I don't know who you hang around with but I guarantee you've never met anyone as provocative, bizarre, funny and hormonally sensitive as schlockmeister Lloyd Kaufman.

Here's your chance.

America's favourite B-movie writer, director and distributor of gore is in town this weekend to introduce his latest feature, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4, at the Bytowne Cinema.

The man who attended Yale with President George W. Bush, speaks Chinese and is married to New York City's film commissioner, is personally responsible for more cinematic excess violence, sex and madness than B-movie titans Roger Corman and Russ Meyer combined.

It's an accomplishment Kaufman's proud of.

His Troma Studios boasts a catalogue of 1,000 appalling, original and independently produced films with titles such as Attack of the Killer Manatee, Blondes Have More Guns, Bride of the Killer Nerd and Buttcrack.

CULT HIT

"My partner accuses me of making the same movie for 30 years," Kaufman laughs over the phone. "We're the only independent film studio in the States keeping the embers of American sarcasm alive, which had been given up for dead when America went corporate."

The Toxic Avenger, which became an international cult hit with its release in 1984, was followed by The Toxic Avenger, Part 2, and Part 3: The Last Temptation of Toxie, is Troma's most popular film property.

"The Toxic Avenger has some kind of magic spell over the audience, particularly women," Kaufman shouts. "For some reason, they love Toxie. I think it's because they get turned on by ugly men, my wife being one of them."

The fourth instalment of The Toxic Avenger has the mutant and hideously disfigured superhero, who experiences an uncontrollable chemical reaction to evil after a fall into nuclear waste, rampaging his way through the moral filth and urban degradation of contemporary America.

The film is pure Kaufman -- an orgy of naked bodies and campy special effects organized around the ripping of limbs and squirting of various body fluids. It's a voyeuristic and hilarious, with over-the-top violence that casts a satirical eye on America's sacred cows.

The cast includes Motorhead's Lemmy, porn star Ron Jeremy, Al Goldstein and strippers and freaks filling out the role of extras.

After 30 years, Kaufman's earned the reputation for testing the limits of what the screen and the censors will tolerate. With that kind of reputation, it's no wonder his films hold some special allure for those on society's fringe.

"Lemmy likes to stir things up," Kaufman laughs. "He likes me because he wrongly thinks that I just like to piss people off."

Jeremy, the notorious porn star, plays the Bible-thumping mayor of Tromaville who dies when impaled by a crucifix.

"I love Ron," says Kaufman, "but he's high maintenance. All the women wanted to (have sex with) the legendary porn star."

Kaufman, who did his cinematic apprenticeship with Andy Warhol and Sylvester Stallone, chimes in that his films are not just for kicks -- there's some bona fide political commentary just beneath the seedy surface.

DIAPER MAFIA

Like when the Diaper Mafia, a group of violent adult diaper fetishists, go on a rampage against the mentally challenged, who they feel are getting preferential treatment.

Of course, it's Kaufman's editorial commentary on the explosive state of American schools.

"How is it possible in this day and age that women, sorry, I don't call them women any more because the word contains 'men' in it. I call them 'gynos.' Why is it a gyno can't control her own ovaries, that blacks are still being dragged down and our schools are producing retards?" says Kaufman seriously.

"We make bombs instead of schools. Kids aren't learning anything. So they grow up into racist, sexist animals who shoot their fellow classmates because they have no other way to express themselves."

Kaufman is in town at the request of local filmmaker Lee Demarbre, who names Kaufman as one of his guiding influences. Demarbre has asked his mentor to appear in his latest film project, Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace, part of which he'll be shooting on the weekend.

"Demarbre's a genius," Kaufman professes. "He's a major talent. His films have more appeal than mine; they're gentler, not as dark as mine."

Kaufman will be presenting his new film at the Bytowne Cinema until Monday. All screenings are at 9:30 p.m. He will also be speaking at Carleton's film studies department this afternoon at 3 and at the Independent Filmmakers Co-operative tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.


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