This was a really interesting read! I was first introduced to you a long time ago via a coworker who watched Tickled and she loved it so much she told our whole office about it. Then when I heard you interviewed on Armchair Expert I thought...hey I know that guy. Sorry it took a bit to finally get to Webworm after I heard that interview but so happy to be here! That coworker is now my manager and although we disagree sometimes on 'work' things and have very different personalities, our enjoyment of your work is one thing of the things we always agree on :)
Is it just me or does the fact the card from Marko is written in CAPITALS make it even more creepy and slightly threatening. Also who starts a card/message with just your name?? It's the sorta thing my Mum would do if I was in trouble...at 44.
I had the privilege of being one of those lawyers who got to review an early cut of Tickled (checking for copyright issues, not the gnarly stuff that came later). One of my proudest moments to even get a mention in the credits!
Love the photo of the Kiwi contingent at Sundance ❤
I'm sitting here stoked that Setphen Fry once responded to one of my tweets... about cricket from memory, and here you had him go out of his way to fund one of your pieces of work... Having only seen him in the media he seems to be very intelligent person, but also not afraid of himself. He has his demons, and I wish him all the best in dealing/coping/managing those.
In some ways, I don't think you are dissimilar, and I think a lot of Kiwi's wrote you off back in your 3News etc days. They shouldn't have thpugh, because you're brilliant!
It’s an amazing story. You have to have nerves of steel to take on some of these con artists. Being sued is no joke. I haven’t watched Tickled but I will.
This was so interesting! I remember seeing Tickled back in 2017 and recommending it to basically everyone. I love the audience feedback. I've definitely left things out of more memoir-y work I've done just because it seems too unbelievable (despite actually happening)! The audience notes remind me of when I was doing research in the archives of The Globe Theatre in London ten or so years ago and they'd kept the notes from the ushers for each performance of the play I was watching. I got to read about weird things people did in the audience, how a performance sword accidentally got chucked off stage during the first few performances, and the ongoing saga of a bird building a nest in the rafters. Nothing better than those little human moments.
I saw Tickled years ago and then your Dark Tourist series and was so excited when you started on Armchair Expert and ended up with your own offshoot of Flightless. And now my opportunity to read Webworm, I’m pretty darn happy about that. Mostly, because you’ve given us insight as to who YOU are David, and I quite like the genuine humanness about you. Can’t wait to see Mister Organ here in the US, keep doing what you’re doing, it phenomenal work.
As someone who works in market research, I need to know the sample size to determine if 1% is statistically significant or not haha
In the same breath, I'll watch entire movies or TV shows and have no idea what the characters names are. Even though I'm taking in the overall storyline, I have a really poor memory for things like that.
So I know everyone knows your love of Jurassic Park, but I kind of enjoy the fact that Marko was thoughtful in his bribery...like, not just a Jurassic Park mug, but a deep-cut book about the STUDIO! He was really trying to appeal to your nerd-heart despite being shady as hell. Silver linings I guess! haha. I still need to give this a watch! Thanks for letting us know the platforms! :) As always, I appreciate seeing the new Webworm emails! It's one of the only emails I actually get excited about opening!
I'd never heard of LADbible until last week and almost deleted the email I received from the Sydney producer inviting me to Sydney for a two hour interview on my life's journey, particularly in Eastern cults during 1970s, and one particular psychopathic "guru" Balyogi Premvarni, a serial rapist and thug. I've written about it all in my book The Serpent Rising. When I looked closer I thought why would LADbible want to interview an old person like me, but there you go. As for audience approaching one billion - yikes.
I still fondly remember reading those articles way back before (or was it during?) the kickstarter campaign. It made watching the movie even more satisfying! Very much like the Bashford antiques saga too. Love your work.
Loved all this (despite the fact I haven't YET watched Tickled!) but especially the spreadsheet stuff. I'm a real spreadsheet nerd as a means to visually organising facts & lists, both at work & for recreation i.e. trip planning. One of the things I like best is that I can make a copy of a spreadsheet from a previous trip & adapt it to the current one by deleting or adding things specific to the trip. It is especially useful in the "what to pack, how many meals on the road and in the backcountry where there's no shops (breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, snacks ...) what clothes to take (travelling, walking, backcountry)" etc. etc. with the BEST part being you can colour code things such as when you have packed it, if it's travel or carry in a pack for days, if it's vital or only if there's room etc. etc. And for the backcountry, how much it weighs with an autosum function to show what it will all weigh! (vital for paring down your gear it it's getting too heavy ...) I also have a sorting column so that I can sort by food, clothes, etc. etc. so I can see if I have doubled up (again, important when you are worried about weight ...) Yes, I am a spreadsheet nerd - did I already say that?
Interesting insights into human behaviour with the audience surveys, and LOVED the photos with famous kiwis, who are also amongst my favourite humans I realise.
DAVID! Looks like you've made it to the big time now that LADBible finally noticed you! Don't forget your little worms over here 😉. Ok now that my joking is out of the way 😅:
I remember being so stressed for you when I first watched Tickled. I was literally ready to jump through my TV screen and fight those lawyers from the very first meeting with them in the airport. I normally wouldn't hurt a fly but those guys realllllly got under my skin and continued to throughout! I wondered how is this man do calm right now?!? How do you manage to keep your cool in situations like that?
Thank you for this little glimpse into the documentary making process! There's so much to think about that I would never even consider, especially when dealing with a subject like David D'Amato (or even Michael Organ for that matter!). I would expect nothing else from you though! Your professionalism shines through as always.
I can't wait til we can finally see Mister Organ here in the states, btw!I Hoping Alamo Drafthouse finally figures out an opening date for their Boston location so we can screen it here 😊.
“You have audience members who watch a whole film and none of it really goes in.” I’ll admit I am terrible at remembering movie & TV details. The one exception to this is Wayne’s World, which I can only attribute to my teen years spent with friends and SNL for many, many hours. All this to say, I need to watch Tickled again because I do recall that I loved it!
Thanks, LADbible, For Discovering Tickled
This was a really interesting read! I was first introduced to you a long time ago via a coworker who watched Tickled and she loved it so much she told our whole office about it. Then when I heard you interviewed on Armchair Expert I thought...hey I know that guy. Sorry it took a bit to finally get to Webworm after I heard that interview but so happy to be here! That coworker is now my manager and although we disagree sometimes on 'work' things and have very different personalities, our enjoyment of your work is one thing of the things we always agree on :)
Is it just me or does the fact the card from Marko is written in CAPITALS make it even more creepy and slightly threatening. Also who starts a card/message with just your name?? It's the sorta thing my Mum would do if I was in trouble...at 44.
I had the privilege of being one of those lawyers who got to review an early cut of Tickled (checking for copyright issues, not the gnarly stuff that came later). One of my proudest moments to even get a mention in the credits!
Love the photo of the Kiwi contingent at Sundance ❤
I'm sitting here stoked that Setphen Fry once responded to one of my tweets... about cricket from memory, and here you had him go out of his way to fund one of your pieces of work... Having only seen him in the media he seems to be very intelligent person, but also not afraid of himself. He has his demons, and I wish him all the best in dealing/coping/managing those.
In some ways, I don't think you are dissimilar, and I think a lot of Kiwi's wrote you off back in your 3News etc days. They shouldn't have thpugh, because you're brilliant!
It’s an amazing story. You have to have nerves of steel to take on some of these con artists. Being sued is no joke. I haven’t watched Tickled but I will.
My archivist heart is loving your archive, and the archival AV formats 🧡
I watched this finally last week, magic! I saw the Stephen Fry in the Credits, that's when you know you're on the Golden Path.
This was so interesting! I remember seeing Tickled back in 2017 and recommending it to basically everyone. I love the audience feedback. I've definitely left things out of more memoir-y work I've done just because it seems too unbelievable (despite actually happening)! The audience notes remind me of when I was doing research in the archives of The Globe Theatre in London ten or so years ago and they'd kept the notes from the ushers for each performance of the play I was watching. I got to read about weird things people did in the audience, how a performance sword accidentally got chucked off stage during the first few performances, and the ongoing saga of a bird building a nest in the rafters. Nothing better than those little human moments.
I saw Tickled years ago and then your Dark Tourist series and was so excited when you started on Armchair Expert and ended up with your own offshoot of Flightless. And now my opportunity to read Webworm, I’m pretty darn happy about that. Mostly, because you’ve given us insight as to who YOU are David, and I quite like the genuine humanness about you. Can’t wait to see Mister Organ here in the US, keep doing what you’re doing, it phenomenal work.
As someone who works in market research, I need to know the sample size to determine if 1% is statistically significant or not haha
In the same breath, I'll watch entire movies or TV shows and have no idea what the characters names are. Even though I'm taking in the overall storyline, I have a really poor memory for things like that.
Love your work David :)
So I know everyone knows your love of Jurassic Park, but I kind of enjoy the fact that Marko was thoughtful in his bribery...like, not just a Jurassic Park mug, but a deep-cut book about the STUDIO! He was really trying to appeal to your nerd-heart despite being shady as hell. Silver linings I guess! haha. I still need to give this a watch! Thanks for letting us know the platforms! :) As always, I appreciate seeing the new Webworm emails! It's one of the only emails I actually get excited about opening!
I'd never heard of LADbible until last week and almost deleted the email I received from the Sydney producer inviting me to Sydney for a two hour interview on my life's journey, particularly in Eastern cults during 1970s, and one particular psychopathic "guru" Balyogi Premvarni, a serial rapist and thug. I've written about it all in my book The Serpent Rising. When I looked closer I thought why would LADbible want to interview an old person like me, but there you go. As for audience approaching one billion - yikes.
I still fondly remember reading those articles way back before (or was it during?) the kickstarter campaign. It made watching the movie even more satisfying! Very much like the Bashford antiques saga too. Love your work.
Loved all this (despite the fact I haven't YET watched Tickled!) but especially the spreadsheet stuff. I'm a real spreadsheet nerd as a means to visually organising facts & lists, both at work & for recreation i.e. trip planning. One of the things I like best is that I can make a copy of a spreadsheet from a previous trip & adapt it to the current one by deleting or adding things specific to the trip. It is especially useful in the "what to pack, how many meals on the road and in the backcountry where there's no shops (breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, snacks ...) what clothes to take (travelling, walking, backcountry)" etc. etc. with the BEST part being you can colour code things such as when you have packed it, if it's travel or carry in a pack for days, if it's vital or only if there's room etc. etc. And for the backcountry, how much it weighs with an autosum function to show what it will all weigh! (vital for paring down your gear it it's getting too heavy ...) I also have a sorting column so that I can sort by food, clothes, etc. etc. so I can see if I have doubled up (again, important when you are worried about weight ...) Yes, I am a spreadsheet nerd - did I already say that?
Interesting insights into human behaviour with the audience surveys, and LOVED the photos with famous kiwis, who are also amongst my favourite humans I realise.
DAVID! Looks like you've made it to the big time now that LADBible finally noticed you! Don't forget your little worms over here 😉. Ok now that my joking is out of the way 😅:
I remember being so stressed for you when I first watched Tickled. I was literally ready to jump through my TV screen and fight those lawyers from the very first meeting with them in the airport. I normally wouldn't hurt a fly but those guys realllllly got under my skin and continued to throughout! I wondered how is this man do calm right now?!? How do you manage to keep your cool in situations like that?
Thank you for this little glimpse into the documentary making process! There's so much to think about that I would never even consider, especially when dealing with a subject like David D'Amato (or even Michael Organ for that matter!). I would expect nothing else from you though! Your professionalism shines through as always.
I can't wait til we can finally see Mister Organ here in the states, btw!I Hoping Alamo Drafthouse finally figures out an opening date for their Boston location so we can screen it here 😊.
“You have audience members who watch a whole film and none of it really goes in.” I’ll admit I am terrible at remembering movie & TV details. The one exception to this is Wayne’s World, which I can only attribute to my teen years spent with friends and SNL for many, many hours. All this to say, I need to watch Tickled again because I do recall that I loved it!