Mr.Universe

The best documentary since Crumb and a serious, no-kidding-here contender for hotpress' film of the year, Shimmy Marcus' magnificent 71-minute opus Aidan Walsh: Master of the Universe packs more pure enjoyability into its compact running time than the last few dozen Hollywood feature-flicks rolled into one. It also finally relates the life-story of the greatest rock god of all time for a broader audience.

Beset by budgetary restrictions, but so skilfully crafted and intelligently-structured you'd never notice it for a minute, the film offers up a highly respectful and (eventually) deeply touching portrayal of a subject often held up to sneering ridicule.
Director Marcus is, at the time of writing, unsure about how wide a distribution the rock-doc to end them all will attain but he's quietly confident that the film will at least secure a limited release. For the time being, he's happy to have it completed, especially since it came about almost by accident:
Strangely, I'd written this script for a feature which was optioned by a production company, and I wanted to direct it and they said 'well you can't, unless you make something first'. So I was trying to get the short off the ground and I couldn't get funding for that and I'd known Aidan a few years at this stage, so it just dawned on me one day to make a documentary about him.
Was Aidan instantly enthusiastic about the whole thing?
Very much so. I think if Aidan could be The Truman Show, he'd be the happiest guy in the world. But he's very serious, as well he wanted to make sure we were doing it right, that this wasn't going to be a half-arsed attempt. He was really concerned that it would look professional. His vision for the film would be fifty screens across the country, showing it seven nights a week. And he wanted it shown in Hollywood, he had this idea it would be a massive worldwide feature. At the time I totally shared his enthusiasm.
The other thing is that Aidan is a film-maker in his own right, so he was constantly coming up with his own plans for the film. Even in the contract that we negotiated with him which went through about twenty drafts before he was happy with it he gets copies of all the footage, so I think he now wants to make Part Two himself.
Was he entirely comfortable around the camera at all times?
He's completely manipulative around a camera. He uses his peripheral vision to see if the red light is flashing, so he knows when it's on and when it's not. That was one of the problems with filming him, because in a way he was always performing. But then again, that's very natural for Aidan to be performing constantly, and switching himself on like that.
But what strikes me is what an extraordinary character he is, in view of having come from where he's come from. He's not one of these guys who feels the world owes him anything because he's had a harder time than mos. He's a complete survivor.
The film features amusing interview snippets with the likes of Simon Carmody, Gavin Friday, Gerry Ryan, Guggi, Richie Taylor and Dave Fanning, along with nostalgic footage of such RTE greatest hits as Nighthawks and Number One: Most of the participants have plenty of mind-boggling Aidan anecdotes to recount, but their fondness for their old ally is tangible.
The stuff at the start is taken from a TV programme they did in 1987 all the stuff in black-and-white with them in the shades was filmed in town about a year ago. They were very keen, but Ryan and Fanning and Guggi and all these guys had never heard of me. They are very protective of Aidan, and they wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to ridicule him in the way RTE has a habit of doing. So once I'd told them, and once I'd shown them this ten-minute thing I'd made about Aidan, they realised I was going to try and basically give him a fair shake. And I thought a lot of them were very honest in the interviews that they gave, especially about the whole backlash thing.
Is Aidan Walsh immortal? People are still ordering that record
It's weird, it never ceases to amaze me how far that album really went in this country, and the effect it had on people. When we premiered the film in Galway, people had travelled from all over the country to see it 'cause they were just genuine fans of Aidan. His fanbase is much wider than I realised, even today Howie B wants to remix 'The Community Games'. The Fun Lovin' Criminals have a great relationship with him, they're very good friends. When they played Cork, they got him onstage for the opening song so there's a lot of serious artistic people who see a side of Aidan that gets missed by people who just don't get him.
How happy is the man himself with the finished movie?
I'd bring him in every now and then and show him various stages of rough cuts that I'd done, because I didn't want anything there without his approval, but I explained to him that I had to have final cut. So in the end, when he saw the final cut, I got 100 marks out of 100. The next day, then, he called me and we met, 'cause there were certain changes he wanted made, and some of them I could accomodate and some of them I couldn't. At the end of the day, there are still little things that he wanted to do differently, but that's because he's a rabid perfectionist. Overall, he's very happy with the film. It's amazing I finally got to make that other short film
How does Aidan want to be remembered?
For having brains. For being given the recognition he feels he deserves for the ideas he's had, and for being a visionary in some ways. Sometimes people have a problem with other people who don't fit in to their ideas of what a normal person is, whether it's looks, speech, ideas, the way they communicate, the way they dress, anything at all. But I find Aidan is a constant, and I use him to judge other people in terms of how they react to him. Personally, I think Aidan's the most normal guy in the world he just brings out the insecurities in other people. He's the first to tell you he can't sing, can't dance and looks awful, but he knows he's got an energy and humour that others can't compete with.
If Aidan Walsh: Master of the Universe isn't packing out every multiplex in the globe in six months' time, justice simply doesn t exist. Whether it sees general release or not is a matter between film distributors and Satan, but we will keep you informed as and when things happen. Rock-doc of the 21st century.