The Hayseed & One Week

Four-night patio residency!

After your long day at the NC Folk Festival, be it running merch, hosting an artist, running sound, or just seeing a dozen amazing acts, you’ll need a place to chill. Europa patio is your spot.

At 10pm each night (8pm Sunday), I’ll be playing two live film scores to the most brilliant comedy shorts of Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, at least in my opinion, after having watched them all.

First up, from 1919, “The Hayseed”. It’s Arbuckle’s film, but heavily features Buster Keaton, who was learning everything he could about moviemaking while being Rocoe’s top gag man. I’ll be accompanying on solo, strumless ukulele — the same show I performed as a pop-up in this year’s Orlando Fringe Festival.

And second, from 1920, “One Week”, which is the first film Buster Keaton put out as writer, director, and star. It’s a spoof of an education short called “Home Made”, about prefab housing, but in Buster’s version, things go a little awry. If you don’t know much about Buster, “One Week” will show you why he’s a movie hero to so many people. I’ll accompany this one on solo guitar, with the low string tuned down to D.

The whole show will be about 45 minutes, at which point the patio carousing will recommence and we can all geek out about films and music.

Arbuckle and Keaton

In 1917, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was making some of the most popular comedy shorts in the world. Buster Keaton, a fellow vaudevillian, was booked at New York City’s Winter Garden. Walking down Broadway, they meet. As Keaton describes later:

“Arbuckle asked me if I՚d ever been in a motion picture. I said I hadn՚t even been in a studio. He said, ‘Come on down to the Norma Talmadge Studio on 48th on Monday. Get there early and do a scene with me and see how you like it.’ Well, [my] rehearsals hadn’t started yet, so I said, ‘all right.՚”

Arbuckle and Keaton become parters in all aspects of film, and in the next three years, made 14 two-reelers together. The first film this evening is The Hayseed, released in October 1919, almost the last of these 14 shorts.

By 1920, Arbuckle was under contract with Paramount to make feature films, Keaton had taken over the production company, and he releases One Week, his first film as writer, director, and star. Playing off a Ford Motor Company documentary about pre-fab housing, Keaton includes its wedding, Model-T ride, and calendar transitions.

In 1921, Arbuckle was charged in the death of Virginia Rappe, who fell ill in his hotel room. Receiving serious medical care too late, she died four days later. After three highly publicized trials, Arbuckle was exonerated, but his career and reputation were destroyed.

Rappe, a model and talented fashion designer, was similarly defamed in sensational accounts and also in the service of Arbuckle’s defense.