The riot reunion – King of Herrings reconnects LSU friends

Just a few days into production of the upcoming whip-smart comedy King of Herrings, Eddie Jemison, the Louisiana-shot indie film’s co-director, co-composer, screenwriter and star, just might have been mistaken for his often-on-edge tech-head character Livingston Dell from Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven trilogy.

Jemison called co-producer John Mese, a Baton Rouge native and actor transplanted to Los Angeles, with what seemed like a big problem on set. Mese had not yet arrived in New Orleans for his role in the film. “No one’s listening to me,” Jemison said.

This, Mese shot back, was to be expected. Most of the cast has known Jemison, and each other, for more than 25 years.

“It’s natural after all that time together,” Mese tells 225. “The actors were just doing what they wanted to do [with their characters].”

Fortunately, that over-familiarity and Jemison’s frustration eased into a comical trove of believable camaraderie on camera. This sense of familiarity is relished during nostalgic and quirky passages of banter and caper-filled day-making, but also subverted when Herrings builds upon layers of awkward tension and intricate detail for a riotous, well-timed release.

The roots of this black-and-white, $20,000 indie gem run deep—back to 1986 and LSU’s Theatre Department under the direction of the late John Dennis.

Jemison, Mese and their Herrings co-stars, Joe Chrest and David Jensen, met and became friends in the MFA program for acting. Wayne Pere, who also appears in the comedy, attended LSU undergrad in the mid-1980s before moving to Hollywood to pursue a career in film.

King of Herrings began a few years ago as a series of scenes Jemison rehearsed with Mese and other members of his Los Angeles acting class. That evolved into Jemison’s full-length script for a play called Cloud Talk. After Jensen read the script, he suggested their mentor, John Dennis, direct it for the stage.

“David [Jensen] was definitely the instigator,” Jemison recalls. “The original idea was to bring it to the stage, and only after doing the play would we shoot a movie version.”

In his 70s by then, Dennis reluctantly had to bow out of the project for health reasons, but not before he gave valuable input on the characters and plot at initial meetings and read-throughs.

The revered mentor had brought his actors together one final time, then left them, in an act of strange grace, to work out the story, their film, all on their own.

“Let’s just do it,” Jemison recalls thinking at the time. “Get a camera and do it.”

Dennis had brought his actors together one final time, then left them, in an act of strange grace, to work out the story on their own.

On a micro-budget, and with just two weeks to shoot in New Orleans and around Chimes Street in Baton Rouge, Jemison and his co-director Sean Richardson found an array of locations to host this tangled batch of acidic, lay-about characters.

Included are Jemison’s Ditch, a hot-tempered husband, his best pal, Jensen’s hyper-animated oddball Gat, and his arch-rival—over a matter of nine dollars—Chrest’s slick magazine salesmanknown only as “The Professor.”

The result is a Woody Allen-worthy scrum for taboo crushes and unearned respect.

King of Herrings will make the festival rounds this fall, including the New Orleans Film Festival next month, while Jemison puts the final touches on his next screenplay,one Jensen adds is even better than the last.

“What’s so great is to be a part of a project that you’re proud to be a part of,” Mese says. “This is a movie that is my taste. And it doesn’t go down clichéd roads.”

Just like the four friends who met back in 1986. After hundreds of projects, they’ve finally made a film together where it all began—on their own terms. It just took them 25 years to get there. And, boy, are they glad that it did.

For trailers, release dates and more information about the film, visit kingofherrings.com.