Morgan Spurlock is a unique guy, to say the least. Hailing from West Virginia, he isn’t your typical filmmaker. His name became recognizable overnight when “Supersize Me,” a documentary that chronicled his 30-day McDonalds binge, was released in 2004.

On Tuesday night, Spurlock came to the Tempe campus Memorial Union and explained his rags to riches story. In immense credit-card debt, somewhere in the realm of $250,000, he took all the money he had left from other endeavors to take a risk on “Supersize Me.” The film grossed $28 million.

I couldn’t help but shake my head in wonder at how lucky this guy was and then imagine that this is what people lost in debt cling to — the quick fix. This is not your typical filmmaker.

While generally gaining the appeal of the audience, his tactics didn’t please all. Racial slurs, continuous drug references, profanity and promotion of illegal

pirating were all apart of his repertoire. His confidence manifested itself as half comedy routine and half serious lecture.

Not sure whether to take him seriously, I proceeded to write down some of the facts he quoted from the film. For instance, McDonalds feeds 45 million people a day, sells more toys than Toys ’R Us and is now located in more than 100 countries.

After seeing the documentary three times and now having heard him speak, I still am in awe of the statistics surrounding the fast-food industry and its correlation with obesity in America.

Fortunately, Spurlock has not given America anything to blame, making sure to clearly state that the responsibility of the consumer can never be ignored.

He did seize every opportunity to cut down McDonalds though. He mocked their denial that when former CEO Jim Cantalupo died from a heart attack and that when replacement CEO Charlie Bell was diagnosed with colon cancer, it had nothing to do with their eating habits.

This is not your typical filmmaker.

Spurlock even admitted his style is categorized differently from anyone else out there today, calling it “jackass journalism.”

His television series “30 Days” explores what it’s like to walk in another man’s shoes for … 30 days. In the three seasons it has aired, he has spent a month in jail, lived on minimum wage and followed a mother’s binge drinking journey. (She was trying to show her daughter how dangerous her drinking habits were, and, yes, this girl did attend ASU.)

But this is what separates Spurlock from everyone else — he actually does the crazy stuff. That’s the advice he gave to aspiring filmmakers in the question and answer portion of the night: Don’t give up on your crazy ideas, no matter what.

Easy for him to say; sometimes it pays to be crazy.

Reach Houston at hfriend1@asu.edu.