Bonus: Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman

In this very special episode, James Mullinger is reunited with the first person that he ever interviewed over 25 years ago: his all all-time hero, Lloyd Kaufman. As any movie fan will know, Lloyd Kaufman is the director of The Toxic Avenger films and co-founder of Troma Entertainment, the longest running independent movie studio in North America.

 

Lloyd is a proud New Yorker and is the first non-Canadian to ever appear on the show, because without Lloyd this show wouldn’t exist. 

 

Born in New York in 1945, Lloyd graduated from Yale University in 1968, where he majored in Chinese studies. His fellow Yale classmates included Oliver Stone and George W. Bush. In 1974, Lloyd and his business partner Michael Herz founded Troma Entertainment and began producing and distributing independent action and comedy films. At the same time, Kaufman also did freelance work for major Hollywood productions including Rocky and Saturday Night Fever. Lloyd is still making films now including such instant classics as Return To Nuke Em High Volume 2 and Shakespeare’s Sh*tstorm. 

 

Many high profile filmmakers began their careers at Troma. Kevin Costner’s first movies were with Troma. James Gunn began his career with Troma. Trey Parker and Matt Stone made Cannibal: The Musical for Troma before creating South Park. Others whose careers were helped by Troma include Eli Roth, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Robert De Niro. Troma continues to be a haven for independent directors and young talent during an era of corporate takeovers. Indeed, James Mullinger’s first foray into magazine editing was a Troma fanzine aged 12 and his excitement at speaking with his hero once again, is palpable.