When Davy Rothbart found a note mistakenly left on his car by an angry woman who thought her boyfriend was cheating on her, it launched a career. At first, he and a friend handed out photocopies of the note and other discovered ephemera. They soon launched a zine called Found. Since then, the Found universe has expanded to books, tours, a musical and now a documentary TV series that includes an episode built around a letter written by a man who has recently moved to Dallas. In it, he’s pleading with a producer to back his movie idea.
“He’s basically just spilling his guts out,” Rothbart says in a Zoom interview. “He’s so desperate to make what he calls an action-comedy-horror film. He says the need to make this film devours his soul. He just needs someone to believe in him.”
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Rothbart is planning to spend three days with the letter writer while he’s in Dallas with his latest traveling show, which comes to Texas Theatre on Tuesday night. The tour includes his brother, Peter, a folk musician who performs poignant songs about the found items, and sword swallower Brett Loudermilk. They’re filming the live appearances for the series, which is being produced by mumblecore pioneers Mark and Jay Duplass but has yet to find a home on a streaming service. It could wind up at HBO, Rothbart says, where the brothers have a first-look deal, after hitting the festival circuit.
A 49-year-old native of Ann Arbor, Mich., now living in Los Angeles, he began investigating the people and stories behind the found items for a podcast. But isn’t their mystery key to their appeal? “There is a purity in the notes being able to have been written by anybody. The fact that they’re generally anonymous can add to their power,” he concedes. “If we don’t know who wrote this poignant love note, or this soulful letter to their father, then you can look around on the bus or the subway or walking on the street and reflect on our shared humanity, the deep and textured emotional lives that are internal to everybody around us.”
At the same time, the most memorable finds have gnawed at Rothbart. Like a cassette on which an 18-year-old homeless woman recorded her angst or a baby found by a couple. Both of those stories will be told in the series. “This is a small subset, one in 100,” Rothbart says. “These people have stuck with me, something about the way they expressed themselves. It’s been a riddle I can’t easily let go of. There is something extremely satisfying about finding these people and learning the full breadth of their journey.”
Details
7 p.m. on July 30 at Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd. $15. thetexastheatre.com.