Timehost: We're chatting tonight with Louis Theroux, seeker of bizarre television stories. Every week he looks for them on his new TV program, Weird Weekends. It airs tonight on Bravo; read about it at www.bravotv.com On previous weeks, he's surveyed the porn industry -- he was even offered a job as an actor, looked at the world of professional wrestling, and the world of New York actors. Many of you may remember Louis Theroux from Michael Moore's TV Nation. Ladies and Gentlemen, Louis Theroux, host and chief correspondent of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekend is here!

Louis Theroux: I'm here... Hello everyone. It's good to be here. I'm actually in the Lake District of Britain where it's a little after midnight.

Tayio75 asks: What would your ideal subject matter be, Louis??

Louis Theroux: My ideal subject matter is basically people who have an unusual degree of commitment to something which on the face of it is ludicrous, self-contradictory, or strange.

radio_listener_1 asks: What inspires your stories?

Louis Theroux: Usually, it's something I've read or heard about. The stories themselves aren't terribly obscure. I've covered UFO believers, the porn industry, and religious fundamentalists. Those are just areas of culture I'm interested in for reasons I don't fully understand myself.

major_danby asks: I absolutely love Weird Weekends as I did Michael Moore's TV Nation :) Tell me, Louis, who is the most bizarre messed up individual that you've ever met through the shows?

Louis Theroux: I have met a lot of bizarre people in the shows. Two of the weirdest are actually in tonight's show, which is about UFO believers. One of them is named Thor Templar, who styles himself the Lord Commander of the Earth Protectorate, and claims to have killed more than ten aliens. By chopping their heads off. The second is a guy called Reverend Robert Short, who channels an omniscient space being named Korton.

Stamm444 asks: Louis, have you ever thought of doing some REALLY weird weekends, say at the next Conservative Party annual meeting? Or at the next conclave of Irish bishops?

Louis Theroux: Actually, it's funny you should say that. I was looking at the British Conservative Party conference on TV and thinking how much I would enjoy covering it but it will have to wait until next year.

regwtrhbrts asks: How do you contact your story subjects?

Louis Theroux: Usually, a director has contacted the subjects in advance and videotaped them, and I've looked at them So I've selected the people who I think would work best for the show. But when I arrive, I'm actually meeting them for the first time. We phone ahead to kind of let them know we're coming -- usually we phone them in the car on the way over to let them know we're on our way. But we keep it vague, so there's an element of surprise.

Brit20m asks: Hi Louis- have your opinions of the porn industry changed since your porn escapades?!

Louis Theroux: That's a good question. I guess the women enjoyed it a little more than I expected, and the men a little less. I thought the world of porn was going to be a little more fun than it turned out to be.

followtheshadow asks: Have you ever been physically threatened by one of your story subjects?

Louis Theroux: The first show that went out in the series, the wrestling one, featured a sequence in which I was taken through the paces as a trainee wrestler, and because of a question that I asked my trainer that was taken amiss, he ended up working me so hard that I blew chunks. Other than that, I'm pretty much unscathed.

Timehost: This next question is related to that.

major_danby asks: What did you feel when that wrestling coach was screaming at you - did you think he was kidding at first, and wasn't he just a tad over the top?

Louis Theroux: At first I thought he was just entering into the spirit of the occasion. Then I thought he had a personal vendetta against me. In hindsight, though, I think that's just his motivational technique. He's a former drill sergeant.

october_rust13 asks: Do you purposely make sure that your subjects are filmed in a light-hearted manner that makes fools of some of the people?

Louis Theroux: As far as the light-heartedness, we try to keep the show light and breezy and casual. And, yeah, sometimes I make fun of people. Sometimes they make fun of me.

qwertygus asks: What shows do you watch in your free time?

Louis Theroux: I watch a lot of pop videos (kind of embarrassing, isn't it) and The Simpsons. And Larry Sanders. And Frazier sometimes. In Britain, they have these things called "docu-soaps." It's like a non-fiction documentary, but edited in the style of a soap opera. The best ones are about debauched Britons abroad... just getting really drunk and pairing off on holiday in the Caribbean or Spain. I don't know why it's so compelling, but it is.

dave007webb asks: Have the police ever been interested in the people you interview?

Louis Theroux: Sting has... Sting's a big fan of the show. As far as law enforcement, I know that I did a story on a militia family in Idaho, who ran into trouble with the law for not paying their taxes on the grounds that the US government was run by a Satanic conspiracy.

frautreafeau asks: The comedian Andy Kaufman was well known for "becoming" different people also. Are you influenced by his comedy at all? Or what do you think of his work?

Louis Theroux: I don't know his work that well because I grew up in Britain, but from the little I know about it, he seems to have been kind of a genius. I'm a big fan of a documentary he made called "I'm From Hollywood," about his involvement in the world of pro-wrestling, and he said he could beat any woman at wrestling.

major_danby asks: Did you enjoy last year's Christmas get together with the various characters from past Weekends?

Louis Theroux: Yes, up to a point. For people who didn't see it, I brought one person from four of the shows, four different Weird Weekends, to spend Christmas week with me. So there was one porn star, one fundamentalist Christian, one survivalist, and one UFO contactee. What made me most uncomfortable was that almost all the activities we planned seemed to have some satanic contact, according Randy the Christian.

johnnyboy_r asks: Is there someone in particular you would like to do an episode on but aren't sure whether they would be receptive to the idea

Louis Theroux: There's a lot of high profile people, people in the public eye, who I just don't think would give us the access we need, people like Donald Trump, Puff Daddy, Martha Stewart, and, most of all, Michael Jackson, the king of pop.

ninanowno asks: Have you ever thought of doing a Candid Camera-kind of thing where people you meet don't even know they're on television?

Louis Theroux: Candid Camera was one of my favorite shows, and I do love prank shows. But whenever I've done pranks, I've found the experience very stressful. I did a few when I was working at Spy magazine, and when I was at TV Nation, I did a stunt where I disrupted the OJ Simpson trial using psychological warfare techniques, developed by the US military, but found the whole experience more anxiety-inducing than anything else.

Tomdabomb888 asks: What are you doing for the millennium?

Louis Theroux: Good question. I haven't made any plans yet. I was thinking for a while of spending it with a cult who is expecting the end of the world. But now I think I might just drink some Bacardi Breezes and fall down.

SITH666_99 asks: When you were younger did you ever imagine a career like this?

Louis Theroux: No. When I was younger, I had no idea what I was going to do. And I still wonder what I'm going to do sometimes.

S_Lucas_81 asks: Hey Louis, do you get embarrassed or do you like seeing all those weirdos? P.S. Your show rules!!!

Louis Theroux: I love it. And sometimes I do get embarrassed, but that's part of the fun. I guess I'm sort of a masochist in that respect. In the Christianity show coming up, I play "Faith" by George Michael on the guitar for a bunch of born-again Christians. It's excruciatingly embarrassing, but that's what makes it so delicious.

sarahjanes_fireant1998 asks: Have any of the strange people you have met ever made you question your presumed cynicism?

Louis Theroux: I think all the best shows that I've done have made me question my own presumed cynicism. And I hope that comes through on the screen.

Tomdabomb888 asks: More to the point, have the police ever been interested in you after the broadcasting of a show?

Louis Theroux: Not so far. But maybe we can fix that with the next series.

scullyitis asks: Who would be your man and/or woman of the millennium?

Louis Theroux: Okay, I guess my man of the millennium would be William Shakespeare. And the woman of the millennium would be my girlfriend.

smooth_chill asks: Louis, when you spoke to the Black Panthers were you scared

Louis Theroux: Not too scared. If anything I was kind of depressed at the state of race relations. That show hasn't aired in the US yet. But it's one to look forward to. It features the Black Israelites, familiar to anyone who lives in NY, as the guys who look like they were kicked out of Earth Wind and Fire.

laptop_lurker asks: I loved TV Nation, and when I saw you getting your own show I knew it would be worth watching. Are you still in touch with Michael Moore, and are you likely to do anything together again?

Louis Theroux: I exchanged e-mail messages with Michael just a few days ago. As to whether we'd work together again, now that we're both on Bravo, who knows?

scullyitis asks: You keep very calm under some stressful situations and conversations, any secret to this?

Louis Theroux: I guess if anything by appearing calm, I'm trying to stop the situation from getting any worse than it already is. I do have a weak spot in being afraid of big dogs. And several times in the series, you'll notice, if you watch carefully, I get very skittish, around some large dogs.

shavinder asks: You did a show where you worked with aspiring actors. What ever happened to the wannabe actor. I liked him.

Louis Theroux: There's a couple in there. But I think you must be referring to James Lorenzo, whose day job was as a physical trainer. He approached me not long after the taping of the show with the idea of us developing a two-man stage show together. But I was so traumatized by my audition for a Norwegian cruise line I had to beg off.

laptop_lurker asks: Louis... I know it would be hard to make good TV out of, but some of the weirdness out here on the net must intrigue you?

Louis Theroux: We use the net a lot as a research tool, as you can imagine. In fact, there's a Weird Weekend site on bravo that links to a few of the people that have appeared on the series: www.Bravotv.com

johnnyboy_r asks: Louis, I am English and I thoroughly enjoyed your series. I especially like the way you took the piss out of the Americans without them actually realising. They seem to have no sense of irony

Louis Theroux: That's a good one. Actually, I do think Americans have a sense of irony. The ones who don't have a sense of irony are the obsessives, wherever they come from.

rotten138 asks: What's the weirdest thing you've ever done?

Louis Theroux: The weirdest thing I've ever done... is I guess to appear in a gay porn film, as a park ranger. I should get going....if you switch on your TVs you'll see me searching for evidence of aliens...and I can guarantee that coming up later in the show you'll find something that's very difficult to explain with conventional science. And I'm not talking about my hair.

Timehost: Thank you very much, especially for staying up late to chat with us.

Louis Theroux: My pleasure.

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