Some artists have managed to forge an entire career from their supposed ‘manic’ or ‘unhinged’ quality they emit via their personas, performances and vocal deliveries. Some have succeeded in fooling us all, however, as soon as the curtains draw back and the audience’s applause dies, it’s back to normality, the return to the comfort and security of existing simply as a performer who has to switch on a button for an hour or so every night. For Larry ‘Wild Man’ Fischer, that button is stuck fast, constantly on ‘ON’ 24 hours a day. Larry’s life is one long performance, without the rest bite or indeed the knowledge that you are even sane.
Originally a performer from the streets of L.A, who would sing for loose change; his wildly idiosyncratic style was soon picked up by none other than Frank Zappa, who called him “a true original”. Plucked from the streets and into the studio, Zappa produced an album of material for him, his first record An Evening With Wild Man Fischer. However that mad idiosyncrasy that Zappa saw in him, soon reared it’s head it far more uglier ways, when it was apparent Wild Man was ill, suffering from a most ill fated combination of severe paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Their relationship coming to a bitter end when Wild Man threw a glass across a room narrowly missing Zappa’s baby daughter’s head.
The documentary then follows Wild Man’s life in chronological order, which sadly is a descent further and further into mental illness. Parallels to The Devil and Daniel Johnston are rife throughout, such is the raging grip of this illness that it can transform such unique and powerful individuals into almost identical characters. While some see Wild Man as simply a novelty act – including his own family – others, such as Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, Solomon Burke and comedy songwriter Weird Al Yankovic are in genuine awe of him, Mothersbaugh referring to him “as just about as genuine a rock star as you can be”. Wild Man’s songs were often childish, drenched in repetition, such as the manic but delightful ‘Merry Go Round’, which is ostensibly a crazed repetition of the words “Merry, go, merry, go, merry go round”. His voice is a discordant and highly out of tune, but every word he sings is done so with the most sincere belief and power on his behalf, he truly believes he is the greatest rock singer there is, and his passion, if nothing else is intoxicating. Plus, the greatest and most interesting factor is really that no two performances are ever the same from him.
The physical demise of him is painful to watch and the filmmakers clearly went through it, Wild Man even on occasion believing them to be involved in come kind of conspiracy, and many scenes end in Wild Man spontaneously hitting away the camera and ending the shot. It must have been a great test in patience and one hell-bent ride of emotions for the people making this film, but the results are a respectful and insightful film filled with humour, passion and sadness, much like the man himself.