CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Virginia Film Festival schedule has October 26 as the world premiere date for a documentary on what it calls “one of the University’s most revered (and irreverent) institutions”, the University of Virginia Pep Band. “Pep Banned” is the film by some former members of the scramble band that entertained at halftime of UVA football games from 1974 until it was banned in 2003. The film outlines the founding, the band’s history, and it’s end after what then-current and former members call “a pretty mild” 10-minute halftime show at the Dec. 28, 2002 Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte poking fun at opponent West Virginia University based on “The Bachelor”.

“Pep Banned” Executive Producer and Author/Humorist Ron Culberson told CvilleRightNow when he had moved to Nelson County several years ago (after he spent some time living in northern Virginia), he was with a friend a fellow band member, Dan McKeon, and they started talking about a possible documentary on the subject.

“I always thought I might write about it, because I tend to be more of a writer, I’m not a filmmaker, per se,” Culberson said.

But he thought about it more and decided a documentary might make more sense. Through a series of connections, Culberson was put in touch with long-time Charlottesville documentary maker Chris Farina back in 2014.

“Chris said to me originally I’m so busy, this was not something he wanted to do,” Culberson said.

But Farina was a pep band fan and once he heard completely what Culberson wanted, Farina “was all in”.

Fellow documentarian Bill Reifenberger joined Farina to co-direct this project.

“I’m just so grateful that he and Bill have just been amazing to work with, they’re inspired and they’re just so supportive of this project,” Culberson said.

And it’s a good thing because there are still some finishing touches before the October 26 Culbreth Theater VAFF world premiere.

Culberson arrived at UVA in 1979, and became a pep band member until he graduated in 1983.

“I was one of these guys that was a little, as somebody once said when people zig I tend to zag. I remember seeing a bumper sticker one time that said ‘I march to a different accordion’. and I think that kind of categorizes it.”

He’d been in regular bands in high school, but that didn’t appeal to him once he got to UVA. Of course, that wasn’t really an option at UVA since the University had never had any sort of marching band. There had been a smaller group that would play at basketball games, but some would play only occasionally at football games. But when he got to UVA, he got a letter in the mail about “this different band”.

Culberson said, “I had been writing some humor in high school, and humor was something that was a big part of my life, so it was right up my alley.”

So he was in the band from 1979 to 1983, and all four years he was on the committee who wrote the shows. The UVA Pep Band was a totally run student organization. There were no faculty advisors nor administration involvement.

“And then the last year, I was in charge of writing the shows with a buddy of mine, we co-chaired the committee, and then we got to be drum majors on the field. That was your reward for helping write the shows.”

He said the experience had one of the greatest impacts of his life as he went into the field of being a “motivational humorist, so clearly the pep band experience played into my career”.

The band was co-founded by Steve Merchon who had become aware of some Ivy League schools doing scramble band concepts. He brought that idea to UVA, and the pep band would have someone take the PA microphone, and comprise a joke mostly on something topical and often at the expense of the other team. The band would quickly scramble into a picture that went with the joke, then play music that went with the picture.

“One of the classic examples we always used is they made an announcement and said ‘would the owner of $10,000 in cash wrapped in two rolls attached by rubber bands please come to the press box, we have your rubber bands'”.

“That’s just a silly, stupid joke, but it gets a good reaction, and then they’d form a picture of a dollar sign and play ‘Money, Money, Money’.”

There were eight-to-ten of those that Culberson describes as being sort of like Saturday Night Live. In those days, also, the football team was not very good and a lot of people would come to the games to see the halftime show.

He said you’ll see the history, and stories about how the band got started.

“Every decade, you’ll see people and their experiences in the band.  You’re going to see examples of jokes and shows, you’re going to hear about the controversy.”

The last controversy was the Tire Bowl show based on “The Bachelor” where a UVA guy was making a choice between a UVA or WVU person.

“West Virginia was kind of poised, I think, because we had poked fun at them before, to react.”

Pep band members described at the time how WVU fans began booing them before they even took the field, some still salty from a 1985 parody referencing lack of” indoor plumbing and birth control” as Ed Miller put it in a UVA Magazine article. Click here for that piece.

The VAFF highlight announcing the screening says, “Traversing decades of controversy and comedy, the film is full of heart and spirit, and even offers one final performance from the irrepressible ensemble that refused to play by the rules.”

The screening will have discussion with Culberson, Reifenberger, and Pep Band alumni Mike McClellan and Dave Black. Co-director Chris Farina will be presented with the Governor Gerald L. Baliles Founder’s Award.

Click here for information and tickets when they become available.

Click here for more information about the film itself.

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