Michael Austin, Pop Culture Warrior of <em>Secret Formula</em>

His popular "Sing-Alongs", which range from 90's hits to Disney movies to Michael Jackson, have drawn sold-out crowds and spawned other events, including a recurring Saturday morning cartoon event ("Spoons, Toons & Booze") and movie lampooning ("The Raspberry Brothers"). You may also remember his Twin Peaks party last summer. If you need a fun activity this week, consider checking out the Annie "Sing-Along" tonight or "Spoons, Toons & Booze" Says No To Drugs this weekend (details below).

So how did you get started doing these events? What was your inspiration? I got started throwing parties at my apartment for friends. The first real event type ones—I always liked to have theme parties and stuff like that at home—was a sing-along. I had seen this sing-along back when I was living in Austin, TX. This guy took music videos and put subtitles on the screen and that was the event! So I wanted to recreate that experience since I had such an amazing time there. My first one was for Valentine's Day at my apartment; it was a Power Ballads sing-along of all "love sucks" and “love doesn’t suck” awesome 80’s songs. I had 15 friends over who didn't have dates for Valentine's Day and we just had this loves bites party! Then I did a Christmas one with Christmas pop music videos. So I had 40 people in my apartment singing along to 'N Sync's "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" song. Needless to say I got a noise complaint about that one.

So I was randomly in this venue for a friend's surprise birthday party and I said, "Hey, do you do events here?" And then bam! I started doing sing-alongs on a regular basis and it took off really quickly. I met the guy I work with now, Jerm Pollet, he's also from Austin and he was doing Raspberry Brothers live comedy over movies shows and then we started to work together on our shows. Then we started to create new shows and it just sort of spiraled out of control where we can't stop creating new events. That's how Secret Formula came together.

How do you come up with events to do and themes for events? A lot of the inspiration for our events are part nostalgia. I was born in the 80s so I'm definitely a 90s child. So all the TV shows of the 90s, all the cartoons of the 90s, the things I loved to do as a kid are kind of brought into party form. I loved waking up in the morning and watching cartoons religiously and I miss that as an adult. I can still watch cartoons but, by myself? Well that's kind of sad. So how about we have this event where we're watching cartoons and eating cereal and we're doing the adult thing: we're drinking! And that's Spoons Toons & Booze. We have a lot of events that are really nostalgia-based; they're based usually on shows that are no longer on the air or old music videos that we know and love and experiencing them in a new way. We're not just getting the Arrested Development DVD box set or watching it on Netflix, we're going to a place where they're going to have frozen, chocolate-covered bananas and there's a band called The Nevernudes and it's a big, giant party. All of a sudden these things that we grew up on, things that we love, are in a social setting, they're brought to us in a new way and it's more fun than just watching them at home.

So having been to a bunch of your events, and knowing that alcohol is a great party starter, and often you'll have featured drinks and that sort of thing... Alcohol makes things better!

Always. Agreed. Of course, in moderation! Have there been really strange things that have happened or any crazy, wild stories... Because of alcohol...there's a few. You'll never go to a comedy club that doesn't serve alcohol. And if you do, you're in a comedy club where nobody is laughing because comedy and fun things go together... alcohol is a lubricant to make people relax and let go a little bit. We've definitely had some times where people have gone crazy. We have all these themed drinks so all of a sudden people are ordering liquor when they probably normally would order a beer. But then they see a drink called "Screech's Kiss" and they're like, "Give me five of those because that sounds hilarious." Actually, at the last "Spoons, Toons and Booze" we did there was a bachelorette party and that was their first stop of the day, Union Hall, to watch "Jem and the Holograms" and get trashed on White Russians and then they were going to go out for the rest of the day! I thought, "That is brave." I definitely see some interesting drinkers, those are the ones who just pop in my head, but I'm sure there are some other ones.

The interactive activities are as much of a part of the program as just the music videos or TV shows so are you doing more kinds of full-service events where there's just a lot of stuff to do and see? Absolutely! If there's not something fun that we can think of to do for it, we're not going to do a show. There's no point if you can't make it fun, otherwise anyone could just go do that at home. And for all of our movie Sing-Alongs we treat each one as if it was a Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight showing with drinking games and props to use during the movie. For "TV Party," especially, and for "Spoons, Toons and Booze" to a similar extent, we try to bring the TV show out of the TV and into some sort of realistic setting. I don't know if that makes sense...that doesn't make any sense, actually. [laughs] Themed stuff. We want people to have fun and meet people and win things and make an ass out of themselves—I do that every time I get on stage! If we're doing a The Little Mermaid Sing-Along then we're doing an Ariel singing contest. Anything to get people on stage and let loose and let people in the audience laugh and cheer for their friends. We're helping everyone have a good time.

So you've gotten some attention from some big names in the entertainment industry. Can you talk a little bit about the future for Secret Formula? I'm pregnant. That's right. So that's pretty big. About three weeks right now.

It's a little early to announce that to the public! Usually people wait until after the first trimester. Oh! Well, I'm a guy, so I don't know that and I just charge right ahead. I'm pregnant! I haven't even done a pregnancy test, I just kind of felt a little kick the last couple weeks and I've felt a little "Ehh." I'm pretty sure that's what pregnancy is like, I'm just going out on a limb there.

Last year we got to work with BBC America on a Doctor Who Premiere Party for the new season. If you've never seen Doctor Who fans they are some of the most fiercely loyal fans around so we knew we had to make it a really big event. We premiered the first two episodes of the new season, Doctor Who himself Matt Smith recorded a special message for our audience, we had a lot of themed games and amazing autographed prizes. It was a blast. We're hoping to be able to move more into these types of events that are exclusive fun premiere parties but on the fan level. Take out some of the fixation on online and traditional marketing and do more of a low fi fan/audience reach out. Give back to the fans by giving them a treat they'll never forget.

Last month we did a Grease Sing-Along and this Thursday we're having an Annie "Sing-Along" at The Bell House. In other news we've started an excellent relationship with Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg. The Raspberry Brothers and "Spoons Toons & Booze" have found a nice home there with shows every month, which have all been sold out. This Saturday and Sunday we're doing "Spoons Toons & Booze Says No To Drugs," with all your favorite cartoon characters warning you against the dangers of drugs plus some D.A.R.E.-inspired challenges. We're also working on a few new types of parties for us once the weather warms up. Lots of exciting stuff.

So I have to ask, since you're such a cartoon fan, what's your favorite cartoon character saying? Oh wow. Off the top of my head...the only one I can think of is Darkwing Duck, "I am the terror that flaps in the night." That was one of my favorite cartoon characters growing up.