Will Work for Views: The Low-Fi Life of Weird Paul (2019)
A long time ago back in the 1980s, a weird kid with a bowl haircut used his family’s video camera to create and record his own videos. Sometimes his friends and family made appearances in his videos, and other times he was the only performer. Some of the videos were skits, while others were simply of him dancing around, lip-syncing to his favorite songs and pretending to play the guitar. When he got a little older, he actually learned how to play the guitar and began writing and recording his own silly songs.
I am, of course, talking about myself.
But I am also talking about “Weird” Paul Petroskey, subject of the 2019 documentary Will Work for Views: The Low-Fi Life of Weird Paul.
In the 1980s, both Paul and I (two kids who lived a thousand miles apart and have never met one another) were both busy recording videos and writing songs. I eventually grew out of creating funny songs and videos, and that’s where my path diverged from Paul’s. Weird Paul continues to write songs and create videos to this day. He has released more than 700 songs, dozens of albums, uploaded almost a thousand videos to YouTube… and unfortunately, has very little to show for it.
Will Work for Views peels the curtain away from “Weird Paul” and gives viewers a view into the daily life of Paul Petroskey. The documentary focuses less on Paul’s creative output and more on the daily struggles he goes through to create it. Because the money Paul makes from his songs and videos doesn’t pay the bills, his primary source of income is a part-time job at Spencer’s Gifts, where he folds t-shirts, works the register, and spends his daily breaks coming up with new song and video ideas. Time spent working at Spencer’s (or on home maintenance) is time spent away from his true passion.
Paul is less obsessed than most musicians about pesky things like sound quality, and uses whatever resources he has on hand to create his art. His vast catalog of old songs were recorded on regular cassette tapes, while his videos have been digitized from decades-old VHS tapes. To this day, Weird Paul films his monthly YouTube videos using a vintage VHS camcorder, laboriously transferring each clip to his computer by way of a VCR while doing things like laying on his back when narrating certain scenes to maintain consistent audio quality.
In his YouTube videos, Weird Paul comes off as positive, happy, and childlike. Whether he’s singing about a pot of macaroni, a guy with a bone disease, or simply talking about his latest thrift store finds, he always has a twinkle in his eye. But when he steps away from his happy place, reality quickly creeps in. Paul admits he’s getting older and increasingly tired, and wonders when his big break will come. In a particularly revealing scene, Paul’s live-in girlfriend (artist Niffer Desmond) interrupts a scene to point out that the couple’s home is quite literally falling apart, with pieces of plaster falling from the ceiling, broken plumbing, and a basement full of mold.
There are hints that Weird Paul’s window to success is closing, with talks of limited income, limited time, limited resources, and even limited amounts of energy. If money were no object, I have no doubt Weird Paul would be uploading new content on a daily basis. Everything he does outside of that is simply a means to an end.
In separate moments during the documentary, both Paul and Niffer state that the mark of a successful artist is the ability to make a living from his or her art. They’re wrong. The mark of a successful artist is the ability to spark emotion in others through the art they create, and by that definition, Weird Paul is most certainly a success. His music is not for everyone; then again, whose is? Weird Paul is as honest and genuine as he is weird. Regardless of whether or not viewers think Paul will ever find the widespread success and validation he so desperately seeks, it’s impossible to walk away from this film not rooting for the guy.
Will Work for Views: The Low-Fi Life of Weird Paul is available through Amazon, YouTube Red, and other streaming services.
NOTE: Weird Paul does not make any money from sales or views of this documentary. Instead, I recommend checking out Weird Paul’s YouTube Channel, Patreon Page, Bandcamp Page, and Weird Paul’s website where he sells physical copies of his albums and other merchandise.