PRESS: Salt Lake Now interviews Charlie

My friend Spencer Sutherland writes for Now Salt Lake, the weekly entertainment arm of the Salt Lake Tribune. He was a fan of the show and asked to interview Charlie. Of course, we love the publicity and it sweetens the pot to get some local love. Always nice when something works out in everyone's best interest.

Spencer Sutherland » 12.18.11 »

Charlie Andrews jousts his way to TV with KNIGHTS OF MAYHEM

For children of the '80s and '90s, the term "jousting" probably brings up one of two images: either a spandex-clad American Gladiator holding a padded stick or Heath Ledger's golden locks in "A Knight's Tale."

For Utah transplant, and six-time jousting champion, Charlie Andrews, there's nothing Hollywood about the sport. For years, Andrews has been working to bring full-contact jousting to the masses through live tournaments and, most recently, a six-episode series on the National Geographic Channel called "Knights of Mayhem." In February, the sport will get its greatest exposure to date, when Fox Sports airs a jousting competition on Fuel TV.

Andrews realizes that for jousting to gain widespread popularity, the sport will have to overcome some serious misconceptions.

"People think it's fake, that it's choreographed," Andrews says. "Their only exposure to jousting is hokey dinner theater with people dressed up in frilly costumes, play-acting with balsa-tipped lances."

"Frilly" is the last word anyone would use to describe Andrews, who looks more like the leader of a Hell's Angels posse. He adds, "We practice a hardcore, heavy armor, full-contact form of jousting called Realgestech. Picture two warriors, both of them weighing-in at over 200 pounds and wearing 130 pounds of armor, wielding solid hemlock lances, and charging at each other at 30 miles an hour on giant warhorses. That's a battlefield, not a dinner show."

Andrews isn't the only gruff one in the bunch. In fact, each of the knights featured in the NatGeo series looks like he could have easily walked right out of a mixed martial arts ring.
"I've done some mixed martial arts training and everything about the sports is similar, other than with jousting, we're on horseback," Andrews says. "It's mano y mano, man against man. In both sports you've got to be smart and physically tough. You've got to compete when you're injured. You've got to overcome your fear. You've got to be courageous going into battle. You could literally get killed out there."

For the long-term success of the sport, Andrews works to help bring new competitors into the field. Though these rookies may eventually challenge his title, Andrews has no plans for relinquishing the crown.

"I refuse to lose. I train hard. In fact, I train harder now than I ever did when I was coming up. You've got to hold onto that fire, that motivation to be the best. You've got to want it every match, every pass.

But, I don't think about any of that when I'm jousting. All I'm thinking about is how I want to go out and destroy my opponent. That's just encoded in my DNA. I come from a warrior bloodline. It's like I said in the first episode of the show, 'Once I get my helmet on and I'm in the list, you're just a body in a suit that I'm trying to knock off that horse.' It's live or die out there for me every time."

All six episodes of "Knights of Mayhem" are available now on iTunes and Amazon. For more details on Andrews, his fellow knights, and the madness of competitive jousting, visit http://www.knightsofmayhem.com.

PRESS: City Weekly interviews Tyler Measom

So, this is not actually press from one of our films, but I'm posting this interview for a couple reasons. First, because I love the film it is advertising and the filmmakers who made that film. Second, because they were kind enough to give us a shout-out toward the end of the interview. I highly recommend checking out Sons of Perdition, which is out on DVD as of today.

BLOG: Prime time

Joshua Ligairi » 11.22.11 »

Knights' ratings were what I'd call "pretty okay" last week. Yeah, not mind-blowing, but good enough. See, there was some concern on our part because Fox Execs came into National Geographic and completely cleaned house right after they picked up our show. Luckily, the new Fox Execs seemed to love Knights of Mayhem, but they are also notorious for canceling shows before they get a chance to prove themselves. Tons of ads had gone up for the show:

We had great preview press coverage.

We constantly had promos all over television.

We had posters in the New York subways.

Print ads in major magazines.

We even had an ad behind home plate during the World Series.

Pretty crazy.

On my end, I was getting a little nervous because, you know, I'm mildly neurotic. But, honestly, I just hoped we could justify all this advertising. Coming from the grassroots, indie world, it was almost terrifying to imagine the amount of money we had behind this project. It's still just insane for me to even think about.

And as the premiere date drew closer, nerves only increased.

We weren't too happy with the sport segments of the pilot (or those of episode 2 which aired immediately after), but picture was locked. Also, as I began to tell friends and family about the show, a lot of people told me that they don't even get National Geographic Channel. It hadn't occurred to me that it was a premium channel in many areas. Hopefully, this had occurred to the Fox Execs.

But then, it just happened. The show premiered. Our stars live-Tweeted from a San Diego sports bar (they were driven to in limousines) and their fan feedback was blowing up. I started getting personal texts and Facebook messages too. People were watching. It was exciting to just sit there with the rest of America and watch.

When all was said and done, the show did "average" traffic for National Geographic Channel. The twist was that half of those viewers were new to National Geographic and they were predominantly younger (13-25) demographics. So, that was actually great. Whether or not that justified the advertising blitz, it's hard to know, but things seem to be going well.

A review from France.

We're getting some great reviews (see the past few blog posts). I especially like the review from the New York Post. Minus the cheesy title, "Lancing with the Stars," it perfectly articulates and summates my own feelings about the show.

So, tonight, we'll get another glimpse into the impact of the show. Will people come back? There were plenty of online haters that think Charlie is too macho, too egotistical and too mean to be watchable. But isn't that the bread and butter of reality TV? People love to hate reality shows with rough, egotistical main characters like Paul Teutul on American Chopper, Gordon Ramsey on Hell's Kitchen, Donald Trump on The Apprentice, and Simon Cowell on American Idol. I'm thinking maybe Charlie and the Knights of Mayhem will be okay after-all.

By the way, if you are having trouble finding the show (I know that I did at first), "Locate TV" can help you find every episode! Also, if you've been wanting to tune in, but don't have cable, you can download the eps for a small fee from iTunes (although you could get NatGeo for a month for the same price it would cost to download these first three episodes).