-loving bunch of “theatre fags.” I apologize if I have gotten overly dramaturgical here. I am, after all, a Yale School of Drama graduate and taking responsibility for my artistic choices as a director and articulating the theoretical underpinnings of my theatre work is what I am trained to do. But please do understand that this play is not in any way associated with Tucker Max the person, and only uses his book as a jumping-off point to create great theater. I live in NYC and would love to talk to you about this more if you wish. And of course, if you'd like to attend the play, and see precisely how I have adapted the source material to achieve these goals, I would be delighted to give you press comps for opening night. Christopher Carter Sanderson PS—If I can indulge in a metaphor and not its comparison to a great artist, please let me say this: A Campbell’s Soup label was nothing more than a crass commercial commodity until Andy Warhol took it and put it on a canvas. And in its original form it still is that, right? No one mistakes a Campbell’s Soup can for high art. I am not Andy Warhol, but I am consciously evoking the transformative power of the theatre to render this base material into High Art. Although, that email is so over-the-top obnoxiously theater-kidly that I'm suspicious that THAT email was a joke. Depending on how much the tickets are/whether I can finagle a press pass of my own/if IWantSomeJuice will buy my ticket for me, I might go see it.
If Christopher Carter Sanderson, is a real person then he and Tucker in the same room is going to create an East Coast smug storm the likes of which we haven't seen.
He is, his facebook confirms the letter is his. This guy is the archetype that conservatives use when lampooning the leftist loon.
Damn. I had my money on that letter being a Ryan Holliday special. Sounds pretentious enough to be something he would write.
... Wait a sec. So that E-mail is real? And in context, the director has basically "tricked" Tucker into attending every one of his showings, all for the price of some beer? So.... Tucker thinks that him being there will bring the play publicity -- true -- which will in turn garner him positive publicity -- which, if that E-mail is any indication, is now going to be false? Am I missing something? Sounds like Tucker just got the blanket pulled over his eyes. It'll be hilarious to watch the fallout. And if I was in NYC, and the price was right (not sure what the price is), I would definitely go. I am a fan of Tucker's books and I enjoyed the movie. Don't like him as a person (from what I can tell) though.
I think that director is severely overestimating how much Tucker cares about being made fun of, and underestimating how much he loves hearing anything about himself. That, or this is one of those "boxing match everybody is in on it even the viewer" things.
I'm betting cash money that is a marketing ploy because either way he got press on a major outlet. He also was preventing his work from getting pre-shit on by those bitches that constantly hate on everything.
Looks like every show is sold out already, but there are a couple tickets on Stub Hub going for $50. I wouldn't have much interest in seeing it as Tucker "has nothing to do with it" and he was the biggest draw for his own work. Seeing someone else adapt his book into a play, half mocking the scenarios in his stories, doesn't sound like it will be very entertaining.
If I was going to NY during the time the play was showing, I think the best use of my time and money would be to show up outside the theater entrance dressed as a homeless guy with a sign saying "Need $150 to fuck a midget prostitute." I'm guessing I'd have to empty that cup more than a few times before the show was over.
You kid, but you might not be that far off the mark. I haven't read Hilarity Ensues, but I do remember reading Sloppy Seconds and getting the feeling that I recognized at least a couple of the stories from the Idiot Board on the old RMMB. And I was never around there until after Tucker stopped posting.
Do you mean Tucker appropriated stories from other posters? Because I determinately noticed a few jokes in the movie that I was certain were posted by other posters, including one from a rant I had on cats.