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Found Footage Fest Returns With Insanity From The VHS Vaults

By Joel Wicklund in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 11, 2015 8:24PM

Sure, unforgettable oddities and hysterically inept videos from all realms of life pop up on the Internet all the time. But there's something to be said for curating the best of the best—or worst of the worst as the case may be. There's also something to be said for sharing these unforgettable peculiarities with a crowd, and the Found Footage Festival has been doing just that for years.

Found Footage Festival hosts and curators Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher bring their latest showcase of wonderment culled from garage sales, thrift stores, Goodwill and other accidental archives to the Music Box Theatre this Friday, Aug. 14 at 9:30 p.m. This edition has been dubbed a "Salute to Weirdos," and based on the preview clips we've seen, the title is more than fitting.

Among the weirdos on parade will be some celebrities, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, who makes all kinds of creepy come-ons in a twisted 1983 travelogue called Carnival in Brazil.

Speaking of inappropriate behavior, we really want to know why one of the spokespeople in this local furniture store commercial has his pants down. Well...we think we want to know.

And jeeeeezus, we just don't know what to say about this. No words can do it justice.

"Salute to Weirdos" will have more than sexual shenanigans on display, however. Other enticing attractions include a fitness video hosted by Broadway legend and Murder, She Wrote star Angela Lansbury; a cat massage tutorial; and former Wild Chicago host Ben Hollis in an early appearance as a televised companion for the lonely in a misguided venture called Rent-a-Friend. In fact, those who purchase tickets in advance online will be sent a link to watch Rent-a-Friend in its entirety...if that's something you would really want to do.

Tickets are $13 in advance or $15 at the door. Admission is restricted to those 18 and over, which, considering that Schwarzenegger video, sounds about right.