Doot Doola Doot Do! DVD Reviews

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Check it out... the press is eating it up...

Exclaim! review by Cam Lindsey who says of the DVD: "I honestly cannot imagine living without this."

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Eye Weekly by Adam Nayman

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Left Hip Magazine

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Rotten Tomatoes lists the disc too, but there aren't enough reviews yet... Soooo... if you've seen the DVD....

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Blog Critics Zach Hoskins

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Westender


Not a real DVD review, but still...

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Youthink by David Amar - Prince of Wales, Vancouver

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SFWeekly

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DOSE.ca

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Ubyssey

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Montreal Mirror

Michael Moore calls him a national treasure, while Courtney Love calls him "the biggest freak in the whole of Canada." They've both been subjected to the, um, distinctive journalistic approach of Vancouver's excitable, adenoidal and clad-in-plaid Nardwuar the Human Serviette, as have Gene Simmons and Henry Rollins, Jean Chrétien and Mikhail Gorbachev, Vanilla Ice and acid guru Timothy Leary (who responded to one Nardian query, "the vulgar sordidness of that question is Olympic!"). Over two discs, Doot Doola Doot DooŠ Doot Doo! (Mint/Nardwuar) gathers exhaustive footage of Nardwuar's pathologically well-researched pestering, perturbing and provoking of public personalities, be they pop stars or politicians. This occasionally results in his being tossed out on his ass (funny), beaten up (funnier) or having his prize Blowfly LPs stolen by a remorseless Snoop Dogg (fucking hilarious). Beyond the two Nard Wars specials from MuchMusic, this wacky fun-pack is bursting with extras, outtakes, extended interviews, commentary, odds and ends (mostly odds) and-special bonus-videos from Nard's two garage-rock bands, the Evaporators and Thee Goblins. -Rupert Bottenberg

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[url=http://www.viewmag.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3946
]Viewmag online[/url]

By Adam Grant


Doot Doola Doot Do

Nardwuar Records

He has a voice with a higher pitch than a dog whistle and ambition
as tall as the egos of his interview subjects—Nardwuar the Human
Serviette is, according to renowned filmmaker Michael Moore, ”a
national treasure.” If anyone ever needed evidence to back up such a
statement, this comprehensive two–disc DVD package is it.
The five hour collection of interviews includes a variety of
awkward encounters, featuring Slayer talking about learning how to
hot–knife hashish in Canada, to crotch grabbing with Shawn
Desman. Nardwuar proves there’s no method to his madness. He
likes to push the envelope in a humorous manner, talking about
Taco Bell, old records, and obscure facts not even a human
encyclopedia could recall.

But damn, this man knows what he’s doing, and sure as hell
makes the rest of his MuchMusic contemporaries look like a bunch
of butt–kissers.

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http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=oid%3A48458

Nardwuar the Human Serviette

By Jimmy Calanchini
Sacramento News and Review

Nardwuar the Human Serviette is a hyperkinetic Canadian journalist of sorts, who approaches celebrities with kid-brother earnestness but blindsides them with ridiculously well-researched questions. Don’t dismiss him as an Ali G wannabe. Nardwuar’s magic is in the background information he digs up for each interview. “I hate him!” said Courtney Love. “He knows everything about everybody!” David Cross told him, “Man, you do some thorough, in-depth, unnecessary research.” But Michael Moore called Nardwuar a “national treasure,” and the usually unflappable Snoop Dogg giggled, “You’re funnier than a motherfucker!” This DVD proves them all correct, with five-plus hours of Moore, Snoop, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ian MacKaye, Vanilla Ice, Wesley Willis and about 50 other stars giggling and squirming.

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http://www.filmjunk.com/2006/03/12/nardwuar-the-human-serviette/

REVIEW: Nardwuar the Human Serviette
Posted by Jay C. on March 12th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Filed under: DVD Review, Music DVD Review

If there’s one high school memory I haven’t blocked out of my mind, it’s the time me and my friend Wes were hanging out in the A/V room in the library watching a VHS cassette compilation of short videos/interviews put together by a guy calling himself Nardwuar The Human Serviette. I remember watching these post-Tom Green antics, most notably Nardwuar getting healed by televangelist Ernest Angley (and then proceeding to ask him if he knew how to cure the summertime blues) and thinking it was the crazies shit I’d ever seen. The video also served as my introduction to garage rock, starting with Nardwuar’s own bands The Evaporators and Thee Goblins, and branching off into The Smugglers, The Hi-Fives, The Gruesomes, and so on.

Now, almost ten years later, Nardwuar has compiled some of his best moments (with a little help from Much Music) onto a double disc DVD collection appropriately titled: Nardwuar The Human Serviette! Anyone who’s purchased anything released by Nardwuar knows to expect ridiculously long liner notes and major bang for your buck, and this DVD definitely doesn’t disappoint. The first disc contains Nard Wars 1&2, two Much Music specials dedicated to the best of Nardwuar’s interviews. You’ll find such classic moments as Nardwuar’s impromptu interview with Michael Moore, a pre-show interview with Destiny’s Child and Gwar, and Nardwuar vs. Marilyn Manson. The second special is pretty interesting, dedicating the entire hour to Nardwuar’s pre-interview preparation routine before interviewing Snoop Dogg for the third time.

Disc two features the raw versions of many of the interviews featured in the heavily edited Much Music specials. The highlights being Nardwuar vs. Wesley Willis and his interview with DC legend Ian MacKaye. The raw footage is a great look at how Nardwuar’s knowledge of music (especially Canadian garage rock) seems to win over his interviewees between moments of seemingly pure annoyance. (See Nardwuar vs. Henry Rollins) Although Nardwuar comes off as somewhat of a ‘character’, the DVD liner notes written by Dave Watson, long-time friend of Nardwuar and writer for some Vancouver newspaper called The Georgia Straight, tell of Watson’s first time meeting Nardwuar and explain that although his personality isn’t an act, “There is a difference between the guy when he’s on-air and when he’s not, but it’s not a night-and-day difference. More like a 1pm/3pm thing.”

Another great addition to this collection is the complete Evaporators videography and live footage of both The Evaporators and Thee Goblins/Skablins/Disgoblins. Although the footage is pretty much shot on a home video camera, it’s still fun to watch Nardwuar’s live antics accompanied by some great rock and roll. Also, watch for some commentary tracks sprinkled throughout the disc, including a track featuring CBC Radio personality and Smugglers front man Grant Lawrence, and Canadian heavy metal legend THOR.

Overall, this disc is well worth the plastic it’s printed on. My only complaint would be the number of classic interviews which were left off of this release. But even though the disc focuses on the Much Music era of Nardwuar’s interviews, it’s still a great collection. Doot Doola Doot Doo…go buy it.
SCORE: ****

Recommended If You Like: The Evaporators, Thee Goblins, The Smugglers, Tom Green

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http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/n/nardwuar-the-human-serviette.shtml

NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE: DOOT DOOLA DOOT DOO... DOOT DOO!
Cast: Nardwuar The Human Serviette
by Adrien Begrand


If you're Canadian, you might know who Nardwuar the Human Serviette is. If you're from Vancouver, you definitely know who Nardwuar the Human Serviette is. If you have no freaking clue just who Nardwuar the Human Serviette is, you're in for a treat. Or if you find the prospect of a squeaky-voiced, tam wearing eccentric bombarding celebrities with obscure questions and refusing to end the interview until they answer his shave-and-a-haircut-like "Doot doola doot doo" with a "Doot doo," then this massive, five and a half hour DVD collection probably isn't for you.

A Vancouver institution for nearly two decades, Nardwuar (no, it's not his real name) has become quite the renaissance man on the West Coast. He's a concert promoter, a radio host on the local radio station CITR, frontman for the bands Thee Goblins and the immensely likeable Evaporators, head of his own eponymous record label, contributor to Canadian music monthly Chart magazine, and best of all, gonzo video journalist extraordinaire. After a long period of interviewing everyone from Bob Denver to Kurt Cobain to Mikhail Gorbechev for a small Vancouver television station, Toronto's Much Music finally caught on to the guy's insane genius, and his presence on that channel in recent years has made him somewhat of a minor celebrity in Canada. Thanks to Alternative Tentacles, American label of the aforementioned Evaporators, we now have an exhaustive two-disc collection that culls some of Nardwuar's finest moments caught on videotape.

His interviews might resemble performance art, and often generate big laughs (even Slayer can't keep a straight face), not to mention the odd uncomfortable moment, but underneath the questions about whether Henry Rollins's "cock resembles a soup can", or what world leader, in Gorbachev's opinion, wears the biggest pants, is an astonishing attention to detail and a vast knowledge of music history that, more often than not, winds up captivating his subjects. In the case of musicians especially, whether or not they comprehend just how smart Nardwuar is ultimately proves to be the most revealing aspect of the whole process. His interviews always start the same (a startlingly unironic, "Who are you?"), his questions often taking off on bizarre tangents before ingeniously creeping up on the interviewee and often blindsiding them, and by the time the interview's over, the simple act of refusing to reply, "Doot doo," unbeknownst to them, they've become exposed as being so full of shit, that it's impossible for viewers to take them seriously anymore. As a result, on this DVD, you find that people like Snoop Dogg, Kelly Rowland, Ashanti, Franz Ferdinand, The White Stripes, Josh Homme, Michael Moore, and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, are actually pretty damn cool, while Marilyn Manson, Blur's Dave Rowntree, Henry Rollins, and Canada's new conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, aren't.

One disc is devoted mainly to Nard Wars and Nard Wars II, two specials that aired on Much Music in 2003. The first Nard Wars, hosted by Sloan's Chris Murphy (who admits to having walked out on a Nardwuar interview in 1992) is devoted specifically to the man's most memorable moments on television, and is packed with far too many hilarious clips to mention, but perhaps Nardwuar's most inspired moment is during an interview with Gene Simmons of Kiss: talking to Simmons about his predilection towards the fairer sex, he has Canadian metal singer Thor interrupt the interview to tell Simmons he slept with his wife in the 1980s by proudly declaring, "My wife was number 2,001…it's a tremendous honor!" By the time Nardwuar has the muscle-bound Thor bending a steel bar between his teeth, Simmons, the great motormouth, is rendered utterly speechless.

The set's second disc goes into even greater detail, with three hours of interviews. He completely befuddles Dan Quayle, matches wits with Jello Biafra, meets his match in the late Wesley Willis, and in a fantastic interview with Henry Rollins, he has the former Black Flag singer going from wanting to punch him in the face to admiring his tenacity as an interviewer (before emailing Nardwuar a few days later, asking him to never speak to him again). Nardwuar's January, 1994 confrontation with Nirvana and Courtney Love is probably his most famous (and is sadly not on this DVD), but without a doubt his best interviews are his three with Snoop Dogg, in which the pair display impeccable timing with one another, Snoop matching Nard step for step. Even the ultra-cool Snoop can't keep himself from laughing when Nardwuar tells him quite possibly the stupidest joke ever conceived ("How does Snoop Doggy Dogg keep his whitest clothes the whitest? He uses lots of blee-ATCH!").

The musical footage featuring Thee Goblins and The Evaporators is great fun, highlighted by a surreal live clip from Olympia, Washington, where Nardwuar and his buddy Thor transform a theater full of indie kids into a fist-pumping mass of metalheads. Most of the footage on both discs contains chaotic, but often very funny commentary by Nardwuar and his friends (including Thor and the acid-tongued Grant Lawrence, of Smugglers and CBC Radio 3 notoriety), and the DVD comes with a 16 page booklet packed to the gills with notes, press articles, and even more interview transcripts.

As eternally optimistic as Ed Grimley (even when shown in hospital recovering from a brain hemmorage in 1999), it's not all shtick when it comes to Nardwuar. Here's someone who, whether he's interviewing, singing, or championing the smallest, most obscure bands, does so with contagious energy, not to mention tenacity. If he has to buy a room at the swanky Four Seasons hotel and wait seven hours to do a ten minute interview with Snoop Dogg (as documented on Nard Wars II), then he'll do that. If he has to win over some curious Kamloops, British Columbia kids by recreating a scene from Planet of the Apes involving his bandmates and a mini-bike at an outdoor gig, he'll do it. It's Nardwuar's undeniable passion for everything he does that makes him so darn likeable, and what makes this DVD so much fun. You keep on rockin' in the free world, Nardwuar the Human Serviette, and doot doola doot doo…

— 17 March 2006