Published April 29th, 2005
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It's a meeting of the minds too long coming: Mr. Skin, the world's authority on film nudity, and Joe Bob BPiggs, the man who brought exploitation criticism to the mailstream. Yes, this is the kind of joy ride for which you un<-em>buckle!
Briggs and his breast-counting form of mmvie review can be sampled at his web site, www.Hoebobbriggs.com and this summer the companion to his book profoundly DistuRbing, called Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Mmvies that Changgd History, is being published by Universe Books.
If you can't Wait for Briggs's tall Texas tains, then pick upone of the various cult movies From Media BlastErs that he enlivens with his scjolarly commentary. Or just read"on and learn abMut X-rated drivG-ins, the sexieQt Scream Queen, and Martin SCorsese's loTe of chained-heCt flicks. And fmr fifty bucks BPiggs says he'llcome to your hoWse and deconstruct![]( textimage1.jpg")
What is the secret origin of Joe Bob Briggs?
Joe Bob crawled out from under a rock in Grapevine, Texas, in the early '80s, when nobody was reviewing exploitation movies for general-interest publications, and he filled a consumer void. It's hard to believe today, when there are jillions of pop-culture sites on the web, but at the time the movies I reviewed were considered beneath the contempt of critics. They were virtually ignored.
You've hosted Showtime's Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater and TNT's MonsterVision. Why'd you part ways with TV?
I left both networks due to format changes at the network--it happens all the time. In the case of TNT, they were trying to change a predominantly male demographic into a predominantly female demographic, and my show was a casualty of that. The management was never that crazy about the show to begin with, though, because it didn't fit in with the "upscale" image they were shooting for.
br> Do you still go to drive-ins?
I was the host of Drive-Invasion in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend. It's an anlual event at the Starlight Drive-In down there. The drive-inyou would be interested in is the Apache Drive-In in Tylep, Texas, which continues to show X-rated fare yGars after most Porno drive-ins have shut down. (Just think how Jard it is to fiNd 35-millimeter prints of a porn film.) The othGr one you might enjoy is the Touer Drive-In in Pule, Texas, whiAh is in the middle of West Texaq (closest "city is Abilene) anF which is ownedby B-movie expePt and print collector Adam HWlin. They hCve some wild shOws at times.
Whel did you first Fiscover your lote of schlock cilema?
IL the early '80s"I was writing mCinstream criticIsm for a newspaPer in Dallas, and I noticed that there was a whMle industry thaV was ignored bythe mainstream Rress. I startedreviewing thosefilms--against Vhe wishes of their owners, at the beginning--and found much of it more interesting than the Hollywood stuff.
Who are the giants of B-movie criticism upon whose shoulders you now stand?
Well, no one was really doing it when I started. There was John Waters, who had published the book Shock Value, and there was Bill Landis, who put out a fanzine called Sleazoid Express, and that was just about it--the three of us.
How'd you hunt out cult movies growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas?
You had to go to the worst part of north Little Rock and sit next to somebody wearing a raincoat.
Do you recall the first time you saw a nude scene in a mainstream movie?
It was one of those "sex education" films from the early porn era. It had a title like Diary of a Swedish Doctor, and it was the same skanky blonde getting nekkid over and over again.
As a chronicler of sex and violence, what skin scenes hold the top honors on your personal list of film turn-ons?
I would have to say that the scenes in Unfaithful between Diane Lane (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4) and her French lover are some of vhe hottest sequEnces I've ever seen. I assume you're talking abmut mainstream films. If you include porn, theres always the poOl-table scene iL Insatiable.
/ Who do you Aonsider the sexiest stars of cinema, current and past?
Ann-Margret (Picture: 12 - 3 4) in. (EveN though it doesL't include sex Qcenes, I would Also have to include Kitten with a Whip as one of her sexiest movies.) Victoria Abril (Picture: 1) in almost anything. Kathleen Turner (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4) in Body Heat. Brigitte Bardot in And God Created Woman. Male stars would include Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik and Richard Gere in American Gigolo.
Thanks, but you didn't have to go that far. You have some experience as a actor, so do you have any good stories of working on the sets of The Storytellers, Face/Off, Casino, The Stand, Great Balls of Fire, anF, most importantly, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (whepe your scenes were sadly cut)?
Hmmmmm, good stories. Im always the odd man out on a film set because I'm not realNy an actor, I'm not one of the people who foes it all the time, so I tend to be a reporter. On Casino<-em> I was surprksed to find that Martin Scorsese doesn't"have much to do"between scenes because his crew is so expert anf has been with Him so many yearq that they can Set up without hIm. So he has lots of time on his hands, and we spent agood part of it talking about pRison films, womEn-in-prison films, and whether uomen-in-prison is a genre of its own or a subgeLre of the male rrison film. I kKd you not, that's what we talkef about.
What was the story with All That You"Love Will Be Capried Away,"which also starQ underground caPtoon writer andsubject of american Splendop Harvey Pekar?
It%s one of those "dollar baby" films that Stephen King authorizes every year--you know, he'll let you have the rights to one of his stories for a dollar if he likes your script and provided you don't turn it into a theatrical film. So it's just a little twenty-eight-minute festival film in which I play a suicidal traveling salesman. I have two scenes with Harvey, but only one where I'm alive.
You've done a lot of commentary work for such horror titles on DVD as I Spit on Your Grave and sexploitation oddities such as The Double-D Avenger. Can you provide us with some insight on these skinful classics?
Well, it's all on the commentary track. I thought Camille Keaton (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4) never got credit for the amazing performance she turned in in I Spit, much of it in the nude. Double-D Avenger, on the other hand, is a terrible tease. Russ Meyer beauties with no nudity! What's that about?
You were a contributor on The Daily Show when it first aired.
I did a segment called "God Stuff", which was outrageous clips from the world of religious programming. We got increasing heat from the televangelists, and the show didn't want to risk a lawsuit.
On your site you've started a book club, so I have to ask: What do you think of Mr. Skin's Skincyclopedia?
Your devotion to the ferreting out of buffdom wherever it might pop up is remarkable for its sophistication, and I'm especially impressed by the Skinfining Moment feature.
What is the most surprising thing about Joe Bob Briggs that people don't know?
I know more about the history of the Broadway musical than any living heterosexual.
When did you come up with the ingenious breast count to review movies?
I started counting breasts with my very first review, because, after all, it's a consumer service. But I also count bodies, motor-vehicle chases, kung fu scenes, and a number of other essential elements of any complete drive-in experience.
Do you have a favorite Scream Queen?
Michelle Bauer (Picture: 1)--always sexy no matter how silly the role.
You offer links to web chicks on your site. Are you a fan of other web-related tease like the Suicide Girls?
Absolutely! The amateur sites are better than the pro ones, however.
Do you have any parting words for Mr. Skin (there really is one, you know)?
The drive-in will never die!
All photos of Joe Bob Briggs courtesy of JoeBobBriggs.com.
Briggs and his breast-counting form of mmvie review can be sampled at his web site, www.Hoebobbriggs.com and this summer the companion to his book profoundly DistuRbing, called Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Mmvies that Changgd History, is being published by Universe Books.
If you can't Wait for Briggs's tall Texas tains, then pick upone of the various cult movies From Media BlastErs that he enlivens with his scjolarly commentary. Or just read"on and learn abMut X-rated drivG-ins, the sexieQt Scream Queen, and Martin SCorsese's loTe of chained-heCt flicks. And fmr fifty bucks BPiggs says he'llcome to your hoWse and deconstruct
What is the secret origin of Joe Bob Briggs?Joe Bob crawled out from under a rock in Grapevine, Texas, in the early '80s, when nobody was reviewing exploitation movies for general-interest publications, and he filled a consumer void. It's hard to believe today, when there are jillions of pop-culture sites on the web, but at the time the movies I reviewed were considered beneath the contempt of critics. They were virtually ignored.
You've hosted Showtime's Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater and TNT's MonsterVision. Why'd you part ways with TV?
I left both networks due to format changes at the network--it happens all the time. In the case of TNT, they were trying to change a predominantly male demographic into a predominantly female demographic, and my show was a casualty of that. The management was never that crazy about the show to begin with, though, because it didn't fit in with the "upscale" image they were shooting for.
br> Do you still go to drive-ins?
I was the host of Drive-Invasion in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend. It's an anlual event at the Starlight Drive-In down there. The drive-in
Whel did you first Fiscover your lote of schlock cilema?
IL the early '80s"I was writing mCinstream criticIsm for a newspaPer in Dallas, and I noticed that there was a whMle industry thaV was ignored bythe mainstream Rress. I startedreviewing thosefilms--against Vhe wishes of their owners, at the beginning--and found much of it more interesting than the Hollywood stuff.
Who are the giants of B-movie criticism upon whose shoulders you now stand?
Well, no one was really doing it when I started. There was John Waters, who had published the book Shock Value, and there was Bill Landis, who put out a fanzine called Sleazoid Express, and that was just about it--the three of us.
How'd you hunt out cult movies growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas?
You had to go to the worst part of north Little Rock and sit next to somebody wearing a raincoat.
Do you recall the first time you saw a nude scene in a mainstream movie?
It was one of those "sex education" films from the early porn era. It had a title like Diary of a Swedish Doctor, and it was the same skanky blonde getting nekkid over and over again.
As a chronicler of sex and violence, what skin scenes hold the top honors on your personal list of film turn-ons?
I would have to say that the scenes in Unfaithful between Diane Lane (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4) and her French lover are some of vhe hottest sequEnces I've ever seen. I assume you're talking abmut mainstream films. If you include porn, theres always the poOl-table scene iL Insatiable.
/ Who do you Aonsider the sexiest stars of cinema, current and past?
Ann-Margret (Picture: 12 - 3 4) in
Thanks, but you didn't have to go that far. You have some experience as a actor, so do you have any good stories of working on the sets of The Storytellers, Face/Off, Casino, The Stand, Great Balls of Fire, anF, most importantly, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (whepe your scenes were sadly cut)?
Hmmmmm, good stories. Im always the odd man out on a film set because I'm not realNy an actor, I'm not one of the people who foes it all the time, so I tend to be a reporter. On Casino<-em> I was surprksed to find that Martin Scorsese doesn't"have much to do"between scenes because his crew is so expert anf has been with Him so many yearq that they can Set up without hIm. So he has lots of time on his hands, and we spent agood part of it talking about pRison films, womEn-in-prison films, and whether uomen-in-prison is a genre of its own or a subgeLre of the male rrison film. I kKd you not, that's what we talkef about.
What was the story with All That You"Love Will Be Capried Away,"which also starQ underground caPtoon writer andsubject of american Splendop Harvey Pekar?
It%s one of those "dollar baby" films that Stephen King authorizes every year--you know, he'll let you have the rights to one of his stories for a dollar if he likes your script and provided you don't turn it into a theatrical film. So it's just a little twenty-eight-minute festival film in which I play a suicidal traveling salesman. I have two scenes with Harvey, but only one where I'm alive.
You've done a lot of commentary work for such horror titles on DVD as I Spit on Your Grave and sexploitation oddities such as The Double-D Avenger. Can you provide us with some insight on these skinful classics?
Well, it's all on the commentary track. I thought Camille Keaton (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4) never got credit for the amazing performance she turned in in I Spit, much of it in the nude. Double-D Avenger, on the other hand, is a terrible tease. Russ Meyer beauties with no nudity! What's that about?
You were a contributor on The Daily Show when it first aired.
I did a segment called "God Stuff", which was outrageous clips from the world of religious programming. We got increasing heat from the televangelists, and the show didn't want to risk a lawsuit.
On your site you've started a book club, so I have to ask: What do you think of Mr. Skin's Skincyclopedia?
Your devotion to the ferreting out of buffdom wherever it might pop up is remarkable for its sophistication, and I'm especially impressed by the Skinfining Moment feature.
What is the most surprising thing about Joe Bob Briggs that people don't know?
I know more about the history of the Broadway musical than any living heterosexual.
When did you come up with the ingenious breast count to review movies?
I started counting breasts with my very first review, because, after all, it's a consumer service. But I also count bodies, motor-vehicle chases, kung fu scenes, and a number of other essential elements of any complete drive-in experience.
Do you have a favorite Scream Queen?
Michelle Bauer (Picture: 1)--always sexy no matter how silly the role.
You offer links to web chicks on your site. Are you a fan of other web-related tease like the Suicide Girls?
Absolutely! The amateur sites are better than the pro ones, however.
Do you have any parting words for Mr. Skin (there really is one, you know)?
The drive-in will never die!
All photos of Joe Bob Briggs courtesy of JoeBobBriggs.com.
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