Tommy Wiseau of ‘The Room’ Directed a Music Video for Corsica Arts Club, and Here It Is

Tommy Wiseau made a name for himself with his 2003 unintentional disasterpiece The Room and has kept himself busy ever since by entertaining his loyal cult of irony-loving, spoon-throwing, Johnny-quoting appreciators of catastrophic cinema. Most recently, he’s done work with Tim and Eric as well as written and starred in his own sitcom, The Neighbors, all trying to recapture that shitstorm in a bottle he found with The Room. And now, he has further added to his crapulum vitae with his first ever music video for “California I Follow” by Los Angeles indie band Corsica Arts Club.

If you’re looking for the same directorial fuck-ups, misguided camera work, and laughably nonsensical dialogue that launched Wiseau’s career in the first place, you won’t find it here. In fact, overall, the video is, dare we say it, fine. Or, at least, it’s on par with most music videos coming out of indie rock bands these days.

The band apparently met Wiseau at a screening of The Room in LA. They said about the opportunity via email: “To us, its infamous billboard and midnight screenings are just as much a part of the fabric of LA as the Pacific Ocean or Amoeba Music. The opportunity to work with Tommy was the experience of a lifetime. He is so passionate, focused, and single-minded in his vision that everyone on set had no choice but to buy in.”

Absolutely. If you ever find yourself with an opportunity to work with Tommy Wiseau, you take it, if for no other reason than the rare chance to orbit the same planet as The Leathery One for an afternoon. But this video is odd in a different way. It’s odd in how remarkably normal it is.

Sure, Wiseau throws in some familiar elements from The Room and The Neighbors, like costumes and sets (hey there’s that goddamn spiral staircase! Side note: how did they get that mattress and all that second floor furniture up that thing?), but it’s missing his trademark whatthefuckery. At one point, champagne glass in hand, Wiseau injects one of his classic unintentional catchphrases, “Hey guys, love is blind, huh?” he says. Hey! That’s that thing what he say from The Room! Except he delivers it with the burned out enthusiasm the Budweiser “Whassup?” guys probably have when they’re on their way to a party where they know someone’s going to ask to do that fucking line. He repeats the “love is blind” line again at the end and someone retorts, “But is it, really?”

Holy moly, have the Three Laws of Wiseau Robotics finally turned against us? Is this Tommy trying to escape his own character? Have we cracked this gentle soul from… uh, wherever it is he says he hails from? Perhaps our ironic appreciating, critical mass-level cultural examining, and generally treating him like the Juggalos of film has crushed his artistic spirits. “Dance, you disturbingly angular monkey!” we yell. “Do more of the Bad Thing that makes us laugh and feel better about our discerning tastes and appreciation for the arts.” Truly, we are tearing him apart!

Then again, maybe this is all part of Wiseau’s art—teasing us with just enough weird-tasting candy to keep us all salivating into his next project. Or maybe this is some sort of meta commentary on music videos and how they are all a sham. Of course, all of this rationalizing promptly flies straight out the window when you read Wiseau’s statement on making the video with Corsica Arts Club, whose name he didn’t even get right.

"I enjoy very much working with the band, the Corsica Art Club. I think all the members did very a good job. They have certain vision. Same here. I'm, as a director, always, you know, I'm looking for detailed work. And they present me detailed work like lyrics, they already have the music, and I say 'Okay, let’s just analyze what we can do.' The concept was vision, basically - what we can do. What the story? So, we brainstormed this story, and I say 'Romeo and Juliet, what about that? New generation.' And they accepted, and we did rehearsal, and that’s the finished product. So the concept was 'vision, vision, vision.' Thank you.”

OK, yeah, on second thought, nevermind. There’s no point in trying to deconstruct this man or untangle his myth. If there’s one lesson we’ve all learned from getting to know Wiseau over the last decade and trying to decipher the method behind his madness, it’s that we shouldn’t think about it too hard. It’s best to close your eyes, cover your ears, and just let the absurdity wash over you. That’s the best way to truly appreciate him. After all, love is blind.