Windy City Heat
Windy City Heat is a made-for-TV reality film produced by Comedy Central. It first aired on October 12, 2003.[1]
Windy City Heat
Tony Barbieri
Don Barris
Jimmy Kimmel
Adam Carolla
Daniel Kellison
Jimmy Kimmel
Perry Caravello
Tony Barbieri
Don Barris
- 2003
92 minutes
English
Background[edit]
Perry Caravello is an aspiring celebrity and struggling comedian, actor, "skateboarder and snowboarder" who was "discovered" in 1992 by comedian Don Barris, the warmup comic for Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Man Show, during an open mic night audition at The Comedy Store in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.[2] Barris offered Caravello a chance at stardom and, along with Tony Barbieri playing a perpetually stoned "Walter 'Mole' Molinski," befriended Caravello and has played pranks on him since 1995. Caravello's ongoing commitment to achieving this stardom, with the assistance and participation of Barris and Barbieri, is known as The Perry Project,[2] which is noted with a title card at the beginning of the film.
When performing as a trio, Caravello, Barris, and Mole are collectively known as "The Big 3." In a scene in Windy City Heat, Caravello cites an unnamed source referring to the group as "the Three Stooges of the new millennium". In the 1990s, the Big 3 prominently appeared on Simply Don the Public Access Program, a popular public-access television show in the Los Angeles area created and hosted by Barris. Kimmel later joined the show as an announcer.
Aftermath[edit]
Unlike typical prank shows, it is not revealed to Caravello at the end of the film that the entire thing was a prank; this is due to the fact that the movie is only one component of The Perry Project,[2] which continues to this day. However, included on the DVD for the film is a video recording of Caravello watching the actual film for the first time in his home, alongside Barris and Barbieri (still in character as Mole, who in turn tells Caravello he has adopted the stage name "Tony Barbieri"). He doesn't react as if anything is unexpected, as by this time Barris and Barbieri had convinced Caravello that due to production issues, the final cut of the film was to be made up of only behind the scenes footage from the making of the film.
On Caravello's star commentary track for the DVD, recorded two years after the initial release of the film, he acknowledges that he has since realized that sequences in the film were set up as pranks on him (he says he read about it online), and that he knows Barris and Barbieri were intentionally conniving to infuriate him, yet he continues to speak of the "film" and his acting abilities with the same gusto. Notably, Caravello claims he was playing along during his audition, when Dane Cook introduces himself by the name "Roman Polanski," stating that he had "fucked with everybody" because he did a report on Roman Polanski in elementary school. Despite acknowledging that "Polanski" wasn't really a casting director, he continues to believe that it was a real audition and he legitimately beat out the other actors (including Ford, Pitt, De Niro and Daly) to win the Stone Fury role. He also gets emotional watching the scene at the film's premiere when he receives the trophy from the "President of Show Business," and says that he cries every time he watches it.
Dr. Drew Pinsky claims he was told by a Comedy Central executive that they stopped re-airing the movie over fear of legal issues with the Americans with Disabilities Act, due to the fact that the movie is making fun of someone with brain trauma (Caravello).[3]
When the DVD of the film was released in 2006, the cover is listed as starring "Perry Karavello",[4] continuing the running gag of misspelling Caravello's name.
On June 1, 2007, Caravello filed a lawsuit against Jackass star Johnny Knoxville, alleging that Knoxville, along with Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla, promised him ten million dollars to put his genitals in a mousetrap to show that Perry F. Caravello could prove his "Stone Fury" worthiness live on The Adam Carolla Morning Show on 97.1 FM KLSX as a stunt, and to promote the recently released DVD, and also for payment for his performance in the movie.[5] Caravello dropped this lawsuit on June 10, 2008. In a 2013 appearance on WTF with Marc Maron, Barris revealed that an unnamed attorney representing Caravello received a portion of a relatively small financial settlement, but did not divulge further details.[6]
Sequel[edit]
On 11 October 2013 the Big 3 announced plans for a sequel that would be crowd funded.[7] The crowd funding attempt to raise $500k ran for 50 days and raised $16,220, or 3.2% of the target amount. Barris subsequently announced that enough funds were raised to film a reality show television pilot that is being actively marketed around Hollywood. Fans were encouraged to join the production as extras during the "Wedding Weekend," which was filmed for the pilot.