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Glenn Humplik
Sep. 6th, 2004
01:27 am - New blog
Well... the time has come. I've decided to move my blog over to blogger.com. I'll be linking in from my site instead of livejournal.com.
Apr. 8th, 2004
03:22 pm - A close call
Ok... so we all do dumb things from time to time, me included. Actually, I probably top the list, but that's another topic altogether. Last week, I did something completely dumb, that nearly killed me. I was in the basement of one of my favorite watering holes here in town, Zaphods. In the back area where we were standing is a staff/cargo elevator for loading up band equipment, booze etc... The elevator is one of those big open concept type of things, with a 5 foot 10 gate, and a gap of 2 feet above it. As a joke I stuck my head in the gap and laughed at how funny it would be if the elevator came right at that instant. I pulled my head out and I swear, two seconds later the elevator came down. The Darwin dream almost happened, decapitated head and all. Anyhoo, a word of caution, don't drink and stick your head into weird places.
Fooling around with the buzznet cell cam site, fun...
Mar. 30th, 2004
04:41 pm - That was then... this is now.
Wow... was kinda bored this afternoon, then stumbled upon my old journal. Crazy how things have changed for me in the past year.
Well... after the show got canceled by MTV I decided to move back home to Ottawa Canada. I was burned out, had just about enough of the TV biz and Los Angeles. As fun as it can be, Los Angeles was also a nightmare when unemployed. The fun was over, it was time to move on with my life.
So... I moved back here earlier this year, and right now i'm looking to get back into the hi-tech industry here in Ottawa (or Montreal for that matter). Am I bitter about all of it? Nahhh, not at all..... surprised it actually went that long, I never thought i'd be in California for 3 and half years in the first place. It was a hell of a life experience, but like the old cliche... all good things must come to an end. Despite missing a lot of friends in Los Angeles it's been great to come back to family and old friends (and new ones too) back here in Canada, although I still hate the damn canadian winters (what a reminder the past couple of months has been).
Did manage to go on a cool USO tour to the middle east a couple of months ago, i've put up some pictures if you happen to find yourself bored. Besides coming back i'm dying to start up a new band up here, play locally for beer and friends, that's going to be one of my goals this summer (along with getting a job).
Aug. 4th, 2003
Jul. 14th, 2003
12:29 am - week 3
Been spending less and less time on line lately. My work is cooling off my internet addiction I guess. Crazy week this week, glad I survived it in one piece (sorta). Was pretty weird to see the video of me shit faced in Germany. It was like a dirty little secret that I knew was out there. My first viewing of the clip was in the studio with everyone else. Charming..... Back to work tomorrow. My only goal this week is to try to get some sleep on Wednesday night. The porn star slumber party this past wednesday was not exactly conducive to hard sleep, no pun intended. Thumb is still hurting when I put any sort of pressure on it, can't wait to pick up my guitar again, frustrating not being able to play.
Jul. 7th, 2003
10:05 am - more music crap...
Caught Paul Oakenfold at the Hollywood Bowl last night. Good show, my first at the Bowl. Love the venue.
Cracking up over this article in AVN today:
http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Nav
Jul. 6th, 2003
09:21 am - two down
What a crazy two weeks it's been. We're not in a complete groove yet, but give it a couple more weeks and I think we'll be there. Most surreal moment of the week for me this week was spending half an hour with Gene Simmons as he painted me up "Kiss style" for the show. It was a total "How the hell did this happen?" moment in my life. More fun lined up this week with Pamela Anderson and Weird Al among the guests coming on the show. It's crazy to think we've already pumped out 10 hours of shows. That almost equals the total amount of show time we pumped out in the first MTV show over the span of a year and a half.
For anyone in Canada, check this out. Hopefully they'll pick up the nightly show at one point. It's weird knowing our families and friends can't watch the show every night.
Caught "Poison" in concert last week. I've never been a big fan or anything, but wave free tickets in my face and.... anyhoo... fun show. Vince Neil (Motley Crue) who opened up looked like he was going through the motions though.
Did manage to catch a couple of movies as well. Both "28 days later" and "Spellbound" were excellent. Hope to catch Terminator 3 tomorrow night, liked the first two, we'll see about this one.
Jun. 30th, 2003
09:30 am - NY Times
Besides the "portly" comment I thought this NY Times article today was pretty cool.
No Mealworm Snacks for Late-Night Comic
By LOLA OGUNNAIKE, NY Times
He has gobbled mealworms and sucked milk from a cow's udder, French-kissed a mouse and conducted interviews with an excrement-covered microphone. But the comedian Tom Green, 31, insists his salad days are over. Viewers who tune into Mr. Green's new late-night show, "The New Tom Green Show," which began on MTV last Monday, will be hard pressed to find the excruciatingly lowbrow stunts that jump-started his stateside career four years ago as host of MTV's "Tom Green Show." It is not that he is now opposed to putting vermin in his mouth, but rather he says shock performances are, well, no longer shocking.
"You can turn on `Survivor' and watch anyone eat worms," Mr. Green said over lunch at a midtown bistro. "It's crazy that society has gone that far into hell that watching someone eat a bunch of beetles doesn't get a reaction anymore."
This godfather of gross-out is more muted, yes, but Mr. Green still wants a reaction. In a sketch for his new show, he and his sidekick, Glenn Humplik, turned up at the doorstep of the former talk-show host Sally Jessy Raphaël, begging for cash. She gave them $300. Another stunt, filmed in Quebec City, had Mr. Green flipping through the pages of an English-French dictionary and in French asking a startled pedestrian, "Where can I buy a gerbil and a large quantity of lubricant?" Mr. Green's celebrity guests also push the envelope. The comedian Andy Dick fractured Mr. Humplik's wrist in a vigorous wrestling match.
"The New Tom Green Show" is MTV's first foray into the world of late-night comedy shows, and needless to say the show has a decidedly laddie feel, more Maxim than GQ. While eminences like David Letterman and Jay Leno, who appeal to an older demographic, need not necessarily worry, young bucks like Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Kilborn and the decidedly dorky Conan O'Brien could have cause for concern.
"There was no real strategy here," said John Miller, executive vice president of MTV's series development and animation. "Tom came to us and said he wanted to do a show. He is right for our viewers. He's like a teenager or college kid times 10."
Dressed in a rumpled T-shirt, baggy jeans and sneakers made for skateboarding, Mr. Green did indeed look like a fifth-year undergraduate. On camera Mr. Green trades the slacker get-ups for tailored suits and ties. In preparation for his new gig he did extensive research at the Museum of Radio and Television, drawing inspiration from early David Letterman and late-night shows of the 60's.
"I've been watching a lot of Steve Allen, Jack Parr and Johnny Carson," Mr. Green said. "I do think it's important we know how the pros do it, so we can really mess it up."
Mr. Humplik, Mr. Green's best friend and one-man laugh track, was tickled by this statement. He is tickled by nearly all of Mr. Green's statements, which makes him the perfect Ed McMahon to Mr. Green's New Age Carson. The two have known each other since Mr. Green's days as a radio disc jockey at a college station in Ottawa. Before becoming Mr. Green's perma-sidekick, Mr. Humplik (yes, it is his real name) was a manager at a technology company. He compared Mr. Green to a "bratty little brother."
Mr. Humplik, 38, a portly, easy-going man with glasses and thinning red hair, added, "I either want to punch him in the face or laugh at him." Like most loved ones in Mr. Green's life, Mr. Humplik has been the butt of several of the comedian's jokes.
"I don't know why he's still my friend," Mr. Green said. (This was before the fractured wrist.) Mr. Humplik offered an answer: "A big check."
Mr. Green, who bears a startling resemblance to the "Scooby-Doo" character Shaggy with his slumped shoulders, goatee and lanky 6-foot-3 frame, said that returning to television seemed like the next logical career move having already "conquered" Hollywood with classics (wink, wink) like "Freddy Got Fingered," "Road Trip" and "Stealing Harvard."
"As you know, I've won a lot of awards for my acting work," Mr. Green deadpanned. He was alluding to the five Razzies his directorial debut "Freddy Got Fingered" received from the Golden Raspberry Society, which dishonors the year's worst films. Though he is able to make light of "Freddy," a commercial dud that was critically lambasted by nearly everyone, Mr. Green admits to being surprised and troubled by the overwhelmingly negative reaction his movie received. "I took it personally," said Mr. Green, who wrote and starred in the film. "It was a nightmare, really embarrassing.`
He confessed that he has a favorite scene from the film: his ex-wife, Drew Barrymore, being shoved into a pile of trash cans. "I've put it on a tape loop, and it rolls over and over my bedroom wall," he said. (Whether Mr. Green was joking or being serious was difficult to determine.) Mr. Green and Ms. Barrymore, who met on the set of "Charlie's Angels" in 2000, were married for five months before calling it quits. The two are no longer on speaking terms, he said. "When we got divorced, we did so because we didn't like each other," he added with a shrug. "Do you talk to people you don't like?"
Mr. Humplik chuckled nervously.
"In all seriousness," Mr. Green continued, "I'd rather let bygones be bygones and just look at it as another stupid couple of actors who went off and got married."
Born in Pembroke, Ontario, the only child of a military computer technician and homemaker, Mr. Green was introduced to comedy early in life. "My dad is a goofball," he said. His mother is less of a cutup. "You don't realize how conservative your mom is until you paint lesbians on her car."
The quintessential class clown (in high school he was voted most likely to fill in for David Letterman), by the age of 15 Mr. Green was performing stand-up at the comedy club Yuk Yuk in Ottawa. When not perfecting punch lines, he wrote rhymes for his fledgling rap group Organized Rhyme. The duo eventually landed a record deal and Canadian Top 10 hit "Check the O.R." After his rap career petered out, Mr. Green focused on a call-in radio show, which evolved into a public access television series. His first stunt, titled "Meathead," had him interviewing pedestrians with steaks duct-taped to his face.
His willingness to do anything for a laugh earned him cult-hero status. In 1998 MTV came knocking. "The Tom Green Show" began in January 1999.
"We were plucked out of our little town in Canada and put on this big channel, and everything was swirling around us," he said. "The whole world changed."
Then suddenly, in the midst of all this success, he was told he had testicular cancer in 2000. (Later his marriage with Ms. Barrymore fell apart, and their house burned down.) "The timing of when I got sick was kind of weird," he said. "I'd been working 10 to 15 years to get somewhere, and right when I get there I think I'm going to die."
After spending the first few weeks after the diagnosis depressed and "freaking out really hard," Mr. Green decided to face his disease head on. He started his own cancer fund and produced a poignant, albeit excruciatingly graphic, television special about his battle with cancer. Today, after having had his right testicle removed, he is cancer free.
His hardships have forced him to mature a great deal, those close to him say. "You reflect a lot more now," Mr. Humplik told Mr. Green. "Before you would just storm ahead. Now you enjoy life a little more, and you're more focused on what you really want to do." And what he does not want to do.
Mr. Green said he had little interest in being a symbol for cancer survivors. "I'll talk about it," he said, eyes darting about. "But I don't want to wear my testicles on my sleeve for the rest of my life."
Jun. 28th, 2003
07:44 pm - Wo...
What a week it's been. I've lost 6 pounds sweating and being nervous, that's a rarity for me. I was getting pretty used to being unemployed. This working my ass off thing is going to take some getting used to. We're all still learning our respective jobs and trying to get into a groove, hopefully it's entertaining as well. I broke a bone this week, oh well.... hopefully that'll be the last bone broken.... for a while anyway. Had a sandwich get together earlier today, good time with everybody. Some of it will pop into the show Monday. Thanks to everyone who's been tuning in this week, the ratings have been really good. That makes doing a show everyday a hell of a lot easier.
This review in the NY Post came out earlier this week, it was pretty cool for us.
http://nypost.com/entertainment/1760.htm
Jun. 25th, 2003
01:04 am - and on day 2, ouch...
Well... it was bound to happen sooner or later. I took in my first injury on the new show tonight. I broke my thumb in a wrestling match with Andy Dick. Just a slight fracture, nothing too serious. Insane that it only took two shows for something to happen. Luckily the doctor gave me a little Vicadin to take care of the pain. Everything is going at a hundred miles an hour right now, but we're still finding some time to enjoy it. Crazy week so far, and it's only Wednesday.
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