STAR WARS Talking Points - and the stuff I didn't get to say on NPR

I was honored to be a guest on WNYC'S The Brian Lehrer Show. The topic was STAR WARS. (Fitting since my next Kevin Geeks Out show is all about Space Operas) 

You can listen to it HERE.

When I was booked I only knew we'd be talking about STAR WARS. Because of who I am, I thought of LOTS of talking points. Here are some stray thoughts I had prepared but didn't get to use....

*** 

OPENING NIGHT

On the opening night of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS I was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with my 8-year-old son seeing a retelling of THE NUTCRACKER. It was a modern update on the classic story, different and ironic but still driven by powerful music. 

THE FORCE AWAKENS is pretty much the same thing. A current retelling of a classic story. With powerful music. 

And there's nothing wrong with that. 

Disney is playing a long con, they will release a new STAR WARS film every year. And each year the movie will be something you can bring the kids and the grandparents to -- and everyone will have a nice time. 

*** 

THE FORCE AWAKENS - STAR WARS' ECHO CHAMBER

People criticize the new film for following the story beats of A NEW HOPE. 

I'm reminded of a phrase repeated throughout BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: "All of this has happened before and will happen again." 

Everyone is going through motions already repeated. (And that includes 40-year-olds complaining about a STAR WARS movie.) 

Here's a fun game: when someone criticizes THE FORCE AWAKENS for going all JURASSIC WORLD by being a beat-for-beat remake of the first film, ask if they would make the same complaint about EVIL DEAD 2. (I knew this talking point wouldn't play on NPR.) 

***

THE NOSTALGIA TRADITION

The institution of STAR WARS is based in nostalgia. In the 1970s, following his own nostalgia story AMERICAN GRAFFITI, George Lucas had wanted to make a big-screen version of a childhood favorite: FLASH GORDON. 

Ironically he couldn't get the rights, because another producer beat him to it. Dino DeLaurentiis had staked a claim in FLASH GORDON. (Dino had already remade another childhood favorite, the 1976 KING KONG, and was planning to produce a film version of another kiddie classic: MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN starring Jack Nicholson.)

So Lucas created his own space opera. Despite all the spaceships and laser guns, the film was a "gee-whiz" throwback to a simpler time; decidedly unlike the morally ambiguous genre-benders of New American Cinema. While movies like ROCKY and THE BAD NEWS BEARS featured humble victories where underdogs lose but still win, STAR WARS showed the good guys winning in no uncertain terms -- by blowing up the Death Star! (Luke pretty much has an orgasm when he fires.) 

*** 

A LONG TIME AGO...

At the KEVIN GEEKS OUT show we love looking at rip-offs. For every E.T. or JAWS there are anywhere from 3 to 30 copycat movies. What's most interesting to me is how many of those knock-off films copy the wrong elements. For example: JAWS rip-offs will include a big aquatic monster, without realizing that the shark is the least compelling thing about JAWS. (It's the dynamic between Hooper and Quint, or Brody's inability to fit in with the islanders, or the Mayor as a Nixon figure.) 

Along those same lines, most of the STAR WARS knock-offs are set in the distant future. 

But STAR WARS is decidedly part of the past. The film's political landscape is not the result of any 20th century conflicts. So we can watch and feel good that whatever's taking place happened a long time ago. Whatever disagreements they had were all worked out by now. Phew! 

***

SPACE NAZIS

The first STAR WARS movie was released exactly 32 years after World War II. 

The new STAR WARS movie was released exactly 32 years after the first STAR WARS movie. 

I mention this because of the Space Nazis. 

In 1977 plenty of movie-goers who recognized the symbols of Fascism because they lived through the second world war. 

In 2015 movie-goers recognize Nazi iconography because they've seen SCHINDLER'S LIST. 

Nazi imagery is a copy of a copy of a copy. 

While making of the third Indiana Jones film, Harrison Ford told Entertainment Tonight that the villains would once again be the Nazis. Adding that they're "the best bad guys." 

***

BRITISH NAZIS

The 1977 STAR WARS features bad guys with Nazi uniforms and British accents. 

My friend Jeff says those are the perfect villains for an American movie, because the American identity is about being scrappy revolutionaries who fought against an evil British Empire. 

Again, part of the nostalgia for the Revolutionary War is that Americans are underdogs. 

We're cowboys and freedom fighters, not a global superpower. (See also: Roland Emmerich's INDEPENDENCE DAY. To make America the underdog you have to introduce an intergalactic mega-power.) 

***

DON'T FEEL BAD ABOUT KILLING THEM

Another recurring theme at KEVIN GEEKS OUT show is that Hollywood loves to hates Nazis. (Especially Nazi Zombies!) In Zach Snyder's 2011 fantasy film SUCKER PUNCH a General leads his rag-tag team of sexy freedom fighters into battle against Nazi Zombies and the commander notes that 
you don't have to feel bad about killing them, they're already dead. (And, y'know, they were Nazis.) 

(RELATED: I just re-watched Disney's 1979 STAR WARS knock-off THE BLACK HOLE and noticed something uniquely Disney about the villains. The evil robot henchmen are revealed to be former humans who are now living as slaves of the villain. One of the good guys announces that they have to "save" them. But the know-it-all scientist declares, "It's too late. The only way to help them is to release them from their tortured state." In other words, the robot-like henchmen can't be saved. They can be killed -- but please note: killing them is releasing them from their misery, so you're doing them a favor. Only in a Disney movie can you murder the bad guys and feel good about it.) 

***

FEEL LIKE A KID AGAIN

Friends of mine have praised the new STAR WARS film because it makes them "feel like a kid again." 

Strange that this is the yardstick to measure art. 

Not "how does it make you feel?" but "how young does it make you feel?

Is that a recent phenomena or have adult men and women always longed to feel like a child? 

Hey, know who else wants to feel like a kid again? 

THIS GUY!

(But seriously, who benefits from a society full of adults who need to feel like a pre-pubescent?) 


***

George, Walt & Ron 

It's fitting that Disney bought the franchise, because Walt Disney and George Lucas have a lot in common. Tom Carson contributed to the book A GALAXY NOT SO FAR AWAY, connecting the dots between Lucas, Disney and Ronald Reagan. (Carson made this comparison 10 years before Disney bought STAR WARS.) 

"(Lucas) is the most successful businessman-artist since Disney. Very little really matters to him except his own product, and like a good salesman, he believes in it absolutely.
 Whether Lucas would find the kinship grating or gratifying (and who knows?), it's this combined know-nothingism and faith that gives him common ground with another great salesman, Ronald Reagan -- who was also, of course, a fellow storyteller. Both, in their way, urged us to become children again, and invested the condition with a moral superiority that more than made up for being uninformed. Melding tomorrow with a yesterday that never was, Lucas's invitation to the audience to return to the comforting simplicities of an earlier era of entertainment that was ideologically loaded as Reagan's summons to hark back to an earlier state of historical ignorance-as-bliss, because you can't uncritically revive the pulp narratives of another age without also replicating their values. Famously, Reagan once spoke wistfully of a time when "Americans didn't even know they had a racial problem" -- meaning, of course, white Americans, since those of color had presumably been well posted on its existence since 1492. With the possible exception of David Lynch, who's like his twin brother gone bad, Lucas may be about the whitest -- and most goyish -- American filmmaker alive, and he's always balked at admitting that the fairy tales he loves have a racial problem, too."

Still with me? I'm almost done. 

***

A FAMILY AFFAIR

I invited my wife, my parents and my kids to see THE FORCE AWAKENS. 

3 generations going on Christmas night. Just like when I was a kid and we'd go to Church once a year. 

Seemed fitting though, since space operas aren't just spaceships and lasers, they're about fathers and sons. (Sorry Moms. Maybe next trilogy.) 

***

FEELINGS BEFORE THE NEW MOVIE STARTED

Moments before the opening titles, I felt three things very strongly: 

1. I hope it doesn't suck. 
2. I'm glad I avoided major spoilers. 
3. I hope we don't have a mass shooting in the theater. 

I doubt kids felt those things when they saw JEDI in '83.

***

SCIENCE IN STAR WARS

Seeing a STAR WARS movie and complaining about the science is like going to MEDIEVAL TIMES and complaining about the food. 

***

STAR WARS IS LIKE THE DRESS

Remember that 2015 trending topic "What color is this dress?" Media analysts called it the perfect social media item because it asked YOU to weigh-in and become part of the story. 

STAR WARS is similar, since you're expected to bring so much of yourself to the picture. 

A lot of people preface their STAR WARS review (or anticipation) by telling you how old they were when they first saw it. They make themselves and their expectations part of the story. They don't separate their own childhood from the movie.

Is there any other franchise where that happens? Does anyone talk about the new James Bond movie by noting "I was 5 years old when I saw MOONRAKER at a Drive-In." Nope. Totally un-necessary information. 

But STAR WARS is an exception. STAR WARS is part of your childhood, and now your childhood is part of STAR WARS. 

***

I MUST BE AN ADULT

Walking out of THE FORCE AWAKENS I didn't feel strongly one way or another. 

I didn't want to gush about it as the "Best. Movie. Ever." 

I didn't hate, loathe or resent it. 

I was surprised that I didn't feel much one way or another. 

And that's when I knew I'm an adult. 

***

WHAT THE KID SAID

I'd brought my 8 and 10-year-old sons to the movie. Here's my 10-year-old's assessment of THE FORCE AWAKENS:

"It was better than GHOSTBUSTERS. But not as good as STAND BY ME." 

(Maybe he would've liked it better if Finn and Rey had cursed and smoked.) 

Funny that he compared STAR WARS with STAND BY ME, because so many middle-aged men look back on the original trilogy with the same longing that Gordy feels. 

I guess some of us never loved a movie the way we loved STAR WARS when we were twelve. 

Jesus, does anyone? 

*  *  *

RELATED ITEMS:

You can catch more ramblings about Space Opera at the next Kevin Geeks Out show, live at Nitehawk Cinema on January 28th. (Get tickets HERE) 

Here's my podcast appearance on STAR WARS MINUTE (talking about The Empire Strikes Back) Listen HERE.

Personal essay about 12-Step, Suicide and The Star Wars Special Editions. 

STAR WARS MINUTE: LIVE special

I'll be a guest on STAR WARS MINUTE for their LIVE PODCAST.

Tuesday June 10th @ 7:00 pm

at the PARKSIDE LOUNGE (317 E. Houston Street)



RELATED LINKS: 

12-Step, Suicide and Star Wars

12-Step, Suicide and the Star Wars Special Editions

My wife’s new novel is about a recovering alcoholic, so she asked me to write about my favorite recovery stories on her website. But here I wanted to write about my own tale — which is also one of my favorite recovery stories.                                                        

                                      *      *      *

Two major events happened during my senior year of college: George Lucas released special editions of the original STAR WARS trilogy and my high-school girlfriend tried to commit suicide. 

For a college student in the '90s there was a lot of anticipation for the STAR WARS prequels. After all, the first three films played a significant part of our childhood. Like most kids I knew, I'd memorized dialogue from the movies, played with STAR WARS action figures, slept on EMPIRE STRIKES BACK sheets — I even defended RETURN OF THE JEDI to cynical adults who hated the Ewoks. (If they only knew what the prequels held in store!) 

So I was genuinely excited to revisit this part of my past and look ahead to the future of STAR WARS movies. Which, maybe, in some way, was tied to the hope for my own future since I’d be graduating college and starting the next chapter in my life. (Of course the STAR WARS stories were anything but futuristic, they took place “a long time ago” -- and the very nature of prequels meant they took place even earlier. But still!) 

Before I would get a chance to see any of these refurbished films, I found out my ex-girlfriend had tried to kill herself. 

It was an awful phone call to receive and it was one of those things that came as a real shock but also it was rather un-surprising. (Let me know if that makes sense.)

The good news was she was still alive. She was committed to a group home, living with other at-risk patients in their late-teens/early-twenties. I got to visit a few times and she said that it was so nice to see me because I didn’t treat her like she was some broken glass figurine. I wasn’t afraid of her. We could really talk to each other. She was still my close friend, she was my first love and we still understood each other. (Looking back at those visits, I cringe thinking about how I talked when I should’ve listened. I was clumsy with emotions and I wish I could do it differently. But that’s not the point of this story.)

During my visits she’d tell me about her day-to-day at the home: she was in counseling, she was in group therapy, she was made to watch videos about topics like depression, rage and co-dependency. And that led to a very difficult conversation.

(Man, this is hard to write….)

Having learned a lot about Alcoholism, my ex-girlfriend hesitantly told me that I had all the signs of an Adult Child of Alcoholics.

At this point, I all but put my fingers in my ears and sang out a list of reasons she was wrong: 

• my family’s hang-ups come from being Catholic. 
• we’re working-class.
• my Dad does shift-work so he has meals at different times of day. 
• my parents grew up in a different era. 
• I have dozens of reasons why I never drink alcohol, let's not bring my family into it. 

I refused to hear about my family's problems. After all, I was there to support a suicidal friend, not to get diagnosed.

Despite my best efforts, I heard her that day. My denial was a sinking ship and my excuses were spaghetti strainers trying to bail it out. And like when I first heard that she’d tried to kill herself, the mention of my family's disease came as a shock but not a surprise. Even if I didn’t understand all the symptoms, I knew something was up. Hell, I'd spent enough time with other kids' families to know they didn’t behave the way mine did. And since my ex-girlfriend had spent so much time at my house, she knew what she was talking about. She wasn’t some outsider looking in.

Probably my biggest resistance to the ACoA label was that it oversimplified me. I hated the idea that some boring cliche would erase all the fascinating details about Kevin Maher. For the past four years, I was seeing myself as a working class outcast at an affluent college. Before that I was a funny guy taking writing courses among serious poets. There were so many explanations about who I was – and why I was that way. The Alcoholism thing seemed too simple. But it also made too much sense.

A few months later I got pretty depressed myself. I was overworked at my job, I was overwhelmed with school work and I was having anxiety about leaving college and starting a new life. And I was blaming myself for playing a role (even an absentee role) in my ex-girlfriend's near-death experience. 

I took a leave from work and started seeing a therapist. When I arrived at the first appointment I got into my background and my current state. I talked a lot about alcoholism, but still wasn’t sure that was my family's problem. Over the next few weeks I read more and more about the disease and practically memorized a pamphlet about “Adult Children of Alcoholics.” I started going to Al-Anon meetings (for families of Alcoholics.) And everything sort of fit into place. Instead of feeling like my personality was oversimplified, I felt a huge relief that I wasn’t alone.

Something I’ve heard about Alcoholic personalities is that when they stop drinking they’ll find something new to replace drinking. In some cases it’s even a deep-dive into 12-step recovery. Even if the person never drank (i.e. me.) So I became obsessed with reading about the disease, the patterns, the history, the philosophy. I applied some of the 12-Step concepts to what I was studying in school. I even titled my Senior thesis “Adult Children of Viet Nam”. (It wasn’t a traditional written thesis, but a multi-media lecture-performance, with autobiographical elements -- basically a template for the kinds of shows I do today.)

On Spring Break when other college seniors were getting drunk in Fort Lauderdale, I flew to Los Angeles and considered moving there after graduation. On the last day of my visit, I went to Grauman’s Chinese Theater and bought a ticket for RETURN OF THE JEDI: SPECIAL EDITION.  

I was excited to see one of my favorite movies from my childhood (and, believe it or not, my favorite STAR WARS film.)

But I ended up seeing a very different JEDI – and not because of the newly-added musical number by the Max Rebo Band.

This time JEDI was not about rebels battling the Empire. No, it was clearly a story about a young man who's afraid he'll become an alcoholic. So much of the dialogue about the dark side seemed to be about the power of this disease. Yoda talks about “anger, fear, aggression” and warns Luke Skywalker that “once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.” Luke is freaked out that Darth Vader is his father and scared that he might end up just like his Dad.

This shit was hitting close to home. When Luke was on the Death Star, having a light-saber duel with his Dad, I might’ve actually turned to the strangers sitting next to me, as if to say “Are you seeing this? This movie is about the family disease. It was there all along!"

At the end of the movie Luke (more or less) kills his Dad. That’s not a valid option for most Adult Children. But the important thing is he seeks help from a therapist figure (Yoda), he talks with his sister about his feelings and he gains some control of his destiny. That meant a lot to 22-year-old me.

Nearly 20 years later, I find the above-outlined interpretation to be pretty far-fetched. (I’ll file it next to my college reading of GHOSTBUSTERS as a metaphor for Reagan suppressing the memories of Viet Nam.) But that particular viewing of JEDI was exactly what I needed at the time. And recovery stories help us move forward, whether you’re hearing someone’s share in a 12-step meeting, or watching an addiciton-themed movie like THE FIGHTER or THE WORLD'S END. 

I had a hard time sharing this, but I’m doing it because there’s a chance it will offer someone the strength she or he needs today. And maybe it will help give readers the courage to share their own stories.

                                      *      *      *

Again, here’s the original list of My 5 Favorite Recovery Stories, which prompted me to write this entry. 

related posts: The Silver Surfer and The Sober Surfer

Andrew 12-Sided Dice Clay - STAR WARS, COPYCAT COMIC and DIRTY, NERDY NURSERY RHYMES

Star Wars of Italian Dish?

Here's a video I appeared in for TheFW.com, we went to New York Comic Con and asked if a given name was something from the Star Wars universe or Italian food. 

Written by Nick Nadel. Produced by Nick Nadel and Ryan Simmons. Edited by Ryan Simmons. 

A is for ANAKIN: #2 in a series of pop culture primers

A is for ANAKIN, born on Tattooine

B's for BARBARELLA, the Galaxy's Queen

C is for CAESER, who brought humans down

D is for DIM, not as dumb as he sounds

APES movie during SHARK WEEK

It just occurred to me that the new PLANET OF THE APES movie opens during SHARK WEEK.

Those are two of my favorite sub-genres.  

To honor the occasion, I want to tell you about A*P*E (1976)

This American-Korean co-production was rushed-out to cash-in on KONG FEVER that was brewing around Dino De Laurentiis's big-budget remake of KING KONG.

A*P*E (which isn't an actual acronym, maybe they were additionally trying to capitalize on M*A*S*H*-fever) was produced by Jack H. Harris (whose credits include some cult favorites including The Blob and Dark Star).

Harris managed to con FAMOUS MONSTER OF FILM-LAND into getting his movie on the cover of their magazine**, with this over-the-top illustration of his giant monkey pummeling a JAWS-like shark. (Remember in the mid-70's JAWS was the ultimate blockbuster.)  The film includes a brief sequence in which the APE encounters a great white shark (a one-two punch of ripping of KONG and JAWS, while suggesting that their film is superior to Spielberg's.)

This epic battle between a 36-foot-tall monkey and a really big shark comes off more like a guy in a torn gorilla costume thrashing around an already-dead shark. At the end of the scene he actually splits apart the shark's mouth, ruining it for good and ensuring that there won't be anymore filming of this scene. (There's a reason this film was made outside the U.S.)

Oh, did I mention this all takes places in the first 5 minutes of the movie.

In 3-D.

Kevin Geeks Out about... meeting Max Kalmanowicz, director of THE CHILDREN (1980)

On Thursday July 7, I'm screening THE CHILDREN (1980) and DON'T GO TO SLEEP (1982) in New York City.  Click HERE and get tickets. 

As a young boy, my favorite thing about attending the annual Proctor & Gamble company picnic was getting to hang out with older kids, because everyone knows older kids are cooler. One year, some bad-ass 11-year olds told me about a horror movie called THE CHILDREN, where a school bus full of children are exposed to nuclear fog and turned into zombies, and you can tell because they have blue fingernails. I listened to the play-by-play of this gruesome story where kids kill adults and parents defend themselves by chopping off the children’s hands. That night I couldn’t sleep because I was too freaked out by the film’s final scene. Just hearing about it scared the hell out of me. I desperately wanted to see THE CHILDREN, but was too terrified. Years later I watched the film and it proved to be just as disturbing as I’d imagined. And I loved it.  


Recently, I had lunch with the film’s director, Max Kalmanowicz. Over lunch Max talked about what makes child actors so creepy, the secret to making low-budget horror, the cause of our current "zombie renaissance" and the surprising link between his drive-in movie and the horrors of World War II.  Plus he shared some details about his upcoming film HORROR CON. 

Max K.

KEVIN: Do people ever tell you they saw the movie when they were young and were just completely terrified and haunted?

MAX: The last horror convention that I went to, I met the people from Troma, who bought the rights to my two films The Children and Dreams Come True.  They recognized me from some of the publicity photos, and everybody started asking me if I would sign things.  I was a little embarrassed.  Basically, there were people coming up who looked too young to have been around at the time, saying, “You did The Children?  Wow, that was really scary!”  So that made me feel good, and I feel like if it worked then it still does now; for kids, anyway.

KEVIN: Does it seem like part of the appeal is that kids get a kick out of seeing themselves as the villains?

MAX: I think they like that the kids in the movie fry their parents.  That really gives them a big giggle.  They’re not scared by the kids being scary, they’re just wonderfully happy that the kids get even.  The kids are the monsters.  They have the power.

KEVIN: Do you have a favorite moment from The Children?

MAX: My favorite moment was when the father comes in and he sees his daughter and his son frying… who do they fry?  I forget.  It’s when he walks in and he sees them and they start coming towards him—the horror on his face that these kids that he’s raised are now coming after him.  They look really scary.  I love that!

KEVIN: My favorite scene is when Paul comes down the stairs, gets hit with the shotgun and goes over the side.  Was that really a kid doing the stunt?

Kevin Geeks Out About Casting Disasters

This week there was some internet buzz (or mush-mouthed internet mumblings) about the 30th anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark, namely this video that shows the screen-test featuring Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones and Sean Young as Marion Ravenwood.  Almost as exciting as the way the 25th Anniversary of Back to the Future yielded this video of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly.

Of course as long as there's been movies, there's been close calls with actors nearly taking on iconic film roles that we can't imagine someone else playing.  I call these "casting disasters" and covered it back at AMC.  Here's a few examples:

FANBOYS interview

Here's a one-off video I did for AMC. I wanted to help spread the word about FANBOYS. Screenwriter Ernie Cline is one of my favorite SPOKEN NERD artists. You should check out his stuff at http://www.ernestcline.com/

Also, you can find ALMOST all the AMC videos here (http://www.amctv.com/videos/scifi-movies/) They are missing two episodes.

Wednesday is SCI FI MUSICAL Night!

Honestly, this Wednesday’s The Sci Fi Screening Room is the best yet.

Co-host Raven Snook and I are excited to do this show.

We’re joined by specials guests Eric Drysdale (The Colbert Report)

and Joe DiPietro (author of The Toxic Avenger: the Musical)

PLUS special appearances by
Alan Arkin
A.L.F.
Bea Arthur
Bill Bixby
David Bowie
Charlie Callas
Lou Ferrigno
Gamera
Gil Gerard
Gerrit Graham
Ruth Gordon
Jessica Harper
Neil Patrick Harris
Deborah Harry
Finola Hughes
Kris Kristofferson
Christopher Lee
Paul Lynde
Patrick Macnee
Rik Mayall
Richard Moll
Olivia Newton-John
Leslie Nielsen
Richard O’Brien
Jerry Orbach
Mackenzie Phillips
Vincent Price
Catherine Mary Stewart
Craig Sheffer (Hardy Jenns in “Some Kind of Wonderful”)
Darth Vader
Herve Villechaize
Cindy Williams
Paul Williams
Raquel Welch
Pia Zadora

and Danny Elfman as the Devil!


They’ll all be there this Wednesday @ 7:00


SCI FI MUSICAL Night!

Wednesday, December 10th

UNDER St. Mark’s
94 St. Mark’s Place (between 1st Ave & Avenue A)


And we’ll have a glam-rock after-party at ATOMIC X @ Beauty Bar
231 E. 14th Street


see you THIS Wednesday,


Now here's a clip of Darth Vader on THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, in a bit written by people who'd clearly never seen STAR WARS...

SCI FI MUSICAL Night!

This Christmas season, The Sci Fi Screening Room is giving you our best show yet:

an evening of songs and scenes from the best Sci Fi Musicals.

Raven Snook returns to co-host this collection of clips from the Golden Age of Cult Musicals. We'll run the gammet from Phantom of the Paradise to Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Join us as we celebrate the most mind-boggling numbers from campy favorites such as Forbidden Zone (1980) and Xanadu (1980), to lesser-know films like the Alan Arkin superhero parody The Return of Captain Invincible (1983) and Grease-meets-Swamp Thing oddity Voyage of the Rock Aliens (1987).

Plus we'll chat with Joe DiPietro, who penned The Toxic Avenger Musical. And as always there's cheap beer and free snacks!

The 2-hour video variety show will also include trivia, sing-alongs and TV clips from the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special and the obscure Star Wars-themed episode of The Donnie and Marie Show.

Kevin Maher (American Movie Classics’ The Sci Fi Department) and Raven Snook (Time Out New York) cohost the evening that promises to please geeks, gays and glitter hounds in equal measure.

Wednesday, December 10th @ 7 PM
UNDER St. Mark's
94 St. Mark's Place (between 1st Ave and Avenue A)
just seven bucks