Not only did I see, it, but I SHOT THAT SHOW. It was called " MTV: 25 Lame". They were sitting around, deciding MTV’s 25 lamest videos ever and riffing on them. The crew was in stitches RIGHT up until the moment they brought in Mr. Ice.
He sullenly sat through a few questions, then- apparently NOBODY knew that he was going to do this at all, including his handlers- he stood up and took a bat and began smashing the set. These were rented items, some of which were of questionable taste but not necessarily CHEAP. I moved around with the Steadicam as he swung, and there is in fact a moment during his violent little outburst when he has the bat up in the air and turned right towards my lens, and I thought he might take a swing at me. Being the selfless hero of cinema that I am, always determined to capture the finest shot at any cost, I did the expected thing. I stepped back a few steps really fast :rolleyes:.
When he was done, and it took him perhaps 45 seconds ( an eternity when you are in fear of your life ), he sat back down and was greeted with total shock. Jeanine Garofalo was in tears, and not fake ones. She was deeply scared by what this guy had done. They limped their way to a fast commercial break and we cut tape.
The place went nuts. She stormed off, fucking FURIOUS. The rest of us were pretty angry- the other camerapeople and I were in harm’s way, as were the other three comedians. The Producer of our show was on set, yelling at Vanilla Ice’s people–IIRC–
.
To Ice’s handler’s credit, he didn’t try to downplay this at all, he was pretty freaked out too. It wasn’t amusing gorilla theatre, it was just plain violence and sadly, it changed the tone of the show a bit.
I’m proud to say I helped re-amuse the cast slightly. We did the next to final segment, where they viewed the last few videos and one of them- the one finally voted Most Lame Video - was Don Johnson’s “Heartbeat” video. I worked as a Production Assistant on it, and when they screened the video, busted on it and then cut to commercial, I said to my assistant- Hey man, I WORKED on that video !". Dennis Leary heard me say that and became unhinged with laughter, he loved the idea that the guy shooting 25 Lame worked on the lamest video.
In the last segment, he actually mentions that I was on the crew- thankfully he doesn’t name me. Aside from Mr. Ice’s foray into infantile testosterone-engorged behavior, I had a blast shooting that day.
There endeth the tale.
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