At Tompkins Square Park:

• Saturday 9/6, 5:00pm – “Pearls Over Shanghai”

At The Theaters At 45 Bleeker Street:

• Saturday 9/6, 9:00pm – “Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium” by Charles Busch + Blue Hour Variety Acts.
• Sunday 9/7, 8:00pm – “Pearls over Shanghai” and Charles Ludlam’s “Jack and the BeanStalk.”
• Tuesday 9/9, 8:00pm – “Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium” by Charles Busch + Blue Hour Variety Acts.
• Wednesday 9/10, 8:00pm – “Pearls over Shanghai” and Charles Ludlam’s “Jack and the BeanStalk.”

It’s going to be a crazy week. We hope to see a lot of our NY friends and fans. Stop by and say hi.

[Howl Festival Website]

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…

If you’re not in San Francisco, you can listen live via the KALW website (Windows Media and RealAudio only).

As the April 1st release date nears, the first reviews of Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd DVD are starting to hit the web. Why do we care? Thrillpeddlers are featured in the documentary Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition included on the 2-disc collector’s edition. It looks like the DVD producers did an excellent job of lining up some truly interesting bonus features, and it’s great to see that they’re getting some good press.

This from Fangoria:

Disc two includes a fine collection of featurettes that cover specific elements of the SWEENEY production, as well as the tale’s background. The latter are actually of the greatest interest, as Sweeney’s London takes a look at the squalid side of the city’s history, along the way revealing the gruesome origins of the traditional barber pole, while Sweeney Alive: The Real History of the Demon Barber chronicles the character through historian and author interviews and vintage illustrations. (It’s pointed out here that the villain was partially inspired by 16th-century Scottish cannibal Sawney Bean, who also influenced THE HILLS HAVE EYES and other contemporary chillers, and that the flesheating which some might find SWEENEY’s most shocking element was actually a staple of many traditional fairy tales.) Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition takes a fascinating look at the famous French showcase for onstage gore, noting its origins as “naturalist” drama, its influence on early Hollywood fright fare and how it fell out of favor in the wake of the horrors of WWII.

Can’t wait to see it (and find out if any of my interview made it into the final cut). I’ll post a full write-up on the Grand Guignol featurette as soon as my copy arrives.

You can order the two-disc collector’s edition from Amazon for only $22.99 ($12 off). So what are you waiting for?

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.

On Saturday June 2nd we bid adieu to Hypnodrome Head Trips. Bittersweet as it was to say goodbye to the Head Trips company, fans and our favorite roles, I couldn’t have asked for a better closing night performance and party. We had a full house that included some very special folks. My Dad, Jim Blackwood, is in town for a month from Santa Fe and we’re doing a complete overhaul on the Shock Box seats (look for a feature story in September’s Stage Directions magazine). Shock Box progenitor and dear friend, Dan Corr, paid his respects twice in a row and gave us a gorgeous poster from a flick called Two for the Guillotine starring Connie Stevens and Caesar Romero. Logging nine performances since the Valentine’s Day preview, our good friends Susan and Geoff took one last Trip with us.

Enhancing the thrill of it all was having Jello Biafra and his girlfriend Anne Marie sitting in the front row for the show and merrymaking with us until the wee hours. Anyone who thrashed through their youth to the music of The Dead Kennedys knows what a treat it was to have him there. I was delighted to see that our crew, Gonzo, T.J. and Will (all roughly twenty years Jim and my juniors), were as excited to sing Bohemian Rhapsody with Jello as we were!

Jello loves Chick Tracts! He counts Jack Chick as his favorite cartoonist. His favorite, Bewitched, was a mainstay of our Chick Habit repertoire. Jello attended our first production, Welcome to the Hypnodrome, and he was quick to comment on how far we’ve come in the past three years working non-stop at the drome.

Since closing the show, we’ve been busy. The Shock Boxes are stripped to the bone (the Egyptian Tomb themed box is alraedy taking shape). We’re also hard at work on preparing for the Creepshow Camps, hosting a co-production for the San Francisco Festival of Fantastic Films with Dead Channels, planning our 4th Bastille Day event with SFPALM, and getting a revised Empress of Colma tour ready for Burning Man. What a Summer!

Thrillpeddler Will Freitas scored a donation of two bottles of absinthe which he ably prepared and passed around to the audience. I tell ya, absinthe is strong! Will demonstrated two methods of preparing it to drink. Both with ice water, slotted spoon and sugar cubes, but only one that set the whole thing ablaze. As our guest of honor, Jonathan was given the flaming drink. His report, “Even stronger than the first one!”

If you’d like to hear about other special events at The Hypnodrome before they happen, sign up to receive our email newsletter on this site. Coming in June – Grand Guignol and Weimar Berlin historian Mel Gordon hosts the rarely seen English version of The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich and the premiere of dances re-created from Weimar’s cabarets with dancer/actress Bijou O’Keefe. Heir Ists Richtig!

It came as no surprise to Thrillpeddler Heidi Wolff that spirit orbs appeared both on stage and off during a behind the scenes interpretive dance she shared with Head Trips cast members during Friday night’s performance of John Zorn’s Cobra. Miss Wolff has fed her mediumistic talents and love of “the dance” since she was just a small girl. The sprightly spheres of other-worldly energy appear distinctly in these photos on my partner Jim’s computer screen, but when I viewed the self-same photographs on my computer, they had disappeared. It’s as if the spirits knew I would expose them on my blog. Oh, my!

Spirit manifestations are becoming more common at the Hypnodrome these days. Be sure to let us know if you experience any supernatural phenomena while visiting our theater.

Maddin is in town as a guest of honor for the 50th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival. On Monday, May 7th his film Brand Upon the Brain! will dominate The Castro Theatre. Check out this blurb from the Castro’s website and see if you can resist it:

May 7, 8:00 PM
Brand Upon the Brain!
Guy Maddin, USA/Canada, 2006, 95 minutes
SFIFF favorite Maddin’s faux-autobiographical masterwork mines the rich territories of his youth and spins them into a fantasy of familial discontent. The film’s original score will be performed live by a 13-piece ensemble, with foley artists, a benshi-like narrator and a “castrato” adding to the fun.