Tom Murrin Alien Comic Theater Festival @ LaMama
To coincide with this wonderful festival currently at LaMama I am posting a 2 Part interview I did with Tom Murrin / Alien Comic on Oct 10,2008
Part 1 was shown at the LaMama Club ‘Coffeehouse Chronicles #119 – Tom Murrin aka Alien Comic’. April 19, 2014.
The panel discussion included (lft to Rgt) John Vaccaro, Michael Arian, moderator Sarah Maxfield, Patricia Sullivan, Jo Andres, John Gernand and John Jesurun.
I wanted to post these for all of Tom’s fans who weren’t able to attend the wonderful panel discussion.
Part 1
Part 2
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
For information/tickets for the festival go here.
Bill Schaffner talks about his beginning work as a stage manager in California to working with Tom Murrin (Alien Comic) and the Full Moon Show in New York.
The Tommy Award has been established to honor Tom Murrin’s life & work by offering a transformative career opportunity to an outstanding artist or company.
Uncle Jimmy’s Dirty Basement supplied the rockin music for the evening.
Performanz artist Pat Oleszko host the toast to Tom Murrin.
Dixon Place founder and Artistic director Ellie Covan opens the night with a nice talk about Tom.
Mat Fraser and Julie Atlas Muz add spice to the evening’s festivities.
Patricia Sullivan talks about her first meeting Tom.
Tommy Award Winning group ANIMALS video is projected.
Ellie Covan introduced me and I got up and took this photograph of the audience.
Pat Oleszko talks about the award she designed for the event.
Jo Andres and Steve Buscemi present the award to ANIMALS.
ANIMALS performance group. (l. to r. Michael De Angelis, Nikki Calonge, and Mike Mikos)
Elated about this TOMMY award the ANIMALS group express it.
Uncle Jimmy’s Dirty Basement finishes the night off.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Video interview with ANIMALS on Vaudevisuals here.
Saturday night was the second of a two night celebration of performance artist Tom Murrin (aka Alien Comic) presented at the gorgeous Abrons Arts Center in the Lower East Side.
Bringing together a cast of Felliniesque performers including Annie Lanzillotto and Heather Lewerenz was Salley May.
Salley May and Pedro J. Rosado Jr.
Another wild scene from the Salley May piece.
Salley May (with Heather Lewerenz) gathering up her lost possessions.
Summoning the spirit of Ellen Stewart (played by Agosto Machado) who spoke so kindly of the people continuing the work she started.
Tom Murrin (l) and cast from the Full Moon show celebrating the Finale of the show with candles and cupcakes
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .
COMMENTS
FULL MOON CREW HISTORY
BY
TOM MURRIN/ALIEN COMIC
I started doing shows every full moon in Seattle in 1974. These were comic ritual salutes to Luna Macaroona, the moon goddess, and over the years I’ve done them all over the world, at the entrance to the Star Ferry on Hong Kong, outside Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, and in a public park in Bombay, India. And I still do them wherever I happen to be.
In the early ‘80’s I met up with 4 women performers, all dance majors at Ohio University, Athens Ohio, who relocated to New York: Jo Andres, Mimi Goese, Anne Iobst and Lucy Sexton, and we did performances and workshops together. In the mid-80’s Annie and Mimi were living in an apartment on 14th St. near 6th Ave., and on full moon nights we would have performance parties for our friends. I’d do a full moon salute, Annie would organize a fashion show and we might all end up on the roof dancing in the moonlight. Our friend Bill Schaffner, a master technician and stage manager, came to one party and afterwards went to Mark Russell, the artistic director of P.S. 122, and asked him if we could do a full moon show at P.S. when it happened that the moon was full and the house was “dark”, or had no other show on. Mark said, “Sure,” and that was the birth of The Full Moon Crew.
Bill produced all of our shows at P.S. 122. At each show, over the next few years, the audience would sit in the middle of the room, at tables and chairs, beer was served, and we would set up our acts around the room. I’d go first and set the tone with a full moon salute to Luna, and introduce the others. We always had 2 guest acts as well, like Ethyl Eichelberger, John Kelly, or Steve & Mark (Steve Buscemi and Mark Boone, Jr.). So there would be 3 acts, an intermission, and 3 more acts. Mimi would do something frightening, like one night entering from outside the 2nd floor window. Jo would stage a visual magic show; with dance, music, movies, slides and flowing fabrics. And Annie & Lucy, who performed as DANCENOISE, would always close the show. Since they almost always ended their act naked, under a shower of stage blood, no one could follow that.
In the mid-‘90’s and after that, I continued doing Full Moon Shows, at various other venues, sometimes with members of the Full Moon Crew, but often with other performers on the downtown scene. I remember one a few years ago at Dixon Place where my guests were Jonathan Ames, who told stories, Julie Atlas Muz, who did a strip tease inside a huge white balloon, and Mangina (Patrick Bucklew) who wore a plastic bubble over his head which, for a second, became ignited. Luckily he survived with no injuries. Luna seems to watch over those who honor her special night.