Butterfly Story-Time for Rachel?

[Butterfly Man]

The kid

I have a friend. His name is Tripp. Like the rest of us, Tripp has a birth certificate, a social security number, a driver's license and a passport. But, unlike you or me, Tripp doesn’t exist. Oh, his documentation is real enough, but he isn’t. He was created by a magician.

Allow me to explain.

In the late '70's, I worked on the street at Pier 39 in San Francisco. These were the "golden days" of street performing. A guy who also worked the wharf went by the name of "Fast Eddie". Fast Eddie did quick sleights and sight gags for passerby’s. He had taken this new young magician under his wing, but couldn’t give the kid a place to crash, so he asked if I could help. I had an extra room in my place in the Haight, so I said "OK".

I must admit I didn't pay much attention to this particular kid when we first met. He hustled outside the Anchorage Shopping Center in San Francisco on Jefferson St. while I was the big dog at Pier 39. We really didn't belong together. His appearance was nondescript; mine, quite outlandish. His manner unassuming, mine, arrogantly obnoxious. To me, the kid was just a beginner, while I, of course, was the semi-famous Butterfly Man.

Like I said, I never paid any attention to this kid even though he lived in my place for quite awhile. I spent most of my time doing excellent drugs and fucking hot women when I wasn't performing. Why did I want to talk to some punk magician anyway? He just came and went from my place, most of the time I didn't even notice if he was there or not.

Then one day when three famous magicians showed up at my house to visit. They were Pat Hazell, Jeff McBride and the guy who wrote the “book” on coin magic, David Roth. I hope you know these guys 'cause I don't want to explain how "big" they were in the world of magic.

So this kid walks into my front room while we were talking and starts doing card tricks!!!

"Jesus!” I thought to myself, "this kid is going to embarrass the fuck out of himself once he finds out who these guys are. "Fuckin' card tricks", I thought, "this is gonna be ugly".

But, surprise, surprise, the three professionals were paying rapt attention to what this kid was doing. They seemed to be amazed at his every move. I had no idea what was going on but all of them were going ga ga over his tricks.

After they left, I asked this kid what he had done and he said he knew exactly who those three magicians were. He said he did tricks that only magicians would be able understand … sort of magic for magicians. I didn't see any difference but apparently Pat, Jeff and David had, they were amazed at his technique. From that moment, I started to notice this kid.

The following day the kid asked me if I would like to go to Adam Fleisher’s 1st New York symposium of Magic in Los Angeles (go figure). I said, "Yes" when he said he'd pay for the gas.

We drove all the way down in my high top VW van … he told me to bring along a tuxedo, but didn't tell me why.

When we arrived, he said he'd wait in the van until I registered and then he'd buy me breakfast … I was curious, but I did what he asked.

When I returned, he took me to Denny's where he ordered me the cheapest breakfast on the menu. He asked to see all the badges and passes I had gotten when I registered. I gave them to him and he opened his briefcase and duplicated everything I had before they came back with my breakfast. Every badge, pass, wristband and every show ticket was just like mine. The convention package had cost me about $250 and he'd gotten the whole shebang for the $2.99 breakfast special at Denny's. This kid was good, real good.

After breakfast we drove back to the convention site and I booked a room in the hotel next-door. The kid asked me my room number and I gave it to him expecting him to ask if he could crash there ... but he never did.

When I returned to my room that evening, the kid followed me back. But instead of asking for floor space, he asked me to stand guard at the end of the hall. Then the kid knelt down in front of the room adjoining mine, pulled out a lock picking kit and proceeded to deftly use a "rake and a torsion bar" to pick the lock … it took him all of 11 seconds. "Jesus", I thought, "who is this fuckin' kid?"

The kid later told me he had called that particular room number periodically during the day (from the house phone) and made sure there was no one there. He said if no one had answered that phone all day then by 11pm the chances were about 90% the room was going to be vacant that evening. "Genius", I thought, "pure genius"!

I kinda lost track of the kid for the next couple of days until the final day of the convention. There was a big finale show with Pat Hazell emceeing and Jeff McBride closing.

I got the show a little late and as I looked throughout the crowd for an open seat I spied the kid. I shit you not ... he was in the VIP section, sitting between DiVernon and Slydini. I humbly stood in the back for the entire show shaking my head in wonderment.

When the show finished, the kid found me and asked me if I wanted to go see Ricky Dunn, the famous pickpocket, perform at The Magic Castle. I nodded, though I knew it was a "members only" place and you had to dress well to get in.

As I drove, the kid pulls a beautiful Italian silk suit out of a garment bag and puts it on. Then as he drove I put on my shabby two-bit tuxedo (sigh).

As we pull up the kid tells me where to park (somewhere in the back of the Castle) and we hop over a small brick wall, weave through some cars and come to a back door. The kid instructs me, “Don't look to the right, don't look to the left, just go straight to the top of the stairs, push open the door and walk in. I did as I was told, except I did look to the side as I was going up the stairs and I saw some guys washing dishes … but I didn't stop … the dishwashers never even looked our way.

I was shocked as I walked through the door to see all the people. All of a sudden I'm on the third floor of the Magic Castle with well-dressed people all around me.

I freak a bit when I spy a cocktail waitress staring at me with her mouth open. I turn around for a second and see the kid right behind me but there is no door behind him. The waitress had just seen the two of us walk through a blank wall.

I walk straight up to the waitress and boldly ask, “Could you please tell me where Ricky Dunn is performing, please?”

She looks me and then up at my black beret and then back at the kid and asks, “Are you the police?”

My heat beating audibly, I say, “Ma'am, just tell us where he is.”

She answers, “He'll be performing in there (pointing) in about 10 minutes.”

Then the kid and I make our way to the bar and sit on some stools. The same waitress walks back over to us and says, “Can I get you gentlemen anything?”

I say, “Just coffee for me, thanks.”

After she leaves, the kid leans over and whispers in my ear, “You did that very well.”

I beam with pride.

After one of the most amazing pick pocketing shows I've ever seen, the kid somehow gets us both backstage to meet Ricky Dunn.

For the next 2 hours the kid cajoles, coerces and manipulates Ricky into revealing his patented “5-finger Spandex watch steal”.

I watch amazed as the elderly gentleman gets sweet-talked, coaxed and flattered as the kid wheedles the information out of him. I was both astonished and appalled, in equal measure.

Years later, the kid moved out of my pad and away from San Francisco. However, we stay in touch to this day (30 years later) because he somehow kept a SF address and phone number even though he hasn't lived there for years.

Over these years, I started to find out more and more about him.

[Frisbee]

your stories are the best...

why are they always only for Rachel, I hope you know I read them too.

[le pire]

Why are they only for Pnet?

You can do better...

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Shut up you guys, it'll delay the writing. There isn't much extra room in that old head these days.

[Rachel Peters]

Originally posted by Frisbee

why are they always only for Rachel, I hope you know I read them too.

No. You're not allowed.
Close your eyes.

[Butterfly Man]

you're kidding me!

It had been about three years since I had heard from the kid. I had moved several times and never expected to hear from him again.

But early one morning, outside my new pad in Bernal Heights, I noticed a 240Z parked in my driveway. I stumbled outside to find the kid fast asleep in the driver’s seat. In his hands were clutching 6 antique silver dollars that were all soldered together.

I knew the kid had gone back to Colorado to live with his dad but apparently SF had been so lucrative for him (walk-around gigs) that he pretended to be still living as a local. The kid had gotten a mail drop and a local phone number that he checked daily. When he booked something he’d drive from Denver to SF to do the gig! Damn, I resented a 20 min. drive to Palo Alto!!!

I woke the kid up and invited him in. I asked why he had the coins like that and he said that he did it on purpose every time he drove through Reno because he didn’t want to gamble away those particular coins. Apparently our magician had some weakness as well as strengths.

The kid went on to tell me about how, on this particular trip, his car had broken down in Salt Lake City. Apparently, he had to spend an entire week there waiting on a part to arrive to fix his 240Z. While there, he continued, he had gotten a room across the street from a particular high school that (according to him) had a disproportionate amount of good looking young girls in attendance. So, logically, he decided to enroll as a transferring senior.

Whaaaat?!!, I asked! The kid was twenty-three years old fer Chrissakes … how the fuck was he going to do that? And, fer god’s sake, WHY!?

Apparently, for years, the kid had been creating this alternate identity. Maybe he did it just to see if he could do it I don’t know. Maybe he did it so that someday he’d be able to pull off the BIG ONE … who knows? He already had been born, raised and attended grade school on the east coast, and now was going to finish up high school as a transferring senior. Cheeerist!, I thought, seems like a lot of trouble to go through. But it did make me think … hmmm.

I watched as the kid deftly prepared the “Holmes Boy School” transcript for Tripp, age 17 (Holmes was a fan company). When he finished, it looked impeccable … Jesus; it had a logo and everything! The kid seemed to be able to forge documents as good as those Mission Impossible guys. And he did it all without the Internet or color copiers.

Later that year the kid passed through town again. This time he had the class yearbook in his possession.

Not only did it have his picture as a graduating senior … he even managed to have his picture with the Science Club. Wow, way cool.

So, if you ever feel like you'd like to be somebody else ... even for just a day ... write to 537 Jones St.
San Francisco, CA. 94102

Tell ‘em Frank Abagnale sent you.

[Butterfly Man]

How I Did It by Peter Panic

From Peter Panic...

here is a little story for you- you could do a whole book like this-
you spend some time in show biz you have some funny stories.
ask people to talk about the funniest thing they ever saw. heres mine.

mid 90s saturday night harvard square.
we had done some shows, made some money now it was time to drink some beer.
our local was charlies kitchen but ken the hippie balloon dude was all about pizzaria unos.
'the food at charlies sucks'
yeah, so what we like charlies. later dude.

so we go in, order some beers, look at a menu and start discussing who has the best show.
up the stairs comes a lesbian. and another. and another.
cambridge is pretty liberal, it is no big deal...but they just keep coming.
it is the whole rainbow of lesbianism, short hair, baggy shirts, deisel dykes, femm girls,
they just keep coming up those stairs, maybe 25 in all.
they push some tables together and make themselves at home.
oh well good for them. we order some food, they get some beer, it is another rowdy night in the square. i thought to myself- this is why i like charlies better than unos.

there is a busker at the bar, a guitar player with one leg who i did not know.
the girls get him to play some songs and now they are having a sing-along.
these girls are fun. one of them, a slim young femm girl walks up to airborne dan foley and asks him if he can play hotel california on a guitar. their guy did not know it.
dan says 'i could fake it but your guy is pretty good and this is his moment and, by the way, who ARE you? where are you from?' we did not see this every day.

she says they are a queer performance art collective from san fran called sister spit.
they just came from p-town and they were going to be attending a poetry slam in boston the next day. dans like- thats cool, we are all performers too, jugglers and circus tricks.
she goes back to her seat and we give dan a hard time- i think she likes you dan. maybe you can get her to switch sides. her friends seem to be giving her grief for flirting with the enemy. she comes back over. 'we want to see some tricks' what? 'you guys are performers,
show us some tricks'
we are all like, oh, we just got done working, we're trying to eat here.

sorry about the long set up, this is about to go somewhere.
ken is eating the best meal of his life at unos, jim show jim decided to have an early night and a glass of ginger beer, my girlfriend jenny had meant to meet us but she was asleep at home. now lets meet the hero of this story.

mike smith was not a performer, at least not a pro. ex army ranger, worlds greatest short order cook, ne'er do well who hung out on the pitch and was everyones friend.
natural born ring leader, he becomes the default mc.
he gets up, says ok- lets get this show started. he does a cartwheel, realizes halfway through he does not know how and falls on his ass. no worries, the ball is rolling.

they do an acro balance, bobarino brady does a handstand.
they recite a dramatic poem, i juggle a salt shaker a ketchup bottle and a sugar packet.
they sing a song to guitar and dan balances a chair on his chin. now we are having fun, but still nothing to write a book about.

mike turns to bob elgin, lucky bob, and says- your turn bob, get up and do something.
he does not care about bob but he knows we have to hold up our end.
bob is all like, oh, all my props are in the car, i dont have anything on me. bob is a magician. mike says 'you have to do SOMETHING, what do you need? what if i get you a deck of cards?' bob says 'yeah! yeah, get me a deck of cards. i can do a card trick.'

here we go. i had the cat bird seat for what comes next so listen carefully.
mike gets up. he knows someone in the bar has a deck of cards.
he walks up to the closest lesbian, the meanest, toughest dyke of them all.
dyed hair, tats, peircings, older than the rest. sort of a father figure.
mike- 'excuse me um... miss?'
she looks at him with contempt.
'um, by any chance, do you happen to have a deck of cards?'
she is sitting slouched in her chair, legs spread wide in her leather pants.
her name is lynn breedlove, apparently she is famous.
she says- 'no, i dont have a deck...but i have a dick'
just like that. and she grabs the inside of her leg, about halfway down her thigh.

this escalated very quickly, but no one is really paying attention yet.
mike looks at her. he is thinking- you may look tough, but you were born a woman.
there is no way. so he says-'really?'
she says-'thats right'
he says-' will you show it to me?' he is so sure she is bluffing.
she says 'how about, if i pull it out, how about you suck on it?'
mike is completley crazy, but his 4 aces are about to run into a straight flush.
he says- 'ok.'

lynn breedlove stands up and starts unlacing her leather pants.
mike wears a bridge; he can take out his teeth.
as she pulls out a family size strap on dildo and he gets down on his knees i say-
'mike- take out your teeth' he puts his teeth on the table and- god bless him- he puts that monster in his mouth.

it was like an explosion. it was very powerful. it started at the center with her table and our table and spread very quickly to the bar and the back corners of the room, and it was just...
it was hard to look at. it was like staring at the sun.
it did not last long.
he got to his feet, the girls are roaring, the whole place is going crazy, the roof was going to come off the building.

it was too much. from the back of the room people are calling us faggots and queers and what have you. the lesbians are ready to rumble, they are not afraid of a fight. they told us they get in fights everywhere they go. something very intimidating about all those girls.
there was this pretty blonde girl with a scar on her cheek, she is swinging a chain.
so this puerto rican nitwit pulls a knife, mike backs him into a corner and cools him down.
by then the bar staff and owners have had enough and they kick us all out. so what- time to go anyway.
now we are outside, and the kid with the knife and his buddies are not so tough anymore.
they take off. we are milling around, talking to the girls, they are slapping us on the back,
telling us we are all right even if we are male.

we did not want it to end. i had the party house nearby, so it was up to me to be like- hey,
um you guys want to smoke some pot? lets have a party.
they were like, yeah sure.
i run to a payphone, call jenny, wake her up out of a sound sleep and i am babbling.
'mike smith just gave a blow job to a lesbian in charlies and now they are all coming over to my house!
she said- i'll be right there. and hung up the phone. she was always good to go.
i run into ken on the street. he had already heard. he was on his way to my house.
i just laughed at him. 'how was your dinner kenny boy? what did you have?'

later i remembered to find a deck of cards and hand it to bob.
'lets see that card trick bob. show us what we missed.'
and he did a card trick for us.

there was more- but you get the idea.
cheers,
panic

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Awesome.

[Jim]

Yeah, after years of uneventful post-show meals at Charlie's, I had to pick THAT night to head home early. I heard all about it the next day. Damn.

Mike Smith is truly a legend. He used to take regular midnight leaps from various bridges in Cambridge and Boston into the muddy Charles River. He would say, "You never know how deep the water is going to be when you jump in, so you really have to hit the water prepared for impact." He used to jump out of planes in the army and believed it was possible to survive a fall from any height if you landed and rolled out of it correctly.

Only Mike Smith could simulate a BJ on a lesbian in a rowdy bar and then immediately stand up and singlehandedly diffuse a potential knife fight. What a charmer.

[martin ewen]

That's too good a story not to steal. Off to twist some minds. Peters not a copyright guy anyway.

[Butterfly Man]

Puppeteers are people too...

The Sound of My Hands Talking
The Preliminary Memoirs of Steve Hansen - a.k.a. The Puppet Man

I never much liked puppet shows as a kid. There were, of course, a few exceptions. Notably the television work of Bil Baird, Rufus Rose (The Howdy Doody Show) and a Lettie Connell-Schubert, who had a charming local TV show, entitled Twinkle & George. I have memory of seeing only one Punch show as a kid. I later learned that that was performed by Lettie.

I was introduced to theatre as a young teenager and gravitated to acting. At the age of fourteen, I joined the Vagabond Players; a teen troupe sponsored by the Oakland Recreation Department. One of the leaders was Lettie Connell. Worth note, Frank Oznowicz (Oz) was also a member of that troupe, but I didn’t get to know Frank until years later when I had the opportunity to work with the Muppets.

My first serious involvement with puppets came at Merritt College in Oakland in 1967. As a freshman, I signed up for the only theatre arts course that fit my schedule “Special Drama Techniques Workshop”. I thought it had to do with lighting and stage effects. It was a puppetry and storytelling course. I kept the class. I was intrigued and had nothing to lose. In hind-sight, that’s ironic.

Among other things we had to make one puppet of any type. I made a simple glove puppet. We had the option to create a show with that puppet. I was the only student that did. It was a pretty lame little show, even for 1968, but one thing lead to another and I got paid to perform it, more than once. To a student, this was gold!

I improved that show and created at one or two more. All of sudden I was an expert. I was teaching kids to make and perform puppets. What a great way to meet girls!

I was, at the time, involved with a group of spinners and weavers; more out of interest in working at the Northern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire, a very popular themed event at the time. The real weavers were on to our ploy and encouraged us to find another means to participate in the Ren Faire. I proposed to the producers of the faire, that I create a Punch & Judy for them. They agreed, I did and thus began a very positive relationship that lasted more than six years and included almost two dozen Renaissance Faires, Dickens Christmas Festivals and various other themed events. I managed to find the necessity of including half a dozen friends into the puppet troupe, in order to insure that the performer didn’t get lonely or bored between shows. These were fine times.

I original wrote the script with a backstage person / bottler, to hand me props, make sound effects, and pass the hat with me after the show. At one point, my college room mate criticized the lack of professionalisms in my assistant. I offered him the job and he accepted. His name was Gary Schnell. That creative partnership lasted on and off until 1985. At this juncture, we were college roommates in the Haight-Ashbury and both enrolled in the Theatre Arts Department at San Francisco State College. Does that paint picture of our life style?

We adapted the Ren Faire show to the street. At this time, San Francisco had not yet embraced the tourism promotional value of street performers and finding suitable places to perform was challenging and often involved the police. We were amongst the first street performers to encourage the tourist attractions, like Ghirardelli Square and the Cannery to permit buskers. It took them another three or four years to figure that out, by then I had begun working as a solo and had gone “on the road” in search of adventure, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

This was the late sixties in San Francisco, how could we not be political? The university environment dragged it out of us and permitted it. The Renaissance Faires had a tradition for parody and social commentary. The street was a venue of free expression. We performed as part of many anti-war rallies, university campuses and music festivals. We could do or say anything legal and the audience had no obligation to pay attention or pay money. I often felt that busking was the purest form of free enterprise. If you don’t want to work that day, you don’t, and of course, you don’t get paid. No unemployment benefits and no vacation pay. If the audience doesn’t like you, then you don’t make anything I would point this out in my show, as one of my hat pitches -. “Wouldn’t it be revolutionary if we paid our politicians the way we pay the buskers; that is, based on what we got out of their performance?”

I felt strongly that Punch had always been a form of agitprop political street theatre. Small and compact a street puppeteer could make fast getaway when his welfare depended on it. With all due respect I always felt that the sea-side variety of Punch shows were a refinement that grew out of necessity for puppeteers who were not politically oriented. Sort of like what television did to theatre; semi-sanitized for wider consumption.

In 1972 we had gained some recognition and we’re invited to perform at the Puppeteers of America Festival at Mills College in Oakland. Surprisingly, we were asked to perform in an outdoor venue prior to a performance by Frank Oz as the Coolie Monster. Our show at that iime was definitely street material, clean, but very topical and political. Some people thought it was inappropriate to precede the Cookie Monster. I guess I would have to agree today, but that was not fashion in 1972. Frank and Jim Henson and many others responded enthusiastically to that performance and Jim Henson told me to look him up if I was ever in New York. I later learned that Jim Henson had a clause in his contract that no other puppets could perform on the same show as the Muppets. I can’t help thinking that I had something to do with that.

to be continued...

[Butterfly Man]

early buskers in jolly ol'...

Gary & I were now out of university. We managed to find adequate performance locations to work the streets and college campuses, but both Gary and I still had to work other jobs to make enough to live. It was in late 1972, I became frustrated with the day jobs I was finding and I did not have reliable transportation, or at that point a partner. So I designed a body stage, based on medieval ones I’d seen in puppet books. I was likewise influenced by a popular French walking stage performed, Jean-Paul Hubert, whom I saw at the festival at Mills.

I managed to engineer a body stage that worked fairly well and after months of experimentation on the street, at colleges and festivals in and around San Francisco, I was ready to hit the road. During that time, two of the more notable performances were in the picnic area of the Monterey Jazz Festival, and as a paid contestant on the Gong Show (yes it’s true, many of the acts on the Gong Show were paid AFTRA scale. I guess they couldn’t rely on amateur geeks to keep the show interesting.)

The lure of the itinerant showman soon overwhelmed me and I decided to take Jim Henson up on his offer. I managed to get hired for the summer of 1973 working for Bob and Judy Brown outside of Washington D.C. On the way to D.C., I stopped in NYC to visit Jim Henson. During our meeting we invited me to audition for him. He handed me Rolf the Dog and asked me to improvise. Talk about intimidating. I guess I did OK, because he offered me casual employment after my summer gig with Bob and Judy..

It was a fun summer in D.C., but my West Coast ways got me into more trouble than I was worth, so I left the Brown’s a few weeks earlier than anticipated. I learned a lot from Bob and Judy, and I probably never properly thanked them. Ouch.

To no ones great surprise, I did move right back to New York. I did find casual employment at the Muppets workshop, but more importantly, my one man street show became very popular in New York City. Within the first two weeks I met a reporter from the Associated Press who wrote an in-depth human interest story on me, my show and my seemingly wandering life style. That story was picked up by at least 46 newspapers in the U.S. and other parts of the planet Earth. My relatives in Kansas saw it and it ran in my home town newspaper, the Oakland Tribune!

When I first arrived in New York I was staying with a folk rock band – The Mission Mountain Wood Band - in which a friend from Missoula, Montana was playing. In 1973 I was truly living the rock and roll life style; eight guys sleeping in a three room basement apartment on the Upper East Side.

On days when I could get out of bed before noon, I would perform near Wall Street, Washington Square Park or in Central Park. The band members would often come out to my shows and try to pick up girls in my audience with the line- “Would you like to meet that guy? He’s a friend of mine.” They reciprocated by allowing me to do the same at the clubs they were playing at in the evening. I’d often meet girls that they had met at the puppet show, that same night at the club. For those of you who missed the 1970’s these times were way more wicked than that TV show.

Soon the band went on the road and I found my own place on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, not far from the Bil Baird Theater on Barrow. I spent three and half years based in New York. My experiences could fill a book, but I doubt anyone who read it. I learned a lot about busking from that time in New York. I met celebrities and people who should have been celebrities. I found lots of work in theatre, television, clubs and film; and, oh yes, puppetry.



With New York as a base, I traveled to extensively. My first grand excursion was to England to be a guest performer at the Bankside Punch & Judy festival in Southwark, on the site of the old Globe Theatre. I met and was heartily welcomed by all of the best Punchmen of the time. I will likely embarrass myself by excluding some, but its been over thirty years. I met Percy Press Sr. & Jr, John Alexander; Glyn Edwards; George Speight; John Philpott; Penny Frances,a nd more. I was also hosted during that visit by John & Lindy Wright at the Little Angel Theatre. - ‘twas an amazing experience.

Jay Marshall, who happened to be visiting the festival, arranged for me to perform for the Magic Circle in London. I found camaraderie with other London Buskers and I took second place at the London Buskers Festival at Camden Lock Market. I also performed at the Variety Club of Britain, and at the classic pitches in Covent Garden and Hyde Park.

I subsequently returned to Great Britain five or six more times, performing through out the country at festivals, theatres art centres and popular busking sites; although I never made it to the seaside. I did, however, later meet, and become friends with, John Styles. I love his show.

[Butterfly Man]

I can see the strings

After returning from that first trip to Britain I found winter work in television and film, plus I was involved in a variety of projects including shop and manipulation work with the Muppets and some projects with Wayland Flowers. I got to know Marty Robinson, an early Muppet performer who was working on the early stages of “Little Shop of Horrors.” I find myself more attracted to the type of puppetry in that show and I do to tradition styles. However, the majority of my performing career was in a more conventional style of puppet. In 1886 I had the opportunity to perform Little Shop in Orlando. It was the one of the most enjoyable stage experiences of my life. But I digress.

What a great time to live in the Big Apple. As a matter of fact, I knew performers form San Francisco who were working in The Big Apple Circus at Battery Park. The streets of New York have always been a zoo, but during those years there was some amazing, bizarre, extraordinary, whatever street theatre in New York City. It was very exciting to be a part of that.

I worked many locations in Manhattan trying to find the places to gatherer the largest crowd and not piss off the cops, security guards or drug addicts. Actually the city cops where much cooler than the building security in the Wall Street area. City cops like the diversion. Security cops do not want the crowds.

It didn’t take long to establish some regular spots in the city. The fountain at Central Park across from the Plaza Hotel was my favorite. I saw and met many well know people working in this location. Ed Sullivan, most notably, used to bring his grandchildren to watch the show on their way to lunch at the Plaza. I hoped to catch him sometime to see if would write me a letter of recommendation; but he was always gone at the end of the show.

I met many famous and wacky people performing in the street. Bud Friedman, the owner of The Improv Comedy Clubs saw me many times. He offered me a spot on open mic night, but I was leery of performing in clubs. I had tried it and it didn’t work.

I should mention that during the time I worked in the Muppet shop, I was building part of things. Things I called “stuff” also known as puppet parts and props, and other stuff. I was a stuffmaker. I often got to work with Kermit Love (Big Bird’s caretaker) for “Foz” Franz Fazekas, the electronic and gadget genius. I would help transport puppets, props and effects to the studio on some days and I was able to hang out and help on the sound stage. It was very genial creative place. I got to know quiet a few of the cast & crew. But I never had the opportunity to operate any puppets on that show. One day when I was working on the Sesame Street set, I met Pete Seeger. Pete took great interest in my one man walking stage. He was familiar with the style and became quite interested to see it and to share this rare person with his friends.

He tried to get me onto the Sesame Street as a guest performer, well, I was a street performer. But it was refused. That’s when I learned about Jim’s exclusive puppet arrangement on Sesame Street.

I became good friends with Pete Seeger. As a political activist he was a super star. I traveled down the Hudson River with him and others on the restored river slop “The Clearwater”. We were selling pumpkins and performing show along the river to help raise money to clean up the Hudson River.

Through my street show, I met and became friends with actor Paul Dooley, a very recognizable character actor. Paul introduced me to Jerry Stiller and Ann Merra, who were organizing a block party in their neighborhood in the west 70’s. The show day was great fun. The Stiller’s were very fun, funny & appreciative people. I am sure that little Ben must have been in the audience that day. What have I done?

One Saturday in Washington Square Park I met a young woman who was very friendly. I thought I might be getting lucky. Well, I was but in different way. She told me that her boy friend was a drummer in show called “National Lampoon’s - Lemmings” a parody of Woodstock playing at the Village Gate Theatre.

That show ensemble which would become key players who made up some of the original cast and writers of Saturday Night Live - Including Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Christopher Guest. I got to see the show and meet the cast. The show wasn’t terribly clever and backstage the cast was pretty unexciting. They were friendly, but explicitly self-absorbed.

[Butterfly Man]

If you remember you US history, our leader Richard M. Nixon was getting into heap of trouble related to an illegal break-in at the Watergate hotel in DC. It really wasn’t all that big of a deal, when you consider what politicians today get away with it, but it did create a never-ending fountain of comedy material for us street performers; especially for one who specialized in topical humor. Them was the were golden days.

In college I had made a Richard Nixon puppet for a 15 second political satire show which I created for a performance assignment. Uncle Dickey had been seen form time to time in my Punch and Judy show as Punch’s lawyer. Once Watergate became front page headlines, people could wait to hear what Nixon was going to say in the puppet show. When he finally resigned, I was quoted as saying – “you only lost a president. I’ve lost an ACT!”

Nixon got me lots of attention. Newsweek magazine mentioned me. New York Magazine did a feature including a select few street performers. I received an award from the Municipal Arts Society, presented by Jackie Onassis and Joseph Papp. I performed at the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art and for alternate theater festivals in Lincoln Centre. The Village Voice even reviewed my show.

One day wile performing in Washington Square Park, I was approached by nice couple who had watched my show; I thought they were missionary Mormons coming to save me from myself. They identified themselves as being from a group called The Street Life Project (now know as the Project for Public Spaces) that was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. They told me that they had been watching me for some time and wanted me to help them with their experiment. This was to study how people naturally use outdoor space in urban settings. They had camera in second and three story windows all over Manhattan taking time laps films of people meeting and talking on the street, maneuvering around obstacles, sitting in the sunshine, eating their lunches, and watching street entertainers. I spent several months as one of their study elements and saw much of their research reports. The group became an advocacy group for public space and have consulted my cities and developers.. Fascinating.

Towards the end of my time in NY I was offered employment at the Bil Baird Theater. I was prepared to move back to California but the chance to work for Bil was too much to pass up.

A few thoughts on Bil – Although I was not a big fan of puppets as a kid, I did know of Bil Baird and I liked his style. I really thought that Bill was more of kinetic artist that a “puppeteer” Many years ago I saw an extensive exhibit of Alexander Calder’s work. I was certain that he and Bill must have known each other. Peter Baird later told that they had not and I assume it was coincidental and r reflection of the style of the period.

I learned a lot about building and puppet staging working with Bil. I was great to work in a dedicated theatre. Bil knew many famous people. Through him I met Mary Rogers (daughter of Richard Rogers), Hack Gilford, Sheldon Harnick, and Leonard Bernstein. Bette Midler lived across the street on Barrow. She was s\yet to become a big star. However, the most amazing experience I had working for Bil was while on tour in Bair’s Pinocchio and working to black theater segment. I have vivid recollections of being in full view of the audience and being invisible

I think that big may have had the greatest influence on my career as a puppeteer. I became aware that Bil and I had very similar temperaments. I think he perceived that too. We became close early on in our relationship.

Bil’s son Peter and I became close friends and worked on a number of projects together. One was to restage and film all of the old Baird shows for archive and library sales. Peter managed to restage Davy Jones Locker which I unfortunately was not able to be a part of. Since Peter had passed away, I can only assume that any chance of recording those shows is unlikely.

I managed to last in New York for a total of three and half years - from September 1973 to June 1977.
When I first arrived in New York, my friends advised me that “Everyday you will see something that will blow your mind; when you get used to seeing it, its time to go.” So, I left...

[Butterfly Man]

In the summer of 1977 I moved back to the Bay Area. I was fortunate to sub-lease and later acquired the lease on a loft space in an artist community in Emeryville in the East Bay. Emeryville was an industrial and manufacturing area north east of Oakland. Pixar Studios now occupies a huge section of Emeryville mere blocks from my former studio.

For the next six years my studio in Emeryville became my home base, workshop and base of operations which kept me on the road 7 - 8 months of the year. The loft/studio was affectionately known as The Factory View Diner for a black and white and chrome 1950’s era diner booth, which made up the center of the kitchen area (if you could call it that) of my industrial loft. The pin ball machine in the corner had some influence, as well, in the naming.

The network of art and entertainment marketing is effective and one successful festival performance or workshop spawned another two. At one point I hired an acquaintance to manage my business affairs while I was away. The irony of “while the cat’s away” came true once while I was away. My business manager ended up falling in love and marrying my performance partner, Gary. He now had his own solo show and since I was away a lot, he took most of those bookings. It became awkward, so she resigned, so she could work for Gary and we could all remain friends. That worked.

At this point in time I relied very little on busking to make a living. Most of the venues in which I could work would often pay small fee and allow you to perform for your hat as well; seeing as my hat lines were some of my best material. I didn’t want to stop. In all honesty at this point my fees were sufficient that passing the hat added little to the bottom line.

By this time my venues ranged from art, theater and children’s festivals, art centers, city markets, museums, night clubs, coffeehouses, agricultural expositions and even two prisons. I had added two new shows to my walking stage repertoire – The Frog Prints – a fractured fairytale version of the traditional story in which the arrogant prince gets turned into a frog, but the kiss from the selfish princess fails to cure him, his hip “Froggy Godmother rescues him with the wisdom – “Be careful what you wish for you, baby, just might get it.””

The second was a parody of Little Rider Ridinghood, entitled “The Rise and Fall of the Entire Human Race.” This was billed an “Adult Show” – only because the storyline was too convoluted and some of the references were over the kids head’s Frankly, most of my shows were like that, but whatever sells.

It was a parody of troupe of amateur puppet actors creating the epic of all time, however for some reason it just comes out as a dysfunction attempted at staging Red Ridinghood. If featured a has-been wolf actor; a very determined child actress; her medicated grandmother; an wandering Hari Krishna; an Alien creature from the planet Uranus; and a frenetic stage hand, Manny, played by a work glove. The 45 minute show was often followed by a stand-alone comic bit “Your Teddy Bear.” It is a routine in which I am in full view of the audience holding a charming talking teddy bear character, who reminisces with the listen about their relationship and how it ended. It is a bitter sweet routine with lots of sexual innuendo and a very strong punchline “So, who’re you sleeping with NOW?” It was never unsuccessful. After performing the bit at the wrap party for “Raider of the Lost Ark”, Steve Spielberg admitted to me he had had two teddy bears! I said, “… it shows.”

The north eastern folk music festival circuit became a very rewarding mainstay of my performing during the mid and late 70’s. It was an excellent audience for my act. Although I was generally considered a children’s act, I often had far more youthful adults in the audience; appreciative of social and political satire. I often crossed paths with Pete Seeger and always a pleasure to see him.

I also had an opportunity to work Australia through the support to Richard Bradshaw, whom I had met at the puppet festival at Mills College. Along with performing at festivals in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne; and some school touring “beyond the black stump.” I wrote and produced a puppet stage production for Richard’s puppet company at the Elizabethan Theater Trust in Sydney. A small concert hall at the Sydney Opera House was the venue for “Jack and the Bean Stalk that Conquered the World”; a parody of old monster movies and admittedly, I was influenced by “Little Shop of Horrors”, as well. To create the effect of the beanstalk becoming larger, the human puppets became progressively smaller with each scene, while the plant puppet grew. In the final act, the monster was an actor in a foam rubber costume ravaging a foam rubber city (Sydney). Let’s just say that it wasn’t high art.