After having 80 tour dates canceled last year due to the pandemic, the Found Footage Festival is back on the road and will come to Cincinnati’s Memorial Hall at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3. Tickets are on sale now.
Hosts Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, whose credits include The Onion and The Late Show, will be on hand for this “one-of-a-kind celebration” of videos that the duo has unearthed in dusty thrift stores and estate sales throughout North America. Pickett and Prueher take audiences on a guided tour of their latest and greatest VHS finds, providing live commentary and where-are-they-now updates on the people in these videotaped obscurities.
Highlights of the new show include recently unearthed footage from the 1987 Miss Jr America Wisconsin pageant, an exercise video called “Skiercise!,” a local news story about Pudgie Wudgie the Wonder Cat, and Pickett and Prueher’s appearance as strongmen Chop & Steele on local news stations and their “cringe-worthy” legal depositions that followed.
The Found Footage Festival debuted in New York in 2004 and has gone on to sell out hundreds of shows each year on tours that bring it to the U.S., Canada and the UK. It has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and National Public Radio.
Below, watch an example of the kind of VHS discovery that makes the Found Footage Festival organizers weep with joy.
A version of this story was originally published by CityBeat sister newspaper Cleveland Scene.
Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get the latest on the news, things to do and places to eat delivered right to your inbox.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Related Stories
Review: Netflix’s ‘Procession’ Uses a Unique Storytelling Method to Explore Shattered Faith
In Joel Coen’s ‘Tragedy of Macbeth,’ Denzel Washington Steals the Show
This article appears in Dec 8-21, 2021.