Donick Cary’s new Netflix documentary, Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics, aims to demystify the world of psychedelic drugs. And what better way to do so than recruiting stars and celebrities like Sting, Sarah Silverman, and Anthony Bourdain? The former The Simpsons producer has brought some of the biting humor from his work on that beloved sitcom to liven up and highlight the strangeness of the stories his subjects share. Every anecdote is colorfully animated so you get to experience what they’re all describing in clearer detail.
In a segment titled “Dosed,” Birds of Prey star Rosie Perez reminisces about her first accidental experience with acid. It was New Year’s Eve in the late 80s and the self-described Puerto Rican icon headed out with one of her sister to an after-hours club in Alphabet City. The establishment, which prided itself on not selling any drinks (hint hint) only served a punch and some fruit. After eagerly downing one punch glass after accepting it from the bartender who’d asked if the girls wanted to “get hooked up” and later going back for more, she soon found herself staring at a dance floor turning into a waving ocean. Of course, that meant she started to swim around it, which obviously freaked out everyone around her.
But it doesn’t end there: to hear Perez tell it, the night later found the star thinking she was a mattress (“When I laid into the bed, I became the bed”), hurting her ankle and overall reevaluating her own sense of Catholic guilt. As she recalls, the first thing she thought when she realized she’d been dosed was about hoping God wouldn’t punish her for being on acid. It actually led her to seek therapy to deal with her guilt-ridden Catholic upbringing. Oh, and to always ask what’s in punches offered by bars.
Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is now streaming on Netflix