Interview: Harmon Leon
by Elizabeth Benefiel
Harmon Leon is the author of three books of essays: The Harmon Chronicles, winner of the 2003 Independent Publishers Award for Humor, Republican Like Me and The Infiltrator. His work has been featured in The Guardian, The San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire and many other publications. His infiltrative reports run the full gamut of insanity, from working as a security guard at Denny's, a a German pop star at the Scientology Celebrity Centre or OJ Simpson's accomplice on a direct-to-video prank show.
Leon lives in San Francisco, California. His dreadlocks are pretty ferocious.
Author Page: Powell'sArchive of Harmon Leon Articles
ZOTAPINE: My first question is about your latest book, the Infiltrator; you did a piece about being a sidekick for OJ Simpson in a hidden camera prank show.
HARMON LEON: Yeah, Juiced.
Z: What did you think about his book project, "If I Did It"?
HL: Personally, I think the If I Did It part would be about ten pages, and 99% of the book would be about OJ being in the Naked Gun movies and playing football for USC. It was more hyped up than it should have been; a lot of it was some guy who used to be famous who’s not famous—or not not famous, infamous—and still wants to be in the public eye. He wants to be the old OJ.
Z: Was that the impression you had of him?
HL: Yeah! Why would you do a hidden camera prank show, even if you weren’t OJ? It was just the worst thing ever: OJ posing as a used car salesman trying to get someone to buy a white ford bronco, which he claimed had “great escapability.” That was his comeback project. There wasn’t anything about it that wasn’t in bad taste.
Z: I’ve noticed, both in reading your works and in researching it, is that there’s no lexicon for the stuff that you do; these reports are journalistic and humorous, but not objective. What lexicon do you prefer to use?
HL: Infiltrative journalism. Of course it’s not objective—it’s about satirizing and exposing truths by becoming one of the group that you’re going undercover with. It’s a mixture of things—creole, if you will.
Z: How did you get started with these infiltrative reports?
HL: The first story I wrote was for a magazine called Might about getting hired and fired from a fast-food restaurant within three hours. That came after having a lot of bad jobs, and that was my revenge on the workplace. From there, I just went to the races with it.
Z: Well, what’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
HL: For a story, I was standing in an Uncle Sam outfit on the side of the road with a sign that says "It’s Tax Time!" In the middle of January. In Sacramento. Yeah...
Z: [laughs] What? Why?
HL: Just to get people into their tax office.
Z: Did it have any contact info &mdash
HL: No, there was no connection to an office. Aside from you being in an Uncle Sam outfit. You wave at cars, they drive you miles away from the office into the worst part of town. No one wants to hear "It's Tax Time!" in January.
Z: Have you ever gone into something and been totally unprepared? Or lost it?
HL: There’s been a coupla times. With the abstinence educators, I was a little less prepared because I didn’t know everyone was going to be from Oregon. I was the only person who said he was from California.
I was outed at a celebrity impersonator’s convention by posing as a fourth-rate Austin Powers impersonator. But those guys are professionals, they can spot impostor impersonators from a mile away. But lost it? Not really, you know. You kinda just stick it out.
Z: What’s the planning process like? Do you just throw on a costume and get in your car?
HL: Oh no. You gotta plan everything, research and find out what the group’s all about. You gotta know what you’re getting into before you go. That’s the best way to infiltrate if you know exactly what the group’s about. Otherwise you’d be thrown for a loop or found out. That’s good sometimes, because your learning curve goes up. Planning gives you ideas, too, just researching it.
When you research a site for one story, always check out the links. That’s how I found certain stories, like researching the prayer warriors, I found they were linked to these right-wing, pro-war skinhead bands. That’s how I came across them.
You can also group subject matter together—with TV infiltrations, you know you’re gonna infiltrate TV shows, so you research that world. Or right-wing such-and-such, you want stories on that subject matter so you research that. Or bad jobs, you’re just going to do stories on getting bad jobs. If they’re bunched together, it’s easy.
For video, it’s like putting together a short little film, as opposed to just going off on your own. You have to coordinate other people and get the technical aspects taken care of.
Z: Have you noticed any evolution in how you’ve conducted these reports?
HL: I started with cultural things, though I was dabbling a bit in politics here and there. Lately it’s been political, right-wing type stories. I’m not limited to that, but that’s how I evolved. The stories have gotten longer and go more in depth.
You’ve gotta go for weightier, bigger topics, just to make it interesting. The bigger things you go for, it’s a bigger payoff. They’re the people who deserve it more. With that said, it’s always fun to do a silly story.
Z: I’m surprised you or your publishers have never been threatened with litigation.
HL: Yeah, there’ve been times. With the Current TV piece, we had a talk with the magazine’s lawyers, because you’re going undercover into a show that’s about suing people. We’ll see how that goes. When the Scientology story first ran in a british magazine, they got pestered by Scientologists because they’ll sue anyone—wrong or right, but they have a lot of money and the suing process soaks people for money. I think Scientology’s at a point where they’re tired of suing everyone, because everyone lambasts them.
Z: Well, do you ever have to self-censor or take precautions to deal with litigation issues?
HL: It’s up to the editor how they want to approach it. I don’t care, but it goes in a magazine and they’re the one who’ll get sued, not really me. Because the magazine has more money than me.
Z: Do you have any particular audience in mind?
HL: Anyone eight to eighty. And no Canadians.
Z: Why no Canadians?
HL: Do I need to explain? It’s kind of obvious.
Text and top photo © Zotapine.com, January 2007. Feel free to quote with attribution. "Prayer Warrior" photo © Harmon Leon, 2006.