By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN The classical strains of “Arirang” have all but faded from inside the East Pyongyang Grand Theater.
Earlier this week, video of the New York Philharmonic’s performance gave the West a manicured view of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ― waving classical fans and all. But what of the North Korea beyond the band shell?
When I worked as a magazine editor, not a month went by that someone didn’t propose that we sneak a writer into North Korea.
The magazine, it was agreed, would have to distance itself from the project case something happened to the reporter, but if we could find someone freelance enough and gonzo enough and willing enough to go on his own steam, uninsured ― we’d get a bodyguard/translator/photographer, of course, and pay well for the story, if it came in all right ― then, you know, wouldn’t that be so cool?
But. Silence. Who will tie the bell around the cat’s neck? A few reporters’ names would be mentioned; everyone would shake their heads. Ah. Yes. Now about that Nicole Kidman cover.
Matt Lauer went to North Korea, or sort of; it wasn’t so great.
You need someone gonzo, really. But who?
Enter online-video. Enter reporter-comedian-stuntmen. Enter Shane Smith, the founder of VBS.tv, “Rescuing you from television’s deathlike grip.”
Smith not only founded VBS.tv, but he is the bearded wild man who posed as a tourist and busted through the DMZ somehow and brought cameraman and just truly, thoroughly reveals how haunted and astounding and extraterrestrial North Korea is. I can’t get these images out of my mind ― the empty but fully-served banquet hall, the unvisited tea rooms. Ghostland.
Smith’s videos premiere on VBS.tv Monday, but here at the Medium, we have an exclusive preview. Smith is neither the best deadpan documentary comic, nor is he a convincing newsman ― like all sure-I’ll-do-it investigative reporters, he has a persona that’s a little self-satisfied and a little dopey ― but here’s my final verdict on him: He’s great. He’s unimpeachable. He did it, he got in, he stayed alive and he brought back pictures.
