		No Nudity. No Violence. Unspeakable Obscenity.
		Executive Producers Penn Jillette Paul Provenza Directed by Paul Provenza Original Music Gary Stockdale The Aristocrats Official Website	At the Los Angeles premiere.

Gary Stockdale Interview - Exclusive Magazine!

Entertainment Weekly

Paul Provenza on The Aristocrats

Recently I wrote and produced the music for THE ARISTOCRATS, a film conceived by Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza and directed by Paul, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It's out in theatres now and seems to be breaking box-office records everywhere it shows.

It's an insanely funny film that celebrates freedom of speech, and it happens to be hitting the culture at a time when it appears many would like to control content and restrict what adults can see, hear and read. As Penn has said, though, even the detractors of this movie prove that "words still have power."

Since the movie was about comedy artists at the top of their game improvising their way across all boundaries of language, I decided to write a jazz score for the movie that pushed the envelope of harmony and rhythm, requiring world-class musicians to perform it who can improvise in as freewheeling a way as those who appeared in the movie.

The musicians I chose certainly fit that description: Ralph Humphrey (drums), Alan Pasqua (piano), Bob Sheppard (sax), Clay Jenkins (trumpet), and Ken Wild (bass). As is obvious from their performance, they're amazing players and worthy in every way of being called "Aristocrats."

Click here to listen to The Aristocrats

The Aristocrats is a very unique film. It is funny and very perverse but has a seriousness of purpose that places it dead center in any discussion about values and mores and even more specifically the nature of taboo. It features more than 100 comedians and takes an unprecedented backstage look at the world of comics, both superstars and lesser-known lights. It is a labor of love by creators Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette; because of their own comic stature, they have access to people and situations that one cannot duplicate. And all in pursuit of telling one very, very, dirty joke, a joke that has been around since vaudeville but one that nobody I know has ever heard of or, more importantly, ever heard told. Well, in The Aristocrats you'll hear this same joke told 100 times. It's a joke that previously existed only in private, among comics, and it is the dirtiest joke you will ever hear.

While there is no nudity, no sex, and no violence in The Aristocrats, this is one of the most shocking and, perhaps for some, offensive films you will ever see. But its provocativeness is never gratuitous; it creates in its own singular fashion an absolutely arresting portrait of comic art.— Geoffrey Gilmore

Penn Jillette
Penn Jillette has been the larger, louder half of Penn & Teller since 1975. Their acclaimed stage show enjoys a permanent home at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas. Jillette has appeared on the big screen in Hackers, Walt Disney's Fantasia 2000, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. His current Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, which he cowrites, coproduces, and cohosts, received four Emmy nominations and won the 2004 Writers Guild Award for outstanding comedy/variety series.

Paul Provenza
An accomplished comedian and classically trained actor, Paul Provenza has starred and appeared in television series, including Northern Exposure, Beggars and Choosers, and The West Wing. He has also written, produced, and starred in comedy specials and series, including "The Incredible Man-Boy," Lounge Lizards, and Comics Only, which received CableACE Award nominations. Provenza starred in Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile and the feature Fixing Frank.