Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Now this is one event I'm kicking myself for missing. Like most people reading this OFFICE SPACE is one of my favorite comedies. I was one of the few who actually saw it in the theater and loved it immediately. I'm not always like that. Sometimes movies have to grow on me, but not this one. When I saw it I didn't have any office experience, but I knew it was exactly right on. Then I temped at IBM for a couple of weeks and a whole new level of understanding opened up for me. This event came on the heels of more than 2 weeks of me being out of town and it just slipped my mind. I didn't even get any tickets. Oh well. I'll admit I'm a failure and just have to live vicariously through tomtomtom who was there and wants to tell you all about it. Enjoy!
Hey folks, tomtomtom, here, reporting on the Office Space 10th Anniversary show at the Paramount! At shortly before 8pm, crowds still mulled about the front of the theater, waiting eagerly to get in. Here was a movie mainly filmed in Austin, from a Texas filmmaker, and their was a brimming sense of Texas pride roiling in folks along with the tangible excitement of seeing Office Space on the big screen, with some of the cast present! My wife HappyTerri and I entered as the doors whisked open, intending to head to the bar for water. Shiny objects caught our eye to the left. On a table were strewn bags of "flair", Blu-ray discs of Office Space, and stacks of grey "Initech" t-shirts. Snagging two of the latter, we were about to get our coveted water, and the lights flashed. GET THE HELL IN THE THEATER, except all theater-code-like. Pasting through the inner lobby doors, we saw Paul Willson ("Bob Porter") greeting folks taking photos with people. Genuinely nice guy.
We strode upstairs (my fault for not checking my Paramount e-mails quicker), grabbed some water at a drinking fountain, and dashed to our seats. Old-school office-related movie footage was playing. I love Austin. Soon the lights dim, the spotlight flares, and our charming host pops on the stage, all slick Vegas suit and roiling in Austin hip. He introduces Mike Judge, who reflects that this audience is bigger than the one when the movie came out 10 years ago. Mike reflect briefly on the film, then introduces a clip of his new film, tentatively called "Extract".... and they walk off-stage. Flash. Bzzzt. Green squares. Static. Flash. Our host dashes onstage, saying there's a glitch, so here's the movie. We sat their realizing this is the first time most of us have seen the film in the theater. But every image, every character introduction, every turn of phrase, every iconic part of the film met cheers, laughter, applause. We KNEW this movie. We knew it deep. We FELT this movie. We have all lived it in some way or another. So many correct choices. So many common frustrations. The credits rolled. Cheers, applause, wonderment. Our velvet-clad host introduced the cast. I'd expected two or three folks from the movie. We got TEN.
John C. McGinley, host, Mike Judge, Gary Cole, Paul Willson, Stephen Root, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, Kinna McInroe, Todd Duffey, Diedrich Bader. The cast politely answered questions: "Where is the stapler?" (There were four, Stephen has one, Mike has a burned one.) "What's in the Lumberg's coffee mug during shooting?" (Pepsi or water, not coffee, bad for diction, apparently.) They'd obviously fielded a bunch of these during the last 10 years. I had my hand raised for a while, finally got called on. I stood, oddly comfortable talking, as the characters these folks created had been in my life for a decade. "This is one of the best casting jobs in any movie ever. I want to celebrate all the great performances these actors brought to the movie." (applause for actors) "Can you explain your casting process?" Mike took the mic. "Thanks for your question, because I really fought hard to get these people. I got a lot of push back from some of the folks that the studio didn't know." He went on about various castings, including Todd, who was from the Dallas cast of the kid's show "Barney". Todd did a little dance, and you could see it. John C. McGinley then grabbed the mic and said, "I was in a group that was big at the time, Steppenwolf, not sure if you've heard about it." I had. "And a lot of us all tried out for Lumberg. I found out I'd gotten the role of Bob. I was a little disappointed, then I heard Gary got cast as Lumberg. So it was okay just to get Bob, because 'Jesus' got cast as Lumberg." Gary Cole then put his hands up on the screen in mock crucifixion. Obviously he always got the great roles in Steppenwolf. Mike thanked me again for the question, obviously it was a struggle he went through and he got to celebrate this private victory in public a little bit. More questions flew. Ajay did a break dance move. John C. Ginley said there would never be a sequel. Gary Cole remarked that everyone took a swing and nobody missed. David said everyone was on drugs, Diedrich jokingly told an increasingly disturbing story about Stephen's debauchery, Stephen shaking his head, "no no no never happened..." all the time. Smiles, laughter. With that joke untoppable, the night ended. The cast strode off, the non-shown clip hardly remembered, the audience walking, still laughing, still aglow in the presence of such great talent, all quietly humming "Mambo No. 8". Thanks Mike! tomtomtom, signing off.
