The Call of the Weird

 

No, it doesn't get much weirder than this: Thor Templar, Lord Commander of the Earth Protectorate, who claims to have killed ten aliens. Or April, the Neo-Nazi bringing up her twin daughters Lamb and Lynx (who have just formed a white-power folk group for kids called Prussian Blue), and her youngest daughter, Dresden. For a decade now, Louis Theroux has been making programs about offbeat characters on the fringes of U.S. society. Now he revisits the people who have most intrigued him to try to discover what motivates them, and why they believe the things they believe. From his Las Vegas base (where else?), Theroux calls on these assorted dreamers, schemers, and outlaws--and in the process finds out a little about the workings of his own mind. What does it mean, after all, to be weird, or "to be yourself"? Do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us? And is there something particularly weird about Americans? America, prepare yourself for a hilarious look in the mirror that has already taken the rest of the English-speaking world by storm: "Paul Theroux's son writes with just as clear an eye for character and place as his father.... And he's funny.... Theroux's final analysis of American weirdness is true and new." -- Literary Review (England)

 
His first book, The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures, was published in Britain in 2005. In this book, Theroux returns to America to find out what has happened in the lives of some of the people he featured in his television programmes since he last saw them.

Synopsis

For ten years Louis Theroux has been making programmes about off-beat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he revisits America and the people who have most fascinated him to try to discover what motivates them, why they believe the things they believe, and to find out what has happened to them since he last saw them.

Along the way Louis thinks about what drives him to spend so much time among weird people, and considers whether he's learned anything about himself in the course of ten years working with them. Has he manipulated the people he's interviewed, or have they manipulated him?

From his Las Vegas base, Louis revisits the assorted dreamers and outlaws who have been his TV feeding ground.

Attempting to understand a little about himself and the workings of his own mind, Louis considers questions such as: What is the difference between pathology and 'normal' weirdness?

Is there something particularly weird about Americans? What does it mean to be weird, or 'to be yourself'? And do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us?

In Weird Weekends (1998–2000), Theroux followed marginal, mostly American subcultures like survivalists, Black nationalists, White supremacists and porn stars, often by living among or close to the people involved. Often, his documentary method subtly exposed the contradictions or farcical elements of some seriously-held beliefs. 

Theroux himself describes the aim of the series as:

“ Setting out to discover the genuinely odd in the most ordinary setting. To me, it's almost a privilege to be welcomed into these communities and to shine a light on them and, maybe, through my enthusiasm, to get people to reveal more of themselves than they may have intended. The show is laughing at me, adrift in their world, as much as at them. I don't have to play up that stuff. I'm not a matinee idol disguised as a nerd. ”

Louis Theroux is a BBC television presenter best known for making documentaries that investigate fascinating worlds and lifestyles.

Over more than fifteen years, using a gentle questioning style and an informal approach, he has shone light on some of the world’s most intriguing beliefs, behaviours, and institutions by getting to know the people at the heart of them – from the officers and inmates at San Quentin prison to the extreme believers of the Westboro Baptist Church; the male porn performers of the San Fernando Valley to the medical regime in one of America’s leading centres of mental health for kids. Recently he made a two-part series on Miami county jail and a special on America’s private menageries of exotic animals.

In the course of his career, Louis has scored a number of journalistic scoops. His series of celebrity profiles, When Louis Met…, took viewers inside the world of the charity fund-raising eccentric Sir Jimmy Savile; the media guru Max Clifford and his client Simon Cowell; and most famously Neil and Christine Hamilton, who found themselves the subject of rape allegations during filming and allowed Louis and his director to continue to stay with them and document the ensuing media onslaught.

Louis graduated from Oxford in 1991 and started out as a print journalist the following year, working for Metro weekly in San Jose and then in New York for Spy magazine. He got his television break from Michael Moore, who hired him as a writer and correspondent for his ground-breaking satirical show, TV Nation.

In 1995 the BBC signed Louis to a development deal. He came up with an idea for a documentary series that would follow him as he immersed himself in off-beat lifestyle, called Weird Weekends.

Over the years, Louis has kept true to a way of working that is uniquely his own: by charming his subjects, he’s able to offer rounded portraits of some of the world’s most psychologically gripping issues, while always resisting easy judgements. Louis has won two BAFTAs, an RTS award, and a Bulldog award, not to mention numerous nominations.

Louis also continues to write for print publications. In 2005 he published a travel book about a few of his adventures, The Call of the Weird.

He currently lives in West London with his girlfriend and two children.



Source:  http://louistheroux.com/biography.php

Link: http://louistheroux.com/programmes/cotw.php