The Wicked Witch Project
In 1999, Joe Barlow placed an ad on alt.music.chapel-hill looking for collaborators, actors, production people, and well, just about anyone willing to bring his dream to fruition. In the shower, while Joe was scrubbing his scalp, it hit him like Psycho, that he could easily parody the Blair Witch Project with a simple camcorder and an idea. Well, lots of people had the same idea, but we like to think (and have been told) that our parody was actually funny. So, combining all the worst elements of “Blair Witch” with “The Wizard Of Oz”, we ended up with “The Wicked Witch Project.”
First, I parodied the website to an extreme degree visually, and the cast contributed their own “bios” for their respective sections. Joe and I wrote the rest of the content with a bit of help across the pond from Gil Wiliamson, a friend of Joe’s.
We were featured both locally and nationally in various media such as SciFi Magazine, The Arizona Republic, The Philadelphia Enquirer, and many others. We were also featured online in various websites including About.com. The video itself was premiered in New Orleans at a Science Fiction convention Joe was involved in called “Exoticon.” It was a bit strange and somehow fitting that all sorts of aliens, Klingons and creatures were in the audience laughing at our little effort.
Perhaps one of the most surreal moments was meeting Tom Savini, telling him about the film, and hearing him say, “Oh yeah, I want to see that one!” I sent him a tape.
It’s now out on DVD with all sorts of special features including commentary tracks from Joe and yours truly.
Somehow or another, this film landed me my first entry in IMDB, but I still don’t know who submitted me. I’ve got a feeling it was my Uncle Donald Darbro as the trivia about me on the site mentions that I have an uncle who is an Orthodontist in Greenwood, Indiana. Maybe I’ll ask him someday!
My Podcast
November, 1999
