1.Gruesome greetings from Peru,Ron! Hows going the things there?
Hello! It's the holiday season. I'm watching Christmas movies and eating sweets. Life doesn't get much better.
2.Ron give us a killer trip by the existence of Troma Entertainment. Hows been the begings?
I started watching Troma films in the late 80s. Then in the 90s I moved to a small town where the only video store didn't carry any Troma tapes. I spent the next decade missing Troma. In 2005 I answered an ad to be a background actor in Poultrygeist. That was such a great experience and spawned a friendship with Lloyd Kaufman that has grown ever since. Not long after we filmed Poultrygeist, Lloyd asked me to volunteer at an upcoming convention. I found out very quick;y that working conventions for Troma is a lot of fun, and so over time that's now grown into my full time job.
3.Troma Entertainment how many movies have till now?
Troma has the rights to well over 1000 movies. Lloyd himself has directed over 30. I've been in his last 4, Poultrygeist, Return to Nuke 'Em High, Return to Return to Nuke 'Em High Vol. 2, and Shakespeare's Shitstorm. As a thank you to the fans who've supported us through the years we've put up over 400 of our movies on our YouTube channel. All uncut and all free. We're working on slowly putting up all of our back catalog.
Our moto is 'Let's Make Some Art'. As so, I think we're influenced by everything around us. As a company we welcome all kinds of art. While the first things people notice about Troma is the over the top gore in our films. But I think what defines Troma the most is the heart that is in our films. Especially the ones Lloyd has made himself. He finds a way to balance the ridiculous gore and silly jokes, but still imparts an underlying message delivered by a wildly varied group of actors and non actors, and finds a way to make it fun.
5.You are Convention Manager of Troma Entertainment right, explain some more your work!
I organize our convention appearances as well as many of Lloyd's appearances. We have some great people who've been handling our California & Florida shows, and I, myself work around 25-30 conventions and events each year across the northeast and midwest. We set up booths with literally every movie and book that we have in print. And we always have Toxie and Tromettes on hand for pictures and general shenanigans. Conventions are fun!
6.Which are your favorite movies of Troma Entertainment?
Surf Nazis Must Die was my very first Troma movie. It just had the coolest poster in the video store. It still holds a special place in my heart. Now my favorites are The Toxic Avenger, and Cannibal the Musical, but new releases like Return to Nuke 'Em High and Electric Apricot keep making their way into my favorites.
Basket Case: Genius! The first indie film I remember renting. Opened my eyes to a world of new movies.
The Toxic Avenger: Our Mickey Mouse. A case of a (very) average man becoming a super hero. I originally liked part 4, Citizen Toxie better, but after a crazy amount of viewings in theaters, the underlying heart that Lloyd puts into Toxie makes it my all around favorite.
Robocop: What amazing practical effects! The car hitting and exploding the guy who's crashed into the toxic waste has been burned into my memory.
Evil Dead: So much fun! Just got better and funnier with the sequels.
Lucio Fulci: Such great over the top FX. His work defined horror in the 80s.
8.Ron how you see the expectation of the movies of Troma Entertainment in these times?
Now that we have our streaming service, TromaNow, we're able to distribute a wider variety of entertainment. By encouraging artists in all walks of life to make their art for the sake of making art, and we're now able to stream it all online. We'll keep making and distributing the style we've always done, but with TromaNow we can share much more with the world.
9.New movies at Troma Entertainment? maybe?
We just finished the first rough cut of Lloyd's newest movie, Shakespeare's Shitstorm. It's based on The Tempest. We shot it this summer in Albania and NYC. It's looking like his most over the top movie ever. In a time when the world is being censored, Lloyd held no punches in lampooning everything he's wanted to over the years. It's a film that Lloyd made with his heart and it shows! Oh, and it has more nudity, gore, and poop than anything we've made before. With a little luck it should be screening this coming year.
10.How and where the Troma maniacs can get stuff?
www.troma.com is the place to get everything Troma. We also just started working with a company who makes shirts of our movies. Those are available here https://www.twistedtsmerch.com/troma
Both sites ship worldwide. Or if you're close to a convention we're attending, we bring crazy amounts of merch to all of them. And if Lloyd is attending, he always signs items for free.
11.Morbid future plans?
We're going to try to keep being an avenue for independent artists to feature their work. It gets tough as physical media goes by the wayside. But we'll still keep finding ways to get it out there! If anyone has art that they want Troma to distribute, they can contact alvaro@troma.com or there's an address at the bottom of our web site to send directly to the office.
12.Thanks a lot for your time in this interview Ron! last words!
Do what you love, and be nice to each other. Come visit us at a convention and take a little piece of Tromaville home with you!!! Thanks so much for thinking of us!
