Matt Liston’s feature-length “Chasing October: A Fan’s Crusade,” about a crazy fan who will do anything to get the Cubs into the World Series debuts Aug. 31 at the Music Box to benefit Children’s Memorial Hospital.
Comedian-actor Liston, a Chicagoan who lives in L.A., describes it as a hybrid?a documentary with scripted scenes.
“We shot the documentary for four years and I wrote a script around the scenes we had in place,” he said.
Appearing in the doc urging on the crazy fan (Liston) are actors and former Chicagoans Gary Sinise, Bernie Mac, Joe Montegna, Dennis Franz, Jeff Garland and others. Songs were provided by Chicago musicians Billy Corgan and Sunday Morning Chameleon. Bill Kurtis narrates.
Liston’s “Chasing October” partners are Chris Karnak, who produces for Towers Productions and Intersport, and New York-based Gary Cohen of Triple Threat Television.
Liston’s debut doc was “The 1980 Boston Marathon Scandal.” It made a splash as he obtained the first interview in 25 years with Rosie Ruiz, the accused cheater and winner of that marathon. Since then he’s produced shows for the History Channel, Fox Sports and the Discovery Channel.
He presently narrates “Everything You Need to Know” for the Discovery Channel.
When Liston was a TV/radio student at Ball State, he won a David Letterman scholarship for his “Man on the Street” TV show. As it was Liston’s last semester, Letterman allowed him to cash in the scholarship and Liston used the money to move to L.A.
There, he got his show biz start as a full-time assistant on “Seinfeld.” He followed “Seinfeld” creator Larry David to the HBO series, “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Co-star/producer Jeff Garland, Liston said, was instrumental in getting involved with L.A.’s Second City.
The Music Box is at 3733 N. Southport. Tickets are $12 and include a post screening party at Murphy’s Bleachers, where two bands from the sound track will play, and a silent auction. Fun starts at 7 p.m. Tickets on sale at www.Cubsmovie.com.
