Editor's note: This blog entry by Debbie Parker is the first in an occasional series of blog entries by New Audience Road Show participants. The New Audience Road Show is an arts-education program that immerses young arts-curious adults in what the Columbia arts scene has to offer. Participants meet with arts leaders behind the scenes to learn more about the inner workings of arts organizations and then attend local programs. -- Dan Cook

We came. We saw. We conquered our naiveté surrounding independent film, as we learned about the lethal dangers of unrestrained self-pleasure.

During September members of Columbia's New Audience Road Show visited the Nickelodeon, Columbia’s nonprofit independent theater, three times to learn more about the local film scene. (Many thanks to El Burrito on Harden Street for feeding us while we were at it.) The visits to the Nick culminated in a premiere night showing of the dark comedy World’s Greatest Dad, starring Robin Williams and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. In the film, a high school teacher/single father wrestles with the career success and fame he achieves due to his son’s bizarre accidental suicide by suffocation/masturbation. (To learn more, read the synopsis at www.nickelodeon.org.) But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The real heart of the first month Road Show experience took place during the first two visits to the Nickelodeon, when the Nick staff gave the group a tour of both the current location, behind the State House on Main and Pendleton Streets, as well as the future home of the Nick at the old Fox Theater on 1607 Main Street. Andy Smith, Andrew Cline and Tori Katherman of the Nick told us about the history of the nonprofit, their very democratic film selection process, the antique equipment used to show films and the overall process of how the Nick is run. They also showed the group several short films by local artists that were showcased earlier this year at the Indie Grits Festival. The films were all very impressive and it was interesting learning about these virtually unknown local talents.

At our second stop, the old Fox Theater, and the new home of the Nick in about a year, the always charismatic Director Larry Hembree spoke about the capital campaign to move the Nick up Main Street. He told us about the history of the building, including its most recent role as a beauty supply store. During the tour we learned that much of the building will be preserved as the renovations continue, and literally every square inch of the building is up for grabs to be named after potential donors. There are small ticket items (“You too can have this toilet seat named after you”) as well as big ticket items, and it’s all for a very worthy cause, sure to reenergize old Main Street.

With its first and second floor theaters, the expanded layout of the future Nickelodeon will allow the group to show two films simultaneously and therefore appeal to wider audiences. To end the night, we watched a very poignant documentary about homelessness called Lost and Found by local filmmaker Betsy Newman. It’s a story about Newman’s search for her estranged sister, and I think the largely female audience that night found it particularly touching.

Our third stop on the Road Show included watching the Nick premiere of World’s Greatest Dad. I don’t want to give any more movie spoilers than I already have, but I highly recommend going to see it (and becoming a patron of the Nick in general). There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The Nickelodeon staff has certainly opened my eyes to the heart that they put into their work every day, and the unexpected heart that is behind a film about onanism, deceit and premature death.

Debbie Parker
Columbia Arts Roadie