Q (Don):  When you first took over the role at the start of Season Two, were you worried at all that the fans at the time wouldn’t accept you as the new voice of Tom Servo?

A:  Nope. Couldn’t be bothered.  One of the freaky things about TV is that you have no sense of audience response until weeks or even months after you’ve done your work.  I just tried to do my best work and trusted the very fine judgment of my colleagues.

Q (Don):  Also way back in Season Two of the show, Servo had a very odd cylindrically-shaped head for a couple of episodes before reverting back to the familiar gumball-machine bubblehead.  Was this short-term change due to pressure from Comedy Central for his head to cover less of the movie, or was it due to another reason?

A:  There was no reason.  It was pure experimentation.  Since we could f*ck with Servo’s head, we did.

Q (Don):  Do you have a favorite movie feature on MST and, if so, what is it?

A:  I think the three films by Alexandr Ptushko were my favorites; that would include The Day the Earth Froze, The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, and Jack Frost.  These were accomplished films, done on an elaborate scale with minimal resources – indeed the photography in these films was often breathtaking.  They just happened to also be seriously goofy squarehead folktales and easy to laugh at.

Q (Don):  I’ve enjoyed reading your book A Year At The Movies.  One aspect of it that really impressed me was whenever you actually saw a great movie, you would shift gears into a more serious tone in order to acknowledge how much you enjoyed the film.  With this being a humorous work, did you worry that such a shift in tone wouldn’t work within the context of the book?

A:  My goal never was to write a book of comedy; rather it was to have an experience and lend it my sense of humor.  I’m a gigantic snob, so I tried to be funny about that.  Most films blow dead rats, so if you can’t be funny about that you’ll just be depressing.  No I tried to have an adventure first, and write about it as humorously as possible.

Q (Don):  In writing A Year At The Movies you were on the road enough that I would assume you didn’t have the luxury of being able to write much of it in the comfort of home.  So what writing practices did you employ in writing this book on the road while traveling all over?

A:  My favorite and most dependable technology remains pencil and a pad of paper.  It’s amazing! You can enter data, edit, delete, store, and have a hard-copy backup, all without a power source or expensive software.  And if you drop a paper notebook it doesn’t break.

Q (Don): I’ve heard about performance artists... sorry, artistes, who did things like live outside for an entire year without entering a single building, or snapped self-photos every hour on the hour for a full year.  Now that you’ve done a whole yearlong thing, should we now see it as performance art and properly call you an artiste?

A: God no.  I’m more akin to pathetic pole-sitter David Blaine except I’m fatter and I don’t make a fraction of his money.

Q (Don):  Manos, the Hands of Fate is being released uncut on DVD.  Do you plan to pick up a copy?

A:  Dear God, No. NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

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