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Dave Shurmer and Mike P. are sort of the “new kids on the block” as far as late night movie show hosts in NE Ohio.  The very first episode of The Midnight Movie aired in 1998, and at that time Dave shared co-hosting duties with Eric Johnson.  After 4 years, Eric left to pursue other endeavors, and was replaced by Mike P.  Since the show’s humble beginnings on the Adelphia Network (NOT cable access, dammit!) in Cleveland, they have expanded into several other states and attracted a loyal following of viewers everywhere the show is broadcast.  Their show airs every Saturday at Midnight on Adelphia Channel 15, and is rebroadcast on Mondays at 8:30 pm.  I recently spoke with Dave and Mike at a taping of their show, and they gave me the straight dope on what it is they do. 

UT:  How did the Midnight Movie get started, and how did you guys get involved?
Dave:  It was our producer Brian’s idea initially to do a show like this.  He’d been wanting to do a horror movie/comedy skit show for some time, and his boss at Adelphia finally allowed him to do it.  I had met Brian a year or two before that.  I was doing one of his projects, and we were down here in the studio shooting it.  When we were done shooting, he said, “by the way, my boss finally gave me the approval to do this show.  Anybody want to be a movie host?”  Nobody else said anything, so I said sure.  But I said I can’t do it by myself.  I have a best friend who would be perfect for it.  That was Eric Johnson, the original co-host.  He was there for 4 years, and left 2 years ago.
Mike:  I actually came in approximately 8 or 9 months into the show itself.  The cameraman, Bobby, said why don’t you come down and watch the show being taped?
Dave:  He shows up in his old persona garb that he doesn’t wear anymore.  He looked like Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  He was wearing this full length leather coat and dark glasses.  Eric was actually frightened of him.
Mike:  He wouldn’t even look at me.  I was too scary because of the way I looked.
Dave:  It was a very intimidating look.  Obviously, once you get to know him, you realize he’s a pussy.
Mike:  So I started hanging out every Wednesday when the shows were taped.  Next thing you know, I got thrown in a couple of skits.  I got pushed behind the camera and was running camera.  Eventually Eric got tired of doing the show, so Dave chose me as his co-host.
Dave:  There wasn’t anybody else.
Mike:  So I took over as co-host of the show.
Dave:  And as they say, the rest is history.
Mike:  I think we get along great.  Between the two of us, Dave has the interview skills, to be sure.  When it comes to an interview, and I stick a microphone in somebody’s face, I’m just like “ahhh”.  I’ve got nothing.  I don’t know what to ask.  As far as myself, I’ve been told that I’m the comedic goof of the show.
Dave:  Nobody does the bug eyes better.  If it ever gets to even half the popularity of what Chuck and John have built over 40 years, Mike’s signature will be the bug eyes.   

UT:  When the show was first being figured out, was there any thought given to dressing up in some kind of crazy get-up like Ghoulardi?
Dave:  I never wanted to do that.  When the show first started, Brian got some guy from a radio station to do it, and he wanted to dress up.  He did one show, and when he found out there wasn’t any money to get paid, that was it.  I had no interest whatsoever in getting into that schtick.  Nothing against any of those guys, that’s just what they do.  And I don’t think of us as necessarily copying Chuck and John or Hoolihan, either.  The formats are pretty much the same, but the humor is vastly different.  I have sort of a self deprecating sense of humor, and to me, that’s funny.  Every once in a while Mike gets mad at me when I talk things down, but that’s just the way I am.  If we take ourselves too seriously, I don’t like it.  I’m not getting paid for it.  It’s not a job, so I might as well have fun. 

UT:  You don’t get paid for this.  Do you ever feel like, “man, I’m putting all this work into this, what am I getting out of it?”
Mike:  There are times that you think why am I doing this?  But I always look forward to Wednesday.
Dave:  We wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t fun.  For Eric, the old co-host, this was just strictly a hobby, it was like going out to play golf or cards or whatever.  This is fun for Mike and I as well, but we also have further aspirations that we dream of, and are making some efforts to try and pursue.
Mike:  We both have headshots, we both have resumes.  He has an agent.  He’s pursuing a career in front of the camera.  I think I’m leaning more towards behind the camera with producing and editing and that kind of thing.
Dave:  And I like going out to do the community stuff.  I love doing the location shoots like going to the fairs or Cedar Point.  Even though we’re “just cable”, we still get to go places that most people in the town don’t.  We don’t have the clout of Fox or Channel 3 or whatever…   
Mike:  But we did get to go to Cedar Point on media day for the opening of the Top Thrill Dragster, and there were only 200 people that went.  We were actually invited.
Dave:  And we got to ride it before it broke down for the whole summer. (laughs).
Mike:  The only thing we get out of this steadily, though, is sandwiches, thanks to The Express Deli on Smith Road in Brookpark, Ohio.  

UT:  How many viewers do you have?
Dave:  In addition to Cleveland, we’ve got Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pittsburgh, Tennesee, and Kentucky.
Mike:  You combine them all together, you’ve got potentially half a million households. 
Dave: The head of Adelphia’s Pittsburgh office said that if The Midnight Movie doesn’t go on right at midnight, they get phone calls.  I thought that was really cool.   

UT:  How much input do you have on picking movies?
Mike:  Absolutely none.
Dave:  That’s not true.
Mike: Yes it is.
Dave:  We would get more if we asked for it.  A couple years ago, Brian showed me the whole list of movies we could get, and asked me if there was anything I wanted.  That’s how we got ‘Little Shop of Horrors’.  But Brian picks most of the movies.
Mike:  One thing about some of the movies we show, like ‘The Van’, is even though we’re on cable, we’re a family channel.  We can’t show nudity.  So if there’s nudity in a movie, in order to keep the scene going, Brian has to put the Midnight Movie logo over the nudity. 
Dave:  Which is actually a much better way of doing it than editing it all out.  And funnier.
Mike:  Like ‘Lady Frankenstein’, where the monster is carrying a naked lady and throws her into a river.  Now, put the logo over it and he’s carrying the logo and throws that into the river.
Dave:  Brian will sometimes put other things in, too.  Like in ‘Drive-In Massacre’, there’s a scene in a Bachelor’s house with all these nude pictures on the wall.  So he replaces those with my face on the wall, Dave’s face on the wall, a picture of Cleveland.  Little things like that.   

UT:  If you were on cable access instead of the actual Adelphia network you could get away with more.  Is that ever a source of frustration.
Mike:  Oh yeah.  There’s things we’d love to do, but we can’t because it’s a family channel.  But access wouldn’t be able to get the films, and you’ve got that stigma of access.
Dave:  And we still fight that as well, because most people immediately think we’re an access show.  Nothing against access shows, but we’re actually an Adelphia production.  They provide us with a producer, some of the labor, and the budget for the movies.  The studio and the locations. 
Mike:  And because we’re an Adelphia produced show, that helped us get on the air in those other states.  It’s because we already had the in.  

UT:  Do you have aspirations to take this show to a level where you’re making money with it, or are you more interested in pursuing other things?
Mike:  I’ll do it.  If it were an opportunity to quit my day job, I’m gone.
Dave:  We both hate our day jobs so much.  But it is kind of a double edged sword.  It would be nice to have someone paying you a living wage to do something that you really love to do like that.  At the same time, though, Adelphia leaves us alone.  They don’t really give a damn what we do, as long as we’re not showing nudity and we don’t swear.  So we can do pretty much what we want to do.  If we go someplace where they’re paying you, they’re going to expect results.  I would be willing to go into that in the right situation…
Mike:  Just say yes.
Dave: Yes sir.
Mike:  If the opportunity came along, I’d jump on it.  But I’m shooting high.  I don’t want to be just Cleveland.  I want the whole country.  And the only way to do that is to go late night.  TBS or AMC would be perfect.  They’ve got the movies.  What do they need?  Dave and Mike. (laughs)   

UT:  Anything else you want to say?
Dave:  Just get drunk, pop some popcorn, and turn on Channel 15.
Mike: If anybody reads this from AMC, please give us a call.

Visit the Midnight Movie website.