There are too many highs/lows to count in the dueling Fyre Festival docs that dropped on Netflix and Hulu last month, but everyone can agree on the peak bit: When veteran producer Andy King confesses he very nearly went through with an order from festival honcho/currently furloughed prisoner Billy McFarland to “suck d*ck” to get some bottled water. (Spoiler: He didn’t do it.) The veteran behind-the-scenes guy has since been promoted to meme godhood. Now he might also be getting his own reality show.
This comes from an interview profile in Vanity Fair (caught by The A.V. Club). King has tried to use his newfound internet fame for good, pointing people towards a GoFundMe campaign to get Bahamian workers who were stiffed when the festival collapsed paid, or to push music festivals to create a zero-waste policy. He says he’s also been approached to come up with shows.
“I had three TV show offers this week, from notable networks,” King said, before providing a few clues about his vision for a series. “You’re too young to remember this, but in the old world of TV it was The Carol Burnett Show and these fun, light-hearted shows that weren’t all crime-related,” King explained, hopeful that networks are opening back up to this kind of upbeat fare. “You see the attractiveness of HGTV today. People love Flip or Flop or Fixer Upper. Let’s just say it’s going to be a show about hosting crazy events—what it takes to make them happen. There will be cliff-hangers, and you’ll get to follow me around and see how I pull them off.”
Of course, we already know how far King is willing to go to pull them off.
King’s story, related in Netflix’s Fyre, is not the most messed-up part of the twin docs; that would be the aforementioned stiffed Bahamian workers, who already live in a country with sky high unemployment rates.
The slightly longer version of the story, by the way: As the surreally rushed and poorly planned festival was already under way, they realized they didn’t have enough water to keep their wealthy millennial guests hydrated. McFarland then asked King, whom he dubbed the fest’s “wonderful gay leader,” with going across the island and take one for the team to get a huge shipment of bottled water. King remembers talking himself into doing it…only to find out, once he arrived at customs, that that wasn’t necessary. But King, stressed out beyond belief, knew that he would have had he worse come to worst.go
King made Uproxx’s list of “most valuable characters” from the two docs, where he was dubbed “The Guy Who Would Do Sexual Favors For Water.” Clearly a good guy to have in your corner, even if you’re not a possible sociopath.
(Via Vanity Fair and The A.V. Club)
