In 2004, Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher began collecting videos from garage sales, thrift stores and dumpsters. The two compiled the found footage and showed it to friends for entertainment. Eventually, the just-for-laughs show they put on for their friends became a national tour called the Found Footage Festival. Pickett and Prueher travel the country to show the videos and perform live commentary to go along with them. The Found Footage Festival will make its first appearance in Lawrence at the Granada tonight at 8.

Prueher also wants to remind everyone to bring video footage tonight to use in future festivals.

What video started it all?

It all started with a McDonald’s training video I found in the break room of a McDonald’s that I worked at in high school. It was a video for McDonald’s custodians and I could not believe how stupid it was. My first thought was, ‘I have to show this to other people.’ I immediately showed it to my friend Joe and we became obsessed with showing it to friends and making smartass remarks over it. So we figured if this video was right under our noses, what else was out there? So that started the quest to scour thrift stores, garage sales and garbage cans and other out of the way places for VHS tapes. Now, instead of showing the videos in my parents’ living room, we show them in theaters around the country.

So is this legal?

I don’t know if it’s legal, but our lawyer assures us that what we’re doing is under fair use of satire.

Do you and Joe have jobs outside of the Found Footage Festival?

This is our passion, but it’s just part-time. Joe works at The Onion and I work at The Colbert Report.

Do you look for new material in every city you visit?

Yep, the first thing we do when we get into a new town is ask around to find out where the good thrift stores are or if there are any garage sales going on. We go straight to the VHS section of Goodwill or Salvation Army and start digging. We’ve found that stupid videos are pretty universal; there’s no region of the country that has more than another.

Are there certain places that have especially good material?

We were in Alaska last year doing a show and there’s a place called the Bishop’s Attic on the outskirts of town. They had a huge VHS section that had everything from Blockbuster Video training videos to home movies to locally produced exercise videos.

Do you guys have a favorite clip?

We find exercise videos most often, mainly because every celebrity who had even minor success in the ’80s or ’90s made an exercise video. Those are always big hits because of the fantastic fashion choices and poor production value. Ones featuring Zsa Zsa Gabor, Angela Lansbury or any range of celebrities who have no business making fitness videos tend to go over the best with audiences. Although in the new show we’ve got some anti-sexual harassment videos that have great enactments of what not to do while at work.

What’s the best part about doing all of this?

It’s like a needle in a haystack finding that perfect video that’s awful in all the right ways. We wade through hours and hours of the most boring stuff to find that one gem. But when we do find that one clip that we know will make people laugh, that’s what makes it worthwhile.

For more information and clips from previous festivals, visit www.myspace.com/foundfootagefestival.