I remember years ago stumbling across AMC Movie Talk on YouTube. It blew my mind quite frankly. A show that talked exclusively about movies by movie fans. These were not just people doing a job; they were more like friends discussing and dissecting movies. AMC Movie Talk made me not feel so alone in my passions for film anymore. In the early days before they moved to Collider, you had John Campea, Dennis Tzeng, Amirose Eisenbach, and of course Jon Schnepp. I enjoy each personality for different reasons, but Schnepp was something else.
Jon Schnepp before movie talk was known for directing shows like Metalocalypse, The Venture Bros, and music videos. Outside of directing, he contributed to plenty of other things that he would sprinkle his flavour on. By the time he came to movie talk his resume could have probably led to further studio projects, but instead, he did what he wanted to do and the way he wanted to do it. So he joined movie talk where he could share his passion for comics, movies and the like. Before long there were pockets of Schnepp fans all over the world. Schnepp never appeared to be chasing fame, he just talked about his passions no matter how obscure or nerdy they may have seemed, and we loved him for it. Look at how obscure the documentary he made was in The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? It was a film he kickstarted essentially to answer the questions he always had about this bizarre Tim Burton Superman film that was never made. Nobody else would have ever made that documentary, but Schnepp did, and it’s great that we have that. Schnepp’s knowledge was endless in all things nerdy and geeky, allowing him to often tip his hat to an obscure reference or a sizable lecture on the fly. He created his with Sweaties as a term for people letting their geek flag fly without any fear. Schnepp was larger than life, larger than the average human being, a sasquatch if you will.
The days leading up to my grandad’s death I saw that Jon Schnepp had been hospitalized. Knowing my grandad was in his final days I dared not think of Schnepp meeting this fate too. Schnepp was also a guy that you couldn’t imagine being brought down, but seeing the photos of him being hospitalized hurt, they showed the great Schnepp powerless for the first time. Schnepp’s fiancé, Holly Payne revealed that on July 19th Jon Schnepp passed away after complications caused by a stroke. This was the same day as my grandad. I didn’t know what to do with the news. It hung over my thoughts second to my grandad. I never had the pleasure of meeting Schnepp. In all the years I had been watching, he had served me hundreds of hours of entertainment making him feel like apart of my life in some way. In saying that Twitter has also been full of people grieving for Jon as if they knew him because his presence was that powerful. Hell, he affected celebrities too. Kevin Smith had a moment of silence for Schnepp at comic con in Hall H. I saw Patton Oswalt and Aaron Paul tweeting about his loss. Even Henry Cavil, the current iteration of Superman, made a beautiful gesture on Instagram revealing himself to also be a fan of Schnepp. I was watching videos of people remembering him last night, and my girlfriend who watched Schneep passively through me was with tears telling me she always hoped to meet him. I echo that sentiment and wish maybe I had sent him a positive message on Twitter explaining to him how great he was. May we all live to be a little more positive and unabashedly let our inner geekdom out just like this man.
Rest In Peace Jon.
From one of your many many fans,
Robert
KissTheMovies 