If You Haven’t Heard, I’m Making A Horror Movie, And This Guy’s Going To Be In It

Written by Brandon Stroud / 03.27.13

Goldust horror movie Meet Me There

I’ve bugged the readers of the Best and Worst of WWE Raw column about this a couple of times now, but “Brandon’s dreams are coming true” is big enough news to share on the main page proper, so here we are. We’re making a movie.

When I say we, I mean me (I wrote the thing, and it is surprisingly low on wrestling jokes) and Lex Lybrand. Lex was nice enough to put in me in a variety of host and duck-related roles in his first film, Summer League, and now he’s taking my words about blood, guts, sexual dysfunction and rural Oklahoma and is turning it into something pretty, and pretty scary. It’s called Meet Me There. It is heavy.

The other thing worth noting here is the ridiculous cast of talented people who have thrown in on the project. As you probably gathered from the header image, we cast Dustin Runnels, aka WWE’s Goldust, in a choice supporting role. Jill Thompson, a woman who has done everything from draw Wonder Woman and Swamp Thing comics to designing gear for the best pro wrestler in the world, is not only doing the art for our poster, she’s appearing in a role. Our lead actress, Lisa Friedrich, teaches comedy at a theater in Houston and is that combination of talented and gorgeous you kinda have to see in motion. Austin’s Megan Simon (who is amazing) is recording creepy hymns, and we’ll have everything from site friends The Wonder Years and Cleveland-area band Nights on the soundtrack. Yes, I am absolutely the least talented person involved in this.

To help promote the thing (and our fundraiser, which raised a quarter of our goal in its first week) we put together a little video explaining the film and why we want to make it, and you can check that out after the jump. If you’ve read about this in the column, this is totally new, so be sure to click through.

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In Austin For SXSW? Here, Have Two Tickets To The World Premiere Of ‘Summer League’

Written by Brandon Stroud / 03.14.13

Riot Juice Summer League

Anyway, if you’re one of the 700,000,000,000 who’ve descended upon my grand home town of Austin, Texas, for SXSW, I have two points of business for you:

1. Pick up your trash. I mean, seriously, Jesus, what were you, raised on a barn? We aren’t Philadelphia.

2. Any chance you’d like a pair of complimentary tickets to the world premiere of Summer League, the softball kickball film featuring With Leather editor-in-chief Brandon Stroud in not one, but TWO roles, just for being a With Leather reader?

Here’s your chance, friend. The film premieres on Monday, March 18, at the Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane (5701 W. Slaughter Lane), red carpet and all, and the showing is completely sold out. However, I wear a duck mascot costume for a portion of the film and therefore have hella pull and can snag you a pair of tickets.

Here’s all you have to do … shoot the film’s director, Lex Lybrand, a message on Twitter. Tell him that you’re a fan of @WithLeather and you want to see his flick. There are only two tickets to be had, so he’ll do a random drawing based on whoever’s messaged him on … let’s say, Friday, and let you know if you’re the winner. Then boom, you’re at the red carpet premiere high-fiving a dude you know from a sports blog, watching a great little movie made by some passionate locals.

Oh, and if you haven’t seen me in my duck costume, hold on to your butts:

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So It’s Come To This: The Air Sex National Championships

Written by Brandon Stroud / 02.18.13


Air Sex National Championships

As I mentioned last week, the Air Sex National Championships went down in Austin, TX, on Friday night. If you’ve never seen Air Sex, it’s a (for lack of a better term) head-to-head competition where performers execute no-holds-barred imaginary f**k-sessions on stage for the enjoyment of an audience of folks trying not to throw up. Brooklyn Decker was there in the crowd, apparently. I was on stage as a judge, because (1) I’ve been lucky enough to judge a few of these during its most recent touring schedule, and (2) I am not even ABOUT to pretend-hump something in front of Brooklyn Decker.

I put together a gallery of the show’s best and most iconic images (with the help of my good buddy Lex Lybrand of Wear The Cheese), and here’s a quick guide to what you’ll see as you flip through it:

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What You Should Do Tonight: Watch Me Judge Pantomimed Vaginas At The Air Sex National Championships

Written by Brandon Stroud / 02.15.13

Some vaginas more pantomimed than others.

As regulars at With Leather may know, I became a recurring judge during season 4 of the Air Sex World Championships, making three appearances at the judges table to help decide which person did the best job at pretending to have sex. If you’re not a regular, it’s like air guitar, but with penises.

Anyway, the last time I attended an event I got to pal around with ‘Tim & Eric’ star David Liebe Hart, so I was obviously like, “this is the best the fake sex game gets.” But NO, tonight in Austin at The ND is the season 4 Air Sex finale, featuring the top performers from shows across the country coming together to … uh, come together, and entertain me, and to a lesser extent, you.

The culmination of a year of touring the country comes down to this. Who will win the coveted title of Air Sex National Champion?

We’ve got great performers from:
New Orleans, LA
New York City
Los Angeles
Washington DC
Austin, TX
Houston, TX
San Francisco

Hosted by comedian @ChrisTrew. Also featuring “foreplay” a special pre-Air Sex standup comedy showcase. Season 5 kicks off in May!

You can pick up tickets here, and if you’re anywhere near Texas tonight, you should. If you read With Leather and attend the event (and I don’t already know you), let me know and I will high five you with one of the least gross hands in the building.

If you aren’t in Texas, follow @airsex on Twitter today, and prepare for the weirdest gallery ever at With Leather on Monday.

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A Weekend Of Sports At Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest 2012

Written by Brandon Stroud / 11.05.12


Fun Fun Fun Fest 2012 sports

I'm gonna try to win the Pulitzer with this one.

Austin, Texas, has 8-10 festivals every weekend, but this weekend was a big one: the 7th annual Fun Fun Fun Fest, featuring a reunited Run DMC, everyone from Public Image Ltd to X to f**king Kreayshawn and a cannon that shoots tacos. It’s the weird little brother of SXSW, and it’s the best.

It’s also full of sports, and because 1) I was there, and 2) I run a sports blog, I documented all of it to share with you here. I actually got to participate in some of it, too. My jobs as a returning judge for the Air Sex Championships and hosting gig for a veggie hot dog eating contest got me billed as a “Yellow State Artist,” meaning I performed (as it were) on the same stage as David Cross, Eugene Mirman, H. Jon Benjamin, Saul Williams and a magician who did a racist ventriloquist act and pulled ribbons out of a chicken’s ass. It was one of the coolest, best experiences I’ve ever had, and that’s not even mentioning how I got a crowd of hipsters to join me in a Daniel Bryan “YES” chant.

Inside this Golden Treasury of sports photos you’ll find:

- Skateboarding and BMX at “Ride The Plank,” sponsored by Project LOOP
- Pro wrestling courtesy of local pals Anarchy Championship Wrestling
- Mechanical bull riding
- The aforementioned Air Sex Championships, which gets covered a lot on With Leather these days and is exactly what it sounds like.
- The veggie hot dog eating contest

Stick around until the very end to see a shirtless fat guy in a horse mask squaring off against a punk rock pornstar. That is not clickbait, that actually happened. I love you, Fun Fun Fun Fest.

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‘Summer League’ (AKA That Sports Movie I’m In) Has A Teaser Trailer, Posters

Written by Brandon Stroud / 11.05.12

Summer League movie poster

Back in August, I told you about Summer League, a softball-versus-kickball movie from the folks at Austin-based Greenless Studios. We were trying to raise enough money to rent a mascot costume for a crucial, duck-related scene near the end of the film, and thanks to us having the best readers in the world (and a timely tweet from the compassionate Mr. Vince Mancini) we ended up raising about a third of the film’s budget. Because we weren’t trying to scam you, Summer League exists now, and it looks GORGEOUS.

Of course, I don’t know if you just assumed this based on the fact that I’m a nerdy wrestling fan blogger, but I am not one of the beautiful, svelte ingenues on the primary poster, nor am I one of those guys behind them. I wasn’t born with that weird gene that makes facial hair grow in attractively. I did, however, make the secondary poster, and I did it in a motherf**king duck suit, because life is bizarre and With Leather is the best website ever.

That poster (the heel poster, for the record) and a Man Of Steel-quality teaser trailer, are after the jump. Share this with everybody you know so I’ll get to keep being in movies, would you?

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