Rivers Cuomo is organizing Nerd Nights in Los Angeles and I didn’t know about it? According to a recent interview in Vulture, he is regularly hosting a Nerd Night, where he privately screen or pays for his fans to attend a screenings of a film adaptation of a Shakespeare play. He is really into the Bard’s plays these days and his last Nerd Night happened in June, at West LA’s Laemmle Royal theater where he paid for approximately 40 Weezer fans to attend a screening of ‘Antony and Cleopatra’. This is a bit crazy when you think about it, and I wonder how these fans were aware of it. I didn’t see anything in his Twitter feed? The theater was half-full, Cuomo was sitting alone in his own row, and the whole event totally sounds like a Cuomo thing.
‘Nerd Night is whatever I’m super into,’ said Cuomo to Vulture. ‘The first two films I showed were ‘The Never Ending Story’ and ‘Time Bandits’. Since those two, it’s been all Shakespeare. I feel sad if I go [see a film] by myself. So I just send out a tweet and say, ‘Hey, everybody, let’s go do this.’ Then it’s really fun. There’s energy. And I feel happy.’
Cuomo is that lonely he has to turn to his fans for a night out? ‘You’ll find a wide range at Nerd Night,’ added Cuomo, ‘from people who’ve never read Shakespeare who are just here for the experience, to seasoned Shakespearean actors. Whatever they’re getting out of it, I’m just glad they’re here.’
And since Cuomo is really into Shakespeare, he offers his audience some personal analysis of the play before the screening:
‘Anyone is always going to have a gripe with a Shakespeare production, so mine with the Globe [Theatre’s] is that in the tragedies, they bring out a little too much comedy and slapstick. As an entertainer myself, I can empathize with a performer who’s desperate to get some kind of reaction from the crowd — it’s great when they laugh, it makes you feel good. But I’ll listen to the BBC production of Antony and Cleopatra on Audible, and I shed more tears. It’s a more powerful experience. But the Globe performances, especially this one, have their powerful moments.’
During Nerd Night, Cuomo is really approachable, he chatted with fans who thanked him for organizing such an event. He also explained his passion for the classic English author:
‘He shows me what’s possible with language,’ Cuomo said. ‘Obviously, none of us can try to emulate him. But it’s inspiring to know how much power you can wield with words. We don’t know much about his creative process, but I’ve read enough to know this specific example of a way I’ve taken something from him: He worked with sources a lot. In fact, I think only one of his plays — ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ — was an original story. He would read these history stories and combine different plots. And in the case of this play, that whole speech by Enobarbus about ‘the poop was beaten gold’ — that description of Cleopatra that’s so beautiful — he really lifted a lot of that from a different source. I’ve read the original. So it’s inspiring to know that even Shakespeare needed to rely on the work of people before him. That gives me license to do the same.’
Is that some sort of confession of plagiarism?
‘As an artist myself, I’ve been really inspired by family relationships and all the pain in family relationships. There’s so much of that in King Lear. And being in a position of power myself, as a bandleader, as a leader of a scene here, I can somewhat relate to King Lear.’
So may be I should try to attend one of these Nerd Nights, If I ever learn about one. Cuomo even performed an acoustic version of ‘Cleopatra’ after the screening of ‘Antony and Cleopatra’. Does it mean that all upcoming Weezer songs are gonna be inspired by Shakespeare? Probably! Vulture asked him if it was only a phase?
‘Well, I believe everything is a phase,’ he answered. ‘There will come a day that I’m no longer into Shakespeare any more if for no other reason than that I’m dead. Twenty years ago, I wasn’t into it. But I am now. When I look back on the art I’ve been passionately into in my life, I’ve definitely gone through phases. I’d say the music of Bach has stuck with me, but Beethoven hasn’t. So everything comes and goes. I’ve gotten more and more into Shakespeare, I’ll see where it goes.’ Cuomo is a really strange case in the pop-rock world.