How One Man’s Trash Finds the Good in Bad Movies
Live comedy show teaches you to be kinder to discarded films
By Richard Whittaker, 4:25PM, Wed. Jun. 4, 2025
The two worst instincts of film snobs are to constantly claim that a bad movie is a secret masterpiece, or to pile on a film that can’t defend itself. One Man’s Trash poses a new question: What if it’s OK for a film to be not great?
The show, which begins residency at the Violet Crown Cinema this Thursday, is a spinoff from the Trash in the Can podcast. Created and hosted by Wright Sulek and his old friend and creative partner, Eric Samaniego, they launched in 2018 as an independent podcast before joining the One of Us podcast family in 2021.
As lovers of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and schlocky cinema, Sulek recalled, “We were getting together every Tuesday night to watch bad movies, so what if we got people to listen to us doing it [and] get a friend or colleague to watch with us and help them dip their toes into appreciating shlocky films, or find something endearing about them.”
However, since “every other white person who watches bad movies” had a podcast about it, they needed to find a fresh angle. The trick to Trash in the Can is that each film is a blind watch for the team. Sulek explained, “We’ve watched a trailer or maybe know a little about it,” but each show is them reacting to the craziness of their random underground pick. That’s allowed the pair to fill in their Letterboxd blind spots watching oddities like tasteless comedy Angels With Angles (arguably the only example of George Burns-sploitation), Lethal Weapon knockoff Action U.S.A., and 1973 eco-thriller The Day of the Dolphin. “I never thought in my entire life that I would live to see George C. Scott in a scene with a talking dolphin, voiced by Buck Henry, and me tearing up,” Sulek said. “It’s so adult and oddly serious for how obviously stupid it is.”
What Trash in the Can definitely isn’t about is claiming that these films are lost classics. Out of the hundred-plus episodes, Sulek has found some gems, like 1977 camp comedy-drama Outrageous, and even one movie that could make a claim to be legitimately great. That’s exploitation classic The Baby, an unhinged 1970s Gothic tale of one weird family that’s hard to believe anyone would make. “I genuinely think it’s actually a good exploitation movie that walks a very fine line from being really egregiously exploitative but also handles it with an odd care.“
However, while the podcast has been a success, Sulek said that he and Samaniego had always thought it would be fun to do a live version “and show even more people a movie that has not been fondly remembered and find something good about it.”
Thus was born One Man’s Trash. However, it’s not just a live taping of Trash in the Can. Instead, Sulek and Samaniego evolve (“some would say ‘devolve,’” Sulek added) the Trash in the Can format. Rather than a blind watch, it’s a full rehearsed and prepared show for which they’ve done a lot more than just pick a movie. “We’re doing more sketch work and character work,” said Sulek. Most importantly, he added, “We’re never afraid to make ourselves the butt of the joke.”
The live show kicked off with a run at the Millennium Youth Center’s Eastside Cinema, beginning with the sleaze-tastic Showgirls. “We were showing an NC-17 movie at a kids center,” said Sulek. “There is literally not a scene in this movie that is even halfway PG-13.” That led to extreme awkwardness when, halfway through the screening, the audience heard a child’s voice, and Sulek realized that a family had snuck into the screening. “They didn’t even pay to get in. Come on, you’ve got to support local comedy!”
After that successful run at Eastside, now One Man’s Trash has relocated to Violet Crown, beginning this Thursday with 1999’s blockbuster sharksploitation anti-classic Deep Blue Sea. Sulek said that Jaws is obviously the gold standard of shark attack movies, but this “is an odd silver medal winner. ... Granted, it’s a long distance from the gold, but it’s a really fun crowd-pleaser.”
The season continues next month with gonzo interspecies love story Tammy and the T-Rex, a movie that is very easy to mock. However, while these are comedy shows, Sulek stressed that it’s never about punching down. Sulek said that, if anything, he believed that the show has made himself and Samaniego better and kinder movie watchers. “We've started to lighten up on a lot of smaller films that are really trying their damnedest and are perhaps a little more critical of films that do have a bigger budget. ‘You have $300 million, and you have no idea what to do with it. Give it to some weirdo in Detroit and they'll probably make a movie that outlasts all of this.’”
One Man's Trash presents Deep Blue Sea, June 5, 7pm, Violet Crown Cinema. Tickets at violetcrown.com.
Trash in the Can is available now at oneofus.net. Find earlier episodes on Apple Podcasts.
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June 13, 2025
June 13, 2025
One Man's Trash, Wright Sulek, Violet Crown Cinema
