I used to be a manager at GameSpot, CNET, MP3.com and About.com. But the big weird world dragged me away. I became a fast food horror filmmaker, a religious kickstarter, the editor of China’s largest English-language propaganda magazine, a China-certified taxidermist, a terrible actor, and an even worse elephant-trainer. I was fired from my mahout job after a rotund German tourist fell from my 10-foot steed. Oops.

I currently live in Bangalore, India. I blog for the Huffington Post. I travel as much as I can. I also play Stormglass, a great spy game for kids.

Many of the photos on the site were taken by my girlfriend Woo, who makes artisan Beijing ice cream, and comes up with half of our project ideas.

AsiaObscura, aka Mr Deemer’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Purveyor of Fine Oddities

You can contact me by emailing “asiaobscura” at Google’s “gmail.com” service. Or by looking for Andy Deemer on Facebook, or @asiaobscura on twitter.

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Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

I used to work for Troma.

You know, the film company behind masterpieces like The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ‘Em High, and Surf Nazis Must Die. At 20, I co-wrote the first spec draft for a film called Tromeo & Juliet. At 33, I returned to Troma like a desperate junkie, and produced the shock-musical Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.

“Genuine sick fun!” – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

“Disgusting, deranged and thoroughly brilliant.” – Salon.com

“It’s hilarious.” – Stephen King

“Fucking amazing.” – Eli Roth

“As perfect as a film predicated on the joys of projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea can be!” – Nathan Lee, The New York Times

“Genius satire!” – MSN Movies

“A merciless lampoon of the fast-food industry” – The Daily Mirror

“A vegetarian-manifesto masterpiece” – PETA

The trailer:

My PechaKucha on the Making of:

I then co-wrote/directed the behind-the-scenes documentary, Poultry in Motion: Truth is Stranger than Chicken.

“Hilarious and shocking.” – Hulu.

“Fearlessly honest.” – MSN Entertainment.

“A straight-up amazing documentary… Fascinating.” – DVD Talk.

“A must-see.” – Blu-Ray.com.

“By far one of the best feature length behind the scenes documentaries that I’ve ever seen!” – KillerFilm.

Here’s the teaser:

And the film itself:

You can see me acting in Robert Altman’s Nashville, Lloyd Kaufman’s Tromeo and Juliet, and Rick Popko and Dan West’s gorious double-feature Monsturd and RetarDEAD. As you’ll quickly see, I can’t act.

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Pyongyang Too

Remember Guy Delisle’s insanely good graphic novel Pyongyang? We reshot it as a photo-novella in North Korea, and called it Pyongyang Too.

“C’est aussi un belle hommage,” – Télérama

“La surprise de sa vie!” – Casemate

“Qu’ils en soient remerciés autant que j’en fus surpris!” – Guy Delisle

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Tribute to Eko Nugroho

After seeing Indonesian Eko Nugroho’s incredible solo show, Under the Shadow at Pekin Fine Arts, we decided to spend a month recreating his pink flower man as a 2000-flower suit.

We got blisters.

“Very cool! i like it much! specialy you wear it to meet people, thats make something fantastic from imagination of my figure.” – Eko Nugroho

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Philly CheeseSteak Ice Cream

On a whim, and driven by a screening of Rambocky X, we mixed meat and dairy for a delicious Philly CheeseSteak Ice Cream.

“We may be witnessing the birth of a new frozen treat genre!” – Village Voice food editor Robert Sietsema

“He certainly gets points for the high concept…. Don’t blame us when everyone stops wanting to come to your ice cream socials.” – Bon Appetit

“Did he go too far (like, to the Land of Cray-Cray)?” – IncredibleThings

“Amazingly, it didn’t make him vomit forever.” – That’s Nerdalicious

“Quite possibly the oddest ice cream flavor to ever be produced.” – Trendhunter

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Mouse-mounted Vodka Bottles

In response to The End of History, who stuffed beer bottles into dead squirrels and sold them for thousands, we stuffed dead mice with airplane vodka bottles, and gave them away. Any takers?

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Zombie Girl

But my favorite project must be the music video Woo and I shot for Girls Are Waiting To Meet You’s gypsy-rock song Zombie Girl. It’s a Tromatic classic.

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Promotion

You may have read about this site in The Village Voice, Beijing City Weekend, The Beijinger, The Phnom Penh Insider, The China Daily, Weekly World News’ now-defunt The Sun tabloid, and The Daily Mail. Online, you’ve maybe seen it in BoingBoing, io9, BonAppetit, The Village Voice, IncredibleThings, Ain’t It Cool News, and plenty of other incredible sites.

“They seek the company of reindeer-herders at the age previous generations sought the company of Elks Lodgers.” – Mark Steyn, After America: Get Ready for Armageddon

“A totally amazing blog.” – City Weekend, Beijing

“I now have a cubbyhole full of Tiger Balm and I haven’t left the house in four months.” – WFMU General Manager Ken Freedman

I’m also a character in Lloyd Kaufman’s Direct Your Own Damn Movie! and All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger, and Mark Steyn’s bestseller After America: Get Ready for Armageddon.

Contact

You can contact me by emailing “asiaobscura” at Google’s “gmail.com” service.

Other Obscura

This site has nothing to do with the awesome AtlasObscura, or Mark Leong’s great book China Obscura, or the sweet band Camera Obscura, or San Francisco’s glorious Camera Obscura, although we love them all. Do check them out. They’re brilliant.

Do also check out Morbid Anatomy.