They shop at thrift stores, garage sales and trash bins, scouring the 50 states for a unique item that is often unwanted and forgotten.
Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett search for abandoned home videos, so they can commentate and make fun of their findings to an audience during their Found Footage Festival tour.
For the first time, Prueher and Pickett will host the festival in Gainesville at 7:30 p.m. today at The Atlantic, 15 N. Main St.
The duo has collected VHS tapes for the last 20 years and have gathered more than 1,000 videos since.
“We have some of the weirdest, craziest footage we have ever seen,” Prueher said. “We don’t have any footage from Gainesville. So if anyone has found something, bring it to the show.”
The 90-minute show will include exercise tapes, classroom films from the 1970s and a video about how to take care of a ferret, he said.
Prueher said tickets to the show cost $5 and can be purchased at the door or online at www.foundfootagefest.com.
The group began the Found Footage Festival in 2004 by showing its tape collection to patrons in New York bars.
“People seemed to dig it, and we’ve been touring ever since,” Prueher said.
Caroline Garrity, a 19-year-old advertising sophomore, said she enjoys making funny videos with her friends and wouldn’t mind submitting her tapes to the festival.
“It would be a good use of $5 to get some laughs,” she said. “I wish they would find some of my home videos, because they are spot on.”
