From: Daniel McGuire <dandmcguire-AT-mac.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:34:44 -0500
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Zaloom's Karagoz show


I made a dvd of two of Paul's pieces for Paul. I don't know if he is 
interested in selling copies. I think he has a website. Pester him- I 
want to see the karagosis show as well...
DMCG


On Apr 22, 2006, at 12:37 PM, tozuss-AT-aol.com wrote:

>
> are any of zaloom's work on dvd? i was unable to get to nyc to see his 
>  show.
> hopefully his performances are being filmed.
> suucee
>
> The Mother of All Enemies
> VENUE
> Collective  Unconscious
> OPENED
> March 30, 2006
> CLOSES
> April 9,  2006
> PERFORMANCES
> Thu - Sun at 7:30pm; Sat - Sun at 3pm
> RUNNING  TIME
> 1 hour, 15 minutes
> TICKETS
> $15
> $12  students/seniors
> 212-352-3101
> MORE INFO
> Visit the show's official  website
> WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY
> Paul Zaloom
> DIRECTOR
> Randee  Trabitz
> LIGHTING
> Chris Kuhl
> PUPPETS
> Lynn Jeffries
> PRODUCING  COMPANY
> apexart
>
> This is a new show by the great puppet theatre artist  Paul Zaloom. 
> The show
> is a mutation of the traditional Middle Eastern  Karagoz shadow puppet 
> play
> (famous in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and Syria)  about the consequences 
> of being
> on
> the fringes of society=85 EVERY society.  The following is from the press
> materials: "The shadow show tells the  twisted story of an Arab, 
> secular
> humanist /
> Quaker / Buddhist / agnostic /  political refugee / immigrant / queer /
> artist /
> weirdo=92s adventures while  being comically pursued by various enemies: 
> Syrian
> Secret Service, Israeli  border guards, Al Qaeda, Homeland Security, 
> the
> Statue of
> Liberty, Christian  'Ex Gay' activists, and U.S. immigration 
> vigilantes the
> Minutemen. The idiot  savant Karagoz foils their evil plans, 
> dispatching them
> one
> by one with  subterfuge, obfuscation, and cheap puppet gimmicks. They 
> all
> fail; he  triumphs. Zaloom jiggles his puppets, recounts absurd emails 
> with
> Marine
> recruiters (he=92s sorta old for the Marines: 54. He=92s also gay=85 etc.),
> creates
> the entire soundscape with his voice, and uses drawings to  illuminate 
> the
> perverse workings of our 'civilization' with a frontal comic  assault."
> Pictured: The "Al Qaeda Training Camp" sequence from the shadow  
> puppet play
> in The Mother of All Enemies
>
>
>
> nytheatre.com  review
> Martin Denton * March 31, 2006
> In his new solo show The Mother of  All Enemies, Paul Zaloom takes on
> Homeland
> Security, "Don't Ask/Don't Tell,"  Al Qaeda, the "Ex-Gay" movement,
> intolerant
> Conservatives, the wars of the  Middle East, the United States Marine 
> Corps,
> the deterioration of privacy  and compassion=97in short, more or less
> everything
> that characterizes our  increasingly distressing and insecure way of 
> life
> here
> in the USA in 2006:  all that, plus the impossibility of trying to 
> survive as
> an
> artist in a  world that seems less and less to value art. (That final 
> point
> is
> already  proven when we walk in the door=97not of a well-funded and 
> well-fed
> mainstream  venue, but of scrappy Collective: Unconscious in Tribeca. 
> Zaloom,
> one
> of the  most important figures of alternative theatre of the past three
> decades
> (and  a TV star, in Beakman's World), is touring in tiny venues like 
> this
> one?
> Something is broken.)
> Zaloom launches his attack on the System from two  fronts. Most of The 
> Mother
> of All Enemies takes the form of a shadow puppet  play, in which 
> Zaloom works
> all the controls and does all the voices and  sound effects. The star 
> of this
> show is Karagoz, a character from  traditional Middle Eastern puppet 
> theatre
> whom
> Zaloom describes as a  knavish, clownish hero in the style of Punch or
> Pulcinella. His Karagoz, a  chunky bearded felow in a fez, has simple 
> goals:
> to live a
> peaceful life  with his boyfriend Harry, raise some kids, and make a 
> living
> as
> an artist.  But everywhere he goes, his desires are foiled. Police 
> (literally
> pigs in  cop cars) harrass Karagoz and Harry when it looks like they're
> making
> a  public display of affection. Eventually, Karagoz gets arrested for 
> being
> so
> careless, and winds up in prison, where he meets a genie who grants him
> "seven
> or nine" wishes.
> Karagoz uses these wishes to turn himself into a  variety of forms of
> transportation (airplane, boat, etc.) which carry him  around the 
> world. He
> finds
> himself first in Israel, where his swarthy Arab  looks make him pretty
> unpopular;
> and then in Pakistan, in an Al Qaeda  training camp (depicted here
> hilariously as
> a kids' summer camp, with a  counselor promising a day trip to New 
> York,
> where
> the activities will be  attending the musical Spamalot, getting 
> knishes at
> Yonah Shimmel's, and  blowing up a famous landmark). Karagoz's
> Rocky-and-Bullwinkle-like  adventures eventually take him to the U.S., 
> where
> he encounters a
> disco-queen Statue of Liberty, lands in jail, journeys to an "Ex-Gay" 
> dude
> ranch,
> and (having turned himself into a woman) almost becomes the paramour  
> of one
> of
> the most virulent "Ex-Gays." It's coarse, goofy, broad satire, its  
> anger
> diffused by the fanciful, silly ambience. Lots of it scores a bulls  
> eye.
> Around the puppet show, Zaloom delivers comic monologues, all based on 
>  true
> experiences and illustrating how cockeyed our society's values have  
> become.
> There's a Tonight Show-style riff on bumper stickers for secular  
> humanists
> that's
> pretty funny; and there's a bit about Zaloom's email  correspondence 
> with a
> USMC recruiter that is, by turns, hilarious and  chilling.
> The show's blissful humor is subverted at almost every point by its  
> urgency:
> Zaloom is too genuinely concerned about the subjects he's talking  
> about to
> surrender them completely to pure comedy (and with good reason). So  
> The
> Mother of
> All Enemies is as likely to make you angry as to make you  laugh, 
> which is
> certainly its whole reason for being. Authentically  political satire 
> is hard
> to
> come by these days, and as Zaloom's own career  illustrates, it's not
> something
> our culture is currently rewarding  appropriately. See what you've been
> missing
> and get yourself fired up: The  Mother of All Enemies is the real 
> thing, and
> it's so necessary right now.
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