Actor and comedian Mike Myers has made his directorial debut with a documentary about his friend and famed music manager Shep Gordon. Shep has managed Luther Vandross and was friends with Jimi Hendrix. “Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon” is already getting Oscar buzz.
You’re in Hollywood’s Landmark Hotel as a 21 year old, who just quit his job as a corrections officer since the kids you were watching beat you. You take a number of drugs to calm down your nerves, all the while you hear what you think is a rape going on outside your room. You race outside, only to get punched in the face by the women you were hoping to save. It turns out that woman was Janis Joplin, and right next to her was Jimi Hendrix.
That’s exactly how Shep Gordon became involved in managing music talents, which is all explored in Mike Myers’ directorial debut of Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon. Following Gordon’s life in the 1970s to the present, Myers’ film turns out to be what he likes to call a “reportage documentary” in which he is able to convey the details across various people and forms of reporting. The film is all centered around Gordon, a manager of multiple musical talents like Alice Cooper, Luther Vandross, Anne Murray and more, spreading to culinary chefs like Emeril Lagasse or Mario Batali, and basically made the Food Network, the channel it is today with “chef superstars.”
With a number of guest speakers including Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Arnold, and a many more, as well as multiple of Shep’s talents like Alice Cooper, Anne Murray, and his family members, Supermensch comes to be an entertaining documentary in which the audience is just dying to learn more about Shep’s adventures in “the business”.
It is truly amazing seeing how far Gordon has come from pretending to be Alice Cooper’s manager – when in reality he was selling drugs to him and the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd and more. It was Hendrix himself who suggested Gordon should become a manger (as he was “a Jew”) and even picked out his company name and logo for him, stating to pick the first word with the letter “v” in it and make the v into a peace sign. And so came Alive Enterprises which eventually worked with music acts, chefs, movies, productions and more.
We had the opportunity to see the film at its New York premiere at the The Museum of Modern Art. The after party was at The Wayfarer where Tequila Casa Dragones speciality cocktails were served. “Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon” is being released by RADiUS – TWC and will hit theaters on June 6, 2014.
-Catherina Gioino
