Hey Mr. Mixologist is my newest favorite parody of bartender and cocktail culture. I think I’ve watched it 20x+, and still notice little quips I didn’t hear or see before. The chorus, “Hey Mr. Mixologist, did you go to college for this?” is so good it’s annoying. I have to nearly duct tape my lips shut to stop myself from singing it randomly throughout the day. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_id6i7OBj0?version=3]
Come to find out, Fog & Smog, the production company behind Hey, Mr. Mixologist which so brilliantly riffs on the oh-so-serious big city craft cocktail scene, is a group of creative types from both LA and San Francisco who poke fun of everything from organic food to cell phones to yoga girls to stay-at-home dads.
I reached out to DJ Dave aka Dave Whittman, the lead rapper in the video and here’s an except of the interview:
What’s the rap community’s response to you and your topics?
DJ Dave: My guess is the Whole Foods, Yoga Girl, Mr. Mixologist… all that stuff, I don’t know that it’s made much of a blip on the radar of the music or rap world in any substantial way. I think it lives in a bit more of a comedy space, expression, social commentary for me, that’s where the inspiration comes from. So, the “rapping” part is a way to make the jokes, get the ideas across, and I guess part of the irony at the end of the day. (ie, what’s this white dude doing rapping about shopping at Whole Foods, wtf…)
Talk about how you choose the bizarre but funny topics you make videos about about like mixology?
I think that’s the best part. Taking things like Yoga culture, expensive organic food, communities that surround this stuff. Taking the seriousness of some of the pockets of culture, and then sprinkling in the ridiculousness that LA (or specifically West LA) adds to it all, the over-the-top-ed-ness that we experience, taking that all from a really PERSONAL and GENUINE place (as a person who dabbles in yoga, and shops at whole foods, and may frequent a mixology-informed watering hole from time to time)
So you’re poking fun at the West Los Angeles community?
I’m basically making fun of myself. I express myself in that way, but the cool part is I can pretend to be calling somebody ELSE out. I think that’s what makes it fun, for me at least, is that at the end of the day it’s self-effacing humor. That’s my angle anyway. Expression. That’s what resonates I believe, so, unorthodox? I dunno. Maybe. I think it’s fun!
What was your take away lesson from your Mr. Mixologist video shoot? What tripped me out about Mixologist is how much George Wooley accomplished there as a producer and director. He really was able to pull together what could have cost 10s or hundreds of thousands of dollars between location, extras, cameras, DP’s, props. We got it all for free basically! With a lot of wrangling and hard work on his part, and the equity of having done other stuff that was successful (Whole foods, Yoga girl) People in this town want to align themselves with successes, or maybe just be part of fun shit? In any case… folks have been really cool about doing favors and getting involved… And the shoot for that video was by far the most organized, involved, etc. I was pretty blown away by the scope of it!
Where did the idea for Mr. Mixology spring from? The idea for the video really synthesized while talking to a couple SF based friends, Josh McAdam and Anthony Healy-London who owns a bar in SF called Churchill – go grab a beer from Ant and put it on my tab!
Speaking of grabbing a drink, if you could have one type of drink for the rest of your life, what would it be? That’s tough, but I’m going to go with a lighter bodied red wine. I would say whiskey… I like a nice neat scotch lately, Peaty stuff like Ardbeg or something… but that’s too much for rest-of-life. I still think if I had to choose a rest-of-life food it’d be chicken burritos from Cancun in Berkeley.
Do you enjoy the craft cocktail culture scene? I’m not deep into it. I ordered an “old fashioned” a couple times after I saw it on Mad Men. I dunno. Then I changed to a Sazerac, because the cool bearded micro-brew expert guy at Whole Foods (pre whole foods parking lot video) informed me that this fun drink dates back to “Pre-Civil war New Orleans”. Okay, so Sazerac it is.
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Even if you’re not familiar with the West LA or bartender scene, one way or another, a Smog & Fog video have you rolling.
Here are some of my other favorites: