I Made A Movie… Give Me Money

By Shannon Peach

Keith Lowell Jensen had a premonition he would one day need his banana suit. And he was right. The suit became an important prop in an ongoing experiment to see if he could make a living by begging for money, as documented in his film Why Lie, I Need a Drink.

Determined to either prove or dispel the urban myth of the panhandler who drives home in a fancy car after a day on the streets, Sacramento comedian Jensen jumped in with both (Skittle-green sneaker clad) feet. He employed every trick in the book to get people to part with their change, along with a few tricks that will probably go down in panhandling history as Jensen’s own inventions. He just might be a pioneer in the field of panhandling by phone, and is almost certainly the first panhandler to hold an eBay auction for ad space on his cardboard sign. Because every panhandling effort requires a cardboard sign, and every sign of Jensen’s- a proclaimed atheist- ended with the words “God Bless.”

And of course, there were the costumes. In addition to the banana suit, there was an Uncle Sam costume, accessorized with a poster stating “I Want You to Give Me a Dollar. Nearest Freeway Offramp.” There was the corporate business suit, which Jensen wore while asking passersby to spare gas money for his SUV. There was a mummy suit, with a sign that begged for change in hieroglyphics, which, as Jensen wrote, is always funny.

Not everyone agreed. Over the past couple of years, Jensen has been blogging and posting video clips on www.whylieineedadrink.com.

As the discussion was taken up by the online community of Metafilter.com, there were a few readers along the way who failed to find humor in the situation. One member accused Jensen of employing hijinks that were patronizing to the poor. “I was out there with homeless people, interacting with them,” Jensen says. “It’s so funny that somebody who’s not in that position wants to tell me that I’m patronizing them and making fun of them.”

But as a comedian, he says, you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. While attending a stand-up comedy workshop, Jensen says he was warned never to joke about serious issues like death, or cancer. But these are the things that he wants to laugh at, as he says, to get a little power over. “I want to say things that are important to me, and make them funny. But then when you do that, when you address stuff that’s serious but keep a sense of humor, then people say, well you’re making fun of this serious subject.”

Yes, Jensen and crew- consisting of Jonathan Morken of Apprehensive Films and his friend John Astobiza- mingled on the streets. Equal parts comedy and slice of life, the footage of Jensen’s antics are balanced with serious interviews. “It’s something that I think Japanese audiences are very used to, and American audiences are more uncomfortable with- going from kind of disturbing, to hilarious, to disturbing.”

To illustrate his point, Jensen describes a scene where a woman is talking about her drug problems and her children. Her adult child was also homeless, and she didn’t get to see the young children that have been taken from her. In the next scene, Jensen is standing in front of the Capital Christian Center with a sign that reads “Atheist- Will Convert for Food.”

But the majority of interviews were with people that he considers normal (whatever that might mean to a panhandling banana). He wanted to talk to people that weren’t necessarily related to the issue, but represented the general public. One day of interviews took place at the entrance to the K Street Mall, where anyone from tourists to skateboarders to state employees might be found. “That’s one of the things that I like best about this movie- we really look at the attitudes that are around us right now and how people really feel about panhandling and homeless people.” The experience has changed Jensen’s own attitudes about these issues. “I think that by standing in that place where homeless people stand for hours and hours and hours, you can walk away from it at the end of the day, and you won’t be able to relate to what it would feel like not to… but you relate to it more than you would if you’ve never stood there at all.” Jensen says that he’s now more likely to donate his own money to organizations like Food Not Bombs and Habitat for Humanity, rather than give it someone who might use it to harm themselves through drugs and alcohol. “In the process of making this it really hit home how serious the mental health issue and the addiction issues are in the homeless community.”

Keep in mind that this is not a documentary about the homeless, but about the way they’re viewed by adequately sheltered society. The question that begs to be answered is, well, do they make a good living? Spike TV liberally edited an interview with Jensen to make it sound as if they could. But let’s put it this way- even the guy with an inside connection for free costumes and a multi-media approach to begging still has a day job.

Catch Why Lie, I Need a Drink before it becomes big in Japan. The movie premiers March 7th at the Crest, 8:30 pm. Ticket and contact information is available at www.whylieineedadrink.com.