EXCLUSIVE: SXSW Matt Dentler YouTube Find Erin Scherer Hits the Stage in NYC

EXCLUSIVE:
SXSW Matt Dentler YouTube Find Erin Scherer Hits The Stage In NYC

Because many of The Film Panel Notetaker’s known readers are currently at the Toronto Film Festival, and I’m one of the few who stayed behind in NYC, I nabbed an exclusive interview with viral video superstar Erin Scherer, who came to NYC last night to perform her one-woman show, The Erin Scherer Show. For those of you wondering who Erin is, or would like a refresher, here’s where the story begins. It all started when South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival Producer Matt Dentler posted on his indiewWIRE blog in July a video from YouTube called “How Mumblecore Saved Erin's Life.” Matt then followed up with another post plugging Erin’s upcoming show in NYC, which I immediately put on my calendar.

I had anticipated more of a discussion or lecture from Erin where I could take notes like I normally do at film panel discussions, but I was delightfully surprised to find her show to be more of a stage performance piece, so I didn’t really take the traditional notes that I normally would, so here’s a recap of the night’s affair instead, and beneath that, my exclusive interview with Erin. I hope Erin will do another show sometime soon so you can all see it for yourselves.


The Erin Scherer Show – September 6, 2007 – Kraine Theatre - NYC


Erin brought much of her exuberance and charm from her YouTube videos to her quasi one-woman show/sketch comedy/pop culture commentary/interpretive dance performance. In her opening monologue, Erin discussed traveling to NYC when she was younger, but this current trip is her first real NYC experience. Erin commented on everything from gossip magazines headlines (ie. Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston) to teen celebrities (the High School Musical kids, Hannah Montana, etc.) to the scantily clad models in the American Apparel advertisements. Erin exclaimed that much of her insights on celebrities come from her days working at my favorite grocery store chain in the world, Wegmans, where gossip and teen mags are readily at hand at the cashier stand. She also did a reading of radio legend Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story,” performed a Saturday Night Live-style commercial parody called Pornspammers.com, and she even did an interpretive dance of M.C. Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.” The grand finale of the show was a reading of the transcript from her YouTube video, “HOWL (For Lindsay Lohan).” The Erin Scherer Show is an intelligently campy and whimsical homage to Erin’s real life mixed with her escapist passion of the celebrity gossip world, that while presented in a hodgepodge fashion, ties up into a nice little 60-minute package.

Interview:

Q: What inspired you to do a show in New York?

Erin: I started posting videos on YouTube a few months ago and thought about evolving them into a stage show. I wanted to get back on stage again. I had done some acting before at my college SUNY Oneonta in a production of Peer Gynt where I played a guest at a party. It was probably the worst production in the four years I attended Oneonta.

Q: Were you in any plays in high school?

Erin: I acted in Pippin (9th grade), Mame (10th Grade), and in a talent show my senior year playing Ruth Buzzi’s character on Laugh-In and Molly Shannon’s SNL character Mary Katherine Gallagher.

Q: Where are you from? Where have you been staying in NYC, and what have you been doing here?

I live in Geneva located in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York State. For the past week, I’ve been staying in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and have gone to the IFC Center to see some of the “Mumblecore” films I talked about in my videos including Joe Swanberg’s “Hannah Takes the Stairs” and Aaron Katz’s “Quiet City.”

Q: What is your documentary, Are You From Bingo? about? What are your plans for it? What’s next?

Erin: It’s about the restoration of Binghamton, NY, and also dabbles with gentrification issues. I may do a DVD release, and perhaps also put parts of it on YouTube. It’s 85 minutes in length altogether. I also hope to go to SXSW in 2008, and to make a “Mumblecore”-style movie with a twist of camp.