by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport and Editor in Chief

You may recall (most likely not) that back in two thousand and eighteen your favorite Old Sport (me) started a column with everyone’s favorite neighborhood Doctor, Ashley Jane Carruthers, entitled “Classic Coroners”. It has been many moons since we have put pen to paper, but don’t fret! You can still find us slicing and dicing cadavers in the morgue on my podcast, Cinematic Crypt. I bring all of this up as the first film we dissected was the illustrious 1940 black and white beauty The Devil Bat starring Bela Lugosi and directed by Jean Yarborough. Bela plays a grand scientist, Dr. Paul Carruthers. With the assistance of his trusty bats, he sets out to take revenge on his maniacal corporate employer. My love for this film runs deep, which was cause for me to be quite aghast when I discovered that movie riffer about town, Matt McGinnis would make this motion picture the subject of his next event taking place at Colonial Theatre on October 30 at 7pm sharp.

For those unaware of what exactly the riffing profession entails, it is the act of commentating on a film while it plays with the hope to provide humor to what is typically a deplorable flick. Often motion pictures that are given the riff treatment are low budget b-movie fare and most typically part of public domain. This type of performance has become a skilled art form and was popularized by the now defunct television program Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) that was started in the late eighties and ran until the late nineties and was once again revived in 2017-2022 (find where to watch the show here).

In 2012, Matt enrolled in a workshop on movie riffing at Bucks County Community College with the creator of MST3K, Joel Hodgson. The class taught Matt how much went into this creative medium. This experience led to Joel becoming a mentor of sorts, helping Matt hone his riff skills and leading to a position as supervising riffer on the reboot of MST3K in 2017 until 2022 on Netflix. Recently, I had a sit down with this chap to find out the details about his event and what type of angle he would be taking on the treasure of a motion picture known as The Devil Bat.

Rosalie Kicks (RK): What interested you in Movie Riffing? 

Matt McGinnis (MG): That’s a loaded question… I always had a soft spot for B-movies of the fifties and sixties. MST3K was always on and, in high school, I got really into Ed Wood. Everything fell into place in a weird way and I never thought anything I did for life, would be talking over a bad movie with my friends.

RK: Tell me a bit more about the event on October 30. I read that there will be audience participation…

MG: This is somewhat of an experiment. I first did a show with Emily Marsh and Joel Hodgson, during Blobfest (this is an annual event at Colonial Theatre). Afterwards, people went online and wanted to know what it was like - to riff. So I thought, let’s give people that chance. Essentially, randomly selected people from the audience will volunteer to perform and be given a script, microphone, and visual cues for when to say their joke. This will all be done in a gameshow style and of course there will points. We will have a short demonstration of the process, so the contestants know what they are in for, and my assistant Roxie will also be there to provide help. She is a tremendous performer who loves movies as well and has a really great creative spirit. She helped me at Blobfest and gets the whole vibe. Roxie helps keep score on the board and helps me stay on track.

RK: What made you select The Devil Bat?

MG: Well, Bela Lugosi was the main reason I picked it. I wanted to do The Bat (1959) with Vincent Price - he is my favorite actor - but there is just wall to wall dialogue in that thing, whereas The Devil Bat has plenty of room for jokes.

RK: Have any tricks or treats in store for the upcoming event that you can share? 

MG: There will be some merch available (editor’s note: MovieJawn will be tabling at the event too), a special event poster created by Tony Lombardo of the original The Devil Bat poster. Our event sponsor Scarepros - a year around Halloween store in Levittown - have been generous with donations and there will be prizes on hand for attendees. Costumes are encouraged too! Come out and have fun, it is going to be like a Halloween party.

RK: What would be your dream movie to riff? 

MG: There are several dream movies, but they are out of the price range. There are a number within public domain that I would love to riff though such as House on Haunted Hill (1959), it is such a fun movie. Last Man on Earth (1964) with Vincent Price would be a lot of fun. It is a downer of a movie, but with some riffs you could spruce it up. On my bucket list though is Mac and Me (1988), with a bunch of friends… this has to be riffed, this movie is so absurd.

RK: Any future events planned? 

MG: We are in talks with Colonial Theatre about a Christmas movie event but details are at the minimum at this point. Watch out for an announcement in the next couple weeks.

This is sure to be a fangtastic night! I will be in attendance with everyone’s favorite Best Boy for the event and we will be slinging movie zines in the lobby before and after the show. Be sure to swing by our table as we will have some spooky treats on hand. After speaking with Matt, I am confident that he will treat The Devil Bat respectfully. If not, I will have some formoooola on hand and a bat waiting in the wings. Muhaha.

Matt McGinnis’s Movie Riffing Melee returns to the Colonial Theatre on Wednesday, October 30 at 7pm. Purchase tickets to the event here.