How Damon Martin would have played the perfect Robin in Batman Returns.

 How Damon Martin would have played the perfect robin in Batman Returns

As November comes to a close, and we finish off with yet another successful Galligangiving, I need to take a second to pay tribute to another actor who in my eyes has also starred in some killer cult classics that are highly underatted.

This actor is Damon Martin.

Damon Martin had a brief acting career in the 1980's and early 90's before shifting gears and forming the band Naked who had two #1 hits on the billboards (Mann's Chinese and Raining On The Sky) this band was so popular they were even featured on an episode of the hit television series Buffy. Sadly the band broke up shortly afterwards and Damon continued his career as a music producer forming several very successful companies. Damon later went on to producing films including the remake to Night Of The Demons. Damon now lives in LA and is one of LA Art Districts' most famous mural artist who has worked all over the country, creating breathtaking pieces of work around different cities. Supporting wonderful causes like protecting elephants, and even designing a smart car, Damon truly seems like a man who's tried it all, and has had a very successful and eventful career in any field he's tried.

Today I want to talk about Damon's amazing brief film career as an actor. What fascinates me about Damon is the fact he's lived such an interesting life dabbling in so many amazing careers. I've always found the character lesser know actors very intriguing. There have been several who appeared in a brief series of films before continuing on with their life's working new jobs with wide range. Damon appeared in several TV shows before landing a small role in Tim Burton's 1985 cult classic Pee Wee's Big Adventure in 1985 as Chip, the redheaded BMX bike rider who classically quotes the line "That Dottie sure is radical with bikes!"

Damon went on to appear on episodes of Freddy's Nightmares and 21 Jump Street. Damon won the role in the movie Ghoulies II, as well as appearing in the made for TV Disney movie Sky High (a film I've been searching for, for what seems like years.), C. Thomas Howell's action thriller Kid, and of course the very stellar sequel of the Amityville series Amityville 1992 It's About Time.

Damon has recently just joined Instagram as @Damonmartinartist it's amazing to see his breathtaking work, and the other pieces he's helped making possible. I urge anyone to please check out this man's work, it's truly amazing.

What makes me post again about Damon is the fact he's one of the last actors I need to have signed my beloved Amityville 1992 laserdisc. I in fact blew Stephen Macht over what a huge fan I am of this movie when I met him this past fall while working Rock & Shock. I showed Stephen how Damon and Megan Ward (the two Sterling siblings) are the background of my phone and how I've had several different artist re-draw one of my all time favorite scenes from the movie which I hope to get tattooed on me someday.  I want Damon to get the respect he deserves. Ghoulies II was just re-released on blu-ray by Scream Factory and truly the only thing missing was Damon being involved. I really hope he's not embarrassed by his acting work because as cheesy as some of the movies he appeared in were, he always played a likable character and was able to appear in some really cool scenes. I know it's a long shot, but I hope someway somehow fans will show Damon how badly they have waned to meet him and get the chance to pick his brain a little over what he thinks about the masking of these films.

"Sigh…a girl can dream right?"

Well going back to the blog's original subject, I feel maybe just maybe had things been a little different, it would have been Damon Martin playing the boy wonder.

Back in 1985 Damon Martin's first film role was in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Just a few years later Burton discovered Mr. Johnny Depp who would go onto and star in Edward Scissorhands in 1990. Martin and Depp both co-starred in a really serious episode of 21 Jump Street in 1988. Even tho the two actors never interacted at all in the same episode, both did a great job dealing with the serious subject matter the plot line dealt with. Being roughly around the same age, one could wonder what would have happened if it was Martin had been re-used again, not for Scissorhands, but for a certain role that I feel personally for Damon at that age, he was born to play.

Some might argue that Damon was too old (when Batman Returns was made it was 91/92 so he was around 27 or 28.) But trust me, no offense to Chris O' Donnell in Joel Schumacher's mess of a movie Batman Forever. I think as much as so much epicness was packed into Batman Returns it would have been AWESOME even if he just did a cameo if Damon played Robin. With Burton's darker tone to the series I'm sure it would have been played off wonderfully even if he played Nightwing. 

So closing thoughts, Damon Martin is a crazy talented artist, but would have made one HELL of a Robin. 

"Sigh…"

I guess I'll just have to be happy with Joseph Gorden Levitt…