| WTTW, Channel 11, presented the television premiere of Mike Houlihan's independent feature film, Tapioca, on Sunday, Dec. 19 at 12:30 a.m.
The film received the Best Feature Film award at the 2008 Geneva Film Festival in Geneva, Illinois.
In a story as timely as The Great
Recession of 2009, abrasive blowhard Pipes McGonnigle (Houlihan), a TV hawker for a Chicago car dealership, loses his job, gets kicked out by
his wife, and runs afoul of a Streetwise vendor (Vereen) with supernatural powers, who consigns him to life as a bum by way of a hex. Former
Sun-Times columnist Houlihan expanded his stand-up act of the same title and cast a host of veteran Chicago actors for this comic allegory of
redemption set entirely in the grittiest of urban locations.
Tapioca stars Emmy and Tony winner Ben Vereen along with Mike Houlihan and his entire family and friends. The film also
features Saturday Night Live alum Tim Kazurinsky, Greg Hollimon from "Strangers With Candy", Mark Borchardt from "American Movie", as
well as Jimmy Carrane, David Pasquesi, Paul Kelly, Michael McNeal, Jack McCabe, and several other Second City veterans. Mary Carney of "Ryan's
Hope" is also featured as a mystical bag lady.
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