MARKO PUPPET THEATRE

Memories of when my Bryant High School pal DUG COHEN and I started the first psychedelic puppet show THE MARKO PUPPET THEATRE.

This is Dug circa 1968. He knew a whole lotta stuff I didn't about music (he introduced me to the GRATEFUL DEAD and JOHN COLTRANE.) He also "dug" lighting, and that played a big role in all the MARKO shows. We were light heavy.

This is KEN MIELE. I met him because he was dating my first girl friend, BETTE. We hit it off right from the start. Kenny could also play a mean organ and guitar, and together we forged a rock and roll relationship that of course sequed into original music for the puppet theatre.

This is HOLLY SMITH. She was a councellor at Camp Limelight in South Fallsburg NY when the MARKO boys stormed into town on our first summer tour. She and I were instantly, immediately and mutually smitten, and by January we were living together. I taught her puppetry and she took to it like breathing. She also played piano and flute and could sew. So well in fact that when MARKO decided to tour the nation next summer and settle in San Rafael CA (and meet the Grateful Dead) Holly was the perfect puppeteer/team mate. Dug and Kenny in one van, Holly and I in the other.
Lotsa shows. Lotsa new friends. Lotsa love to go around.
We played the PUPPETEERS OF AMERICA FESTIVAL in Oakland in 1972. Dug took this shot of me and Holly and Kenny left foreground. My son said it looks like a scene from Forrest Gump(!)

Me.

Point Reyes, CA.

A new horizon was beginning to beckon. . .

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!!!

HALLOWEEN was always big around my apartment growing up. Dad was a professional make-up artist and when he'd come home from work on All Hallow's Eve, kids would be lined up out the door and down the stairs (we lived on the 6th floor) for Dad to make them up.

My favorite make-up for many years was EMMETT KELLY, the famous sad-faced hobo. One time the Community Center across from my building was having a Halloween Costume Party and my dad couldn't be home in time, so I went into his make-up kit (unleashing that gloriously pungent-fresh-from-vaudeville grease paint smell!) and did my first make-up. I won First Prize, too. I was 6. . .

I always liked portraying different people and things. That's why puppets and puppetry suit me like a glove. If I saw something or someone I liked, I had to be it or them. Guess I was an early Zelig-teer!

Like, Steve McQueen as Josh Randall in "WANTED- DEAD OR ALIVE"

Who's cooler? Him or me?

Or CHUCK McCANN. Boy I wanted to be him. We even have the same initials!

SOUPY SALES was another fave wannabe. . .

I guess you never have to outgrow it. . .

My friend PAUL RUBIN and I used to dress like LAUREL AND HARDY and perform at schools and events as the duo (I was Chubby Ollie). We even made several TV appearances. . .

The zombie in the middle is JOE FRANKLIN.

In (very) High School we put on attic shows as THE MARX BROTHERS

I'm GROUCHO (and the red-eyed fella in the red was (nay IS!) DUG COHEN - - soon to become my partner in the MARKO PUPPET THEATRE.

I carried this joi-de-make-believe into adulthood, and played the villianous ventriloquist BRACKISH SWAMPWATER on my FOX series DJ KAT.

Have a wonderful OctoBoo 31, 2009.