Episode Six. Ok, this one is a little different.   And it comes on the heels of Episode Five: Maggots at Occupy Wall Street, which itself was different, so I’m starting to fade on what exactly a standard Maggots episode looks like.

We  never know what to expect when we arrive to cover these events. The eventual look of the episode is so often predicated by seemingly arbitrary minutia: Scoots forgot the lighting equipment, Scoots doesn’t wasn’t to get arrested protesting, Scoots has gas. These – and other similar details – play such a giant role in shaping the finished product that our pre-episode planning meetings are becoming increasingly worthless.

(Though, to be fair, I spend the vast majority of these “meetings” secretly reading Cracked on the Barnes and Noble browser, while Scoots no doubt plays an online role playing game.)

Don’t Mind the Maggots: Doctors in Love follows Scoots and I as we attempt to cover Legend Masters, a Zorro-themed, improvisational musical story-telling event at Arlene’s Grocery in Manhattan.  How any of these things are connected to the other is beyond me, but at the time it seemed like a great event because it was sufficiently weird, gave me an excuse to dress up in a costume again, and provided opportunities for direct participation.

We took care of business on the Zorro front, despite getting kicked out of the costume store for not having a permit for the camera (always keeping it professional over here at Maggots). We filmed our intros, shot b-roll, gathered up participants for interviews. We covered it like any other event but when it came time to edit, it slowly became obvious that story-telling events can’t really work as Maggots episodes. We don’t want to cut up other people’s stories without their consent, and we really don’t want a 90-minute episode.

The only way we thought  it would work is if my story went in there, in its entirety.  And not wanting a seven-minute video to feature an uninterrupted, five minute shot of me in a Zorro costume talking about penises, we decided to embellish the story with some techniques we’ve never tried before. This is ultimately why Episode Six ends up not feeling quite like a Don’t Mind the Maggots episode.

Like I said, I never know where these things are going to end up, and I certainly didn’t think this was going to end up with me searching in vain for an Insane Clown Posse t-shirt at a thrift store. But it did. And considering the spirit of DMTM, I guess that’s the point.

Hope you Enjoy!

PS. In case you were wondering, the story “Doctor’s in Love” (which some of you – I know – have heard) is mostly true. The host of the event was adamant we tell true stories, and ignoring a few flourishes I threw in there almost at random, I accommodated her.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go have a talk with my parents.

Related posts:

1. Don’t Mind the Maggots, Episode Five: Occupy Wall Street
2. Don’t Mind the Maggots Updates
3. Don’t Mind the Maggots: Chinese New Year 2012
4. Don’t Mind the Maggots: SantaCon NYC