Directing Conrad Brooks

CONRAD BROOKS, LEFT, IN "PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE"

I was walking the Monroeville Exposition Center floor during Saturday's Pittsburgh Comicon when I saw a sign over a booth for "Conrad Brooks."

The name was familiar. Where did I know it from?

Turns out, it was THE Conrad Brooks, sole cast survivor from infamous movie director Ed Woods' classic bad film, "Plan 9 From Outer Space."

He portrayed "Patrolman Jamie," one of the two officers constantly dispatched to investigate the mysterious cemetery goings-on that somehow involved Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Vampira and a chiropractor.

Just the previous weekend, in fact, Mary and I had enjoyed a copy of the recent RiffTrax send-up of "Plan 9," courtesy of co-worker Robert McFerren who learned of my love of truly bad movies. RiffTrax is made up of some of the cast of the old "Mystery Science Theater 3000" show who are famous for augmenting a movie's soundtrack with their own often outrageous commentary. The "Plan 9" riff was excellent.

Well, during my first visit to the booth, I obtained an autograph from Conrad and enjoyed talking to him for a bit. He's quite the character at 78 years old. And I promised to stop by later for a DVD. He has starred, it turns out, in quite a few productions since "Plan 9," and has even tried his hand at directing.

So, I returned three hours later, filled with the after-glow of meeting Stan Lee and Conrad had seemingly forgotten me in the interim. Heck, he's quite popular and the crowd was a fair size – and he's 78 – so I cut him a lot of slack.

What you will see next is the unedited video of that encounter. It turns out, the much-maligned Mr. Wood probably had his hands full, if the entire "Plan 9 From Outer Space"cast had a much energy – not to mention, technological skills – as Conrad.



He was attempting to say ...

ConradBrooks.Com

... but the camera stalled before he got it all out at the end.

Eerie, eh? If Criswell was still alive, he might remark, "My friend, you have seen this incident, based on sworn testimony. Can you prove that it didn't happen?"

That part you see when the camera moved early in the clip occurred when Conrad mistook the camera for, apparently, a tape recorder or something. Then he launches into a perfect Ed Wood spiel. Then promotes Mark's World. And then he sells me a DVD.

I found him to be endlessly entertaining to talk to and was glad that I had a chance to meet him. I kind of knew what to expect from the Stan Lee experience. Conrad was an unexpected, but fantastic, pleasure.

More later,


Mark