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07/26/01 While I was in Seattle, the hippie girls and their friends, who I guess would be the hippie boys, insisted I watch a documentary about a curious character named Jesco White, the Dancing Outlaw. I guess I'm a little behind the times (big surprise), because this little gem initially surfaced in 1991, with a follow-up film in 1999, but it all still felt as fresh and dewy as if it were made yesterday. Jesco's a tap-dancing fool from West Virginia, who defines the term trailer trash. He literally lives in a trailer, and spends his life drinking and partying and beating up his wife, and, of course, tap-dancing. He wasn't half bad, actually, though I know nothing of the tap. I couldn't imagine him making it on Broadway, but that has probably more to do with his insane facial hair and proclivity for talking and dressing like Elvis, than anything else. He's also got a significantly older, overweight wife who suffers his multiple personalities with a stoicism seen only recently in the likes of Hillary Clinton. The hippies were completely enamored with the film, and had watched it on numerous occasions. I think you have to watch it a few times to truly appreciate all of Jesco's meanderings, if just because his accent is so thick he's hard to understand the first time around. Mollie's favorite lines included: "I enjoyed myself from within myself on behalf of myself." "My past is coming up into my future and messing with my good life." When I got back, I saw an interview with John Cusack for America's Sweethearts, and he somehow managed to throw a Jesco reference in there, so I realized he must have quite a following. So I searched his name, and I found he's got a sizeable fan base on the web.
Anyone else ever see these films? Let me know... |