There aren't many ways you can connect Sheriff Joe, Shakespeare, erect penises and puppets together. In fact, we'd be hard-pressed (no pun intended) to connect penises with any of the other three, unless Ol' Joe ever releases a porn vid. Shudder. Anyway, now that that horrific image is burned into our brains, let us turn to more pleasant things.
It was night of Shakespearean tales, dirty jokes and shadow puppet porn last Friday as the Great Arizona Puppet Theater presented their May Day Puppet Slam. We were astounded on so many levels. First, Phoenix actually has its own puppet theatre. Tres geeky! It's housed in a gorgeous historic Mormon temple with soaring arches and colorful, gilded ceilings. Of course, their mainstay is children's shows. But once every few months, the kid gloves come off and the puppeteers show their naughty sides.
Blood, sex and puppet madness after the jump...
The audience was forewarned that some of the things at this show would shock us. Or astound us. Or titillate us. Or offend us. But nothing quite prepares you for a guy with a sock puppet telling "some nasty-ass jokes that he found on the Internet."
"What's the difference between p-ssy and apple pie?" asks Hector the Sock. "You can eat your mom's apple pie." And that about sums up the night.
The show featured four puppet plays and a short puppet film. Some acts were funny as hell, others lacking. But overall, the audience enjoyed the sheer irony of it all: a bunch of adults drinking beer and watching dirty puppet shows in a former Mormon temple. Here are a couple of highlights (and lowlights) from the show:
Innocent-looking puppeteers Stacey Gordon and Mack Duncan busted out with an adults-only take on The Three Little Pigs. Only in this version, the piggies were gay piggies that were kicked off of Old MacDonald's farm and ended up rooming together in a brick house (the one that didn't blow over, natch), decorating a lot and having squealing piggy sex. Then a wolf showed up and they brought him into the fold, Deliverance style. "Squeal like a pig, boy!"
Rude Rabbit Productions gave us their 20-minute version of Othello -- with Desdemona as a chicken, Iago as a pirate and... wait for it... Othello as a monkey. That "you might be offended" warning could be appropriate here, except that ALL of their leading men have been played by the same monkey puppet. Romeo, Macbeth... Othello was just an unfortunate coincidence. This skit wasn't nearly as funny as the first, but the flailing blood at the end as Othello dies was pretty cool.
[Insert inane video of badly-made sock puppet band playing at their local Harvest Festival here. We prefer to just forget this part of the show.]
Nancy Smith's Ode to Sheriff Joe was a brief song about his usual antics -- ticketing working-class folks, rounding up "brown" people, wearing pink undies and driving around in a snazzy red convertible. Imagine all of the New Times coverage of Sheriff Joe condensed into 5 minutes and set to song. Brilliant!
The evening also featured the California-based Magical Moonshine Theater performing a modernized version of an ancient piece about a Turkish peasant who nearly gets his "stick" lopped off, titled Sex and the Single Turk. Damn funny, and performed as a shadow play with Shrinky-Dink-like characters on poles.
Overall the Puppet Slam is a pretty good time. We're just waiting for the day they do The Puppets take Manhattan. Our geeky minds can't help but imagine floppy blue puppet penis.