Lawrence.com

Would you, good sir or madam, care to witness a magic trick? A feat of prestidigitation so astounding-so beyond the realm of the mortal plane-your eyes may actually boil in their sockets through sheer amazement? Then behold, kind stranger, "The Amazing Ignatius"!

An illusion of moving pictures, miraculously filmed with no budget in the Lawrence area, featuring bodily fluids materializing from thin air and massive piles of cocaine improbably disappearing through sleight of nostril. Snort your heart out, Criss Angel!

"How to put it bluntly," wonders "The Amazing Ignatius" writer/producer/actor-and probably foley artist/caterer/script girl-Mike Haynes, in what may or may not be a thinly veiled cheeba reference.

"A loveable loser named Ignatius Minsky has fallen on hard times since being a child prodigy in the magic world and is basically coasting through life with his friends and drug habit of choice. He ends up getting his girlfriend pregnant and has to mature into manhood and get out of this rut he's in, either to take care of the child or possibly to not take care of his child."

That synopsis is far more tidy and conventional than the finished product, a feature-length character study of a drug-fiend illusionist, his 14-year-old sidekick with bladder problems, a semen-vomiting rival, and more abortion jokes than your average comedy.

"It's lowbrow comedy with highbrow results," boasts Shane Minsey, the wooly star and co-writer of "Ig" (as the movie's friends, and lazy people, call it). Says director Jeff Covitz, "We've been entering it into festivals, and it is so not like a film festival movie. It lacks all pretension whatsoever. I kind of wanted to make a sort of half Woody Allen/half Chris Farley movie."

Adds Minsey, "Meets Peter Bogdanovich with a little bit of old Chaplin. It works. And Kevin Smith, as well. He's just as fat as us."

While the film may look and sound like an effortless goof, and the filmmakers may be self deprecating in their depiction, it was in fact a labor of love, three years-in the making.

Speaking of "labor," everyone involved would like to point out that they birthed the script for "Ig" well before the eerily similar "Knocked Up" broke its water on the big screen. "We clearly wrote it first. Although if Hollywood's going to be stealing from us, that means sooner or later we'll be making our millions," hopes Haynes.

"A lot of jokes came out afterwards when we found out," recalls Minsey of the "Knocked Up" post partum. "'Clerks 2' also stole a joke from us without us knowing. We were pissed! Not really-it was a sign we were doing something right."

The film's long gestation period-to ram the pregnancy quips into the ground-was mostly a function of a less-than-shoestring budget.

"Filming was a little bit harder than expected," admits Haynes. "When we started, we had a clear plan. 'We're gonna do it every weekend, get everyone together-we'll be done filming in three or four months!' Then we find out, 'Oh, we're not paying the actors, everybody still has to have a day job.' It turned into a year-and-a-half shoot. Then we got into editing, working around schedules again and trying to find time to do everything, and it wound up a nice three-year process."

The course of filming was so long, some members of the cast literally outgrew their roles. "We had a 14-year-old who grew about four inches over the course of filming," Covitz says.

The creative trust for "The Amazing Ignatius" was culled almost entirely from Lawrence, and-more specifically-almost entirely from Yello Sub. Covitz and Minsey worked together at the storied sandwichery, as did much of the cast and crew, including the film's composer, Steve Hammond. The Lawrence music scene staple contributed much of his solo album to the soundtrack for "The Amazing Ignatius" and reunited his scuzz rock band Filthy Jim to provide the score. Says Covitz, "It's sort of surf-grass-bluegrass with a surfy twang to it. I don't think we could have found anything better." Hayes adds,"It was even better that we didn't have to pay for it."

Lawrence residents will be able to spot more than just local talent in the film. "You'll recognize several of the locations-The Tap Room, South Park, Wheatfields, The Granada, Liberty Hall," checks off Covitz. "Pretty much whoever would allow us to film there. I think I've got three different apartments of mine in there."

They also saved on special effects thanks to Minsey's background in magic, which served as the original inspiration for the film. "We use footage of me when I was 13 doing a magic show for the opening credits. I still had all of the tricks and illusions in my parents' basement," says Minsey of doing his own stunts. "I also used to do stand-up comedy. As long as people are looking at me, I'm fine."

After three years of grueling production, the creators of "The Amazing Ignatius" feel as though they've pulled a Houdini and overcome the impossible. "We're proud of it, especially since we're first-time filmmakers," says Haynes. "None of us had written anything like this before:" "Or at all," interjects Minsey. "I just did it so I could tell my parents I was doing something. 'What have you been doing for all these years in Lawrence?' 'Uh:I did a movie?' My grandma will be coming to the premiere. She'll be like, 'What's that stuff he's snorting up his nose?'" Grandmas are, in fact, warned to stay away from the film. "The religious members of my family might not like it much," muses Haynes, "but screw them."

"Literally 40% of the audience might walk out," estimates Covitz. "The 60% who stay might really like it. Nobody dies, and despite it being about abortion, there's no great moral message-it's just a good, enjoyable movie."

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