Monday, March 05, 2007

Count Gore De Vol


When I was a creepy little kid, the highlight of my week was staying up on Saturday nights to watch the local television station's show Creature Feature, with their host Gore De Vol. I don't know if "local television" really exists anymore, outside of corny local commercials, but our local station used to have these really cheesy shows that were all produced 'in house': there was a children's show called 'Wow!' with the host Captain 20, and Creature Feature with the host Count Gore De Vol, and the Saturday afternoon Kung-Fu Theatre, which sometimes also featured Count Gore De Vol. Incidentally, Count Gore and Captain 20 were the same guy, who also introduced the Kung-Fu Theatre.
Anyway, it's hard to remember this now, but back in the pre-Internet Dark Ages, it was really hard for weirdos to find things to do in suburbia. The only real bones we were thrown was the local weekly midnight showings of Rocky Horror, a few local punk bands, and Creature Feature. So, when Creature Feature did it's annual "live" show on Halloween at the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse, it was packed with drunken adults basically! Ah the age of the local horror movie hosts! Who will carry the torch in this era of basic cable and the net?
The shows were shot in the studio and the host, Count Gore, made cheesy jokes, and had skits, and the occasional guest. It was very lo-fi: when he would make a joke, you could hear the crew laughing off-camera. But it was also very unpretentious and silly. I miss watching the show on Saturday nights. However, I was thrilled beyond belief to find that Richard Dyzsel, Count Gore himself, has a webpage and sells DVDs of Creature Feature. He also records webcasts, which I don't really understand. But, I have been buying DVDs from him and watching them late at night.

10 comments:

historyjen said...

As a teenager in Ottawa I had, ahem, "The Tom Green Show" on the local cable channel. Very low-tech and often just plain stupid. But the audience loved it! There were also all kinds of other low-budget, locally-produced shows on that channel. Some of which had good moments I sometimes caught when flipping past them in search of network TV . . . .

Greg von Winckel said...

Holy Crap! Captain 20 is still alive?! I remember him from the early '80s.

Greg von Winckel said...

Also, apparently you can hire him as a DJ:

http://www.soundsfabulous.com/

Rufus said...

Jen P.: To be honest, Tom Green seems a lot funnier since I've been in Canada. I didn't really understand how reserved Canadians can be- his parents act exactly like Claire's parents. He seems much more like a surrealist when I see him on the air here. I also love that there's still so much local programming in Toronto. There are no cities left in the US that would have so many shows on with Ed the Sock.

Greg: He's quite the Renaissance man, isn't he? I'll admit that I still have the Howard the Duck tee-shirt that I won from a Creature Feature contest- and the autographed Count Gore photo that came with it!

Anonymous said...

"When I was a creepy little kid..."

That's an awesome way to begin a post.

Rufus said...

Hiromi: Thank you. People who've known me can attest that it's honest too. :)

Greg von Winckel said...

And also a creepy teenager.

Rufus said...

It's true! My earliest memory is of being about 4 or 5 and using halloween make-up to make myself look seriously injurred and covered in blood in order to freak out my parents.

Greg von Winckel said...

Didn't you make a mock corpse out of produce in the refrigerator or something?

Rufus said...

It was made out of latex, paper towels, and chunks of foam- I got in trouble for cutting up the couch cushions! But I was storing it in the refrigerator for a while.