Before I began examining the debut DVD for Wednesday 13's Weirdo A Go-Go I have to say that I love this guys music and the total presentation he does with his fun brand of Horror Punk. So when the musician announced his plans to release an absurd little video called Weirdo A Go-Go, the question would be what on Earth could he have in store for us. The answer is quite simply something that comes off as a far darker and more obnoxious version of Captain Kangaroo meets a little bit of PeeWee's Playhouse tossed in for good measure after one has been on a serious bender. That being said the appeal of such a release is limited to Mr. 13's staunchest supporters or perhaps fans of "Greg The Bunny", and the more obscure "Puppets Who Kill" program. The program itself presents us with Wednesday 13 as both the human host and witness to the shenanigans of the odd assortment of puppets who make up the cast of characters. The language and antics are definitely more along the parental advisory side and while some are amusing, at times others are rather inane. I think that was done more for plan than by accident. Wednesday 13 also acts as the emcee to some vintage Horror movie clips and I felt that this is the avenue that he should have stuck with since it works better with the persona he portrays as a musician. The extensive liner notes inside the DVD line out why he chose to avoid this route and I hate to disagree with him, but I think he should have done it despite his reservations.
Some of the puppets are interesting, and the most standout is the rooster whose name is Cock. That must have been amusing to film to say the least. There is also an expressionless hobo who drinks a lot and a difficult to understand cowboy. It's not all bad and has its occasional moment and since this is the first go at it I am sure that a lot of the ideas were being fleshed out. I think for this to succeed in the future that it should include more of his musical output and make the silliness with the puppets something secondary. I think that adding interviews or interactions with musical and life personality who fall into similar lines of work and interests as he does would be interesting as well. This could be something incredible or end up as something odd from a great performer who was never able to gear up enough vibe about it to keep it going strong. Good luck Wednesday, perhaps we will see you on Adult Swim with this. This is recommended for fans of the shows referenced above and diehard W13 fanatics.
Special Features: PSA's, Outtakes, Staring Contest, Wednesday 13 Interview, & "Hi My Name Is Wednesday 13".
* The special features work very well with the context of the actual program and are probably the best stuff on it for me at least. The public service announcements are typical Wednesday 13, such as the one about werewolves. The staring contest is pretty much a losing contest against the hobo we mentioned before. Just try to out stare a painted face. "Hi My Name Is Wednesday 13" finds the singer host saying the phrase in a number of languages and then backwards. It seems like this was just some added weirdness to watch.
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