[MUSIC PLAYING]
JODY PENDARVIS: Well, I think everybody in the town kind of
knows about me.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JODY PENDARVIS: Yeah, I'm usually always looking up in
the sky just in case I see a little glimpse of a UFO.
The people in town, I believe, think that
I'm eccentric, crazy.
Even though they think that maybe I'm an easygoing guy,
but you know, actually, they might be right.
I could be off my rocker.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JODY PENDARVIS: Hi, I'm Jody Pendarvis.
I call myself the ambassador.
We're in Bowman, South Carolina, and you are now at
the official UFO Welcome Center that welcomes aliens
from outer space.
Not from this planet, but from outer space.
My main motivation for the first UFO here was just to
invite the aliens down, so I created something that looks
like a spaceship.
So it's almost like a duck decoy.
Yeah.
Ducks in a pond, ducks in the lake.
So, this is a duck on Earth.
Now they fly over and say, oh, that might be one of mine.
Let me go and make sure it's OK.
Or repair it and take it back with them.
Ooh.
Let's go into the spaceship.
This room here is the experimental engine room.
However, right now, the engine hasn't arrived from space, so
I'm using it as a work and storage place right now.
Let me confirm something.
Since I'm the captain of this ship, I can talk to aliens
when they come.
And, if they say anything at all, it's top secret between
them and me, OK?
No government agents can get it out of me.
Nobody.
But right now, let's go upstairs to the control rooms.
Watch the radar, OK?
Do you see it?
This is my regular AC controls, OK?
In case you want to see what wires is in space, this is
what they look like.
Even though the top looks safe, with the wind it does
sway a little bit.
[WIND WHISTLING]
JEDD THOMAS: Do you have any concerns that this may not be
space-worthy?
You've got, like, a car jack holding one side of it up, and
you've got four bits of plywood holding
the other side up.
You don't worry that it's going to fall on your head as
you sit there right now?
JODY PENDARVIS: Oh, no.
This thing is very space-worthy.
I've already had three big windstorms, as big as a
tornado, come by and not even touch it.
I'm up here nightly.
Every night.
Oh, except for the time I have a date or two.
Which, lately I've been having a lot of dates, so it's not
too easy watching aliens around here.
When this was built in 1994, the honest truth, I really
never even thought about aliens at any time.
However, five years later in '99, I was looking up in the
sky and I said, why do I have two moons in the sky?
And then I realized one was moving toward me.
And the one I saw looked like a round,
big ball, like bluish.
And that made me, like, seeing is believing, right?
The government, the men in blue, US Marshals have been
here twice.
One time in '99, after I actually saw my UFOs, I just
don't know why, but they came and asked me about it.
So undoubtedly, they must have saw them too.
I play as dumb as I can, knowing nothing about aliens.
And they probably go back to their cars and make out a good
report, says, he's a great guy.
Let's talk to him later.
I said, I want the ugliest safety glasses there is.
It trips every once in a while, so you've got to go
with the trip.
Hey, that's the way the world works, you know?
Sometimes you can keep going, and sometimes you can't.
I built this without any diagram or plan, and that's
one reason why the town of Bowman wouldn't give me a
permit, a license, to run it.
And also, it didn't have the right footing, electrical
wires, and lights hanging all over the place.
It was for attracting aliens, not humans.
And, you know, it's very safe.
In fact, it's been here now over 14 years.
I think it's most stronger than any house.
When I went to apply for my building permit, I also asked
them for an application to become mayor.
I was running as the UFO Man on the ballot
for mayor three times.
I went there around to the back streets, the back streets
where maybe drug alleys are at, crackheads, you know,
trying to solicit votes.
So, they'd always get together with their friends, talk about
me, and pass the word.
JEDD THOMAS: Drug addicts are not probably the most reliable
people to try and canvas for elections.
JODY PENDARVIS: Maybe that's why I only got, like, 41 votes
altogether.
Oh, one was mine.
I counted on my fingers how many I ought to get, and I
should have got, like, 115.
I was wrong all three times.
So, I'm finished with politics.
So there.
I'm putting it up.
No more mayor.
So, that's a thing of the history, OK?
Gone.
Now I'm just a nut with a UFO welcome center.
JEDD THOMAS: How do I put this in a polite way?
Did you get a lot of pussy when you were
trying to be mayor?
JODY PENDARVIS: That's not too much.
No, actually, women never did flock around me when I was
running for mayor.
It's only after I became a dirty old man.
-What?
JODY PENDARVIS: Hi there, sweetheart.
Good to see you today.
-You, too.
JODY PENDARVIS: Yeah.
-Yeah.
What about later?
JODY PENDARVIS: Let me check the radar out and see if
anybody else is going to land, OK?
-OK.
JODY PENDARVIS: I have seven girls right now.
One might be a crackhead.
One is a hooker.
One's got MS. However, two or three are really great in bed.
If I've learned anything about anything in the last two
years, it's women.
They like sex a lot.
Remember the one through seven?
JEDD THOMAS: Yeah.
JODY PENDARVIS: Ask her what number she is.
JEDD THOMAS: Oh, wait, wait.
I didn't know we can talk about this.
JODY PENDARVIS: Yes.
JEDD THOMAS: We can talk about them one to seven?
What number are you?
-I'm number four, but it's my own fault.
JODY PENDARVIS: Actually, she's number four, but it's
not her own fault.
-I just have to try harder.
JODY PENDARVIS: I like that competition stuff.
She keeps trying to improve, and it makes it better.
Which is better for me.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JODY PENDARVIS: One day, the town of Bowman's going to wake
up and don't see the UFO on top.
Maybe I blasted off.
Oh, he'll be back.
JEDD THOMAS: If you had 10 minutes to grab everything
that you needed, what would you take with you?
JODY PENDARVIS: I would take with me
any girl on the sidewalk.
Come on, baby, let's go.
We got 10 minutes.
It's going now.
Might have one or two other men friends to take with me to
help populate wherever we're going to land.
Because anything can happen when you're crazy.
I might have to go and build some more
bedrooms in here, though.
Here I am.
And now I'm gone.
Goodbye.
Here I go.
Do do do do do do do.
He's gone.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JODY PENDARVIS: Oh, try not and knock that four
by four over, OK?
Easy on that metal, OK?
Just don't fall over the edge.
OK.
You got it.
JEDD THOMAS: We good.
This safe up here?
JODY PENDARVIS: Safe?
Now you guys do know this is a piece of junk, right?
JEDD THOMAS: That is amazing.
I love it.
JODY PENDARVIS: Yeah, right.