Before watching Supermensch, the only knowledge that I had about Shep Gordon was what I heard from Mike Myers’ episode of WTF with Marc Maron. Essentially, Myers reiterated that Gordon was an “ethical hedonist” and was one of the most amazing individuals that he had ever met – which led Myers to want to direct a documentary about his life.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw that it was streaming on Netflix but I found an excuse (more than a few times) to not watch it. I’m not sure if it was the off-putting cover art – which looked like it was modeled after an episode of Sesame Street on LSD (but not in a cool way) – or if it was the fact that I didn’t know whether or not I was interested enough to watch a doc about a guy that I had never heard of.
Either way, I eventually ran out of excuses and sat down to watch it. Within twenty minutes, I was hooked on the story. Within an hour, I realized that Shep Gordon might be a new hero of mine.
This man went from being aimless and unemployed to becoming a rock-n-roll manager with a very impressive talent roster all because he tried to stop what he thought was a sexual assault at a pool at the Landmark Hotel in Hollywood. I know that the last sentence probably sounded like a Mad Lib, but Shep’s entire career seemed to defy logic. He became a major talent manager by making mutually beneficial and ethical decisions for all parties involved and then proceeded to navigate through his life shaping pop culture with luck that would rival Forrest Gump’s.
This movie is full of amazing stories and cameos by a surprising number of people whose lives Shep Gordon has touched. The only complaint that I had was that it seemed to be a fluff piece about an incredible person. None of the interviewed parties had anything negative to say about him and even the parts that hinted at there being bad blood between Shep and other parties were immediately glossed over.
That said, the positives outweigh any potential negatives that I might have had for this documentary. It was a relatively quick film and I was honestly sad to see it end so quickly. Mike Myers did a great job at on his directorial debut and weaved together an awesome narrative about an awfully unique man with an extremely charmed life.
** This is currently streaming on Netflix.
