‘Hold The Mayo’—Comedy and Horror in Eagle Rock

One day, an argument over a sandwich at went horribly wrong. It all began with a turkey and roast beef sandwich that someone ordered, with spicy mustard and no mayonnaise.

“Seriously dude, if there’s mayo on that one, Frank will f---ing eat you,” the obnoxious fellow warns the sole sandwich-maker at Dave’s much-loved deli—a nervous accounting student named Sam who has a penchant for spilling olive oil on his textbooks.

That night, a nondescript man in a black suit barges into Dave’s Chillin' and Grillin' and confronts Sam. “You f---ed up my sandwich,” he says, alluding to the turkey and roast beef that appears to have been infected with mayonnaise after all. “So now I have to eat you.”

To find out what happens next, click on the photos to your right and one of them will give you a hint of just how menacing—even disgusting—this short story in a short film ends up becoming.

And yet lurking beneath the plain violence is a mocking—and to many, shocking—humor of Hitchcockian proportions.

Hold The Mayo is an ode to frustration, says Jeffrey Williams, the film’s writer and director. An independent television editor and producer, Williams has lived in Eagle Rock for the past seven years. He is one of the community’s many devotees of Dave’s Chillin’ and Grillin’—or more precisely, sandwich maven Dave himself.

This is the latest of Williams’ short films after his most recent work, City Hall, another ode to frustration that was screened at the 2003 Dances With Films film festival. Williams wrote its script with Dave—and his deli—in mind. “It’s got beautiful colors,” says Williams of the sandwich shop’s décor. “I knew it would look great on camera.”

Except for some scenes filmed at the Eagle Rock Recreation Center (by the Eagle Rock) Hold The Mayo was shot almost entirely by the Altadena-based cinematographer David Wexler at Dave’s Chillin’ and Grillin’. The shooting took up the better part a grueling Sunday that left a corridor facing the sandwich bar trashed with gallons of mayonnaise and fake blood.

The film’s protagonist, Highland Park resident Saul Herckis, says he had never been covered in “10 gallons of mayonnaise” before. Indeed, there must have been a good reason for any actor to submit to such an undertaking. “It’s so ungodly, messy and disgusting that you have to ask the actor, ‘please do this,’” says Williams.

Luckily for Williams, he and Herckis are college buddies from Northwestern University in Chicago. And in a way, the film’s lead role was thrust upon the budding actor, who has acted in several short movies (most recently, Oysters and Pearls) and played small roles in feature films.

“It’s not a role that you can cast,” says Williams, referring to the film’s ultimately gory climax, despite its thick symbolism and overtly absurdist theme. “It’s a role that you beg your friend to do.”

And it’s a role that clearly thrives in the short film genre (which, thanks to the Web, is increasingly defining the future of cinema as we know it). As Williams puts it: “To go from the really disgusting to the really funny—that’s what it’s about for me.”

Watch the Hold The Mayo trailer and/or catch the actual screening—especially if short films are your thing—at the 14th annual Dances With Films film festival at Laemmle Sunset 5 in West Hollywood this Saturday, June 4.

Hold The Mayo will also be screened at the Palm Springs International Shortfest, from June 22-26.