“Greetings from Tromaville!”
If you heard that in Lloyd Kaufman’s iconic voice, have I got a treat for you! A closely curated collection of interviews with the legendary director and Troma co-founder is on the way. Just in time for the theatrical release announcement of Macon Blair’s revisiting of The Toxic Avenger comes a deep dive into the mind that birthed Toxie himself.
Twenty-two years after Make Your Own Damn Movie!, Kaufman’s autobiographical guide to filmmaking, comes a new volume in Kaufman’s canon with a 242-page collection of interviews curated by volume editor Mathew (yes, one T) Klickstein and published by University Press of Mississippi available this month. The included interviews, occurring throughout Kaufman’s 50-year career, were conducted by friends, collaborators, and writers, including Klickstein himself, to bring you Kaufman at his most authentic.
FANGORIA chatted with Klickstein about his friendship with the man behind 50 years of Troma Entertainment and the upcoming collaboration titled Lloyd Kaufman Interviews releasing February 17 in both paperback and hardcover.
What made you want to curate this collection of Lloyd Kaufman interviews?
One nice thing about being with the University Press is there is a certain degree of prestige. This is my first quote-unquote academic book straight up. Hopefully, it’ll end up at colleges and maybe be part of college curricula and that kind of thing, which, again, was a goal of mine. Let’s dignify Lloyd and Troma in this way that he deserves, especially because I was a little shocked they hadn’t done Lloyd yet.
I love these other filmmakers, but they’ve done John Waters, they’ve done Russ Meyers, they’ve done Roger Corman, they’ve done Stuart Gordon, that was the big one for me. I love Stuart Gordon as much as the next guy, but you’re going to do Stuart Gordon and not Lloyd? Come on. So next, they just need to do Larry Cohen, Frank Henenlotter, and folks like that, but hopefully, we’ll get there. But point being, I really wanted to do a Lloyd version, and they were up for it.
Clips from FANGORIA Community Q&A with Lloyd Kaufman and Mathew Klickstein
What’s your relationship with Lloyd like? Lloyd’s a very friendly person, but I think you need a special dynamic to collaborate with him.
I’ve known him for more than half my life. Like so many people from my generation, I was a big Troma kid. I watched Toxic Crusaders on Saturday morning cartoons when they first ran. I would stay up late with friends watching edited versions of The Toxic Avenger and such on USA Up All Night and sometimes not edited on Skinemax… or Cinemax, whatever you want to call it, things like that, Joe Bob Briggs and shows like that. We’d watch it.
We were video store kids, so we would always get movies like The Toxic Avenger and Sargeant Kabukiman, and Surf Nazis Must Die. They were just fascinating to us, the posters… In some ways, we were the target audience, even though we were a little younger. We were mischievous, crafty, and irreverent, but we were smart kids, and we would really gravitate toward that.
Plus, the whole misfits taking over the world aspect of a lot of Troma movies, and that’s so much of what Toxic Avenger is about. We really connected with that too, obviously. We were right there at the precipice of the kind of geeks taking over pop culture world that started happening in the ’90s and early 2000s. We were kind of part of that first wave.
So Lloyd was always a big part of my life, even when I was younger. I eventually met him and started doing little things with Troma, as you do. And just over the years, we just got pretty close.
What did you learn about Lloyd that you didn’t know before?
That’s probably my favorite question, we talked about it a little bit in the book, too. Consistency. I think Hunter S. Thompson talked about this once, and I think he was similar. I think that’s why a lot of people like to read his letters and diaries and things like that. He really was always the same person.
It’s good to change, it’s good to evolve, it’s good to adapt. Lloyd’s certainly done that too, but his values and the way that he approaches problems and who he is as a person, as a filmmaker, as a man, as a husband, as a father, clearly has not changed much if at all since he was in his mid to late twenties, which is when some of these interviews start.
I talked with him about it and was surprised that he’s not just this bitter old codger who is now in his eighties, jaded and bitter about a film industry that has not always been that great to him or a media or a corporate world that hasn’t always been that great to him or Troma. It’s not like he became that way. He’s always been like that, and I found that really fascinating.
You read the book, and you can see that even in his earliest interviews, when he was still just getting started, he did not hold back. He was completely brave and courageous with everything he had to say, maybe to a fault. It might be one of the reasons why Lloyd and Troma aren’t out there on a larger level, he’s ruffled some feathers and he doesn’t mind going after these social media companies. He doesn’t mind going after certain political iconic figures on both sides of the aisle.
Lloyd has been a true independent in a way that I think a lot of other filmmakers, punk rockers, rock stars, hip hop guys, and people who are supposed to be similarly independent or contrarian don’t always go that far with. Lloyd really goes all the way. Lloyd really attacks. Not saying that’s always a good thing business-wise, but it’s just who he is.
As soon as he got out and started getting interviewed early on, he had some complaints, and he made them very clear about everything: politics, money, environmentalism, corporations, Hollywood, independent cinema, art, New York, LA, Chicago, whatever. He just had a lot to say, and he would say it. I think that’s why some people don’t like him or some people ignore him and why a lot of people like myself and certain other filmmakers, the South Park guys, and people like that really connect with him because they look up to him as, “Wow, look, he is this north star of being contrarian.” He does not hold back from that, and I find that really interesting.
That was a big surprise. I was amazed. It wasn’t confusing like, “Really? Wow.” It was more like, “Oh, geez, he really has always been like that.” He’s Mr. Consistent like a Hunter. S. Thompson. Thompson did an interview where he talked about his heroes, and he listed people like Bob Dylan, Muhammad Ali, and a few others.
He said it was because they never sold out and were really consistent with who they were and their worldview, even during different evolutions and changes. Particularly someone like Bob Dylan. He’s been able to evolve, change, and adapt, but he has always still been himself.
And Lloyd’s very much like that, even with all the changes and evolutions and different technology and keeping up with the changing trends as he does. He’s in his eighties, and he wears these sweaters with Tupac on them. He really is very interested in what’s going on in all these different worlds and whatnot. I think it’s one of the reasons he is the way he is.
Preorders for Lloyd Kaufman Interviews are on sale now from University Press of Mississippi and are set to ship February 17.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.