It was quite a thrill for Thrillpeddlers last Friday night when John Waters came the Hypnodrome to see “Pearls Over Shanghai.” The visit was planned well in advance and I could feel our excitement mounting from the moment we heard the news last November that he was all set to come on January 8th. The performance went wonderfully well and he and his guests stayed late into the night for our “Afterglow Floorshow,” a new revue of production numbers from other Cockettes musicals we’ve developed for The Cockettes 40th anniversary.
Mr. Waters lives in San Francisco part-time now, but in The Cockettes heyday in the early 70s he was a full time San Franciscan along with Divine and Mink Stole, who were members of The Cockettes and rising Waters cult stars. His interview in The Cockettes documentary joyously recalls those pre-Pink Flamingo days. He said his night at The Hypnodrome gave him plenty of flashbacks and some new visions as well.
When I was 14, seeing “Pink Flamingos” at The Bijou Theatre in Kansas City changed my life. It was so homemade, filthy, audacious … opulent. I walked out into the sun light (yes, I saw a matinee!) utterly dazed and delighted. As I came to realize that he’d gathered a stock company of freaks to make movies with him at “Dreamland Studios” in Baltimore, I got the idea that I’d like to someday assemble a company of my own. Since Thrillpeddlers earliest days, I’ve aspired to do just that and to tap in to what makes John Waters work so evocative and engaging for me. PEARLS is a perfect example of how his influence plays on me. Performing it for him is a night I’ll never forget.
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Thrillpeddlers are proud to announce the first production of their 2009 season, “Audacious Artefacts: Parisian Grand Guignol,” which will include four terror plays and sex farces from the repertory of the famed Parisian Théâtre du Grand Guignol. The show will be presented on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., March 12 through May 2, at Thrillpeddlers’ Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco.
“The Head Hunters,” a late entry into the genre from 1958, concerns the disappearance of ethnologist Philippe Roujan into the jungles of French Guiana with only an escapee from Devil’s Island as his guide. Alarmed and concerned about his uncertain fate, the young man’s father and fiancée travel from Paris to Amazonia, guided only by the girl’s unfaltering belief in the questionable science of Radiesthesia, a method of locating the missing man through psychic means. Among the formidable obstacles they encounter are a ferocious tribe of headhunters, poison arrows, cannibalism, foul venomous beasts, and the oppressive sights, sounds, and sensations of the South American jungle.
“Private Room Number 6,” a revenge drama from 1907 along the lines of Death and the Maiden, takes place back in Paris at the Rat Mort, a celebrated nightspot with a shady reputation. A sadistic, dipsomaniacal Russian general gets more than he bargained for when he invites a young “working girl” from the Rue de la Paix for a midnight liaison in one of the notorious brothel’s private dining rooms.
“Tics, or Doing the Deed,” from 1906, is a sex farce that draws its humor from a very peculiar premise. Two country gentlemen involved in a bit of illicit wife-swapping, as well as a hapless male domestic, all develop peculiar physical tics after “doing the deed.” An episode of unbridled hilarity ensues, as only the French could envision.
Fleshing out the program will be “The Discipline,” a morsel of eighteenth-century erotica involving two young Catholic novices and the convent gardener, which will feature the Thrillpeddlers’ first-ever erotic spookshow. Due to the adult nature of this presentation, absolutely no one under the age of eighteen will be admitted.
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Continuing our series of White Hot ‘N’ Warped cinema, Dead Channels brings us the mind-bogglingly awful B-grade (D-grade?) sexploitation shocker She Freak. This 1967 “update” of Tod Browning’s 1932 classic Freaks was directed by Byron Mabe and written by David F. Friedman (best known as the producer Herschell Gordon Lewis’ seminal gore films 2000 Maniacs and Blood Feast).
Claire Brennen stars as Jade Cochran, a waitress who leaves the greasy-spoon diner business for the glamour and excitement of the carnival (?!), but soon discovers that she despises the freaks and human oddities of the sideshow. As the poster screams, “Behind the tents and tinsel of the monster midway, something barbaric occurs on the Alley of Nightmares” and Jade learns a lesson we know all too well… never cross a circus freak.
The screening starts at 7:30pm on Wednesday, July 9th at the Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco – Map. Tickets are only $5 and can be purchased online at Brown Paper Tickets or at the door on the night of the show.
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Last week Thrillpeddlers enjoyed the height of serendipity with the fabulous Cockettes. That Thrillpeddlers embrace the spirit of San Francisco’s legendary psychedelic drag ensemble is no surprise. The group was part of a late-60s/early-70s bi-coastal queer hippie performing arts clique that included Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company and John Waters’ Dreamland Studios. Their work would eventually bring high camp to pop culture influencing Bette Midler, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, The Muppets, Alice Cooper, The Rocky Horror Show, and countless other acts and entertainers that captured my imagination as a kid and continue to color my work in the theatre to this day. When I recently asked Jet, a Cockette and later a member of the offshoot group The Angels of Light, to tell an audience “Who were The Angels of Light?” he replied “We are your ancestors.”
My mi casa es su casa invitation to the Cockettes has brought them trooping through the Hypnodrome’s door leaving a trail of glitter and grins in their wake. What a wondrous blessing! That said, I still can’t quite believe the incredible week that was because Sweet Pam, Rumi Missabu and big-hearted Fayette Hauser are en Hypnodrome. This morning Pam emailed me this photograph of her. Thrillpeddler Mel Gordon snapped it years ago in New York when Pam was performing The Palm Casino Review.
And so to events of last week. On Sunday, Hypnodrome played host to Rumi’s revival of his beloved Camaraderie Art Salon. Dubbed “A Cocktail of Glamour & Anarchy“, the bill included Thrillpeddlers’ “Blue Hour” acts “The Lonely Doll” and Simone Corday’s “Night Manager” along with acts from Camaraderie Art’s outrageous coterie of performers. Cockette Pam Tent a.k.a. Sweet Pam read from her memoir “Midnight at the Palace”, Tahara and Jet a.k.a. Jilala made their first visit to the ‘drome and Jim dressed in glam hag drag for the very first time (and was mistaken for Rumi more than once!).
Fayetta and I spent the whole week scheming about her costume design for Thrillpeddlers’ revival of playwright/performer Charles Busch’s Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium and we accepted Charles’ invitation to see his new production of Shanghai Moon in Sag Harbor, New York next month.
On Friday, Sweet Pam and I joined Daniel Zilber and his wife Adrien to take advantage of tix Fayette had scored for us to see the extraordinary vocal group The Manhattan Transfer (her brother Tim Hauser just happens to be a founding member of the group). It’s been over a quarter of a century since Daniel and I saw them perform at the Starlight Amphitheatre in our hometown of Kansas City. Those many years ago singer Alan Paul ripped a wife-beater t-shirt off his chest after singing “Gloria” and tossed to me, then a fifteen year old boy who’d sneaked into a vacated front row seat for their encore. Needless to say, Alan was blown away on Friday when I pulled the remains of that T-shirt out of my pocket and asked him to autograph it. See the photo to get an idea of his surprise and horror.
The night was a little bittersweet, since it was the first time I’d ever been absent from a Hypnodrome performance. Had it not held such promise for all, I never would have headed for the concert. By all reports, the gang at the Hypnodrome did me proud.
With this much to tell about a week at home, I wonder what adventures are in store when Jim and I head off to New York on June 1st to take part in honoring the Cockettes and performing a little Grand Guignol in an east coast installment of “A Cocktail of Glamour & Anarchy.” Stay tuned…
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The SF Weekly published critic Chloe Veltman’s formal review of our show “Flaming Sin: London’s Grand Guignol” this week (we’ve previously linked to her blog post about the show). Her review is the kind of thoughtful, in-depth look at our work that’s been all too rare over the years. While we certainly have fans among the city’s critics, and have received many glowing notices, it’s always nice when someone recognizes that there’s more to what we do besides blood and cheap thrills (not that there’s anything wrong with blood and cheap thrills).
From the review:
]]>Yet as formulaic and tame as Grand Guignol programs seem by today’s standards, a trip to the Hypnodrome to experience Thrillpeddlers’ latest — and perhaps greatest — foray into the genre, FLAMING SIN: London’s Grand Guignol, will fricassee your emotions and play tricks with your mind… Blending compact writing, fast-paced direction, and nuanced performances, Thrillpeddlers’ salacious evening of out-there entertainment does nothing if not dispel the common belief that Grand Guignol theater is an outmoded form, of marginal interest to anyone but horror history enthusiasts and academics. To borrow Dr. Frankenstein’s famous assertion: “It’s alive.”
February 12-17, 2008
Tuesday – Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 7:00 PM
At THE HYPNODROME
575 10th St.
(between Bryant and Division)
San Francisco, California [MAP]
Tickets: $20 general admission; $69 for SHOCK BOX seats (admits two).
Click Here to Buy Tickets or call 1-800-838-3006
With a diabolical nod to Valentine’s (and Presidents) Day, Thrillpeddlers presents a week-long line-up of live music and theatre, exquisite torture and expert testimony that all dare to touch the taboos that haunt these holidays. “Lovers and Other Monsters” celebrates the return of award-winning noir chanteuse Jill Tracy and acclaimed Atlanta violinist Paul Mercer (Faith and the Muse/The Changelings/DP3) back to The Hypnodrome stage, in concert and … each taking a leading role in a new dramatic work from Thrillpeddlers.
The rotating bill of scintillating (and sinister) entertainments also features V. Vale, founder and editor of Re/Search Publications conducting on stage interviews with industrial music maverick Monte Cazazza (on Friday, 2/15) and media prankster and Dead Kennedys founding front man Jello Biafra (on Saturday, 2/16), Thrillpeddlers previews new acts for 2008 and proudly debuts their latest collaboration with Creepshow Camp.
The Hypnodrome has got the perfect perch for Valentine couples our private Shock Box seats for two put a spookier spin on the old Parisian perk offering paramours a lodge-grille, the private trysting booths where you can see the show, but the show cant see you!. Our variation takes it to extremes! Each box boasts its own custom built special effects (a nod to the spooky gimmicks of director William Castle and the methods of fake spiritualists) and themed decor worthy of a haunted Madonna Inn.
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Young devotees of Horror, Sci-Fi and Suspense have a summer camp to call their own! Creepshow Camps face “fright” with curiosity and creativity, revealing the secret techniques behind scary entertainments’ vitality and power. Workshops led by our dedicated staff of teaching artists engage participants, hands-on, in activities that teach and reinforce the fundamental skills of monster make-up, special effects, sleight of hand and stage combat. Campers will screen classic horror movies and rehearse on-stage at The Hypnodrome for a farewell performance given for family and friends at the end of every Creepshow Camp session.
Now Enrolling Kids Age 9 – 14 for both weekend and weekday day camp programs.
Click Here to Enroll Online or call Russell Blackwood at 415-377-4202 for more details!
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