Welcome to the Chris Manz Show

Yximalloo (Nao Ishimaru) in an underground, experimental musician from Japan. This one man band has been creating truly seminal, avant-garde recordings since the 70's, but for some reason many people don't even know his name!

Yximalloo visited Chris on the Chris Manz show where the two talked, goofed around, and played music. One track that was created in the video, appears on his brand new album "unpop." This recording is released through ESP-disk, one of the truly "classic" labels of experimental music, which has released recordings by such greats as Albert Ayler, The Godz, Pearls Before Swine, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, and William S. Burroughs.

This show also features some excellent artwork by Jad Fair (of Half-Japanese) who has collaborated with Yximalloo on many occasions.

Karl Bauer aka Axolotl takes us on a journey through San Francisco and through the maze of his music. Axolotl is a well respected underground ambient/noise/drone musician. This piece chronicles his times in San Francisco and gives the viewer a taste of his music. Also features a cameo by Donovan Quinn of the Skygreen Leopards. This is an experiment in artistic journalism. Enjoy!

Marissa Nadler, famed singer of dark and beautiful folk songs, engages in an uncharacteristic comedy routine with up and coming anti-comedian, Chris Manz. Combines hand-drawn animation, home movies from the 1960s, optical effects, lo-fi graphics, live music, comedy improvisation, and journalism into a weird little TV show/music video/short film. There's no budget and it's all shot on miniDV.

Established Anti-comedian Neil Hamburger riffs and rants with Chris Manz backstage at "Spaceland" in LA. Neil Hamburger (America's $1 Funnyman) from the seminal underground anti-music group, Zip Code Rapists, is known for his confrontational approach to live performance. The perpetually miserable comb-over comedian drinks hard drinks onstage while yelling and swearing at his audience and telling the worst jokes in history.

Aspiring anti-comedian Chris Manz tells jokes to his childhood Idol, the legendary experimental composer, Terry Riley, arguably one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Terry was delighted to take part in such a strange event, and suggested that the joke structure utilize repetition to reflect the compositional structures of Minimalism, the musical form that he helped establish. After a long day of giving speeches related to his honorary doctrate from Chapman University, lecturing on musicology, and even performing new music, Terry remarked that this was "the best part of the day"

Chris is a struggling internet comic who has stumbled upon an opportunity to reach a massive audience for his internet show, The Chris Manz Show. During a taping of an episode gone horribly wrong, his ex, Karla, appears at the door. The only thing left to do now is to let her in.

The film that spurred on the real Chris Manz Show is a dark (well, not really) romantic comedy that is equal parts easy to watch, playful and post modern.

Promo video for Knock. Knock.

A promo video for Amir Motlagh's new film Knock. Knock. starring Chris Manz, Keaton Shyler and Lene Pederson. Chris and Keaton watch clips from the film and comment on their experience. Was originally going to be a Chris Manz Show episode, until the tape ate our intro. Nevertheless, this serves its utility as much or more so.