‘Integrity’ and ‘honesty’ are not adjectives you’d ordinarily associate with the profession of band manager. To be fair, a band manager’s modus operandi is necessarily influenced by the dubious business dealings, duplicitous behavior and fragile egos that characterise the music industry.
In Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, Michael Douglas describes Shep Gordon – the long-term manager of Alice Cooper and friend and confidant to the stars – as a ‘mensch’, the Yiddish term for someone of honesty and integrity.
Like its subject, Supermensch is highly entertaining, charting Gordon’s evolution from Long Island Jewish kid to entertainment industry mover and shaker. Along the way there are stories of hotel decadence with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, Alice Cooper’s infamous chicken incident, folk singer Anne Murray’s contrived association with John Lennon and Harry Nilsson, Gordon’s seminal role in creating the concept of the celebrity chef and – most importantly for the film – sincere accounts of Gordon’s generosity and support for his clients and friends.
But given Gordon’s success, it’s the darker moments that are most illuminating: Gordon is visibly emotional when describing the challenge of telling soul singer Teddy Pendergrast that he would never walk again after a serious car accident in the 1980s; Gordon’s attempts at creating a family of his own are stymied by faults in his own character (though his ongoing support of the extended family of a former girlfriend makes for touching viewing).
Mike Myers, who met Gordon during the making of Wayne’s World, makes his directorial debut with Supermensch. It’s a warm, funny and occasionally poignant film. Presumably there is someone, somewhere who hates Shep Gordon’s guts, but after watching this documentary you’d be hard pressed to pay them any attention.
BY PATRICK EMERY
