"So what's it gonna take? Silver shadow believer..." -Shiny Toy Guns

Monday, November 12, 2007

The Stunner Brothers Stun

Forward:
The first time I met Jon, of the Stunner Brothers I was downtown in my home town. I hit my girlfriend's arm and said, “Look at that guy.” She replied with, “Who the one with the corn rows and crazy glasses?”
Oh yes.
After a few drinks, my liquid courage had kicked in so, I walked right up to him and said, “Hey, I think you are the finest guy in here.” I can’t believe I used the word “fine,” but never-the-less that’s what I said.
He laughed and said, “Yeah right? Are you serious?” At that point, I thought it would be a good idea to give him my phone number. Knowing that my gift for solid communication usually fails me when I am tipsy, I figured that I would probably never hear from him again.
Months later, I received a text message from some random phone number telling me to go to YouTube.com, type in "Stunner Brothers" and watch the video. There it was the Stunner Brothers classic, “Piggin’ Out,” starring Jon Boy and KC.
I laughed really hard and called my friend and told her to watch it. When I went to their website and realized it wasn’t just some joke, and that they were really trying to go somewhere with it, I decided that I wanted to write about them. Because everyone has a dream but it is those who pursue it that inspire me. Hence the interview with the Stunner Brothers…

So who are these #1 Stunners really? The Stunner Brothers are two guys from Novato, named Jon Boy and KC who pull crazy skits and videotape them. For now they are mostly an Internet phenomenon- promoting their comedic footage and music through Myspace and on their website: http://www.stunnerbrothers.com/ but will eventually be releasing a collection of their work on DVD.
They met a few years ago at a strange time in life- one in which they were both homeless. Jon had just gotten kicked out of his grandma’s house and KC kicked out of his mom’s. At the time, Jon was sleeping on the floor of his buddy’s house (the buddy was also a friend of KC’s). In the next day or two, KC came and started sleeping on the floor too and they’ve been friends ever since. Now roommates, best friends, compadres, Stunner Brothers- they have realized that people find them highly entertaining.
Late-night after partying one night, they went through a fast food drive-thru. A cop was in line in front of them, but they were having too good of a time to care. They had the music blasting and were dancing in their seats. “We were going nuts to it- bumping, going crazy to it,” KC told me, “holy shit dude, we hella go crazy.”
At that point the idea was born. Jon came home from work one day and told a few friends that he and KC were going to become the Stunner Brothers. “We go out and do wild shit, record it and see what we can do,” Jon said.
On a visit down to Santa Cruz, they were walking down the street doing what they call the “model walk,” which is basically strutting around in sunglasses and telling girls that they are hot. “The girls were just eating it up,” KC said and Jon finished his sentence with, “and guys wanted to fight us.” They came across a stage where a DJ was playing, jumped up and started dancing, even though they weren’t invited. A few girls decided to join and they ultimately became the show.
A constant show they are; they started bringing the camera pretty much everywhere they went. Some of the footage has been planned while others are shot at random. The videos include Piggin’ Out, Kay-Z, Work Like a Cholo, Mackin’ 101, Statuatory, Cold Stone, Club Envy, Big Trouble in lil’ China, Dialin’ Dealer, and their newest, The Breakup. All of which can be found at: http://www.stunnerbrothers.com/ . Each clip is a unique piece of comedy that leaves their audience in disbelief, laughing uncontrollably, at times feeling uncomfortable, and ultimately completely stunned.
Their most popular, Piggin’ Out, came to be after they had pretty much gotten booed off stage following a performance of their music at open mic night. KC told me, “We did a few of our songs, we weren’t well rehearsed, and it just all fell apart. We got really embarrassed and got the hell out of there, but we redeemed it.” Completely random, while on their way home, they saw cop cars parked out front of a gas station and decided to pull in. They shot the video in the quickie mart and when they left were immediately pulled over.
In Work Like a Cholo the idea was premeditated and well thought out. “We didn’t have the balls to do that one for a while,” KC said. The reaction to it, in San Rafael's canal was not all that inviting, initially. “It took Jon to start singing in front of that taco truck to actually get people to loosen up a little bit, and to let us put our arms around them.”
“I figure we stun people when they watch us and when they see us, and we wear stunners as well, so I guess it’s a pun,” Jon said. Some people hate on them for wearing their stunners and some people laugh. Regardless of the response, they feel that they have made it a standard to wear stunner shades inside a club, even if it is nighttime. Jon told me, “I’ve been wearing glasses since I was twelve, before stunners even came out, night and day, all day long,” and then busted into a Ain’t Nothin’ but a G Thang lyric by Dr. Dre.
The On 1 Mix Tape, DVD will include the videos from their website and should make its debut next year. The person responsible for putting it all together is their editor, Warner Brown. He is their editor, graphic designer, and web producer. His talents are exuded in putting the footage to music, inserting things that work well, and taking others out and the videos wouldn’t be anything near what they are without his genius and dedication.
Once the DVD project is complete the Stunners hope to start off by selling them out of the trunk of Jon’s car and after that who knows? Their website, stores, theaters- sky’s the limit. They also have a CD to come out later and T-shirts are on sale currently. Their ultimate goal is to get enough good footage to eventually enter into a film festival of sorts, where they could discretely be there watching the reaction of the crowd. Not everyone will be able to handle the Stunners comedy, but one thing is for sure they’ve got honesty for sale and that’s pretty refreshing and commendable.
“I want to push it as far as it can go. I don’t give a fuck what people think.” Jon told me. “We do a lot of this stuff to get out our insecurities.”
Unfortunately, the Stunner Brothers have recently parted ways. KC has decided to further pursue his music career and Jon has gone off to film on his own. Which is a sad thing; they are very different and yet truly compliment one another. Will KC return to the Stunner Brothers? At this point, it is unknown.
They also wanted me to include the fact that KC currently lives in a closet of their apartment.

- Adrienne is an SSU Alum and former writer for the STAR. You can check out the full story, as well as many others, at her blog: azydoesit.blogspot.com.

*I am honored to say that this story (with a few edits) made it back into my college newspaper, the SSU Star.