Sunday, May 25, 2008

YouTube revives Rap's skits

There had been talk for years about comedy sketches Rap Reiplinger shot on video just before he died, long-lost material he wrote for a visitor information channel on a Maui cable station, but it seemed to be a myth, a collective wish from his devoted fans or something that may have once existed but had been lost to time. Sanford Hill was on the crew of the video shoot all those years ago. Sometimes he was the camera man, sometimes the editor, and one time, he got to be the guy who hit Reiplinger in the face with a banana cream pie. Hill posted the clips on YouTube. There are 10 segments in all, including a rare glimpse of Reiplinger not in character but speaking as himself, talking story and interviewing a young Andy Bumatai at the old La Familia restaurant in Wailuku. Check out some reviews of YouTube video clips The "Rap's Maui" footage was his last video before his death from a drug overdose. Hill has a copy of the half-hour edited show, which ran on KPBC on Maui and also on KITV after Reiplinger's death, but he wonders whatever happened to all the rest of the footage they shot. "KPBC was sold a few times and is now part of the Paradise Network," Hill said. "I have no idea where all the camera tapes and video masters are. There was a lot more stuff and I hope they surface some day."

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