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Legendary Indy Studio Troma Joins Hollywood Studio Legendary for Toxic Avenger Reboot

Still Toxic After All These Years!

My monster mentor The Toxic Avenger (aka Toxie) is in the news again as word spreads through the media touting a brand new Hollywood remake. Yes, the legendary independent studio Troma is teaming up with the Hollywood studio Legendary to bring Toxie back to the silver screen!

This is not the first time Hollywood has threatened to embrace Tromaville and welcome Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz (and their hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength) to cross over to the dark side and “go mainstream.” Back toward the end of my stint in Tromaville, riding on the grossly green backs of The Toxic Crusaders cartoon series (of which I was a co-creator), we had a deal with New Line Cinema to produce a big budget theatrical “Toxie” flick. But alas that flick flickered away and never came to be. Sad.

In more recent years, there have been rumors of a Toxic Avenger remake to star Arnold Schwarzenegger as Toxie. It looks like Arnold won’t be back, but at least now The Toxic Avenger will!

As someone who lived intimately with Toxie for more than seven years, through two sequels and a cartoon series spinoff, I can personally vouch for the lovability and durability of The First Superhero from New Jersey. Like Troma itself, this new take on The Toxic Avenger is destined to be Legendary!

I couldn’t be more happy for Lloyd, Michael, and the Troma Team. After all, “Everything I Know about Business and Marketing, I Learned from THE TOXIC AVENGER!”

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Get Ready for a Super Time at Florida Supercon!

 

It’s Supercon time! On July 12-15, 2018 Supercon returns to the Broward County Convention Center, which is literally in my backyard, just a few minutes from my home. So how could I not take advantage of this great opportunity to promote my book to avid pop-culture fans!

I’ll be selling and signing books at Booth 735 all four days of the show. Also, on Saturday, July 14th at 1:00 pm I’ll be giving a presentation in Room 304 sharing some of the business and marketing lessons I learned working for Troma that have helped guide my career from B-movies to the C-suite!

During Jeff Sass’ 7-year tenure in Tromaville he worked on classics including TROMA’S WAR, TOXIC AVENGER II & III, CLASS OF NUKE’EM HIGH II & III, he co-wrote SGT. KABUKIMAN, NYPD and he was instrumental in the creation and launch of THE TOXIC CRUSADERS cartoon series and merchandise. In this entertaining and educational talk, Jeff shares the lessons he learned making Troma movies that have helped him throughout his career as a tech entrepreneur and CMO – lessons that you too can apply to your career. Fun Fact: When Jeff left Troma in 1994, they hired James Gunn to replace him…

(By, the way, I offer a customized version of this presentation as a free webinar for businesses that purchase 12 or more copies of the book  – contact me for more information).

If you are in South Florida and love movies, comics, cosplay and pop-culture you should definitely make your way to Supercon. It is an awesome event, with costumes, celebrities, tons of great products and merchandise, and great content sessions every day. Organizers Mike Broder and Sandy Martin and their team run an amazing show!

And if you do attend, please be sure to stop by Booth 735 and say hello!

 

 

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R.I.P. John Altamura… Tromaville Weeps for a Toxie

This week it was announced that actor John Altamura passed away of a heart attack at the young age of 52. While the Toxic Avenger was played by Mitch Cohen in the original The Toxic Avenger film, it was John who I first knew as Toxie, working closely with him on The Toxic Avenger II and III (which we shot at once and then edited into the two sequels).

As I write about in my book, in the end, Toxie was portrayed by both John and Ron Fazio in the final cuts of the films, but there is no question that John made a significant contribution to both films and that his version of Toxie will always be warmly and fondly remembered and admired. John’s portrayal of the Toxic Avenger brought both a strength and humility to the character that helped to make the lovable monster a hero for the ages…

Like John’s memory, the Toxic Avenger will live on, and everyone who ever dons the mutated mask and portrays Toxie in the future will surely be influenced and inspired in some way by the work John did before them.

My condolences to John’s family, friends and fans.

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Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale: Kindle Version On Sale Now for $0.99!

‘Tis the season… of the sale, and my book, Everything I Know about Business and Marketing, I Learned from THE TOXIC AVENGER is no exception! Now through November 30th, you can get the Kindle Version of the book for only $0.99! Yep, that’s less than one buck… less than the cost of a few sips of that FrappaZappaTiniLatteLeche you’re drinking… and far more fulfilling! The Kindle version normally sells for $4.99 so you’re getting a whopping 80% off a book that is guaranteed to make you smile and get inspired by business and marketing tips you can actually use! Watch the short video below for some highlights of the 5-star reviews on Amazon! And don’t be shy… spend a buck and buy the book! Thanks!!!

 

 

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@Gapingvoid: How the movie making model can help drive better business

Many years after my stint in Tromaville, I had the pleasure and opportunity to work with business cartoonist Hugh MacLeod and his business partner Jason Korman at their unique “culture design” agency, Gapingvoid. Hugh has an uncanny talent for looking at complex business problems and distilling them into a simple image and a few words that resonate, connect emotionally, and have the power to instigate real change within an organization. Jason has such a clear vision and understanding of marketing and corporate culture that, combined with Hugh’s artistic insight, the two and their team have attracted some of the world’s biggest and best-known brands as clients, from AT&T, to Microsoft, to the University of Miami, to Zappos, and countless more.

It was a great experience working with Hugh and Jason and we share many of the same views about marketing and culture, which is why I started with them first as a fan of Hugh’s work. The image above is one of my favorites, and reminded me of a particular chapter in my book, Chapter 10: Find Something to Believe In. When I pointed that out to Jason, he was kind enough to share that chapter, along with the above image, in the popular Gapingvoid Daily Newsletter.

If you are not familiar with Hugh and Gapingvoid I encourage you to learn more about the Gapingvoid Culture Design Group and also browse some of the great prints and gift items available at Gapingvoidart.com.

And you can CLICK HERE to read the newsletter edition with Chapter 10 of my book. Enjoy!

 

 

 

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John Oliver Tackles Nuclear Waste with The Toxic Avenger on HBO’s Last Week Tonight

My monster mentor is going mainstream! Not only is Toxie the star of movies, cartoons, and an off-broadway show, but lately The Toxic Avenger has been a darling of late-night talk show hosts looking to make a convenient comic reference to a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength. First, it was Seth Meyers comparing our illustrious President to our favorite monster hero. Now, HBO star and host of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver, featured excerpts from the trailer for the original Toxic Avenger movie as the lead-in to his extended report on “Nuclear Waste.” So, I am not the only one who has been influenced and inspired by the first superhero from New Jersey. You can watch John Oliver invoke The Toxic Avenger in the video below, and of course, you can read about the many inspired business and marketing lessons I learned from Toxie in my book, Everything I Know about Business and Marketing, I Learned from THE TOXIC AVENGER.


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Florida Supercon, Here We Come! @Sass and @Troma (@LloydKaufman) United Again!

Greetings from Tromaville! It has been over 20 years since I was officially a member of the Troma Team, but since writing my book, “Everything I Know about Business and Marketing, I Learned from THE TOXIC AVENGER,” I have been having a blast retelling my tales from Tromaville in interviews and on podcasts (and even on a few random street corners) to promote the book to anyone and everyone I can.

Later this week I’ll be rejoining the Troma Team at FLORIDA SUPERCON – the largest Comic Con in South Florida, where I’ll have a busy schedule signing copies of my book, hanging out with Lloyd, Toxie, Kabukiman and the Troma Team, and presenting my first live public book reading! If you are in South Florida I hope you can stop by and say hello. Besides my unknown self, there will be some amazing REAL celebrities at the Con, from your favorite movies, TV shows and comics including Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek, Dr. Who, The Walking Dead, The Karate Kid, plus world famous comic book artists, wrestlers, amazing CosPlay fans, and much, much more. I’ve been to FLORIDA SUPERCON before and it is an awesome event.

On Saturday, July 29th at 3:00 PM I’ll be reading from my book live in room 304, joined by Troma cofounder Lloyd Kaufman as we relive some of my adventures in Tromaville together in what I can guarantee will be a fun and funny session.

In addition, I’ll be signing copies of my book in the official CELEBRITY AUTOGRAPH AREA at the following times:

Thursday, July 27th:  1:30 pm
Friday, July 28th:  10:30 am
Saturday, July 29th:  10:30 am
Sunday, July 30th:  10:30 am

The rest of the time you’ll find me at the Troma Booth. If you’re at FLORIDA SUPERCON, you’ll be able to spot me, as I’ll be wearing this awesome T-shirt I had made just for SUPERCON…  🙂  (And no, I won’t be wearing the same smelly shirt four days in a row… I had a few of them made!)

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DNJournal: New Book Reveals .CLUB Superhero Jeff Sass Owes His Marketing Powers to The Toxic Avenger!

Ron Jackson is a former TV News Reporter and station Sports Director. He is a consummate journalist that today serves as Editor and Publisher of Domain Name Journal (DNJournal.com) the highly regarded online Trade Publication for the Domain Name industry. I recently gave Ron a copy of my book when we were both at the Domaining Europe conference in Berlin. Ron must have had a boring flight back to the U.S. because he had the time to read the book along the way. He also seemed to like it and wrote a great and fun article about it in his popular “The Lowdown” column.

What Sass can do is spin some fascinating yarns about his days in the late 80s and early 90s with legendary New York City-based cult movie production house Troma Entertainment where he spent more than seven and half years in film production, marketing, acting and assorted mayhem… Jeff learned many valuable and timeless business and marketing lessons from his experiences at Troma and he shares the best of those in his new book – in each case noting how the specific lesson learned can be applied in any business or marketing campaign today.

I mentioned that Ron is the consummate journalist. As such, it seems he could not read my tales of movie mayhem without getting a firsthand taste of Tromaville himself. So after returning from Berlin, it seems Ron did a bit of B-movie binge-watching, turning to Tromatizing his Netflix account by watching The Toxic Avenger, Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD, Rabid Grannies, and more. And Ron still wrote a great article about Everything I Know about Business and Marketing, I Learned from THE TOXIC AVENGER.

Thanks, Ron!

You can click here to read his complete article on The Lowdown.

 

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And the Reviews are in!

As you can imagine, when publishing a book, the reviews it receives carry a lot of weight in helping others decide whether they want to purchase and read it. I can remember in the good old moviemaking days how we waited with baited breath for the reviews to hit for our films. Even in Tromaville, reviews mattered and we were always thrilled when one of our meager movies got noticed by a mainstream reviewer. Like when Stephen Holden of the NY Times said Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD, “…is funny in a Mad Magazine-manque sort of way…” That was a great review (and compliment). Even the late, great, Roger Ebert was often kind with his thumbs when it came to Troma’s fare.

As for my book, while it has only been a few weeks since Everything I Know about Business and Marketing, I Learned from THE TOXIC AVENGER has been published, the initial reviews on Amazon.com have been very positive. It is great to hear from people who have spent a few bucks and taken the time to read my words, especially to hear that they found value and inspiration from the stories and lessons I share in the book.

Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed the book so far. Here are a few highlights:

What can be learned from the B-movie industry? A lot, as it turns out. Brand consistency and predictability is important there as it is for Louis Vuiton. Jeff’s stories of the Hell’s Kitchen low budget studio are not only funny, they are highly transferable to other industries and environments… I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and I would put it up there with books like “Positioning” by Reiss and Trout if you want to really understand how marketers think.
– Fred K.

If you like movies, super heroes or have ever wondered what the real business of the independent film industry is like, you’ll enjoy this book and have great takeaway points about how to build and promote your products and services.
– Jennifer Wolfe

I’ve read a lot of business and marketing books that include banal examples from Corporate America. This book is very different; it brings life to business lessons such as the importance of teams through colorful stories from the author’s personal experience at B-movie studio Troma. Several of the business lessons are ones I haven’t heard anywhere else and make a lot of sense. I highly recommend picking up this book.
– Andrew

A delightful read! Engaging and educational at once. Jeff has a colorful and extensive background and I had numerous take-aways that I will apply in business and life – highly recommended.
– Montagne

If you have read my book and enjoyed it, I hope you will also consider leaving a review. It really does help. And, of course, please tell others about the book if you enjoyed it. 🙂

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@SethMeyers Compares President Trump to The Toxic Avenger!

Timing is everything. Just as I published my book inspired by The Toxic Avenger, Seth Meyers, host of Late Night with Seth Meyers, gives a political nod to our favorite hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength. So, my book is not the only reason “Toxie” is in the forefront of our collective minds… ha! The Toxic Avenger is in the news… thanks to Seth Meyers.

By the time you’re out of office you’re going to look like The Toxic Avenger!

Watch below to see Seth tell President Trump, “By the time you’re out of office you’re going to look like The Toxic Avenger!” Thanks for keeping Toxie in the news Seth!

Click here to buy the book on Amazon!