EXECUTIVE PRESS KIT

EXECUTIVE PRESS KIT
TALES FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ELVIS!
© 2011 CC of E LLC, 2032 Whitley Ave, Los Angeles CA 90068 USA 1-310-926-3928
ABOUT THE FILM
SHORT SYNOPSIS
The Shocking True Tales of a Catholic School Girl in Las Vegas! Chaucer's
"Canterbury Tales" meets "PeeWee's Playhouse" in this screen adaptation of Mercy
Malick's darkly comic hit Los Angeles stage play of the same name (reviewed as both
"Comic Genius" and "Utter Madness"). Malick narrates, as a communal theater
experience leaps off the stage, onto the streets, and into the mother lode of all
dichotomies: The City of Sin, as seen through the eyes of nuns, priests, mobsters, and
a lecherous geriatric amputee. Growing up Catholic in Las Vegas: Giving new
meaning to Gambling with your Soul! Sacrilicious!
TALES FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ELVIS!
www.ccofe.com
[email protected]
LONG SYNOPSIS
The Mother Lode of all Dichotomies: the One Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic
Church, and Fabulous Las Vegas! In "Tales from the Catholic Church of Elvis",
Mercy Malick wraps the two together in a tightly-wound package that skips happily
and harrowingly through eleven years as a Catholic schoolgirl living in Sin City,
USA. Though with a passing nod to everything from Monty Python to Benny Hill,
way beyond South Park and Napoleon Dynamite, and well on the far side of recent
films like Little Miss Sunshine and the Farrelly Brothers fare, "Tales" is a remarkable
immersion in a world all its own.
Staged within the framework of a shockingly schlock Vegas stage show at the
eponymous Catholic Church of Elvis, "Tales" follows a young girl from her early
fascination with Vegas glitz, accompanied by prayer, of course, along a time-twisting
series of adventures that bring into delightful juxtaposition brain-boggling epiphanies
that include colostomy bag as alternative to babies, and pizza box as indoor-outhouse.
As a child (played by Ariel Winter of “Speed Racer,” "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and "So
noTORIous"), Mercy learns important lessons in life from the duality of her ChurchStrip environment. She can administer morphine to a dying aunt and never miss her
favorite show, all between the obligatory Novenas. She also learns everything about
cancer from a hypochondriacal mother who feeds her children from clandestine runs
on the Vegas casino buffets.
In school, whether she is learning the real Miracle of Birth from the School Nurse or
the hard truths about Las Vegas blow-jobs from the street-wise Sister MacDonald
(Mary Eileen O'Donnell of Tim Robbin's Actors Gang), Mercy is always able to
synthesize her experiences and, as Guide to the patrons of the Catholic Church of
Elvis, she passes on her wisdom in a series of vignettes that are simultaneously
hilarious and poignant. The social issue of priestly molestation gets a wonderfully
smarmy quiz show treatment that backhandedly answers the question of why Mercy
never knew of any such behavior among the Las Vegas clerics. Another visit with the
hard-working high schooler at her fast food job involves a salad slicer, a co-worker's
finger, and the most unique value-meal of all time.
A high school stint at Christian Service brings our Guide to an old folks’ home, where
her task of reading soft-core porn to a comatose resident is interrupted by the
unwelcome advances of an old double-amputee (Emmy Nominee Larry Gelman)
who's on the hunt for a quick hand-job . Attempting to escape, Mercy is stalked by a
crazed Japanese dowager wielding a lethal bamboo backscratcher. Her encounters
become an abject lesson for the entire Christian Service class and provide Mercy with
a notoriety that is quintessentially Vegas. Luckily, she receives periodic guidance
from the Voice of God (played by Ron Jeremy, in an irony apropos to the piece).
Much like our surrogates, the peripatetic audience of the Catholic Church of Elvis, we
stagger out of "Tales" into the garish neon night among the crowds of loafers, losers,
and legitimately weird, our consciousness raised a bit, and our heads still reeling at
what it must have been like to grow up Catholic in the least Catholic place on the
map.
TALES FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ELVIS!
www.ccofe.com
[email protected]
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
PRODUCER: ERIC MOFFORD
Eric Mofford is a veteran of over 30 feature films and television programs,
including "24", "Kalifornia", "Finding Home", "Senior Year", "Black.White.",
and "The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman". Mofford’s film
"Travelin' Trains" won a dozen national and international film festival awards,
including the CINE Golden Eagle. His numerous music video credits include
Aerosmith, Sheryl Crow, and Alan Jackson.
DIRECTOR: MICHAEL TRAYNOR
Michael Traynor (“Cry Funny Happy”, Official Sundance Selection) began his
career in the arts as a dancer, working with dance companies throughout his
home state of Hawaii, and later with companies in New York City. Beginning as
a Dance Captain, Michael soon moved up to Choreographer, and eventually
made the jump to Director. Later, after graduating from The Second City
Conservatory, Michael began working as a comedy writer.
Most recently, Michael directed the critically acclaimed West Coast Premiere of "Stuck" by Jessica
Goldberg, a production the LA Weekly reviewed as “Wickedly Powerful!”. He has also directed
and written several Sketch Comedy Shows in both Los Angeles and New York City at such venues
as Upright Citizens Brigade, The Second City Theatre, and Improv Olympic West.
As an actor, Michael studied extensively with film director Mike Nichols and famed acting coach
George Morrison at The New Actors Workshop, a graduate level conservatory in NYC. While
there he worked closely with Paul Sills, the creator of Story Theater and founder of Second City.
“Tales” is his feature film directorial debut.
Personal Reviews:
VARIETY: "Traynor is impressive...the master of his chosen art form"
BACK STAGE WEST: “Traynor (is) particularly skillful in navigating the tricky terrain between
style and substance”
WRITER/DIRECTOR: MERCY MALICK
Mercy Malick (“Scrubs”, “Gilmore Girls”, “Chuck”, “Worst Week”,
“Mind of Mencia” and the upcoming TNT series “Trust Me”) embarked on
her directing career at the age of 8, when she figured out how to work her
uncle’s video camera and started forcing her Mormon cousins to act in her
“movies”. Later, while an undergraduate at Stanford University, she
directed and produced “Along the Way”, a short documentary that aired
regionally on PBS. She also directed and wrote the short mock-umentary
“Demonic Possession: Is It for You?” and the pilot pitch “School for Freaks”. “Tales” is her feature
film directorial debut, a film adaptation of her stage play of the same name, which she wrote and
performed in Los Angeles for a sold-out six month run.
Mercy is also well known in the music world, having written, recorded, and toured under the
Conqueroot Records label, as well as contributing tracks to a Norah Jones compilation on Koch
Records, and (oddly) putting in time as one of Hilary Duff’s original back-up singers. Just like the
rest of the “Tales”, Strange but True...
Personal Reviews:
LOS ANGELES TIMES: “Malick...is a tireless standout”
L.A. WEEKLY: “Malick mines the humor... (and) hits just the right emotional notes”
CERRITOS INK: “Mercy Malick...outstanding in every way”
TALES FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ELVIS!
www.ccofe.com
[email protected]
STARRING:
~Writer/Director MERCY MALICK (“Scrubs”, “Gilmore
Girls”, “Chuck”, “Worst Week”, “Mind of Mencia” and the
upcoming TNT series “Trust Me”) as your Guide through the
chaos!
~Emmy-winner LARRY GELMAN ("ER", "Barney Miller")
as the lecherous octogenarian double-amputee, Sydney!
~The very precocious ARIEL WINTER (Emmy-Award
winning “Modern Family”) as the nine-year-old Malick!
~JANE HAJDUK ("Zoom", "The Shaggy Dog") as the ever
cheerful Nurse Angela!
~SIRENA IRWIN (the voice of Mrs. SquarePants from
“SpongeBob Squarepants”) as the Crazy Burger Lady!
~MARY EILEEN O'DONNELL (a veteran of Tim Robbins'
The Actors' Gang) as the street-wise, rosary-beads and brassknuckle-toting nun, Sister MacDonald!
~RACHEL MORIHIRO (“Big Dreams, Little Tokyo”) as
the Japanese dowager with the lethal bamboo backscratcher,
Yukieno!
~GWEN VAN DAM (“Without a Trace”, “ER”) as the
delicately portrayed dying great-aunt
~And the Notorious RON JEREMY as The Voice of God!
TALES FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ELVIS!
www.ccofe.com
[email protected]
THE L.A. WEEKLY’S “PICK OF THE WEEK”
REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL STAGE PLAY:
TALES FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ELVIS!
“Clad in her naughty-but-nice, Catholic schoolgirl garb, writer-performer Mercy Malick
delivers a rip-roaring show dedicated to the Church's primary life lesson: There is no problem
so big, so crazy, so sad or so bizarre that it can't be ignored or denied. And then, confronting our
difficulties, we can learn to laugh.
Growing up in Las Vegas, this beguiling, high-energy Stanford grad survived abject poverty and
a mother with emotional problems (including an irrational fear of cancer and a propensity for
having children with different men). Crediting her show's direction to the Holy Ghost, Malick
recounts her bizarre sex education at school, detailing the miracle of birth, which somehow has
nothing to do with prior sex; her pervasive fear of getting pregnant; her mafia schoolmates; and
tales of Sister McDonald - an ironfisted disciplinarian with a ribald sense of humor.
But not every memory is funny, such as when, at age 9, she was forced to care for a dying aunt.
And Malick's details about Vegas' dark side, the phony facades, the broken dreams and broken
people, supplement the careening mirth with some poignancy.
Yet for anyone who grew up Catholic and survived, this show will leave you laughing in the
aisle.”
ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT’S REVIEW
OF THE ORIGINAL STAGE PLAY:
“Comic Genius and Utter Madness!”
TALES FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ELVIS!
www.ccofe.com
[email protected]