March 27, 2025 • 60 mins
At the intersection of drag theater, punk rock innovation, and fearless artistic evolution stands David Xavier Harrigan - better known to those in-the-know as Tomato DePlenty.
From his early days with the revolutionary Cockettes (described by John Waters as "insane hippie drag queens" creating "complete sexual anarchy"), to founding Ze Whiz Kidz in Seattle, to pioneering synthesizer-based punk with The Screamers, Tomato consistently positioned himself at the cutting edge of artistic movements.
What makes Tomato's story so compelling isn't just his artistic versatility - it's his uncanny ability to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
He embodied his personal philosophy: "Let's do things" and "Do plenty."
Listen in as we uncover the first chapter in the fascinating life of this punk pioneer, theatrical innovator, and boundary-breaking artist who helped shape multiple movements while remaining just outside the spotlight.
Links From This Episode:
Tomata's Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18803/tomata-du_plenty
The Tupperware's at the TMT show recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyezrW9SNP0
The Screamers Target Studios Promo Video: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18803/tomata-du_plenty
Gary Panter's famous rendering of Tomata: https://obeygiant.com/gary-panter-a-provocateur-print-available-now/
The Cockettes Documentary Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gPxQvN0f1c
Follow us on...
Substack- https://substack.com/@deadandkindafamous
Here, you can find our episodes, transcripts, relevant images and newsletters.
Instagram- @deadandkindoffamous
See us visit the graves of our subjects and pay our respects with lovingly selected offerings.
Apple Podcasts and Spotify- Please be a Bon Vivant and leave us a rating and review. It would mean the world!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello and welcome to Dead and Kind of Famous, where
we dig into the life stories ofdead folks who enjoyed a touch
or two of fame in their time andnow reside permanently in the
Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
I'm Marissa Rivera and I knownothing, but I do know that
(00:37):
after spending a couple weeks inNew York, which is where I'm
recording from right now, Idon't think I could ever live
here on a permanent basis.
Too loud, a little bit at atime.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Is it too loud?
Is that what it is?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, it's like it's so much.
It's so much people, so muchnoise, so much I feel like my
neuro spicy is just tingling allthe time.
And yeah, I tried to get homefrom Brooklyn on the train last
night and it was like a fiasco.
It took so long, there were somany, like it said a train was
(01:19):
coming and a train never showedup.
You know that kind of thing andit's just like an extra 45
minutes and then and then Iended up having to, like walk
from Times Square back to my,and no one wants to walk from
Times Square at one in themorning.
Nope, nope.
So I do.
I do know that.
(01:40):
That's what I know.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Okay, yeah, I also remember when I my first school
was in Staten Island and therewere times that I got on the
wrong train to get back to theferry, when you know you have to
get that train Cause it's likeyou'll miss the ferry and then
you'll have to spend the nightthere.
And um, and I did.
I had to spend the night in theferry terminal multiple times.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So, no, it's not okay , that's not okay.
Yep, it's not a life I want tolive.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yep, it's rough.
It's rough out there, um.
So I'm Courtney Blomquist and Iknow way too much about what
we're going to talk about today,anyway, but, um, I don't know,
I don't know, like, how I'mfunctioning.
I stayed up way too late lastnight, um, and I.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I got an email at four 30 this morning.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, your time, there is my time, One one 30
your time, but still two, 30.
Right, we know you're right.
One, 30.
My time, yeah, yeah, yeah, itwas.
It was.
It was a late night and then Ilike woke up and and snapped at
Jesse and he's like why aren'tyou basically like what's wrong
with you?
And I'm like I'm sleep deprived.
And he's like why won't youchill?
And it's because we want tobring this podcast to you guys.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
There is no chill, there is no chill, there's no
chill, all right.
So today's episode is divinginto many areas of the arts,
specifically, theater, music andvisual art.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
How apropos for you.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Being in new york city, I know it's a perfect
episode for me it is, and it'sall about just one man, and his
name was david xavier harrigan.
Have you ever heard of DavidXavier Harrigan Marissa?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, well, let's look at this right now I don't
think I have.
I don't think I have.
Okay, I don't think you haveeither, at least as it stands
right now.
So this is the headstone.
It is in a really strange roomwithin Hollywood Forever.
It's actually called the ChapelColonnade.
(03:50):
It's on the first floor, on thenorth wall, and this place I
did like kind of the virtualwalk around it.
We haven't walked in there yet,or at least I haven't with you.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
No.
So anyway it's like a littleweird and like, yeah, creepy
yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And tell us about it.
Tell it, what do you see?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, so it's like a black box and on top it's a.
What is it called?
Where the gold, the, the, theplate, the name plates, the gold
plate?
I think it's supposed to begold, but because of what's
around?
It.
It's reflected red and at firstI was like why is there a
(04:30):
credit card?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It does kind of look like that or what.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It's not a headstone.
What is this one called?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I don't know what this is.
It's like it looks like ashadow box.
I'm going to switch.
This is what it looks like as awhole.
Oh's like it looks like ashadow box.
I'm going to switch.
This is what it looks like as awhole.
Oh yeah, it's totally a shadowbox.
It's kind of this little box ofashes with photos around it and
like little.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Did he die in the 80s or early 90s?
Because I really feel that'swhen shadow boxes really had
their time.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
No, but of that era as as a life okay, okay, making
sense yeah so there's okay.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So there's a weird plate that looks red.
There's some illustrations andstickers all around it yeah,
it's like if iris was.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Like, let me make your grave, yeah exactly it
looks like.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It looks like kids are like.
Let me, let me color allb-balls I don't know what this
is called I really don't knowwhat this is called.
Yeah, I'm not sure um I mean,is that a place for his ashes?
I'm assuming?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yes, exactly so.
It's like an urn, it's like abox-shaped urn, it's like a
square urn.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It's a boxed urn.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Right, and then we can see it's hard to read but
that his birth date is May 28th1948.
And his death was in 2000,august 31st.
Okay, and then 52 years old.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yes, exactly, If you can do the math which I couldn't
sell, I brought up mycalculator.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I know I was impressed.
Oh my gosh Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I don't do math in my head and I'm so sleepy I know
All right.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So now, tell us, tell us the, now that you've seen
all of this, tell us theobituary of David Xavier
Harrigan.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well, david Xavier Harrigan was born in Jackson.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Mississippi.
Of course he's Southern, ofcourse he is Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I know it just came out of me, born in Jackson,
mississippi, and he alwaysthought that he would do what
his pawpaw did before him andhis peepaw did before him, which
was work at the local Five andDime and the grocery store in
(07:15):
town.
But he started falling in lovewith the TV Because every night
the family would gather aroundthe TV, because every night the
family would gather around theTV and watch the shows together.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, I'll just stop you.
You're wrong about everything.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I'll just stop you right now.
I think he had a, I think hehad a family, I think he had a
family and that his family.
He had some young, young,either grandkids or nieces and
nephews who drew on his grave,and I think he was a visual
artist and perhaps did some artdesign here in Hollywood.
(08:19):
Okay, okay, maybe some setdesign, art designs in the art
department.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well, so you're right about the fact that he did so,
like he did do a combination ofarts and his life, for sure.
And I'm going to tell you rightnow, I kind of set you up to
fail on this, because youactually do have an idea of who
this is.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You do, so you do, I do.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You do.
He is a returning character,basically from our last episode.
What yeah?
So the hero of today's storywas born David Xavier Harrigan,
but the name he used throughouthis adult life was Tomata
DePlenty, and I pronounced itwrong last night.
(09:08):
Last time it's Tomata, notTomata.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Tomata DePlenty, the punk rocker.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
It's the punk rocker.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I know.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
It looks pretty punk, it does.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
He was very, very, very punk through all his things
and, yes, so man, he only madeit to 52.
Yeah, that's so bad, I know.
So, if you'll recall, this wasthe very same tomato to plenty
that befriended vampire in the1980s and really looked out for
her.
He is the mench from the lastepisode, basically.
(09:44):
So if vampire was acounterculture goddess, then
Tomato was a counterculture kingqueen at times, making a
notable mark in subversivetheater, early punk rock though
he has no studio recordings toshow for it, and we will talk
about that and folk art.
He's so fascinating andtalented talented, and I can't
(10:05):
wait to tell you about him.
Cool, yeah, all right.
So tomato was a childhoodnickname, so he didn't even come
up with that part himself hehad?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
yeah, because he had two.
How do you come up with thatnickname?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
well, I know it's kind of a leap even for the
nickname, because his the itcame to be.
The only thing I've heard isthat he had two sisters named
Iris, like my daughter, andDaisy, and I guess his parents
wanted another plant-relatedname for a boy, but Cypress
wasn't an acceptable option toput on a birth certificate yet.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So Tomato.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Tomato.
They were like well, well,you're gonna be tomato.
Um, that's so funny yeah, soeverybody called him tomato.
So his family went in the goofynickname direction, you know,
instead of making his real name,which is probably smart.
And the do plenty was his ownaddition, simply meaning do
plenty, because it's spelled D?
U space, p L E N T Y, but hemeant like D O P L E N T Y, like
(11:08):
I do plenty.
And if there's one thing, andone thing only, to say about
tomato, he did in fact do plentyin his life, as we will find
out.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, and so, and also very, very on point,
Marissa, he was born right inthe area you are right now
pretty much.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
New York, New York.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yes, tomato was born in Broad Channel, queens, on May
28th 1948 to an Irish Catholicfamily.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
All right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
If you've never heard of Broad Channel, it is
essentially the southernmostportion of Queens that is
largely looked over and unheardof within the city of new york I
was like I've never heard of it.
Nobody has it lies between jfkairport and rockaway beach, like
right in between those twothings.
Um, it's like it's like ifqueens kind of like dribbles out
(12:02):
into this like little nothing,where there's like a highway
running through and not muchland, and like that's kind of
what it is it's a funny littleimage.
if you look at it on a map, it'sdefinitely on the fringes of
the city, just like DePlentyended up being on the fringes of
every one of his pursuits,while still being assuredly on
the map when it comes toinfluence.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
The fringes of society.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yes, map when it comes to influence the fringes
of society.
Yes, so when he was 10 yearsold, his family moved to
montebello, california, justabout 15 miles outside of la, so
he went one coast to the otheras a child and with the hippie
scene calling to him.
As a teen, young tomato stoodon the street, stuck his thumb
in the air and hitchhiked hisway to los angeles and then
(12:47):
later, san francisco at 10 yearsold.
No, no, no, once he was a teenoh, so it's okay, I'm skipping
ahead.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I missed that.
Oh my god, no, no, I'm glad youclarified.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
No, no, no, there's, no, there's no evidence really
that, like he had like atroubled family home or anything
like that.
I don't know about that.
So I think he just was likeitching.
He's like I gotta get out.
But when he was like 16, okay,so he hitchhiked his way he
hitchhiked his way to losangeles, which was, like, not
that far away, you know,probably the safer place to
(13:17):
hitchhike, in a way, because hewas closer to home, and then
spent a few years there, whichare probably I don't know what
those years were, to be honestand then found his way to San
Francisco a couple of years in.
To find his people, yeah, tofind his people.
And he, like I said, he hasn'ttalked much about his early
childhood family stuff or hischildhood identity with
(13:41):
queerness, but he was 100% aqueer kid and it would stand to
reason that, for him especially,he needed to search for a place
where he belonged.
Well, san, Francisco.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Exactly, it's the queerest place around, it's true
, yeah, and so it's no surprisewe're a little cave in and we
love you for it.
Exactly, it is the gay Mecca of.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
America.
Exactly, it is the gay Mecca ofAmerica, so he, of course,
would find his people there, andthis was the first in a series
of times in his life that Tamedamoved somewhere and landed
squarely where he needed to beat a pivotal moment.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Oh my gosh, yeah, so timing worked out in his favor a
lot.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Often yes, wow, yeah, so like timing worked out in
his favor.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
A lot.
Often yes, so what a verydifferent experience.
Oh, I know.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Last girl?
Oh for sure Well.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It's a, it's a it's.
These are.
These are interesting stories.
There's their offbeat storiesof making a mark.
I'll say that.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Where did you?
Where?
Where's your research fromWhere's your?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Oh, good point.
Yeah, my research is from.
There's no book that I read,there's a couple articles.
I have his final interview,which was done for NWR magazine.
The last interview is by JackRabid.
I want to say Yep, jack Rabid.
(15:10):
And then the other one wascalled you Better Shut Up and
Listen, by David Jones.
And then there are multipleother sources and we will list
them.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So where were we?
Upon arriving in San Franciscoin 1968, he quickly befriended
George Harris.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yes, so he befriended George Harris.
Let's talk about George Harrisfor a second.
Do you know the famous image ofthe hippie putting a flower
into a gun at a protest you knowwhat I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, great.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So photo.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Well, he was in that photo, so that hippie was George
Harris, when he was protestingthe Vietnam War.
No, it's a guy here.
I'll show it to you.
Hold on, I've got.
I'll share my screen.
Yeah, it's such a.
It's a very famous image, sothis is like the little
Wikipedia about it, but you cansee the image there.
So that guy right there puttingthat flower into the pistol,
(16:16):
that is George Harris.
So he's already like made a markbefore he did anything.
To be honest of note, really ona personal level, which is
crazy.
So anyway, george, at the pointthat he met tomato when their
paths crossed, he had changedhis name to hibiscus, and so
(16:40):
fabulous.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Fabulous and, you know, very much in par with the
plant named Thame, exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
That's a good point.
I didn't even think about that.
So he was part of a communecalled Cauliflower, spelled with
a K, that was dedicated todistributing food and to
creating free art and theater.
Creating free art and theater.
(17:09):
So this is like at the timethere were a bunch of communes
in san francisco that were alllike kind of functioning
actually as an ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
So this was in like the 50s or early 60s.
This was in the late 60s late60s okay.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So there's like there was basically like a commune
where people would focus onfixing people's cars for free.
There was a common where peoplefocused on giving food for free
.
There was, you know, all thesedifferent like little ecosystems
, so that because they weretrying to get outside of the
world of money actually and andthey were like moderately, you
(17:40):
could say, successful at that um, because they truly created
like a little ecosystem ofcommunes, and I think there's
part of me that like fantasizesabout such a thing where you
could join a commune and it'snot a cult, you know right so,
but the two very, very rarely donot intertwine exactly so this
is one of those instances wherethat did not really happen um
Speaker 2 (18:02):
but, so out of this, wait, wait, wait, that they
weren't intertwined, or thatthey were, it was a cult as well
.
It was not a cult.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
It was not a cult, it was a community.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
The dream.
That's what I'm saying.
It was a dream.
A commune community, yes.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So out of this little adorable commune ecosystem, the
Coquettes were born and that'sc-o-c-k-e-t-t-e-s the cockettes,
the cockettes, that's right,like the rockets.
But the cockettes, um, thecockettes have been described as
(18:37):
a psychedelic gender fuck troopprobably say a psychedelic
gender fuck troop is, I think,the way you'd say that and they
have been said to influence dragand glam rock in major ways.
So if you love david bowie androcky horror picture show, just
know that this group planted alot of the seeds that sprouted
(18:57):
all of that again the plants yes, again the plants.
It's just a through line, it's athrough line john waters was a
fan and watering plants oh mygod, someone's someone's
cringing.
(19:18):
Listening to this right nowlike shut up about the plants
you've beaten this metaphor todeath.
It it's not even a metaphor,it's just an observance.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah, it's a through line of an observance of words
and names, and coincidence, it'strue.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
So, john.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Waters was a fan and lovingly said they were insane
hippie drag queens.
It was complete sexual anarchy,which is always a wonderful
thing, Perfect.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Was it?
I mean pretty like the tone, atleast the sassiness they often
did shows that occurred ahead ofoffbeat movie screenings at the
Palace Theater in San Francisco, because they were like these
are our people anyway, so let'sgive them a pre-show yeah, and
it would also make sense thatthat's why they influenced rocky
horror, because, yes, that'slike that's the whole culture of
(20:15):
rocky horror like everybody'sdancing in the crowd and it's
like part of the.
It's just like a show before ashow, show within a show.
So going on a show and thenthere's the nap, life is a show.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
So Going on a show, life is a show, everyone's on
drugs, etc.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And according to Waters, that's exactly what was
happening, like they were wildshows with people tripping on
acid and having sex in the crowd, like it was truly anarchy.
God, yeah, so, and Tomatohimself said.
God, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
And Tomato himself said they were like guys who
dressed in drag from the waistup and they were naked from the
waist down, and girls whodressed in just.
It was a glitter theater groupguys and girls who would just
like try to confuse the public.
They not only dressed in drag,they dressed as furniture.
It was like great I love it umdressed as furniture.
(21:11):
Yes, I love that.
I know.
Just just go to.
Just go to a pre-show and belike a sexy lamp yes, exactly
like I thought that was a prop,it was a person and like I, I'm
just like shining light on liketwo guys having sex in the crowd
.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I'm like you're already playing the part of the
lamp.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
You're playing it so well I'm like just imagine like
a sexy gold Pixar lampilluminating gays.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Illuminating the gays .
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Illuminating the gays .
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So they performed shows with names like Gone with
the Shows.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Which piece of furniture would you be?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Oh, what piece of furniture would I be?
I would be.
Oh my God, Well, I'm just stuckstill in vampire land.
I would have to be like achaise lounge at this moment, oh
yes, oh okay.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
And then, first of all, we'd go as a group of
friends of girlfriends and we'dall be a group, right a
furniture and we'd we'd just belike we'd randomly, just like
we'd walk in and then set thescene for like a living room and
then be like, yes, one, two,three and it's like living, and
we'd snap into living room modeI feel like this is a.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
This reminds me of those like youtube videos where
people imitate animals asdancers.
You know what I mean.
There's like something, somesomething line here yeah, um,
also, we could be so much dumberso much dumber and we would be
the most annoying people onhalloween if we were like, let's
do a group costume as furnitureand we won't be able to fit
through any doors.
It would be super annoying.
Um, I hope they did somethinglike that, oh me too, me too,
(22:52):
that's what I envisioning.
Yes, so they performed showswith names like gone with the
showboat to Oklahoma.
Which is incredible orsomething like that.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Um and hot greeks just so you know what you're
coming for yeah, a lot of, a lotof a lot of gays over here a
lot of gay, a lot of a lot ofmusical.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
All gay, lots of gay and happening here.
Um divine himself even joinedthe troop for a time divine
himself and the divine andperformed a song called a crab
on your anus means you're lovedwhile dressed, while dressed as
(23:58):
a lobster, not even on the crab.
I can't get through that.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I can't get through this sentence.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Like every, part of it is funny.
I, and of course john waters,was a fan of this.
Like, of course, like, first ofall divine's involved, like all
of this, oh my god yeah, sothough I'm not sure if tomato
and divine ever performed, theydefinitely knew each other To.
Maeda said.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I hitchhiked with Divine once on 8th Street.
It was hilarious.
He would not hitchhike, likeput his finger out.
He would jump in front of a carand pound like this, Pounding
on a table on the hood.
He did this.
(25:12):
He pounded on the hood of thiscar and this old lady is in the
front of the car and he's likeTamara, get in, get in, I get in
.
And the woman would beterrified and he was like we're
going to the top of the hill.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Just like, probably in full drag, like, just so like
, and Divine was wonderful butterrifying, I love.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
But first of all I love, first of all, that it's
like hitchhiking to the top ofthe hill like not not wanting to
walk to the top of the hill,I'm assuming in full drag I
think this is just to scare herlike I don't feel like he's just
like I could walk, but also Ifeel like scaring somebody right
now yeah yeah, columnistlillian roxen said that the
(25:58):
cockettes were 15 years ahead oftheir time and that every time
you see too much glitter or arhinestone out of place, you
will know it's because of thecockettes so, as far as tomato
is concerned, his principal workwith the Cockettes had been as
Hazel the Maid in their filmproduction of Trisha's Wedding
(26:20):
in 1971, which was a take onthen President Nixon's
daughter's wedding.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
It was an early piece of gender bending political
satire where you know thecharacter of Eartha K kitt, not
the real eartha kitt spikes abowl of to clarify spikes a bowl
of punch with lsd and for thepurpose?
For the purposes of thisepisode.
That's all you really need toknow.
Okay, from what I've understood, I will call out here political
wedding lsd punch yes, andthere's like it's, it's like
(26:51):
there's other politicalcharacters throughout it.
Right, because it's like a lotof political satire stuff um
this film.
So I'm gonna just I did notwatch it.
You kind of have to like searchthrough some libraries of film
archives and whatnot to find it,from what I understand.
But because it's like basicallyconsidered a piece of like
early queer um cinema in a way.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Okay and cinema cool right and so, but it's um.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I listened to an episode this is another source I
guess I'll list for this showkind of um.
They use similar sources as meanyway, but there's an episode
of no dogs in space which is.
I don't know if you've everlistened to that show, marissa,
but it's the um.
It's marcus parks and carolinahidalgo from the last podcast on
the network yeah, and so theyare doing um like, uh about
(27:42):
bands and whatever.
So they did, they did an episodethat involved tomato and um
talked about some of this stuffand said and basically carolina
said that like she watched umtrish's wedding and that it is
pretty much unwatchable, butthat it's like you know, it's an
early piece of queer cinema andI think some people revere it
(28:04):
just because it was.
You know, it was like they'redoing something different right
kind of the first of its kindright, right, right, but
probably not that easy to watchnow, and there's a few things
like that in here.
Honestly, out of this Hazel theMaid performance in Trisha's
Wedding, tameda decided to headout on his own and start his own
gender bending theater groupcalled Ze Whiz Kids, ze Whiz
(28:29):
Kids, ze Whiz Kids, z-e yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Z-E space, w-h-i-z space, k-i-d-z, z-z-z.
The Wiz Kids, the.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Wiz Kids, but this time he decided to put his thumb
in the air again and head to anew city, and that city was
Seattle.
A new city, and that city wasSeattle.
So much like the Cockettes.
The Wiz kids wrote andperformed a prolific amount of
shows and many musicals with arotating cast of characters with
wild stage names like GorillaRose, satin Sheets, rio de
(29:05):
Janeiro and Melba Toast.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
That sounds like so much fun.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I it does, and so originally the whiz kids
performed like buskers inseattle.
They did shows on the street,at bus stops, in a grocery store
and at a lesbian dive bar, andthere was like a rumor with this
lesbian dive bar.
I couldn't verify this enoughfrom the source to say it really
, but it's like that.
(29:36):
There's a rumor that at thatlesbian dive bar you could like
go up and purchase a Tommy gun,which is crazy.
I was like what?
Like that can't be real.
So, yeah, they're like an old Idon't know an old Tommy gun.
You could, if you asked that,the right thing, you get one.
I'm like that sounds insane, so, but all of this sounds insane,
so who knows.
(29:56):
Yeah, um, so they were not onthe radar of any critics or
viewers at the time.
Writer larry reed looks back onthem with reverence, saying
what were the shows?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
like loud, campy, joyous, with the audience
sometimes joining the kids onstage.
We would call it performanceart today.
There was no template to it, sothat's a pretty good
explanation.
Really.
That's a.
That's a really cool review.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Slash explanation and then so just to show you, like,
how big they did kind of get,even without being on the radar
of critics and everything, theyfound their way to performing at
the Eagles Auditorium in 1970and from there gained popularity
and a wider audience.
And one of the biggest feathersin their cap was opening for
(30:49):
Alice Cooper in 1971.
Right Like that's pretty hugewhat.
At Seattle's Paramount Theaterin a 1950s themed show called
Puttin' Out is Dreamsville,which featured a song called
Rock Around the Cock.
So I feel like the WizKids wasreally just like taking the
(31:14):
legacy of the cockettes andbeing like San Francisco did it
right.
Let's move it to another city.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah, let's make funny songs and and change
lyrics to like it's likesexualize everything.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
And it's like being a gay evangelist, like let's take
this church and bring it toanother city.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So love it.
Yeah, missionary, this is thekind of mission I can get on
board with.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Right In 1973, tomato Duplenty got restless and moved
again.
This time he headed back to thecity that birthed him, nyc,
taking former coquette FyetteFiat Houser with him.
He performed.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, he performed offbeat comedy at, of all places
CBGBs, the punk club but he wasperforming offbeat comedy there
.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Well, I feel like.
Yeah, he's like a punk comedian.
That's very punk, yeah.
So this often involved duplentyperforming songs like I enjoy.
Being a girl for comedic effect, you know that song yeah, like
when I have a brand new hairdowith my eyelashes all in curls,
(32:33):
like that's fine I float on theclouds, yeah, exactly why do I
know all the song, the words ofthe song that I do?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
um, so she's a musical theater it's in my blood
.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Many places or many pieces written about tomato have
said that he opened for thenunknown bands like the Ramones
and Blondie this way butaccording to him, that was not
the case.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Okay, he was like let me set the record straight.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, so this is a little snippet of his final
interview that he did with JackRabbit of NWR.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I used to do standup comedy at CBGBs.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
You were like an opening act, like the unknown
comic no, oddly enough.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
No, the bands were the opening act.
This was when cbgb owner hillycrystal was turning it over from
a bluegrass club.
Cbgb originally started in 1973, the letter standing for funny
enough country bluegrass andblues, then a comedy club and
then he finally let like.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
The ramones, I think were the first band I remember
playing there so it's likethey're just like we think we're
a comedy club at thisparticular moment in time and
the bands are secondary to yourright bullshit performance right
now, which is so weird, soweird as that may seem.
(33:58):
Tomato formed lastingfriendships with blondie out of
this experience, um, and some ofthe ramones.
So, while in new york, he alsodid a gossip column called
hollywood spit that wouldeventually, eventually end up on
public access TV, and he alsocasually opened a vintage store
(34:19):
with no actual name.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
He was like always doing, he was just doing doing,
doing, doing, doing stuff allthe time he was always doing
stuff and creating and such arestless spirit like had to have
his, you know always thinkingabout the next thing, whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
So.
But then it was time to boogieagain, get out there, because
once again Tomato was gettingrestless.
So he went back to Seattle andstarted a band this time
Something new, not a comedytroupe, not a gender bender the
band band.
He started a band called theTupperwares, with ex whiz kids,
(34:55):
melba toast and Rio de Janeiro.
And they had they had some funsongs, like I'm going steady
with Twiggy and Ava Braun.
Who's like?
That's like the reference toHitler's girlfriend.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Right, and, by the way, those are two separate
songs.
It's not I'm going steady withtwiggy and ava braun one song.
One song is I'm going steadywith twiggy and another is ava
braun.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yes, two different songs.
It's two different.
Thank you for that clarity.
Oh, audio as a medium, we gottaclarify, we gotta clarify I
can't see these quotes.
Yeah, but this is a prettyabrupt switch from the theater
and comedy route that he'd beentaking so far.
Jack Rabid asked about it inhis interview.
How is it then, if you weredoing comedy shows, things of
(35:46):
that sort, how did you end updeciding that you wanted to do
music?
Speaker 2 (35:54):
As I said before, I've never made, I've never had
to make the decision you justfell into it.
Yeah, I fell into it.
A really good friend of minewho did comedy in CBGB's Gorilla
Rose.
He's now gone.
He lived by this expressionlet's do things.
And that's how I live my lifeby being active.
(36:15):
Do things, do plenty, do plenty.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah.
So he just was like action, notthought that was like his, I
would say, ethos.
So the band also included avery young Eldon Hoke, who later
and I might be pronouncing thiswrong, by the way who later
became the notorious El Duce ofthe Mentors, which is a band,
and he's also the dude that isrumored to have been hired by
(36:45):
Courtney Love to kill KurtCobain.
This is like a whole.
Whoa yeah, like there's like a,there's a whole conspiracy
theory around this guy and thenhe like also was on a jerry
springer episode and then gothit by a train right afterwards
it's see, that's what yeah totaland died yeah, but tomato set
had only nice things to sayabout that guy, by the way, so I
(37:07):
think it's just.
It's all just conspiracy theory, like you know, right.
But anyway, the very firsttupperwares show was actually
the premiere of the john watersmovie pink flamingos.
Stop it, yeah.
So really good start, as uh, asfar as gigs go, like again, he
did it.
Like just I had just the waythe um cockheads had done
(37:28):
performance ahead of thescreening Right.
So on May 1st 1976, theTupperwares joined the Mace and
the Telepaths that's a band orthe Mace, I'm not sure how you
say it.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
M-E-Y-C-E.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, mace, yeah, mace, maybe the Mace maybe yeah,
that makes sense.
And the Telepaths, which wereother little bands in the area
to perform for the tmt show,which just stood for
tupperware's mace and telepaths,um, at seattle's odd fellows
hall.
And the reason I even bringthis up is because this show is,
(38:07):
like, talked about a lot.
It's, uh, enshrined as afoundational moment in the
Seattle music scene.
It's regarded by many in themusical community within Seattle
as the first time the cityfully embraced the experimental
and DIY movements within musicthat had previously been ignored
.
So basically, it was consideredto be the beginning of punk
(38:29):
rock in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
In Seattle.
I feel like is the beginning ofpunk rock in this In Seattle.
I feel like is the beginning ofpunk rock in this nation.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Yeah, and well in grunge for sure yeah, yeah, yeah
, punk and grunge, Punk andgrunge.
So it was just like that.
Yeah, Once they could, onceSeattle could get their hands on
a little bit of grit.
They were like we like it.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
We like it.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
The way it feels between our fingers.
But Tomato didn't reallyconsider it to be punk music of
the tupperwares, he said thetupperwares was just a little
joke band I was in.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
the tupperwares was just a little joke band I was in
.
They were like a bubblegum.
No big deal.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
No big deal, just a little thing, just a little
historic thing I did, butlistening to the little bit of
their set from that concert.
That, but listening to thelittle bit of their set from
that concert that there is tohear.
I think he didn't give himselfenough credit, so let's look
(39:35):
into that Too humble.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Too humble so he doesn't seem to have an ego.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
He really doesn't.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
I just feel like he's like too busy.
He's like I just want to makeart and you know, whatever
people think of it, they thinkof it, but I'm just going to
keep making art and I love that.
I know it's kind of like whatwe're doing this is art, this is
our punk thing, this is ourpunk thing, but we do want to
know what you think of it, solike leave a comment like we
(40:05):
won't care what you think of it,you know a la tomata yes,
exactly, but what we would liketo hear is curiosity, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
The curiosity of it all.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Exactly the curiosity of it all.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
So this is like just a live recording of what they
did, just to give you a littleidea of it.
But he's saying it's not punk.
It sounds pretty punk to me.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Here, okay, here, it is Fuck anything.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Hear it, okay, yeah it sounds pretty me and it
(41:02):
sounds fun to me.
And you know what?
The sound quality is not great,but it sounds like fun yeah, it
sounds like fun.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
You can see how it was like lighting people up
because, like the way that theycompared this time and and I
have this quote below actuallythat's perfect that they show
this later in that video.
This is from Art Chantry, who'sa graphic designer.
I don't know anything about him, but his quote is great about
this.
He said Tomato came back fromNew York and formed a punk band
called the Tupperwares and theyall wore leather jackets and had
(41:32):
Brian Jones haircuts, you know,and they were all doing Iggy
Pop covers.
And for Seattle in the mid-70speople were freaked out.
Everybody was still listeningto Journey and Kansas local
bands that had names likeCheyenne and Gabriel.
I love that specificity localbands that had names like
(41:54):
Cheyenne and Gabriel.
Heart was huge and like theband.
And here's this guy coming backfrom New York acting the part
of a punk rock dude andeverybody paid attention like
they were ready for that, likethis city didn't have that.
Yet they were.
Basically everybody was likemusic is just lame now and then
all of a sudden, this comesthrough.
(42:15):
So so cool yeah.
So, although they were gettinga lot of attention in Seattle,
it was time to hit the roadagain, and this time it wasn't
just restlessness.
Even though the Tupperwares hadmade a big impression in
Seattle, they weren't gettinggigs easily because there simply
weren't that many venues toplay.
This was like for the show Ijust talked about.
They booked all of that, theydid all of that themselves.
(42:36):
They had to put the legwork upto even make that happen.
Right Right to the PA andeverything Wow so like so much
work.
Exactly, and this was the 70sand many live show venues had
become quote discos that wereall about one DJ and dancing.
Because it was like cheaper, itwas a trend, it just kind of
made sense.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, businesses at the time to like death spiral a
little bit because of that, andthis is probably why everyone
hates disco, you know or atleast from that time period.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
So, uh, so melba toast, who had now changed his
moniker to tommy gear, totaltotal left total switcheroo
there.
Yeah, he's like I'm punk nowfuck the drag.
So melba toast, who had nowchanged his name to moniker to
tommy gear, had the idea tobounce after reviewing a
magazine that showed what punkin england looked like.
(43:36):
They were kind of starting toimitate this but he and tomato
looked at magazines of the sexpistols and their whole look,
and tommy said they should dressthe part of the punk scene
fully, embrace it, start a freshnew band and head to los
angeles to see if they couldmake it happen.
Um, so, originally it was riode janeiro who's you know, his
(43:57):
real name was david golbrinson,so rio de janeiro rolls off the
tongue much more.
Um, yeah, the newly dubbed, uh,tommy gear and tomato to plenty
that headed down to make theband happen.
So it was the three of them atfirst.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Okay, so that's what they had been.
They had stuck, stuck togetherfor a while, yeah, like through
various ventures andincarnations.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
I love it.
It was like a marriage.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
They're like let's just, yeah, grow, let's grow and
change when you find peoplethat you can artistically grow
together, because there's manydifferent phases of their
artistic expression here andthey kind of all stuck together
and did it together.
That's really special and Ilove that.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I think that it's just like I think before they
realized they were punks.
They were punks, they were justguys who were like I'm going to
DIY my way into doing what the?
Fuck, I want.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Like Vampyra.
She was punk before Exactly.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
That's why he saw her .
He looked and he saw her.
It's so cute.
So that's what they did.
They showed up in LA.
They looked cool and mysterious, with that punk genocide, and
specifically Tometa had spikedhis hair and shaved off his
sideburns entirely.
That was his look, his iconiclook.
(45:20):
But upon arrival, the bandmembers shuffled around Rio de
Janeiro, left due to creativedifferences.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
Oh, I just talked about how wonderful it was.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Well, they did.
I mean, that's still travelingto multiple cities.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Yeah, they wanted to branch out.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yes, yes, and I don't know if, like Rio de Janeiro
was.
I actually don't know enoughabout this to know if Rio de
Janeiro was the bass player thatlike in the interview to made a
references that there was abass player originally who was
like we should make this just aninstrumental band and he's like
wait, I'm the singer, what areyou trying to say?
But like that might've been thecreative difference.
(46:02):
I don't know, that might havebeen it.
That might have been it, but uh, after further shuffling, you
know, eventually he was replacedby paul rossler, who was the
brother of black flag bassistkira rossler.
So already they're kind ofpulling in some more punk
elements.
And then, after finding eachother mutually alluring, at a
(46:24):
party, drummer kK Barrett wasasked to join the band.
Kk was the only trulytraditional punk instrument in
the whole band, as the othermembers were playing an ARP
Odyssey synthesizer that wasTommy Gear, and a Fender Rhodes
electric piano Paul Rossler.
So there were no guitars inthis band, no guitar At all.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
So Tamada said we didn't have any guitars and we
met a guy at a party who wasshoving people.
This was in 76.
And by that time it was theEagles music.
People were so happy and lovingand to see somebody out at a
party with that kind of behaviorwe thought we should start a
(47:07):
band with this guy.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
And that was KK.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yeah, kk.
He was this rowdy from Oklahomawho learned how to play drums
from listening to ArethaFranklin's Chain of Fools.
This was his all-time favoritesong.
I don't know how many timesI've heard him drum to that.
Anyway, we started playing andby that time we just didn't
(47:31):
think we needed a guitar.
It wasn't a political thing, itwasn't a thing that was
inspired.
Oddly enough, it just evolved.
Oddly enough, I feel likethat's its whole thing.
It just evolved.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Whatever project, just whatever project I'm doing
just evolved, I just evolved,everything just evolved, and
yeah, yeah, I feel like whenpeople talk about being in a
flow state like this, is whatthat is.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
You're just like I'm not judging, I'm just letting
myself flow from one thing toanother to let it speak, and I'm
not going to get in my own way.
So they named the new iterationof the band the Screamers,
largely due to Tomato DiPlenty'ssinging style, which was
actually just screaming it trulywas.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Maybe that's why maybe Rio was like maybe we
should just do.
I think that's what he wassaying.
He was like gently trying tojust do.
I think that's what he wassaying because he was like he's
like gently trying to be likedude.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
But I mean and I don't even mean to say like that
tomato was offended by it.
I think he kind of thought likehe, he was doing everything for
art's sake.
I don't think like he had apersonal ego about his own no,
no, I'm not saying that at allyeah, it's no.
No, I don't think you are even.
It's just like to.
To clarify, because I think helike thought it was.
Yeah, I think he thought it wasfunny.
(48:51):
But he even describes himself.
He's like I'm not like in thisinterview.
He's like I'm not a musician,I'm just the jerk at the front,
Like that's how the way anyonethinks about this but no, that's
so fun yeah, and this thescreamers were actually like a
(49:11):
hit nearly immediately aftersetting settling in los angeles,
and this could have been for acouple different reasons.
Um, maybe it was due to theirlegendary, magical and very punk
rock living situation.
They lived in a large houseknown as the Wilton Hilton that
still stands today.
Um, wait, I'm going to look itup.
(49:32):
Yeah, look it up.
The Wilton Hilton, the WiltonHilton.
So this yeah, this house has allkinds of legend and lore around
it.
I think it's like a bed, a, band B now or something like that
, or maybe I can't tellsomething like that.
But Tomato said that WilliamRandolph Hearst had bought it
(49:53):
for his lover, marion Davies.
But that is an unsubstantiatedclaim.
There's like no evidence thatthat's true.
That's just maybe a tall talehe told people.
What is true is that the 60sgirl group, gto girl together
outrageously, which includedgroupie musician turned writer
pamela debar, who we havediscussed before in our
christopher jones episodes,lived there.
(50:14):
So she's the one who, like,grilled him.
Like really remember interviewum.
So she was a band member of thisband.
Um many claim that the house isextremely haunted and one of
GTO's members, miss Christine,who died of a barbiturate
overdose, is said to still hangaround the house in the
afterlife.
(50:34):
From what I looked up, shedidn't even die in the house, so
I don't know if that's true.
But I mean, like people say,ghosts work in different ways.
I don't know, um, but when thescreamers lived there, they
leaned into the spooky andcovered many of the rooms with
black plastic, which is bothcreepy and easier to clean.
Um, I don't know if theythought about that at all, but
(50:56):
that may have come in handyafter all the rowdy parties that
were held there while theylived there.
Um, at this point in made, aspecifically had been around and
had dipped his toe into manydifferent weirdo and almost
famous pools of people, so theirparties were filled with names.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Blondie was there.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Devo hung around.
Punk bands like the weirdos andthe germs came by because they
were kind of coming up at thesame time as that it was very
raucous.
Um.
So they became big in LA veryquickly, and some say they were
able to start.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
They had like a really cool party house.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
They had a really cool party house.
And like no ego and likeeveryone was, it was welcome, it
seems, and they looked cool,people would like see them and
just be like who are those guys,like they were like, cause I
think like it's important tostress that the punks you guys
can hear the yeah if there's anysirens, it's because of new
york.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
New york, okay, new york city.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
They became big in la very quickly.
Some say they were able tostart buzz because their friends
designed posters fornon-existent shows and put them
up all over town, which is kindof a brilliant marketing
strategy to be honest at thetime, so funny, and, in fact,
gary Panter was an artist whocreated a logo based on tomato
screaming with his spiky hair.
(52:16):
That is still one of the mostrecognizable pieces of art of
Los Angeles punk rock history.
So, um, it's yeah, really,really cool image.
Yeah, let me show you.
Okay, so, this is just like afew examples of it, but that's
what it looked like.
Oh, yeah, have you seen thisbefore?
Yes, yes, it's like stillpopular today.
(52:38):
Yeah, oh, that's really cool,that's supposed to be tomato de
plenty like right there Okaycool.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Yeah, I can see it.
I can see it.
Speaker 1 (52:46):
That's awesome, yes but once the band had started
performing, they developed avery loyal following.
They were truly ahead of theirtime and synthesizer based punk
was not going to be seen in abig way again until the 90s
really whoa way ahead of theirtime yeah, there were also bands
like the Dead Kennedys whodirectly copied to made a
(53:08):
theatrical performance style and, funny enough, the Screamers
never actually recorded in astudio ever.
So any audio of them is either ahomemade demo which they did do
in the Wilton Hilton, a liveperformance, or audio ripped
from the videos they madeBecause they were so ahead of
their time that they prioritizedmaking videos and using them in
(53:31):
their performances in the lateseventies, when most people were
hardly familiar with the ideaof a VHS tape.
There was no yeah it was likedefinitely way ahead there was
no.
MTB yet, but they had theirfinger on the pulse yet, but
they had their finger on thepulse and this is the sound they
(53:53):
achieved.
So this video that I'm going toshow is actually like oh, hold
on a minute.
Okay, I'm going to share withyou this.
I'm going to skip around in ita little bit, but this is from
the Target Studios promo videosthat they made.
So Target the no, it was calledit was again ahead of target
the store oh, I was like, waitwhat all right so this is like
(54:16):
uh, I'm just gonna skip to this.
Like, start this littlehelicopter thing.
Jesse, by the way, was veryimpressed with the way that this
video was done for the time.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
And Jesse edits music videos all day.
Yeah, and then his head is likeslowly coming into focus from
the back.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Yeah, there's a helicopter and now and then I'm
just going gonna skip ahead herea little bit.
The spiky hair.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
The screamers is right.
Oh, the synthesizer soundsreally cool actually, yeah it's
really really cool.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
That's so cool and it's like just watching him
perform.
He's got like he's supertheatrical, like you can tell
he's a theater guy.
And then like so there there's.
I'm trying to get like one toone of the full body shots over
here in this video, because thisis just like a smattering of
(55:53):
the um promo videos that theydid.
But that's from um 122 hours offear, which is one of their
songs, and let me try to.
I want to.
There's like one in particularbit I want to get to here.
So, like you can kind of seeI'm just skipping through this a
little bit you can see some ofhis fashion, like his punk
choices.
Here too, he's got likepinstriped shirts on and like
(56:18):
bow ties and suspenders.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
Has he met Vampyra at this time?
Speaker 1 (56:24):
No, this is like in his prime, so this is like late
70 prime.
So this is like this is beforeuh, late 70s, very early 80s,
like the, the screamers wereonly around for like four years
um you got four wonderful years,yeah, your best years in
college oh yeah, so this song isawesome.
This is called vertigo he looksso cool.
(56:45):
He's like very Mick Jagger in alot of ways.
Speaker 2 (57:09):
I can see at the camera.
He's just like, actually likegoing all the way down to the
(57:33):
ground.
Right now he's dancing andacting everything out.
Gosh this is amazing.
It's like just jumping aroundlike full blast like tap dancing
(57:54):
, stomping irish dancing, actingout every single word and and
then this is the part I want toshow you, because this came out
of like a live.
Speaker 1 (58:06):
This is from the first song you show you because
this came out of like a live.
This is from the first songyou're listening to.
This came out of a liveperformance where he was doing
something dramatic and somebodylike in the pause said you suck.
And then he like came up withthis moment, basically and like
part of the song.
So he's like fallen to theground, he's on a knee,
(58:31):
everything stopped.
He's just like collapsed by themicrophone stand.
Speaker 2 (58:39):
You better shut up and listen.
You better shut up and listen.
Speaker 1 (58:45):
That moment came totally organically from
somebody being like you suck,and he's like you better shut up
and listen.
And then it just looks so good.
Well, on that note yes, we'regoing to come back to the later
years and then how.
We'll dive into a little bit,because you know, I'm just going
(59:07):
to say this now as a littleteaser for next week because
this is real.
We're kind of like leaving onthis episode at the height of
the screamers.
But, um, there's some, uh,there's a project that I didn't
know about, that he did withvampire, that, oh my god, and so
we'll dig into that.
Speaker 2 (59:27):
So get a little bit of a revisit.
That's so fun.
Oh, I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (59:35):
Yeah.
But, um but he's this is reallyfun, right?
He's a.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
This is so fun.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
He's like super, super rad I'm honestly impressed
.
He's like a.
He's like a Phoenix that keepsrising from not even ashes.
Speaker 2 (59:48):
He just keeps evolving.
Speaker 1 (59:50):
I love this guy.
He's like a flower that'sgrowing out of a flower.
Over and over again, again,another plant.
Yes, he's just a little tomatoflower.
Speaker 2 (59:59):
A little tomato, tomato, tomato, tomato.
Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
I know how many times did he hear that tired old joke
.
By the way, tomato, tomato,tomato.
If you liked what you heard orif you have any feedback for us
at all the good, the bad, theugly, the dead, the alive please
leave us a review on applepodcasts, um, and and let us
know what you think we reallywant to hear from you.
(01:00:22):
Also, follow the show, please.
Um, you know, definitelysubscribe whatever, wherever you
get your podcasts, but butwrite us your review, tell us
what you're thinking.
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Dead and Kind of Famous is written, researched
and produced by CourtneyBlomquist.
It is co -hosted by MarissaRivera.
We tag team on socials.
Jesse Russell and CourtneyBlomquist do our editing.
Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Until next time.
You might not be famous, butyou got a story to tell and
you're not dead yet.
Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Okay, bye, bye.
Hello and welcome to Dead and Kind of Famous, where
we dig into the life stories ofdead folks who enjoyed a touch
or two of fame in their time andnow reside permanently in the
Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
I'm Marissa Rivera and I knownothing, but I do know that
(00:37):
after spending a couple weeks inNew York, which is where I'm
recording from right now, Idon't think I could ever live
here on a permanent basis.
Too loud, a little bit at atime.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Is it too loud?
Is that what it is?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, it's like it's so much.
It's so much people, so muchnoise, so much I feel like my
neuro spicy is just tingling allthe time.
And yeah, I tried to get homefrom Brooklyn on the train last
night and it was like a fiasco.
It took so long, there were somany, like it said a train was
(01:19):
coming and a train never showedup.
You know that kind of thing andit's just like an extra 45
minutes and then and then Iended up having to, like walk
from Times Square back to my,and no one wants to walk from
Times Square at one in themorning.
Nope, nope.
So I do.
I do know that.
(01:40):
That's what I know.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Okay, yeah, I also remember when I my first school
was in Staten Island and therewere times that I got on the
wrong train to get back to theferry, when you know you have to
get that train Cause it's likeyou'll miss the ferry and then
you'll have to spend the nightthere.
And um, and I did.
I had to spend the night in theferry terminal multiple times.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So, no, it's not okay , that's not okay.
Yep, it's not a life I want tolive.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yep, it's rough.
It's rough out there, um.
So I'm Courtney Blomquist and Iknow way too much about what
we're going to talk about today,anyway, but, um, I don't know,
I don't know, like, how I'mfunctioning.
I stayed up way too late lastnight, um, and I.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I got an email at four 30 this morning.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, your time, there is my time, One one 30
your time, but still two, 30.
Right, we know you're right.
One, 30.
My time, yeah, yeah, yeah, itwas.
It was.
It was a late night and then Ilike woke up and and snapped at
Jesse and he's like why aren'tyou basically like what's wrong
with you?
And I'm like I'm sleep deprived.
And he's like why won't youchill?
And it's because we want tobring this podcast to you guys.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
There is no chill, there is no chill, there's no
chill, all right.
So today's episode is divinginto many areas of the arts,
specifically, theater, music andvisual art.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
How apropos for you.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Being in new york city, I know it's a perfect
episode for me it is, and it'sall about just one man, and his
name was david xavier harrigan.
Have you ever heard of DavidXavier Harrigan Marissa?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, well, let's look at this right now I don't
think I have.
I don't think I have.
Okay, I don't think you haveeither, at least as it stands
right now.
So this is the headstone.
It is in a really strange roomwithin Hollywood Forever.
It's actually called the ChapelColonnade.
(03:50):
It's on the first floor, on thenorth wall, and this place I
did like kind of the virtualwalk around it.
We haven't walked in there yet,or at least I haven't with you.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
No.
So anyway it's like a littleweird and like, yeah, creepy
yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And tell us about it.
Tell it, what do you see?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, so it's like a black box and on top it's a.
What is it called?
Where the gold, the, the, theplate, the name plates, the gold
plate?
I think it's supposed to begold, but because of what's
around?
It.
It's reflected red and at firstI was like why is there a
(04:30):
credit card?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It does kind of look like that or what.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It's not a headstone.
What is this one called?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I don't know what this is.
It's like it looks like ashadow box.
I'm going to switch.
This is what it looks like as awhole.
Oh's like it looks like ashadow box.
I'm going to switch.
This is what it looks like as awhole.
Oh yeah, it's totally a shadowbox.
It's kind of this little box ofashes with photos around it and
like little.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Did he die in the 80s or early 90s?
Because I really feel that'swhen shadow boxes really had
their time.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
No, but of that era as as a life okay, okay, making
sense yeah so there's okay.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So there's a weird plate that looks red.
There's some illustrations andstickers all around it yeah,
it's like if iris was.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Like, let me make your grave, yeah exactly it
looks like.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It looks like kids are like.
Let me, let me color allb-balls I don't know what this
is called I really don't knowwhat this is called.
Yeah, I'm not sure um I mean,is that a place for his ashes?
I'm assuming?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yes, exactly so.
It's like an urn, it's like abox-shaped urn, it's like a
square urn.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It's a boxed urn.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Right, and then we can see it's hard to read but
that his birth date is May 28th1948.
And his death was in 2000,august 31st.
Okay, and then 52 years old.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yes, exactly, If you can do the math which I couldn't
sell, I brought up mycalculator.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I know I was impressed.
Oh my gosh Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I don't do math in my head and I'm so sleepy I know
All right.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So now, tell us, tell us the, now that you've seen
all of this, tell us theobituary of David Xavier
Harrigan.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well, david Xavier Harrigan was born in Jackson.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Mississippi.
Of course he's Southern, ofcourse he is Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I know it just came out of me, born in Jackson,
mississippi, and he alwaysthought that he would do what
his pawpaw did before him andhis peepaw did before him, which
was work at the local Five andDime and the grocery store in
(07:15):
town.
But he started falling in lovewith the TV Because every night
the family would gather aroundthe TV, because every night the
family would gather around theTV and watch the shows together.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, I'll just stop you.
You're wrong about everything.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I'll just stop you right now.
I think he had a, I think hehad a family, I think he had a
family and that his family.
He had some young, young,either grandkids or nieces and
nephews who drew on his grave,and I think he was a visual
artist and perhaps did some artdesign here in Hollywood.
(08:19):
Okay, okay, maybe some setdesign, art designs in the art
department.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well, so you're right about the fact that he did so,
like he did do a combination ofarts and his life, for sure.
And I'm going to tell you rightnow, I kind of set you up to
fail on this, because youactually do have an idea of who
this is.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You do, so you do, I do.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You do.
He is a returning character,basically from our last episode.
What yeah?
So the hero of today's storywas born David Xavier Harrigan,
but the name he used throughouthis adult life was Tomata
DePlenty, and I pronounced itwrong last night.
(09:08):
Last time it's Tomata, notTomata.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Tomata DePlenty, the punk rocker.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
It's the punk rocker.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I know.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
It looks pretty punk, it does.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
He was very, very, very punk through all his things
and, yes, so man, he only madeit to 52.
Yeah, that's so bad, I know.
So, if you'll recall, this wasthe very same tomato to plenty
that befriended vampire in the1980s and really looked out for
her.
He is the mench from the lastepisode, basically.
(09:44):
So if vampire was acounterculture goddess, then
Tomato was a counterculture kingqueen at times, making a
notable mark in subversivetheater, early punk rock though
he has no studio recordings toshow for it, and we will talk
about that and folk art.
He's so fascinating andtalented talented, and I can't
(10:05):
wait to tell you about him.
Cool, yeah, all right.
So tomato was a childhoodnickname, so he didn't even come
up with that part himself hehad?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
yeah, because he had two.
How do you come up with thatnickname?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
well, I know it's kind of a leap even for the
nickname, because his the itcame to be.
The only thing I've heard isthat he had two sisters named
Iris, like my daughter, andDaisy, and I guess his parents
wanted another plant-relatedname for a boy, but Cypress
wasn't an acceptable option toput on a birth certificate yet.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So Tomato.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Tomato.
They were like well, well,you're gonna be tomato.
Um, that's so funny yeah, soeverybody called him tomato.
So his family went in the goofynickname direction, you know,
instead of making his real name,which is probably smart.
And the do plenty was his ownaddition, simply meaning do
plenty, because it's spelled D?
U space, p L E N T Y, but hemeant like D O P L E N T Y, like
(11:08):
I do plenty.
And if there's one thing, andone thing only, to say about
tomato, he did in fact do plentyin his life, as we will find
out.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, and so, and also very, very on point,
Marissa, he was born right inthe area you are right now
pretty much.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
New York, New York.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yes, tomato was born in Broad Channel, queens, on May
28th 1948 to an Irish Catholicfamily.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
All right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
If you've never heard of Broad Channel, it is
essentially the southernmostportion of Queens that is
largely looked over and unheardof within the city of new york I
was like I've never heard of it.
Nobody has it lies between jfkairport and rockaway beach, like
right in between those twothings.
Um, it's like it's like ifqueens kind of like dribbles out
(12:02):
into this like little nothing,where there's like a highway
running through and not muchland, and like that's kind of
what it is it's a funny littleimage.
if you look at it on a map, it'sdefinitely on the fringes of
the city, just like DePlentyended up being on the fringes of
every one of his pursuits,while still being assuredly on
the map when it comes toinfluence.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
The fringes of society.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yes, map when it comes to influence the fringes
of society.
Yes, so when he was 10 yearsold, his family moved to
montebello, california, justabout 15 miles outside of la, so
he went one coast to the otheras a child and with the hippie
scene calling to him.
As a teen, young tomato stoodon the street, stuck his thumb
in the air and hitchhiked hisway to los angeles and then
(12:47):
later, san francisco at 10 yearsold.
No, no, no, once he was a teenoh, so it's okay, I'm skipping
ahead.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I missed that.
Oh my god, no, no, I'm glad youclarified.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
No, no, no, there's, no, there's no evidence really
that, like he had like atroubled family home or anything
like that.
I don't know about that.
So I think he just was likeitching.
He's like I gotta get out.
But when he was like 16, okay,so he hitchhiked his way he
hitchhiked his way to losangeles, which was, like, not
that far away, you know,probably the safer place to
(13:17):
hitchhike, in a way, because hewas closer to home, and then
spent a few years there, whichare probably I don't know what
those years were, to be honestand then found his way to San
Francisco a couple of years in.
To find his people, yeah, tofind his people.
And he, like I said, he hasn'ttalked much about his early
childhood family stuff or hischildhood identity with
(13:41):
queerness, but he was 100% aqueer kid and it would stand to
reason that, for him especially,he needed to search for a place
where he belonged.
Well, san, Francisco.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Exactly, it's the queerest place around, it's true
, yeah, and so it's no surprisewe're a little cave in and we
love you for it.
Exactly, it is the gay Mecca of.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
America.
Exactly, it is the gay Mecca ofAmerica, so he, of course,
would find his people there, andthis was the first in a series
of times in his life that Tamedamoved somewhere and landed
squarely where he needed to beat a pivotal moment.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Oh my gosh, yeah, so timing worked out in his favor a
lot.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Often yes, wow, yeah, so like timing worked out in
his favor.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
A lot.
Often yes, so what a verydifferent experience.
Oh, I know.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Last girl?
Oh for sure Well.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It's a, it's a it's.
These are.
These are interesting stories.
There's their offbeat storiesof making a mark.
I'll say that.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Where did you?
Where?
Where's your research fromWhere's your?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Oh, good point.
Yeah, my research is from.
There's no book that I read,there's a couple articles.
I have his final interview,which was done for NWR magazine.
The last interview is by JackRabid.
I want to say Yep, jack Rabid.
(15:10):
And then the other one wascalled you Better Shut Up and
Listen, by David Jones.
And then there are multipleother sources and we will list
them.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So where were we?
Upon arriving in San Franciscoin 1968, he quickly befriended
George Harris.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yes, so he befriended George Harris.
Let's talk about George Harrisfor a second.
Do you know the famous image ofthe hippie putting a flower
into a gun at a protest you knowwhat I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, great.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So photo.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Well, he was in that photo, so that hippie was George
Harris, when he was protestingthe Vietnam War.
No, it's a guy here.
I'll show it to you.
Hold on, I've got.
I'll share my screen.
Yeah, it's such a.
It's a very famous image, sothis is like the little
Wikipedia about it, but you cansee the image there.
So that guy right there puttingthat flower into the pistol,
(16:16):
that is George Harris.
So he's already like made a markbefore he did anything.
To be honest of note, really ona personal level, which is
crazy.
So anyway, george, at the pointthat he met tomato when their
paths crossed, he had changedhis name to hibiscus, and so
(16:40):
fabulous.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Fabulous and, you know, very much in par with the
plant named Thame, exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
That's a good point.
I didn't even think about that.
So he was part of a communecalled Cauliflower, spelled with
a K, that was dedicated todistributing food and to
creating free art and theater.
Creating free art and theater.
(17:09):
So this is like at the timethere were a bunch of communes
in san francisco that were alllike kind of functioning
actually as an ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
So this was in like the 50s or early 60s.
This was in the late 60s late60s okay.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So there's like there was basically like a commune
where people would focus onfixing people's cars for free.
There was a common where peoplefocused on giving food for free
.
There was, you know, all thesedifferent like little ecosystems
, so that because they weretrying to get outside of the
world of money actually and andthey were like moderately, you
(17:40):
could say, successful at that um, because they truly created
like a little ecosystem ofcommunes, and I think there's
part of me that like fantasizesabout such a thing where you
could join a commune and it'snot a cult, you know right so,
but the two very, very rarely donot intertwine exactly so this
is one of those instances wherethat did not really happen um
Speaker 2 (18:02):
but, so out of this, wait, wait, wait, that they
weren't intertwined, or thatthey were, it was a cult as well
.
It was not a cult.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
It was not a cult, it was a community.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
The dream.
That's what I'm saying.
It was a dream.
A commune community, yes.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So out of this little adorable commune ecosystem, the
Coquettes were born and that'sc-o-c-k-e-t-t-e-s the cockettes,
the cockettes, that's right,like the rockets.
But the cockettes, um, thecockettes have been described as
(18:37):
a psychedelic gender fuck troopprobably say a psychedelic
gender fuck troop is, I think,the way you'd say that and they
have been said to influence dragand glam rock in major ways.
So if you love david bowie androcky horror picture show, just
know that this group planted alot of the seeds that sprouted
(18:57):
all of that again the plants yes, again the plants.
It's just a through line, it's athrough line john waters was a
fan and watering plants oh mygod, someone's someone's
cringing.
(19:18):
Listening to this right nowlike shut up about the plants
you've beaten this metaphor todeath.
It it's not even a metaphor,it's just an observance.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah, it's a through line of an observance of words
and names, and coincidence, it'strue.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
So, john.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Waters was a fan and lovingly said they were insane
hippie drag queens.
It was complete sexual anarchy,which is always a wonderful
thing, Perfect.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Was it?
I mean pretty like the tone, atleast the sassiness they often
did shows that occurred ahead ofoffbeat movie screenings at the
Palace Theater in San Francisco, because they were like these
are our people anyway, so let'sgive them a pre-show yeah, and
it would also make sense thatthat's why they influenced rocky
horror, because, yes, that'slike that's the whole culture of
(20:15):
rocky horror like everybody'sdancing in the crowd and it's
like part of the.
It's just like a show before ashow, show within a show.
So going on a show and thenthere's the nap, life is a show.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
So Going on a show, life is a show, everyone's on
drugs, etc.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And according to Waters, that's exactly what was
happening, like they were wildshows with people tripping on
acid and having sex in the crowd, like it was truly anarchy.
God, yeah, so, and Tomatohimself said.
God, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
And Tomato himself said they were like guys who
dressed in drag from the waistup and they were naked from the
waist down, and girls whodressed in just.
It was a glitter theater groupguys and girls who would just
like try to confuse the public.
They not only dressed in drag,they dressed as furniture.
It was like great I love it umdressed as furniture.
(21:11):
Yes, I love that.
I know.
Just just go to.
Just go to a pre-show and belike a sexy lamp yes, exactly
like I thought that was a prop,it was a person and like I, I'm
just like shining light on liketwo guys having sex in the crowd
.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I'm like you're already playing the part of the
lamp.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
You're playing it so well I'm like just imagine like
a sexy gold Pixar lampilluminating gays.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Illuminating the gays .
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Illuminating the gays .
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So they performed shows with names like Gone with
the Shows.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Which piece of furniture would you be?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Oh, what piece of furniture would I be?
I would be.
Oh my God, Well, I'm just stuckstill in vampire land.
I would have to be like achaise lounge at this moment, oh
yes, oh okay.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
And then, first of all, we'd go as a group of
friends of girlfriends and we'dall be a group, right a
furniture and we'd we'd just belike we'd randomly, just like
we'd walk in and then set thescene for like a living room and
then be like, yes, one, two,three and it's like living, and
we'd snap into living room modeI feel like this is a.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
This reminds me of those like youtube videos where
people imitate animals asdancers.
You know what I mean.
There's like something, somesomething line here yeah, um,
also, we could be so much dumberso much dumber and we would be
the most annoying people onhalloween if we were like, let's
do a group costume as furnitureand we won't be able to fit
through any doors.
It would be super annoying.
Um, I hope they did somethinglike that, oh me too, me too,
(22:52):
that's what I envisioning.
Yes, so they performed showswith names like gone with the
showboat to Oklahoma.
Which is incredible orsomething like that.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Um and hot greeks just so you know what you're
coming for yeah, a lot of, a lotof a lot of gays over here a
lot of gay, a lot of a lot ofmusical.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
All gay, lots of gay and happening here.
Um divine himself even joinedthe troop for a time divine
himself and the divine andperformed a song called a crab
on your anus means you're lovedwhile dressed, while dressed as
(23:58):
a lobster, not even on the crab.
I can't get through that.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I can't get through this sentence.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Like every, part of it is funny.
I, and of course john waters,was a fan of this.
Like, of course, like, first ofall divine's involved, like all
of this, oh my god yeah, sothough I'm not sure if tomato
and divine ever performed, theydefinitely knew each other To.
Maeda said.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I hitchhiked with Divine once on 8th Street.
It was hilarious.
He would not hitchhike, likeput his finger out.
He would jump in front of a carand pound like this, Pounding
on a table on the hood.
He did this.
(25:12):
He pounded on the hood of thiscar and this old lady is in the
front of the car and he's likeTamara, get in, get in, I get in
.
And the woman would beterrified and he was like we're
going to the top of the hill.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Just like, probably in full drag, like, just so like
, and Divine was wonderful butterrifying, I love.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
But first of all I love, first of all, that it's
like hitchhiking to the top ofthe hill like not not wanting to
walk to the top of the hill,I'm assuming in full drag I
think this is just to scare herlike I don't feel like he's just
like I could walk, but also Ifeel like scaring somebody right
now yeah yeah, columnistlillian roxen said that the
(25:58):
cockettes were 15 years ahead oftheir time and that every time
you see too much glitter or arhinestone out of place, you
will know it's because of thecockettes so, as far as tomato
is concerned, his principal workwith the Cockettes had been as
Hazel the Maid in their filmproduction of Trisha's Wedding
(26:20):
in 1971, which was a take onthen President Nixon's
daughter's wedding.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
It was an early piece of gender bending political
satire where you know thecharacter of Eartha K kitt, not
the real eartha kitt spikes abowl of to clarify spikes a bowl
of punch with lsd and for thepurpose?
For the purposes of thisepisode.
That's all you really need toknow.
Okay, from what I've understood, I will call out here political
wedding lsd punch yes, andthere's like it's, it's like
(26:51):
there's other politicalcharacters throughout it.
Right, because it's like a lotof political satire stuff um
this film.
So I'm gonna just I did notwatch it.
You kind of have to like searchthrough some libraries of film
archives and whatnot to find it,from what I understand.
But because it's like basicallyconsidered a piece of like
early queer um cinema in a way.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Okay and cinema cool right and so, but it's um.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I listened to an episode this is another source I
guess I'll list for this showkind of um.
They use similar sources as meanyway, but there's an episode
of no dogs in space which is.
I don't know if you've everlistened to that show, marissa,
but it's the um.
It's marcus parks and carolinahidalgo from the last podcast on
the network yeah, and so theyare doing um like, uh about
(27:42):
bands and whatever.
So they did, they did an episodethat involved tomato and um
talked about some of this stuffand said and basically carolina
said that like she watched umtrish's wedding and that it is
pretty much unwatchable, butthat it's like you know, it's an
early piece of queer cinema andI think some people revere it
(28:04):
just because it was.
You know, it was like they'redoing something different right
kind of the first of its kindright, right, right, but
probably not that easy to watchnow, and there's a few things
like that in here.
Honestly, out of this Hazel theMaid performance in Trisha's
Wedding, tameda decided to headout on his own and start his own
gender bending theater groupcalled Ze Whiz Kids, ze Whiz
(28:29):
Kids, ze Whiz Kids, z-e yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Z-E space, w-h-i-z space, k-i-d-z, z-z-z.
The Wiz Kids, the.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Wiz Kids, but this time he decided to put his thumb
in the air again and head to anew city, and that city was
Seattle.
A new city, and that city wasSeattle.
So much like the Cockettes.
The Wiz kids wrote andperformed a prolific amount of
shows and many musicals with arotating cast of characters with
wild stage names like GorillaRose, satin Sheets, rio de
(29:05):
Janeiro and Melba Toast.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
That sounds like so much fun.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I it does, and so originally the whiz kids
performed like buskers inseattle.
They did shows on the street,at bus stops, in a grocery store
and at a lesbian dive bar, andthere was like a rumor with this
lesbian dive bar.
I couldn't verify this enoughfrom the source to say it really
, but it's like that.
(29:36):
There's a rumor that at thatlesbian dive bar you could like
go up and purchase a Tommy gun,which is crazy.
I was like what?
Like that can't be real.
So, yeah, they're like an old Idon't know an old Tommy gun.
You could, if you asked that,the right thing, you get one.
I'm like that sounds insane, so, but all of this sounds insane,
so who knows.
(29:56):
Yeah, um, so they were not onthe radar of any critics or
viewers at the time.
Writer larry reed looks back onthem with reverence, saying
what were the shows?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
like loud, campy, joyous, with the audience
sometimes joining the kids onstage.
We would call it performanceart today.
There was no template to it, sothat's a pretty good
explanation.
Really.
That's a.
That's a really cool review.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Slash explanation and then so just to show you, like,
how big they did kind of get,even without being on the radar
of critics and everything, theyfound their way to performing at
the Eagles Auditorium in 1970and from there gained popularity
and a wider audience.
And one of the biggest feathersin their cap was opening for
(30:49):
Alice Cooper in 1971.
Right Like that's pretty hugewhat.
At Seattle's Paramount Theaterin a 1950s themed show called
Puttin' Out is Dreamsville,which featured a song called
Rock Around the Cock.
So I feel like the WizKids wasreally just like taking the
(31:14):
legacy of the cockettes andbeing like San Francisco did it
right.
Let's move it to another city.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah, let's make funny songs and and change
lyrics to like it's likesexualize everything.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
And it's like being a gay evangelist, like let's take
this church and bring it toanother city.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So love it.
Yeah, missionary, this is thekind of mission I can get on
board with.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Right In 1973, tomato Duplenty got restless and moved
again.
This time he headed back to thecity that birthed him, nyc,
taking former coquette FyetteFiat Houser with him.
He performed.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, he performed offbeat comedy at, of all places
CBGBs, the punk club but he wasperforming offbeat comedy there
.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Well, I feel like.
Yeah, he's like a punk comedian.
That's very punk, yeah.
So this often involved duplentyperforming songs like I enjoy.
Being a girl for comedic effect, you know that song yeah, like
when I have a brand new hairdowith my eyelashes all in curls,
(32:33):
like that's fine I float on theclouds, yeah, exactly why do I
know all the song, the words ofthe song that I do?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
um, so she's a musical theater it's in my blood
.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Many places or many pieces written about tomato have
said that he opened for thenunknown bands like the Ramones
and Blondie this way butaccording to him, that was not
the case.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Okay, he was like let me set the record straight.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, so this is a little snippet of his final
interview that he did with JackRabbit of NWR.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I used to do standup comedy at CBGBs.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
You were like an opening act, like the unknown
comic no, oddly enough.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
No, the bands were the opening act.
This was when cbgb owner hillycrystal was turning it over from
a bluegrass club.
Cbgb originally started in 1973, the letter standing for funny
enough country bluegrass andblues, then a comedy club and
then he finally let like.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
The ramones, I think were the first band I remember
playing there so it's likethey're just like we think we're
a comedy club at thisparticular moment in time and
the bands are secondary to yourright bullshit performance right
now, which is so weird, soweird as that may seem.
(33:58):
Tomato formed lastingfriendships with blondie out of
this experience, um, and some ofthe ramones.
So, while in new york, he alsodid a gossip column called
hollywood spit that wouldeventually, eventually end up on
public access TV, and he alsocasually opened a vintage store
(34:19):
with no actual name.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
He was like always doing, he was just doing doing,
doing, doing, doing stuff allthe time he was always doing
stuff and creating and such arestless spirit like had to have
his, you know always thinkingabout the next thing, whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
So.
But then it was time to boogieagain, get out there, because
once again Tomato was gettingrestless.
So he went back to Seattle andstarted a band this time
Something new, not a comedytroupe, not a gender bender the
band band.
He started a band called theTupperwares, with ex whiz kids,
(34:55):
melba toast and Rio de Janeiro.
And they had they had some funsongs, like I'm going steady
with Twiggy and Ava Braun.
Who's like?
That's like the reference toHitler's girlfriend.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Right, and, by the way, those are two separate
songs.
It's not I'm going steady withtwiggy and ava braun one song.
One song is I'm going steadywith twiggy and another is ava
braun.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yes, two different songs.
It's two different.
Thank you for that clarity.
Oh, audio as a medium, we gottaclarify, we gotta clarify I
can't see these quotes.
Yeah, but this is a prettyabrupt switch from the theater
and comedy route that he'd beentaking so far.
Jack Rabid asked about it inhis interview.
How is it then, if you weredoing comedy shows, things of
(35:46):
that sort, how did you end updeciding that you wanted to do
music?
Speaker 2 (35:54):
As I said before, I've never made, I've never had
to make the decision you justfell into it.
Yeah, I fell into it.
A really good friend of minewho did comedy in CBGB's Gorilla
Rose.
He's now gone.
He lived by this expressionlet's do things.
And that's how I live my lifeby being active.
(36:15):
Do things, do plenty, do plenty.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah.
So he just was like action, notthought that was like his, I
would say, ethos.
So the band also included avery young Eldon Hoke, who later
and I might be pronouncing thiswrong, by the way who later
became the notorious El Duce ofthe Mentors, which is a band,
and he's also the dude that isrumored to have been hired by
(36:45):
Courtney Love to kill KurtCobain.
This is like a whole.
Whoa yeah, like there's like a,there's a whole conspiracy
theory around this guy and thenhe like also was on a jerry
springer episode and then gothit by a train right afterwards
it's see, that's what yeah totaland died yeah, but tomato set
had only nice things to sayabout that guy, by the way, so I
(37:07):
think it's just.
It's all just conspiracy theory, like you know, right.
But anyway, the very firsttupperwares show was actually
the premiere of the john watersmovie pink flamingos.
Stop it, yeah.
So really good start, as uh, asfar as gigs go, like again, he
did it.
Like just I had just the waythe um cockheads had done
(37:28):
performance ahead of thescreening Right.
So on May 1st 1976, theTupperwares joined the Mace and
the Telepaths that's a band orthe Mace, I'm not sure how you
say it.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
M-E-Y-C-E.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, mace, yeah, mace, maybe the Mace maybe yeah,
that makes sense.
And the Telepaths, which wereother little bands in the area
to perform for the tmt show,which just stood for
tupperware's mace and telepaths,um, at seattle's odd fellows
hall.
And the reason I even bringthis up is because this show is,
(38:07):
like, talked about a lot.
It's, uh, enshrined as afoundational moment in the
Seattle music scene.
It's regarded by many in themusical community within Seattle
as the first time the cityfully embraced the experimental
and DIY movements within musicthat had previously been ignored
.
So basically, it was consideredto be the beginning of punk
(38:29):
rock in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
In Seattle.
I feel like is the beginning ofpunk rock in this In Seattle.
I feel like is the beginning ofpunk rock in this nation.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Yeah, and well in grunge for sure yeah, yeah, yeah
, punk and grunge, Punk andgrunge.
So it was just like that.
Yeah, Once they could, onceSeattle could get their hands on
a little bit of grit.
They were like we like it.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
We like it.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
The way it feels between our fingers.
But Tomato didn't reallyconsider it to be punk music of
the tupperwares, he said thetupperwares was just a little
joke band I was in.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
the tupperwares was just a little joke band I was in
.
They were like a bubblegum.
No big deal.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
No big deal, just a little thing, just a little
historic thing I did, butlistening to the little bit of
their set from that concert.
That, but listening to thelittle bit of their set from
that concert that there is tohear.
I think he didn't give himselfenough credit, so let's look
(39:35):
into that Too humble.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Too humble so he doesn't seem to have an ego.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
He really doesn't.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
I just feel like he's like too busy.
He's like I just want to makeart and you know, whatever
people think of it, they thinkof it, but I'm just going to
keep making art and I love that.
I know it's kind of like whatwe're doing this is art, this is
our punk thing, this is ourpunk thing, but we do want to
know what you think of it, solike leave a comment like we
(40:05):
won't care what you think of it,you know a la tomata yes,
exactly, but what we would liketo hear is curiosity, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
The curiosity of it all.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Exactly the curiosity of it all.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
So this is like just a live recording of what they
did, just to give you a littleidea of it.
But he's saying it's not punk.
It sounds pretty punk to me.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Here, okay, here, it is Fuck anything.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Hear it, okay, yeah it sounds pretty me and it
(41:02):
sounds fun to me.
And you know what?
The sound quality is not great,but it sounds like fun yeah, it
sounds like fun.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
You can see how it was like lighting people up
because, like the way that theycompared this time and and I
have this quote below actuallythat's perfect that they show
this later in that video.
This is from Art Chantry, who'sa graphic designer.
I don't know anything about him, but his quote is great about
this.
He said Tomato came back fromNew York and formed a punk band
called the Tupperwares and theyall wore leather jackets and had
(41:32):
Brian Jones haircuts, you know,and they were all doing Iggy
Pop covers.
And for Seattle in the mid-70speople were freaked out.
Everybody was still listeningto Journey and Kansas local
bands that had names likeCheyenne and Gabriel.
I love that specificity localbands that had names like
(41:54):
Cheyenne and Gabriel.
Heart was huge and like theband.
And here's this guy coming backfrom New York acting the part
of a punk rock dude andeverybody paid attention like
they were ready for that, likethis city didn't have that.
Yet they were.
Basically everybody was likemusic is just lame now and then
all of a sudden, this comesthrough.
(42:15):
So so cool yeah.
So, although they were gettinga lot of attention in Seattle,
it was time to hit the roadagain, and this time it wasn't
just restlessness.
Even though the Tupperwares hadmade a big impression in
Seattle, they weren't gettinggigs easily because there simply
weren't that many venues toplay.
This was like for the show Ijust talked about.
They booked all of that, theydid all of that themselves.
(42:36):
They had to put the legwork upto even make that happen.
Right Right to the PA andeverything Wow so like so much
work.
Exactly, and this was the 70sand many live show venues had
become quote discos that wereall about one DJ and dancing.
Because it was like cheaper, itwas a trend, it just kind of
made sense.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, businesses at the time to like death spiral a
little bit because of that, andthis is probably why everyone
hates disco, you know or atleast from that time period.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
So, uh, so melba toast, who had now changed his
moniker to tommy gear, totaltotal left total switcheroo
there.
Yeah, he's like I'm punk nowfuck the drag.
So melba toast, who had nowchanged his name to moniker to
tommy gear, had the idea tobounce after reviewing a
magazine that showed what punkin england looked like.
(43:36):
They were kind of starting toimitate this but he and tomato
looked at magazines of the sexpistols and their whole look,
and tommy said they should dressthe part of the punk scene
fully, embrace it, start a freshnew band and head to los
angeles to see if they couldmake it happen.
Um, so, originally it was riode janeiro who's you know, his
(43:57):
real name was david golbrinson,so rio de janeiro rolls off the
tongue much more.
Um, yeah, the newly dubbed, uh,tommy gear and tomato to plenty
that headed down to make theband happen.
So it was the three of them atfirst.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Okay, so that's what they had been.
They had stuck, stuck togetherfor a while, yeah, like through
various ventures andincarnations.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
I love it.
It was like a marriage.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
They're like let's just, yeah, grow, let's grow and
change when you find peoplethat you can artistically grow
together, because there's manydifferent phases of their
artistic expression here andthey kind of all stuck together
and did it together.
That's really special and Ilove that.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I think that it's just like I think before they
realized they were punks.
They were punks, they were justguys who were like I'm going to
DIY my way into doing what the?
Fuck, I want.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Like Vampyra.
She was punk before Exactly.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
That's why he saw her .
He looked and he saw her.
It's so cute.
So that's what they did.
They showed up in LA.
They looked cool and mysterious, with that punk genocide, and
specifically Tometa had spikedhis hair and shaved off his
sideburns entirely.
That was his look, his iconiclook.
(45:20):
But upon arrival, the bandmembers shuffled around Rio de
Janeiro, left due to creativedifferences.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
Oh, I just talked about how wonderful it was.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Well, they did.
I mean, that's still travelingto multiple cities.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Yeah, they wanted to branch out.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yes, yes, and I don't know if, like Rio de Janeiro
was.
I actually don't know enoughabout this to know if Rio de
Janeiro was the bass player thatlike in the interview to made a
references that there was abass player originally who was
like we should make this just aninstrumental band and he's like
wait, I'm the singer, what areyou trying to say?
But like that might've been thecreative difference.
(46:02):
I don't know, that might havebeen it.
That might have been it, but uh, after further shuffling, you
know, eventually he was replacedby paul rossler, who was the
brother of black flag bassistkira rossler.
So already they're kind ofpulling in some more punk
elements.
And then, after finding eachother mutually alluring, at a
(46:24):
party, drummer kK Barrett wasasked to join the band.
Kk was the only trulytraditional punk instrument in
the whole band, as the othermembers were playing an ARP
Odyssey synthesizer that wasTommy Gear, and a Fender Rhodes
electric piano Paul Rossler.
So there were no guitars inthis band, no guitar At all.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
So Tamada said we didn't have any guitars and we
met a guy at a party who wasshoving people.
This was in 76.
And by that time it was theEagles music.
People were so happy and lovingand to see somebody out at a
party with that kind of behaviorwe thought we should start a
(47:07):
band with this guy.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
And that was KK.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yeah, kk.
He was this rowdy from Oklahomawho learned how to play drums
from listening to ArethaFranklin's Chain of Fools.
This was his all-time favoritesong.
I don't know how many timesI've heard him drum to that.
Anyway, we started playing andby that time we just didn't
(47:31):
think we needed a guitar.
It wasn't a political thing, itwasn't a thing that was
inspired.
Oddly enough, it just evolved.
Oddly enough, I feel likethat's its whole thing.
It just evolved.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Whatever project, just whatever project I'm doing
just evolved, I just evolved,everything just evolved, and
yeah, yeah, I feel like whenpeople talk about being in a
flow state like this, is whatthat is.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
You're just like I'm not judging, I'm just letting
myself flow from one thing toanother to let it speak, and I'm
not going to get in my own way.
So they named the new iterationof the band the Screamers,
largely due to Tomato DiPlenty'ssinging style, which was
actually just screaming it trulywas.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Maybe that's why maybe Rio was like maybe we
should just do.
I think that's what he wassaying.
He was like gently trying tojust do.
I think that's what he wassaying because he was like he's
like gently trying to be likedude.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
But I mean and I don't even mean to say like that
tomato was offended by it.
I think he kind of thought likehe, he was doing everything for
art's sake.
I don't think like he had apersonal ego about his own no,
no, I'm not saying that at allyeah, it's no.
No, I don't think you are even.
It's just like to.
To clarify, because I think helike thought it was.
Yeah, I think he thought it wasfunny.
(48:51):
But he even describes himself.
He's like I'm not like in thisinterview.
He's like I'm not a musician,I'm just the jerk at the front,
Like that's how the way anyonethinks about this but no, that's
so fun yeah, and this thescreamers were actually like a
(49:11):
hit nearly immediately aftersetting settling in los angeles,
and this could have been for acouple different reasons.
Um, maybe it was due to theirlegendary, magical and very punk
rock living situation.
They lived in a large houseknown as the Wilton Hilton that
still stands today.
Um, wait, I'm going to look itup.
(49:32):
Yeah, look it up.
The Wilton Hilton, the WiltonHilton.
So this yeah, this house has allkinds of legend and lore around
it.
I think it's like a bed, a, band B now or something like that
, or maybe I can't tellsomething like that.
But Tomato said that WilliamRandolph Hearst had bought it
(49:53):
for his lover, marion Davies.
But that is an unsubstantiatedclaim.
There's like no evidence thatthat's true.
That's just maybe a tall talehe told people.
What is true is that the 60sgirl group, gto girl together
outrageously, which includedgroupie musician turned writer
pamela debar, who we havediscussed before in our
christopher jones episodes,lived there.
(50:14):
So she's the one who, like,grilled him.
Like really remember interviewum.
So she was a band member of thisband.
Um many claim that the house isextremely haunted and one of
GTO's members, miss Christine,who died of a barbiturate
overdose, is said to still hangaround the house in the
afterlife.
(50:34):
From what I looked up, shedidn't even die in the house, so
I don't know if that's true.
But I mean, like people say,ghosts work in different ways.
I don't know, um, but when thescreamers lived there, they
leaned into the spooky andcovered many of the rooms with
black plastic, which is bothcreepy and easier to clean.
Um, I don't know if theythought about that at all, but
(50:56):
that may have come in handyafter all the rowdy parties that
were held there while theylived there.
Um, at this point in made, aspecifically had been around and
had dipped his toe into manydifferent weirdo and almost
famous pools of people, so theirparties were filled with names.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Blondie was there.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Devo hung around.
Punk bands like the weirdos andthe germs came by because they
were kind of coming up at thesame time as that it was very
raucous.
Um.
So they became big in LA veryquickly, and some say they were
able to start.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
They had like a really cool party house.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
They had a really cool party house.
And like no ego and likeeveryone was, it was welcome, it
seems, and they looked cool,people would like see them and
just be like who are those guys,like they were like, cause I
think like it's important tostress that the punks you guys
can hear the yeah if there's anysirens, it's because of new
york.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
New york, okay, new york city.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
They became big in la very quickly.
Some say they were able tostart buzz because their friends
designed posters fornon-existent shows and put them
up all over town, which is kindof a brilliant marketing
strategy to be honest at thetime, so funny, and, in fact,
gary Panter was an artist whocreated a logo based on tomato
screaming with his spiky hair.
(52:16):
That is still one of the mostrecognizable pieces of art of
Los Angeles punk rock history.
So, um, it's yeah, really,really cool image.
Yeah, let me show you.
Okay, so, this is just like afew examples of it, but that's
what it looked like.
Oh, yeah, have you seen thisbefore?
Yes, yes, it's like stillpopular today.
(52:38):
Yeah, oh, that's really cool,that's supposed to be tomato de
plenty like right there Okaycool.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Yeah, I can see it.
I can see it.
Speaker 1 (52:46):
That's awesome, yes but once the band had started
performing, they developed avery loyal following.
They were truly ahead of theirtime and synthesizer based punk
was not going to be seen in abig way again until the 90s
really whoa way ahead of theirtime yeah, there were also bands
like the Dead Kennedys whodirectly copied to made a
(53:08):
theatrical performance style and, funny enough, the Screamers
never actually recorded in astudio ever.
So any audio of them is either ahomemade demo which they did do
in the Wilton Hilton, a liveperformance, or audio ripped
from the videos they madeBecause they were so ahead of
their time that they prioritizedmaking videos and using them in
(53:31):
their performances in the lateseventies, when most people were
hardly familiar with the ideaof a VHS tape.
There was no yeah it was likedefinitely way ahead there was
no.
MTB yet, but they had theirfinger on the pulse yet, but
they had their finger on thepulse and this is the sound they
(53:53):
achieved.
So this video that I'm going toshow is actually like oh, hold
on a minute.
Okay, I'm going to share withyou this.
I'm going to skip around in ita little bit, but this is from
the Target Studios promo videosthat they made.
So Target the no, it was calledit was again ahead of target
the store oh, I was like, waitwhat all right so this is like
(54:16):
uh, I'm just gonna skip to this.
Like, start this littlehelicopter thing.
Jesse, by the way, was veryimpressed with the way that this
video was done for the time.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
And Jesse edits music videos all day.
Yeah, and then his head is likeslowly coming into focus from
the back.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Yeah, there's a helicopter and now and then I'm
just going gonna skip ahead herea little bit.
The spiky hair.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
The screamers is right.
Oh, the synthesizer soundsreally cool actually, yeah it's
really really cool.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
That's so cool and it's like just watching him
perform.
He's got like he's supertheatrical, like you can tell
he's a theater guy.
And then like so there there's.
I'm trying to get like one toone of the full body shots over
here in this video, because thisis just like a smattering of
(55:53):
the um promo videos that theydid.
But that's from um 122 hours offear, which is one of their
songs, and let me try to.
I want to.
There's like one in particularbit I want to get to here.
So, like you can kind of seeI'm just skipping through this a
little bit you can see some ofhis fashion, like his punk
choices.
Here too, he's got likepinstriped shirts on and like
(56:18):
bow ties and suspenders.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
Has he met Vampyra at this time?
Speaker 1 (56:24):
No, this is like in his prime, so this is like late
70 prime.
So this is like this is beforeuh, late 70s, very early 80s,
like the, the screamers wereonly around for like four years
um you got four wonderful years,yeah, your best years in
college oh yeah, so this song isawesome.
This is called vertigo he looksso cool.
(56:45):
He's like very Mick Jagger in alot of ways.
Speaker 2 (57:09):
I can see at the camera.
He's just like, actually likegoing all the way down to the
(57:33):
ground.
Right now he's dancing andacting everything out.
Gosh this is amazing.
It's like just jumping aroundlike full blast like tap dancing
(57:54):
, stomping irish dancing, actingout every single word and and
then this is the part I want toshow you, because this came out
of like a live.
Speaker 1 (58:06):
This is from the first song you show you because
this came out of like a live.
This is from the first songyou're listening to.
This came out of a liveperformance where he was doing
something dramatic and somebodylike in the pause said you suck.
And then he like came up withthis moment, basically and like
part of the song.
So he's like fallen to theground, he's on a knee,
(58:31):
everything stopped.
He's just like collapsed by themicrophone stand.
Speaker 2 (58:39):
You better shut up and listen.
You better shut up and listen.
Speaker 1 (58:45):
That moment came totally organically from
somebody being like you suck,and he's like you better shut up
and listen.
And then it just looks so good.
Well, on that note yes, we'regoing to come back to the later
years and then how.
We'll dive into a little bit,because you know, I'm just going
(59:07):
to say this now as a littleteaser for next week because
this is real.
We're kind of like leaving onthis episode at the height of
the screamers.
But, um, there's some, uh,there's a project that I didn't
know about, that he did withvampire, that, oh my god, and so
we'll dig into that.
Speaker 2 (59:27):
So get a little bit of a revisit.
That's so fun.
Oh, I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (59:35):
Yeah.
But, um but he's this is reallyfun, right?
He's a.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
This is so fun.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
He's like super, super rad I'm honestly impressed
.
He's like a.
He's like a Phoenix that keepsrising from not even ashes.
Speaker 2 (59:48):
He just keeps evolving.
Speaker 1 (59:50):
I love this guy.
He's like a flower that'sgrowing out of a flower.
Over and over again, again,another plant.
Yes, he's just a little tomatoflower.
Speaker 2 (59:59):
A little tomato, tomato, tomato, tomato.
Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
I know how many times did he hear that tired old joke
.
By the way, tomato, tomato,tomato.
If you liked what you heard orif you have any feedback for us
at all the good, the bad, theugly, the dead, the alive please
leave us a review on applepodcasts, um, and and let us
know what you think we reallywant to hear from you.
(01:00:22):
Also, follow the show, please.
Um, you know, definitelysubscribe whatever, wherever you
get your podcasts, but butwrite us your review, tell us
what you're thinking.
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Dead and Kind of Famous is written, researched
and produced by CourtneyBlomquist.
It is co -hosted by MarissaRivera.
We tag team on socials.
Jesse Russell and CourtneyBlomquist do our editing.
Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Until next time.
You might not be famous, butyou got a story to tell and
you're not dead yet.
Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Okay, bye, bye.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.