SEWER SUBTERRANEA #7 - POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD

(Continued from Page Two)

Kate Graham: Princess Poultrygeist

I wrote a bit about my experience at the Fango event for CHUD sister Creature Corner, and while revisiting that coverage in prep for the premiere, I noticed this bit:

"...it appears as though production values have improved since Class of Nuke ‘Em High. I think I even saw an actual cute girl…"

Turns out the "cute girl" was one Kate Graham. Upon seeing the finished film, I realized a better adjective would be “talented”. Poultrygeist is the NYU grad’s first screen role, and - if she wants it - maybe the start of a career in film.

One of the great things about Graham’s performance is how fearless it is - she shrieks and mugs without a trace of irony. It’s that Will Ferrell school of comedy, wherein you don’t care how awful or stupid you look as long as you get the laugh. I would think this terrifying ground for a performer - ‘cause who wants to look like they’re not in on the joke?

An Alabama native/South Carolina transplant by way of NYC, Graham’s recently packed her bags for CHUD home - Hotlanta, Georgia - to take on Juliet Capulet for the Georgia Shakespeare Festival.

But before departure, there’s the Poultrygeist premiere. And me, poor thing…

JP: How did your involvement in Poultrygeist begin?

KG: Well, you spend a fortune on an education at NYU, and when you graduate you give them another fifty dollars and they publish your headshot and resume in this thing called the Headshot Book. They use the Headshot Book at Troma, and every intern at Troma got to go through the book and pick somebody they wanted to come to the Poultrygeist auditions. So I was sitting at a café with a friend and I got a call saying, “Hi, this is Ethan from Troma Entertainment - would you like to come audition for a feature film…” And from there…we auditioned six or seven times - and we never auditioned for Lloyd. He was someone people talked about…but we never actually got to see him. And you’d go in and there would be this panel of people and they would say, “…and we’ll show the tapes to Lloyd.”

And I’d think, “Just who is this mysterious ‘Lloyd’…?”

JP: Sorta’ odd he’d not be around…?

KG: Well, he is a celebrity, you know?

JP: Yeah…I guess there would be plenty of Troma kids showing up just to spazz out in his presence - which would be a total waste of his time.

KG: And he wouldn’t really need to see anyone until the casting people narrowed us down.

JP: Was it hard to find the tone?

KG: I don’t think so. We had a lot of rehearsal time, and we found it pretty early.

JP: It wasn’t difficult going as big as you did?

KG: I don’t know if I did (go big). I don’t think the choices I made were that big. I think there were people who made the decision to go bigger - and rightly so, because the character needed that. But Wendy ends up being the straight man a lot of the time, so I just did what was right for her. Even in something as crazy as this, you still have to be honest - you still have to be true to the character. I was just being true to Wendy.

JP: How much of Kate is there in Wendy? Are you an activist? A vegetarian? A lesbian? Please?

There is some Kate in Wendy in that when she gets into something, she dives in headfirst. As far as being an activist - I believe that it starts in the home. There are things you can do as an individual that can help. Vegetarianism…I’m not quite there yet. The amount of meat in my diet has certainly diminished over the years, but I can’t say it’s gone completely.

Am I a lesbian…sadly, no.

JP: When did it sink in that you were in a film directed by the legendary Lloyd Kaufman? And how did you not vomit or flee?

KG: Well - I hadn’t seen a Troma film before I was cast, so… (laughs)

JP: Was there anything on the set you just couldn’t handle?

KG: The sequence where I’m being assaulted by the Mickie zombie, and…Arbie grabs it by the neck…and he’s screaming, “How! Can! I! Get! You! Off!”…?

JP: Yeah - “choking the chicken” as it were?

KG: That was supposed to be me.

JP: Ahh…

KG: And I went through the effects tests for it in the backyard of the church that we were living in - and I had to get shot in the face by the puppet a couple of times…

And you know - I felt like I had already done enough for the fourteen-year old boys with strange fetishes - so I went to Lloyd and told him I didn’t want to do it…

JP: And he was okay with it?

KG: He actually was. And the scene is funnier anyway, I think...

JP: It’s true. It makes sense that your ex would attack you…and that Arbie would jump in.

KG: Yeah. It worked out. And I think that helped. If the change hadn’t worked as well...

JP: …you’d have received the puppet facial.

I don’t want you to pigeonhole yourself, but would you consider yourself a post-feminist?

KG: I do and I don’t. I am a Southern girl, so I really appreciate it when a guy opens a door or pays for things. But there are some things - the glass ceiling…archaic religious or cultural practices…that will get me on a soapbox in a big hurry. Women have come a long way, and we should be grateful for the pioneers before us. I kind of think of my mother that way - with her being the only girl in all of her science classes in college…

I think there is a certain complacency that has come about in my generation. Because we have the choice of whether to work…or be stay-at-home-moms…or even single mothers if we want - work doesn’t always sound quite so great anymore. But I definitely think we live in a patriarchal, externalized society that teaches women that their natural bodies are gross or wrong or bad or meant to be kept secret - even other women cringe when I don’t whisper the word tampon - and that disconnects women from their intuitive senses. If I don’t stop I’m going to go on a rant on misdirected priorities in society in general. Stop me.

JP: Very well then...how challenging was the musical aspect of the production?

KG: Learning them was pretty easy, because they gave us CDs with vocal tracks and instrumental tracks, and Lloyd really stressed how important repetition was going to be, since we’d be lip-syncing…

Even though I was pretty self-conscious, the fantasy bedroom sequence in “Fast Food Love” was probably one of the most fun scenes to shoot. I love to play, and Jason (Yachanin) was hilarious, just having fun - so it was a good time.

JP: Many actors have trouble getting their early work seen - but this film will end up an instant cult thing. Are you prepared for the potential nerd-cons - and the potential stalkers?

KG: I did go to a convention - Dark X-Mas in Warrenton, Ohio. And probably 90% of the people on my MySpace contacted me because of the film - I don’t actually know them as friends. So far, I haven’t met anyone who’s been anything other than nice.

JP: Every performer thinks about a set of goals, or a career path. Where do you see your career going?

KG: I’d love to continue in independent film. I’m pleasantly surprised by the amount of theatre in Atlanta, so we’ll see what happens here. I’m interested in pursuing classical music and theatre - opera and Shakespeare.

My dream is to be in a production of Streetcar in which I play both Stella and Blanche - not at the same time, of course, but just…with a girlfriend…and we rotate - incredible.

I also love modeling - any time someone wants to pay me to have my picture taken, just call. (smiles)

Visit Kate’s MySpace profile - where you can get lost in her eyes (did he really do a Debbie Gibson reference there?), peruse her busy blog, and scream “tampon” without fear or shame.

Poultrygeist Made Them Do It – A Majic Extravaganza

As Poultrygeist was a truly independent venture, it brought out a ton of people who wanted only to toil on a motion picture. Some of them wanted it so badly - or were just so clearly insane, that in the off hours (as few as there were) - they grabbed their equipment and made another movie. D.J. Markuson’s Nancy Ray Smiggen’s Family Tree and the Majic Extravaganza is the result of that insanity.

Markuson’s short film is the demented and oddly tragic story of a poorly-socialized man-child named Matthew Smiggen (John Karyus - who plays the cemetery pervo in Poultrygeist’s opening). Matthew dreams of a day when he can perfect his magic act (which should be a red flag right there, but…) and make the “big time”. Unfortunately, he’s saddled with the responsibility of taking care of his grotesque whore of a mother, Nancy Ray - who has a thing for sexing dirty metalhead guys. Constantly.

Turns out that Nancy Ray is pretty fertile, and she tasks poor Matthew with disposing of her at-home abortions - which he dutifully does…in the back yard…constantly.

It doesn’t take long for a great tree to grow on the site of the mass grave - one that bears mewling, embryonic fruit - and before you can imagine the King of Pop singing the theme to Willard, little Matty has an army of “siblings” ready to help him take on the world.