How We Made ‘Peeping Todd,’ Our Bible Belt Pervert Musical

In the piece below, "Peeping Todd" director Josh Munds details the making of his wild comic musical about a pervert stalker, which plays Friday at Dances With Films in Los Angeles.—M.M.

You’re probably asking yourself, how did “Peeping Todd” —  a musical about a pervert stalking a woman — get investors in the Bible Belt? The short answer is, it didn’t. Let me explain.

“Who wouldn’t want to give money to this?!” I declared loudly  and ignorantly in a pre-production meeting with our producers, Alexander Jeffery and Chris Alan Evans. To which we all nodded along thinking the South, specifically Louisiana, was ready for such a task. 

I mean c'mon, our film can’t be that raunchy! Just read our synopsis for yourself: "Peeping Todd" is about a peeper obsessed with a woman named Claire. Despite the HOA closing in on him and Claire’s ex-boyfriend getting in his way, Todd won’t stop until Claire belongs to him. 

Making 'Peeping Todd' With Friends

The synopsis doesn’t sound like anything that crazy, right? What if I told you Todd gets into a singing fight with his own hand for trying to pleasure him? Or that Claire’s ex boyfriend, Thad, has an unhealthy obsession with shoving things up his posterior? 

Southern hospitality drew its line in the sand with our film. 

“But Josh Munds," you may say, "your film 'Peeping Todd' is premiering at Dances with Films June 20th at 11:45 pm! How did you finally get it made?”

First off, relax. Don’t rush me. Secondly, with a little help from my friends. 

Once we realized the chips were stacked against us, we decided to just double down and bet on ourselves. 

We pooled our resources, used gear we already owned, borrowed equipment from friends, and finally, found the perfect people to invest. 

Our close friend and producer extraordinaire, Tamra Corley Davis, stepped to the plate and went to bat for us.

The family of our lead actor, the aforementioned Chris Alan Evans, decided to step into the gauntlet and throw down as well. 

Steven Hellmen, a close personal friend of Alexander Jeffery, saw the potential of 'Peeping Todd' and brought some sizzling heat to our beef sandwich. 

Man, I love a good beef sandwich. 

I’ll speak selfishly and excitedly about one investor in particular — my wife, Melissa Munds, who just recently reached 2 million subscribers on her YouTube channel, @MelissaKristinTv. She told me whatever we need to do to make this happen, let’s do it. 

And so we did. 

It took two months to write the songs, record the demos and finish the script. Fifteen days to shoot it. Badda bing, badda boom. "Peeping Todd" was done. 

At the heart of this entire project was friends and family making something together. Even if that something has a one-thousand dollar budget for sex toys.

'Peeping Todd' premieres at Dances with Films Friday at 11:45 p.m.