I meant to get this up before, but better later than never. Lil Princess (aka Meg Mccarville) performed at my annual risqué spoken word event, and she did a fine job while she was wearing garishly charming clown apparel
The reason that it was delayed was that the blog I wrote for would not let me post the interview because it kept getting flagged for language. Even though I am generally against censorship, I reluctantly decided to clean up some of the language, so I could at least get the interview up. I decided to post the unexpurgated version here.
My first close encounter of the third kind with Lil Princess was at a great musical event at Hotti Biscotti (it featured performers from other places as well as Right Eye Rita, Insect Deli, and Soft Serve.) Later on I ran into her at some Lumpen Events, and I saw her read biographical writings about her experience working at a dungeon which were often humorous, disgusting, and sad (this woman has experienced the darkest side of humanity first hand). Many of her experiences will be captured in an upcoming graphic novel, and Troma may distribute her new film. She has also appeared in some horror films, and The Jerry Springfield Show as well as many Lumpen, Burkhart Underground, and Quimby events. She has also contributed to Ausgang, Skelton News, and she has written and performed a puppet show parody of Hansel and Gretel. She penned a biographical comic which was illustrated by and Hugo and Robin Bougie. It has just been released under the Last Gasp imprint. Now without further adieu, here’s an interview with the attractive-repulsive (or is that repulsive-attractive) Meg Mccarville.
Warning: The interview version includes some graphic language.
Can you tell me about your background and how you got into the arts?
it’s actually pretty weird how i got into the arts… i was sort of dropped into it by fate. in jr. high and high school i was always the really fucking weird girl, but i was never pushed in the arts, so i shied away from it. i remember i had friends who were amazing at drawing and painting and photography and i was never really praised for what i did until college.
i originally went to uic for pharmacy, for various obvious reasons, being a drug addict… i thought i could get work from the inside and be set for life… well i didn’t know i had to take calculus and fucking assloads of chemistry, and after a semester i figured i wanted to take the easiest thing possible, which was communications. well after a semester of the most remedial spoon fed retard school, i could no longer stand that. i had been taking french since 7th grade and was fluent in it so i decided french would be a real easy major so i decided on that but on the sly i decided to apply to the arts school cuz i wanted to take a couple of classes there but you had to have a high gpa to get into the arts program at uic. it depended nothing on your artistic merit, just how good you were in your classes.
Turns out to my surprise I get a letter saying I was accepted into the arts school. From my very first college critique I knew I was doing the right thing. I got very high marks and a lot of the teachers had a lot of questions for me. I remember the first year i did a lot of work involving child molestation and i managed to get a small fan base of kids at my school who helped me through it by praising everything i did and giving me ideas for why i did what i did through my critiques. The first year was a breeze, later teachers started to get on my ass because three years into photography school, I didn’t know how to use a black and white darkroom. I was very focused on the subject matter and not the technical side of things. This is how I got started doing what I was doing.
You have a very distinctive fashion sense. Where did your sense of style come from and where do you get your clothes?
I really really like japanese street style. I love ghetto chic. I love trashy/ classy clothes, and most of all I love colors. I also am very influenced by clowns and the circus so I like to think I try to dress clown chic. I have a lot of clown makeup and I like to experiment with that as well. And as far as where I get my clothes… it’s very exact… My mother often has to show me off to people. This happens about 6 times a year and I can tell it causes her great agony and worry. When this happens she takes me to forever 21 and buys me about 100 dollars in clothes and keeps them at her house and makes me wear them brand new to meet whoever and then I can have them… So many of my clothes come from forever 21. Some are from thrift stores, the garbage, and stolen/borrowed from various friends. I have to praise the neighborhood dollar stores for awesome accessories. Also west side super ghetto beauty supply stores are goldmines. I just gave myself up. I will never reveal where they are because then my secrets will be out.
Who are your favorite artistic collaborators?
Mike McPadden is the person who got me started in writing. He used to be a high up editor at Hustler and his collection of pornographic puns is mindblowing. When he used to edit my writing it came out brilliant. He’s got amazing ideas. He’s now the editor of mrskin.com. Unfortunately, to his and my chagrin, they will no longer accept anything from lil princess because it is TOO PORNOGRAPHIC….. HELLOOOOO IT’S A PORNO SITE!!!! I digress.
Peter Lambert and everyone at diamondcamp films (www.diamondcampfilms.com) are doing amazing things. We have a feature length film that I am in and took 2 years to shoot and now over a year to edit called DEAD AMERICAN WOMAN that promises to be OUT OF CONTROL. everyone there is great… The cast and crew ranges from Joe Rubin… a genius 18 year old gay porn freak… to Wiley George Finley… a brilliant 85 year old gay man who has a flair for fashion and women’s clothes who spent a good chunk of his life in state hospitals… how this group of yokels got riled up I’ll never understand, but man… it promises greatness.
I also have to mention Robin Bougie who writes Cinema Sewer who drew and lettered MY SECRET COCUPATION… He’s a fucking amazing artist and it was awesome collaborating with him. Also Hugo/Bruno is an amazing up and comer from NYC. I have no idea why he’s an up and comer. He’s fucking brilliant and should have 12 blowjobs a day for how awesome his comics are.
Do you like modeling and what kind of photos do you prefer to pose for?
You know… I honestly can say that the only “modeling” I have done has been with porno companies or bdsm stuff, because the photographers are paying me to do exactly what they want, which is fine with me… It’s money. I prefer to collaborate though. I use myself in so many photos because other people change their minds, or freak out and you can’t use their image. Especially with the type of stuff that I do which tends to be more disgusting or bizarre. I don’t know. I really got sick of working with stupid models so I use myself. There are many people who have had me as a model (usually where I wasn’t getting paid) and together we decide what we will do. My room and the space I live in seems to be a very popular subject for photographers… mostly because when you enter my room, you’re throat deep in clowns, dolls, vomit and cigarette butts. People like that stuff i guess. I have modeled so many times I can’t remember all of them. If you’re interested google my name, apparently there are some real gems there. Or maybe don’t. I forget some of the stuff I’ve done and I’m sure some of it is barely legal.
How has the dungeon influenced your work?
When I worked at this specific dungeon, I was more often than not, waiting for someone to come in to piss on or fuck in the ass… so I had a lot of time to reflect…. reflect on how vile this place was and how fucking cartoonish my life had become. It was almost unbelievable what was going on around me… So the only way i could deal with it was to get it all out, and write it all down… I was writing. constantly. there. I hated working there but was able to generate an insane amount of writing and the circumstances and stories only got better with time. When I quit the dungeon because finally the usa found out i was unemployable and gave me social security i did not feel bad. but the amount of content the dungeon generated was pretty amazing.
Where did the name Lil Princess come from?
I’ve had that name since I was maybe 6 years old. I remember my father (a real funny guy) had told me about some case that just happened where a girl was horribly beaten and raped by her father and her father’s nickname for her was his little princess. Then he laughed and called me Little Princess. He did a lot for my budding psyche. I would not be the same person without him, that’s for sure. That particular non repressed memory came to me when I was about 21 and I just started to use that name for everything. It has stuck and I love it. I think its perfect for me.
You work in the horror genre… Do you like horror films. and what are some of your favorite horror films or films in general?
I love horror films. I didn’t used to be so obsessed with that genre, but after I started working in it and going to geek conventions for interviews for places I wrote for, I started to get obsessed. There are so many films that I love. I love 70’s horror movies. Last house on the Left is probably one of my all time favorites. I just received this porno called A CLIMAX OF BLUE POWER about police rape/sex that made me want to call a male prostitute to my house. Unfortunately I have no idea where to call for those services… surprising I know. I love serial killer movies. I also love japanese horror movies… Those people have amazing brains. Drag me to Hell made me have 2 panic attacks. That’s probably the best horror movie I’ve seen recently. As far as a list… I’m drawing a blank. I’ll come back to this one. Or maybe I won’t. I got a colonic 3 days ago and since then my brain has been malfunctioning. It’s quite often that I feel like a drooling retard who can’t even remember what color poop is and I’m having one of those moments.
A LIST: larry clark movies, singapore sling, jodorwosky (can’t spell that), salo, ciao manhattan, bone, bad santa, shakes the clown, gg allin hated, forbidden zone, kenneth anger, martin manaic, trash, crispin glover, mondo, cannibal holocaust, and just a lot of garbage on you tube…
also i’ll mention here that i think i have a bunch of “secret sex tapes” floating around the internet and the world…
What films and other projects are you working on, and when can we expect to see them?
As I mentioned, DEAD AMERICAN WOMAN, is a feature length movie that I am in and it is long overdue. We spent two years shooting it, and now they have been editing it for a year. I hear news that they are almost done with the editing and that Troma wants to pick it up. god I hope that that makes money. I’LL B RICH!!! maybe totally not but look out for DEAD AMERICAN WOMAN around winter.
Also Robin Bougie just finished MY SECRET COCUPATION which is basically a diary of working at the dungeon written by me and illustrated by him and Hugo. it is brilliant (on their part) and got picked up by a semi major distribution company so you can get it at most indie comic stores.
Finally I have been performing a puppet show based on Hansel and Gretel. It is called Handjob and Gargle. This is collaboration from many people. Hopefully we will be able to tour with it.
What was the Jerry Springer show like? Was it scripted? How was Jerry?
That is a whole interview in itself. I can go on and on about it… The only thing I regret about it is that I did not get naked during it. I guess it has become popular on You Tube. I have written long stories about being on the show. I could go through what happened but I will let the audience decide for themselves. I mean… Come on… it’s Jerry Springer. I will say it is a lot more fake now then when I was on it. It seems they have fully embraced the fact that it is a human sideshow and want to make the best of it. I’d like to mention that I am a huge fan of the Steve Wilcos show, and met Wilcos when he worked for Jerry Springer. I wish I could go on his show so that he could forbid me from sitting down and kick my chair through the wall. I know he would not like me at all….
I loved that story you wrote about how somebody stole your house key and sold it to a person who tried to rob you. Is that exaggerated, fictional, or an autobiographical piece?
This question could pertain to most of my short stories. They are all true first of all. For some reason I am not gifted in the imagination of stories. I am however gifted into falling into ridiculous situations and barely crawling my way out of them. I recount all of these stories and I definitely like to exaggerate. But many of the stories and the one you reference in particular happened just like it was written. I really don’t understand why or how I attract such trouble or why I am put into so many bizarre situations. I am a magnet for that shit… that’s for sure.
Are you really attracted to men dressed as clowns?
Yes… but only certain clowns. I like Emmett Kelly style hobo clowns and Barnum and Bailey style over the top colorful clowns, and I base my fashion on them… I do NOT however like mimes…. I do love Juggalos (insane clown posse fans), and was just actually at the gathering of the Juggalos which was the highlight of my summer, but I hate “evil clowns”, “klowns”, and sexy clowns… They disgust me.
What are you planning to do at your Mercury feature on Friday?
I am very excited about reading/performing there. I was really hoping that I might be able to perform my puppet show, but the girl who created it with me and performs it is out of town. It just happens that my comic book that I have mentioned, MY SECRET COCUPATION, just got finished. I plan to read from that. I did a shorter reading last weekend which was a story from that and it went really well. Since I have more time I plan to read a couple of stories from it. Thank you to Vito for giving me the platform to vomit my horrible life out and for asking these interview questions.
