Chump Change

Wisconsin kitsch and show-business dementia make hysterical bedfellows in this laugh-out-loud, ultra-low-budget comedy. Writer-director Stephen Burrows shaped five years of humiliation as a wannabe Hollywood player into an irreverent valentine to all things wackier than fiction. Burrows stars as “Milwaukee” Steve, a Regular Joe with big dreams who evolves from jock-rash-commercial spokesman to abused screenwriter. He returns to his Midwestern roots and shares his Tinseltown miseries via flashbacks. The film, which screened at the 2000 Sacramento Festival of Cinema, includes gem-like appearances by Fred Willard, Tim Matheson, Clancy Brown, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Abe Vigoda and porn icon Traci Lords. Special features include a scathing indictment of public illiteracy, titled Focus Group Lo-Lights.