The Vegas Window

Wesley Willis’s Joyrides Trailer:

A few months ago I helped promote a brand new documentary at the Florida Film Festival about the life of Wesley Willis called Wesley Willis’s Joyrides. I discovered Wesley in high school when some friends played his tracks for me off Napster. Every time we did a new search we would find another track of his. The supply seemed unlimited. Of course everybody else just found the music funny and eventually forgot about it. But I thought about the music and I thought about Wesley. I wondered what it was like to be him and to be so famous for such an obscure talent. I was constantly questioning my interest in Wesley. Was he actually a genius? Was he just another victim of people’s never ending drive to escalate the absurd to the level of art? Was Wesley being exploited?

The film answered many of these questions and as I spoke with the filmmakers (Kim Shivley and Chris Bagley) throughout the week I came to a better understanding of who Wesley was. No he wasn’t being exploited. He wanted people to hear his music and wanted them to laugh. He knew sometimes they weren’t laughing with him but he handled the criticisms and heckling well. The man was walking out of shows each night with thousands of dollars. So who was playing who?

I found myself focusing on Wesley so much that it became almost surreal to be spending time with two people who not only knew him personally but documented his life, death, and were present at his funeral. I couldn’t stop wondering. What was he like off the stage? Did he ever slow down and just watch TV? The answers from Kim and Chris were not surprising. No, he never slowed down. He was making music and paintings up until his death. He never just sat still and watched the television. He would be asking you what you thought about this or that or a new song he was working on.

Kim and Chris were incredibly open with their memories of Wesley and equally as genuine in their time with me. The film festival is an event I look forward to every year as an incredible opportunity to spend time with a lot of talented people (abroad and local) and get to know a particular set filmmakers very well. We spent all week hanging out at the fest, eating free fancy food at parties, and drinking late night coffee at Dennys. We still talk often on the phone and I regularly text Kim Wesley Willis quotes like “I’m about to blow my socks off.” I even met their families who were in town for a vacation at Disney World. Chris’ brother was a particularly interesting guy who was reserved but oddly hilarious. You could seem him calculating jokes and quirky things to say, but once he said them he would just sit back and let it resonate without another word.

It is always interesting meeting people like this at the festival. For one week you see them everyday and in a large part feel responsible for making their stay in Orlando a comfortable one. Then eventually go home and you are left in your small town with all the same things. I don’t mind it. In fact there is a part of me that likes it. Its like hanging around a gymnasium after a prom has ended. The parties are still going on somewhere else but you are sweeping up confetti on the floor and pushing chairs under tables.

After every encounter I have with people like Kim and Chris I grow closer to where I want to be in my career. I get a taste of what is possible. The world shrinks. You realize how possible it is to do the things you want if you just don’t stop. I know, I know. I sound like some lame line from Rocky V. But it is true! I have been working on the same film for six years. I need some kind of encouragement!

This is a poster design I made for the film’s Florida screenings: