Who is Longmont Potion Castle? Find out this Wednesday, Aug 14 at the AFS Cinema
WHERE IN THE HELL IS THE LAVENDER HOUSE?: THE LONGMONT POTION CASTLE STORY screens this Wednesday, August 14 at 8:30 PM at the AFS Cinema. Purchase tickets. After the film we will be joined via Skype by Longmont Potion Castle himself for some live prank calls.
You might have seen a post or two from AFS about the upcoming screening of WHERE IN THE HELL IS THE LAVENDER HOUSE?: THE LONGMONT POTION CASTLE STORY, and you might be thinking to yourself: “who/what the hell is Longmont Potion Castle, and why should I be interested?” Well, we’re here to explain! At the bottom of everything, it’s easy to summarize Longmont Potion Castle as just a prank caller, but if we ended our explanation there you would kind of be missing the point of his whole schtick and the cult following that surrounds him.
Growing up in Texas, LPC always “excelled the most in language arts” (VICE). With this talent in his pocket and his love for all things about prank calls, the persona of LPC was born.
Starting at the age of 16, LPC infused his compilation albums of prank calls with his own musical talents and interests, often in the form of sound collages that feature thrash metal or punk. His setup includes a “Neumann KMS105 vocal mic with a Universal Audio 2-610 tube mic preamp…that goes into [his] favorite digital delay pedal, the Digitech 8 Second Time Machine” – a vocal rig that totals out to around $3,000 (VICE). This love and appreciation for music bleeds through his compilation albums, which is probably why he has garnered fans like Sublime, Jimmy Eat World, and The Dirty Projectors throughout the years.
A large part of LPC’s appeal is that his comedy on the prank calls is oftentimes completely improvised (he only recently began jotting down notes/ideas to use in his calls). Longtime fan and executive producer of the film, Rainn Wilson, describes LPC’s calls as having a “surreal aspect, as if Salvador Dali were doing prank phone calls.” There’s genius in asking for non-existent products like “helium ointment” or “coaxial rimrod” while slowly driving unassuming store clerks closer to the brink of insanity.
Overall, the draw of LPC just comes down to the fact that you can tell he loves what he’s doing and he knows how to do it well. He doesn’t simply string together a bunch of random prank phone calls for listeners to dredge through. Instead, his compilations are thoughtfully pieced together with absurdist wit and a knack for pushing buttons.
Check out what we’re talking about below with a selection of a few of our favorite LPC calls. There’s nothing quite like listening to people completely lose their heads over nonsense.
