behind the scenes at "fukzoo"

i like to stay busy and keep an open mind, so K$ commissioned a "demonic shadow puppet" show from me about a month ago.

we were on the roof of my work, and i was delirious with a headcold. i had drank enough apple juice that it felt like i was sweating it out through my pores, each cigarette sent my head higher and higher into the weird. i proposed a series of ghetto-fabulous tit-window robot costumes for the launch (more on that later, perhaps) and immediately snapped-up the shadow puppet assignment.

i have always been attracted to shadows, though i'm not completely certain why. in grade school we used to play a game where shadows were "safe" and sunlight was "lava" (who didn't, really?) and still whenever i pass a big, blank wall i wish i had some silhouettes and a 100,000 candle-power floodlight. how long could i broadcast the silhouette of a dancing penguin, say, on the side of the prince arthur parking plaza before the fuzz showed up and shooed me away for disturbing the peace? disturbing? i'm FOSTERING peace, goddammit.

...

right-o. so the first draft of the shadow puppet pornography show was about time-traveling robots who journeyed to ancient greece to study earthling sexuality, while simultaneously present-day humans followed them back to the past in hopes of stealing their fantastic robot technology. it had some good lines of dialogue, but ultimately was so complicated and convoluted that it would be impossible to properly present it in under 15 minutes while remaining coherent.

in fact, i'm not sure it would be coherent if i had 45 minutes, for the junction btw/ sex and politics is so precarious and difficult to find that i could be workshopping it until january, months after showtime. you know what's sexy about the militarism of technology? Nuttin.

anyhow: the shadow puppet pornography now takes place on a robot prison planet called fukzoo, and follows the human "hank" through his adventures working for the horny, horny robots who run the planet.

like most of my three-dimensional projects, i work on this at my workplace after hours. all my arts supplies are here anyways, and there's a better soundsystem here than at home. also: no bed, no fridge, no tv... just plain ole WORK HARDER BOY!, which a slacker like me really needs to get the ball rollin'.

i spent a few weeks cutting out various silhouettes and doing "research" online, which basically meant watching videos of cambodian shadow puppets and seeking-out strange, technological porno flicks. i've probably watched more porno in the last three weeks than i have in my whole life up to this point, and it would seem that i haven't been missing much.

(one was called "evolution" and focused on a woman who was sentenced to be a sexslave because she was caught cohabiting with a man in a loveless, relationshipless future. but beyond fellating something that looked like borg and some virtual reality intercourse (e-intercourse? i love words) it was the same-old, even taking the time to have nude (but high-heeled) babes do lil stripshows on lil diases. zzzzzzzzz.)

are robots sexy? we'll find out.

so... i am seeking some collaborators to present this piece. renumeration tbd (i.e. no $$$, but maybe some sweet, sweet swag. plus, the awesome experience of making pornography LIVE in b&w.) yr name (or some hilarious and crude pseudonym) will appear in the eventual playbill, and, well, face it: you're a STAR, BABY. and we can't do it without you.

in the spirit of analogue supremacy, the images, dialogue and s/fx are all to be done LIVE, so we are looking for:
-voice actors
-puppeters
-foley artists

contact me at nick@licketysplitzine.com