United States Disc Golf Championship

As a lot of you know, since Clubless was in it's pre-planning stages Innova Disc Golf has been very supportive of the project. They sponsored us, not with money, but rather with equipment. They were nice enough to provide free discs, t-shirts, gear, stickers, and most awesomely; a portbable disc goal so we could set up shots wherever we needed to.

They made it a lot easier for us to get this project off of the ground and have conintually shown a commitment to widen the reach of disc golf to the masses. That can't be said for every disc golf company out there ( i won't name names ).

Last week, in talking to my contact with Innova, they have extended to us, the most amazing opportunity. In less than two weeks there is the USDG Championships, where the 200 top players from all 50 states and 7 countries will compete. They have asked me to send them 250 copies of the DVD, so that they can put 1 copy in each of the players packs, as well as sell the other 50 in the pro-shop. As my wonderful friend with Innova said, "If you want to reach the disc golfing public, this is the way to do it."

SO, in a pretty monumental moment for us, the top disc golfers in the world, will soon have their very own copy of Clubless: The Legend of Victor Montango!

Clubless: The Legend of Victor Montango on DVD Sept. 30th!

The DVD will be here in a couple of weeks, here's a sneek peek from inside the DVD!

The newest projects...

Hello all, just a few updates on some new projects. Curt and I are about half way done with the script for Mummerman: The Movie. A comedy based on the home-made superhero created by Curt himself. We had tossed around a few ideas over the last couple of years, but I think we've finally settled on one that is going to be a big hit. A mix of the ridiculous and the serious. But mostly ridiculous. I'd say like 70/30. It's Curt in tights, so how serious can we be, right?

Please check out the teaser trailer that we shot a few weeks ago on the right hand side of the page, and leave us a comment! Good or bad? Great or terrible? The hotness or a donkey pile?

Also, two weeks back we shot a two minute horror film called "It Came From the Basement! (A realistic horror film)". We are shortly going to begin editing that, and will post it up on the site, very soon! That one stars Joe....and that's it. Just Joe, but I promise it's still good!!

More info to follow on a 2nd(yikes) film that we will be shooting next summer, think Cloverfield meets Tony & Tina's wedding! Later!!

A little background...

I won't bore you with the details of our existence, only what's necessary. And since I can't tell you the 'real' way our group was conceived (all I can say is it involved two bottles of Kaopectate, sleep deprivation, and a Yoda doll) I'll just tell you the version we made up! COOL?


Since I'm assuming you've read the Who We Be section of our blog. If you haven't, you have homework to do. The original cast of Enough Stupid Starts a Fire (our original name) featured: James Hauser (me, and my giant head, photographic evidence to follow) , Joseph Goratowski (He's Irish), Erin Pallesen (wind swept hair featured) , Vita Gold (whose name has now changed due to some sort of ancient ceremonial union), and John Gray (the tall one?).


Throughout the years the cast has changed, we've added the talent of Nicole Frier (she has a healthy obsession with kitties) , and Curt Mummer (superhero). And of course we can't forget our boys on the technical side: Bennie Woodell (sweet sideburns), Jay Vandeberg (grossly underweight), and Brady Cox (or as we call him, Hotpants McChizzled).


We started originally at the Jack Benny Center for the Performing Arts in Waukegan, IL. Performing every Friday night for almost six months. Even sometimes when it was hazardous to our health and the health of our audience. I think for one show in particular there was six feet of snow on the ground outside. Honest, I have pictures. Just not here...


We eventually moved to the Chicago Actor's Studio on Milwaukee in Wicker Park, across the street from the Double Door. Those performances were fondly remembered by the heavy metal bands playing at the bar downstairs. The whole room would buzz from the bass. It was then that we realized that our ridiculously attractive faces couldn't make up for everything.


After that, we did two tours of duty ( you know, at gunpoint) at the Trap Door Theatre in Bucktown off Cortland and Paulina. Other than having to usually work around whatever set was up from the earlier show, and many times it being different from week to week, it was a fantastic place to make funny. Although mostly not on purpose.


It was during our time at the Trap Door, the summer of 2005 that we decided to make our first full length film, The Next Level. The film was a made from the plot line of one of our sketches about the People Against Proaction. We also worked about 8 sketches from our stage show into the film's plot line (not always smoothly). It was our first film, and despite it's flaws, I think it's a hilarious movie, full of laugh out loud moments. One of the best things I believe to come from the this film was the relationships that we established with local musicians for the soundtrack.



It took a year and a half but we finally premiered The Next Level on January 26th 2007 to a packed house at Gurnee Mills Marcus Cinema. That was a night I will never forget. It's those types of moments that make all of the stress, long hours, countless drafts, rewrites, and the creative disagreements that are going to come from any creative group, completely and totally worth it.



The summer that followed we began production on Clubless: The Legend of Victor Montango. Armed with lessons learned from the first time around, we were more than ready to tackle this massive undertaking. The cast tripled from our first movie, as well as the budget, locations, and shooting schedule.



The film itself, is centered around our favorite sport of Disc Golf. I had often wondered out loud to my friends and cast mates as to why there was movie about every sport imaginable (see: underwater basket weaving) but not Disc Golf. Then a very wise person said, "Make one." He kept saying other stuff about how I should stop whining about it or something but his voice just trailed off as I thought about what a brilliant idea that was. Hence, Victor Montango was born.



As smooth as the shooting went, I should have known that meant disaster in post-production. As you will soon learn, nothing ever goes smoothly for us. We have had a hard-drive crash and lost almost the entire film, had to re-edit from scratch, redo the sound work, the night before the premiere we almost weren't able to burn the DVD, had to re-work the artwork. It's been crazy. But, I am so proud of this project, that once the DVD's do come out, and we are finally expecting them at the end of September, it's going to make it all worth it.


So this is the place were we will be keeping production diaries, giving updates, insights, sharing new ideas, and just letting you know what it's like to be an independent filmmaker.


We rely on your support and feedback, so please feel free to post, email, comment, carrier pigeon, and stalk. We value all of it, and here's to more great laughs in the future!!


We've also included a sneak peek at the DVD cover for Clubless (back cover on left, front cover on right) , ENJOY!!