On Cinema Live at the Fitzgerald Theater (April 8, 2026)

On Cinema’s The Certified “Five Bags of Popcorn” Tour blew into downtown St. Paul on Wednesday night.  Making my way to the Fitzgerald Theater I noticed a small, but animated crowd, crowding around one of the hosts of the evening, Gregg Turkington.  The fans were asking for selfies, which Turkington obliged until his handler pried him away.  After all, there was the show to do.  

Inside the theater the theme songs from Star Wars, Indiana Jones and James Bond played through the main speakers as the sold-out crowd of fans were guided to their seats by the most excellent First Ave staff.  One of the ushers looked at the tickets of a couple, then pointed high above to the box seats, indicating the couple was not on the main floor.  (How do you not know that you bought box seats?)

On Cinema is the brainchild of Tim Heidecker, who with the help of Turkington, started off as a podcast in which the two reviewed new movies à la Siskel and Ebert.  The problem was that Heidecker talked more about his (highly fictional) personal life and Turkington went down movie rabbit holes, referencing obscure film connections that may or may have not been tied to the movie.  Neither felt a need to actually talk about the movie being reviewed, but that never stopped them from giving each movie a Five Bags of Popcorn rating.  

The idea of two guys not reviewing a movie they were reviewing was a hit and soon the podcast moved to episodes on Adult Swim and eventually to their own website.  Along the way On Cinema morphed into a cottage industry of side projects like the television services Decker, a musical project Dekker, and many more diversions.  

It’s a tricky exercise to talk about a comedy show without ruining the fun for others who have yet to see the live experience.  I will say this.  I came to the show completely new to the On Cinema universe, and I was laughing throughout the evening.  Every bit that Heidecker and Turkington did was a direct hit with the audience.  I would say that most, if not all, were dedicated fans who knew the whole history of Heidecker’s soap opera (fictional) life, and Turkington’s encyclopedic knowledge of the most obscure straight-to video movies.  

One lady across the aisle from me sat on the front of her chair as if not to miss one joke as Heidecker aka New Amato brought everyone up to speed on his new ventures, his life at Lake Havasu, AZ and his awesome Axis a245 that seats 18.  Turkington at least tried to keep with the theme of the evening by doing an audience participation movie trivia where winners were awarded a True-Blue Movie Buff Ribbon.  And halfway through the show, the two did sit down to “review” four new movies.  

As mentioned, I laughed through the whole night, and there were two moments where I was in tears. One was the review of You, Me and Tuscany in which the two couldn’t even agree on who the main character, Anna, was in the trailer that was looping in their monitor as well as the screen above them.  So they rambled, changed their minds, interrupted and forgot what they said seconds before.  

In the end they couldn’t come to an agreement.  Still, that didn’t prevent them from both giving the movie a Five Bags of Popcorn rating.