The Institute of Absurdity Archive.com
Lunatics with Purpose!
Huge Loon Show Announcement!
For many years (in fact, since the last Loon Show in 1990, when all the documents and artifacts from the show were unceremoniously hidden away from the world, and after many of these documents etc. were retrieved in 2011 and edited into the various Loon Show movies), there have been several of the initial Even the Score! recordings from those early shows that have gone missing and were, it appeared, lost to the Sands of Time.
That is, thankfully, no longer the case!
While sorting through his attic in July of 2026, Tad uncovered a small, dusty cardboard box that had gone unnoticed and neglected. Opening the box out of curiosity, Tad was stunned to find nearly all of the missing Even the Score! shows, on VHS tapes and still in their jackets, there in the box, along with the entire Execution of Abe Goldstein show films and performer’s meeting!
Digitizing these tapes proved difficult but not impossible; some of the recordings, never properly stored, were a bit ragged and incomplete but they were in essence all there, save for the first half of a Loon Show from March 30th featuring the Gas Chamber, Myron and the enigmatic Dr. Ken Scott. We were, however, able to find the second half of that show, a dramatic ‘calling out’ by Loon Show staff for Scott’s pathetic, disgraceful and disoriented melt-down performance, a must-see dressing down.
Thus we now have the complete collection of Even the Score!, Uncle Tad Baker’s Loon Show and the Execution of Abe Goldstein show films now available both here on the website and at Archive.org. They are raw and unedited, from start to finish, in contrast with the various Even the Score!/Loon Show edited films.
If you’re a Loon Show fan, you will surely enjoy watching the evolution of the landmark audience-participation reality show. Sit back, get your popcorn ready and see for yourself how a simple comedy show with an unexpected thrown tomato became the most important live, unscripted and revolutionary event in the history of Modern American Film, Television and Theater!
The First Tomato!
This 3 minute clip from the Good ‘Ol Fashioned Vaudeville Comedy Show! was the very first instance of the return of the tomato to live performance in the late 20th Century.
At app. 1 minute, while the savage and unsuspecting Brian Holtsman roamed the stage attacking the audience, the infamous provocateur, Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall, rose from the darkness and tossed a large tomato at Holtsman, enraging the comic and sending the entire show into chaos! See for yourself this monumental moment in reality show history, and the audience reaction afterwards!
The Good ‘Ol Fashioned Vaudeville Comedy Show!
After the sudden and unfortunate health issues with Pindaro’s Belly Pageant, Toteras decided that it was time to do an ‘interim’ performance before the Institute embarked on more formal plays such as the Cuckold Man and the Anti-Feminist Meetings. He insisted we try something light, fun and without much difficulty to perform, so after debate, it was decided we’d find suitable performance venue to launch an old time Vaudeville show, complete with obnoxious characters, a loud Circus Barker and, yes, ripe tomatoes tossed at performers ‘not up to snuff’.
Shortly, the Institute found and leased the famed Rose and Thistle on Polk and California Streets in San Francisco with its upstairs comedy club, where performers like Jonathon Winters, Dana Carvey and Robin Williams first got their starts. Further, in the clandestine and illegal spirit which all Institute plays fell under, we decided we would NOT openly introduce tomatoes into the mix or tell the audience what might be coming but would do it surreptitiously, a provocateur suddenly flinging a ripe Beefsteak at an unsuspecting comic.
On November 17, after announcing the event across San Francisco, a packed house saw several comics give it their best in an attempt to win the coveted $100 prize for best/worst performer. After pathetic and uninspiring comics essentially bored the audience, Brian Holtsman, an especially acerbic and nasty man, attacked the audience with bitter, far-ranging accusations, until arch-provocateur, Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall, rose from the dark and flung a tomato at Holtsman, shocking both he and the audience.
What happened next was, essentially, the first ‘birthing pangs’ of what would soon become Even the Score! and, ultimately, Uncle Tad Baker’s Loon Show. A few lame comics (after the chaos had died and Holtsman, who roamed the audience looking for the perpetrator, had finally retired in a fit of outrage) did their best to keep the show going but by then, the frenzy had passed, until Billy Diamond, in goggles and rain gear and sporting a gigantic dildo, took the stage. By then, Tad had brought forth the idea of tomatoes being sold for $1 after the Holtsman debacle, which several audience members eagerly bought, relentlessly pelting the uninspiring Diamond and bringing the show to a close.
See for yourself this seminal first Tomato Play, which soon ignited the San Francisco night life and brought the curious in night after night, with a total of 16 shows being performed, including the final Championship of Disgust! These films have not been edited, giving you the chance to experience what it must have been like sitting in the darkened audience and wondering what might happen next...
The First Even the Score! Dec. 15, 1989
After the success of the Good ‘Ol fashioned Vaudeville Comedy Show, Toteras said, “Let’s see if we can’t lease that club and put on regular shows, but we’ll need a theme, something to rally the audience, and some strict rules of engagement the audience will love to break.” The Institute quickly secured the Rose and Thistle for a 6 month lease and began readying for another show, and after some dope-fueled thought, Tad came up with the idea of Even the Score!, an event where audience members, by purchasing a ripe tomato at $1 each, could display their displeasure at poor performing comics by physically assaulting them.
The word went out, a $100 prize announced for the most objectionable comic, and the stage was wrapped in black plastic in preparation for the tomato onslaught. On Dec. 15, Tad took the stage, dressed again in a doctor’s white frock, “This show is about how you feel towards these performers; if they offend or simply, are shit, then let them know it! We’re judging the comedians based on your response!”
Several performers gamely took the stage, including Rupert, a homeless bum; Al Starr, from the Farting Contest; Myron the Moron; Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall as a short-order cook; Brian Holstman, the winner at the previous Good ‘Ol Fashioned Vaudeville Comedy Show!; Billy Diamond, back again in rain gear, along with a handful of performers too inept to be mentioned. Many tomatoes were thrown, especially at the disgusting Diamond, but in the end, Brian Holstman once again took the win and the coveted $100 prize with loud audience approval.
Even the Score! was an instant hit, and soon word was spreading throughout the Bay Area about this new, dangerous and certifiably ‘on the edge’ audience participation event.
The First Performer’s Meeting for Even the Score!
Jan. 17, 1990
A week before the second Even the Score!, Tad felt the need to unify the performers and staff by explaining what the underlying theories of participation he was building Even the Score! upon, and what he wanted from everyone involved. However, unlike traditional directors who carry a vision of what they want to see in the performance, Baker explained he had no such limitations and wanted to make the audience, and not the stage performers, the essence of the show, a most unusual idea, as most were accustomed to following some sort of set script along with what the director expected to see.
There were no such expectations from Tad Baker, however; his only requirement was that everyone who took the stage was to aim at enticing the audience to throw their tomatoes with meaning and enthusiasm, “Earn those tomatoes by provoking them, touch their taboos, their sacred cows,” Baker exclaimed.
The footage of this meeting, 44 minutes in length, is rather dark and uncoordinated but will give the viewer the chance to see the inside of what would soon become the nation’s first true audience participation reality show.
The Second Even the Score! Jan. 23, 1990
The Second Even the Score! saw Tad Baker introduce Monolith A! to the unsuspecting crowd, a skinny, near-naked ‘homosexual kinetic punk sculpturist’, with his herky-jerk spastic sexual movements, followed by the Tomato Girls, gorgeous women who would sell the ravenous audience their tomatoes and also excite them sexually.
Tad then introduced the idea of the 12 Disciples of Disgust and how the show’s aim, at the end of each night, would be to select the most disgusting character and award him or her the title of one of Tad’s Disciples. All 12 would be invited to the finale, the Championship of Disgust, to duke it out for the cash prize, now reduced to $25, and the coveted title of Most Disgusting.
Sadie Demascus, ragged and over-dressed, failed to provoke the crowd, but the following actor, Al Starr, proved just the opposite, with a hail of tomatoes coming his way, a portend to the hatred he would receive at many Even the Score!/Loon Shows. Starr was followed by the well-meaning but inarticulate Max. A pedophile priest soon took the stage, to confess of his many abhorrent sins, which the audience was in no way of forgiving such a despicable display of licentiousness.
Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall then exploded upon the stage, pretending one after another disguise, though the audience would have none of it and let him know what a hypocritical fraud he really was, Toteras himself in the back of the crowd verbally taunting each performer. Toteras would become a mysterious feature at several Even the Scores!, pushing Baker to humiliate the performers with pointed attacks on their sexuality, until an Achilles injury sidelined him, and the shows were left to the inventive genius of Baker and his crew.
The last and certainly most disgusting performer of the night was Myron the Moron, who adopted several props to enhance his act; what followed can only be described as rude, offensive and vulgar mayhem, but the audience loved it and pummeled Myron with one after the next tomato. At last Tad drew the event to a close, Myron awarded the cash prize and the audience clamoring for more.
One particular feature of these first few events was that people were becoming more interested in throwing tomatoes and watching performers squirm and recoil than they were in taking in the actual performance. Would this become simply some nightly bombardment event, or would the audience learn to give each performer their due? Tune in to find out...
The Third Even the Score! Feb. 2, 1990
Tad Baker, once again adorned in lab coat, opens the event, after his entrada, his speech setting the stage for what will soon be taking place, by introducing the Monoliths! both A and B, along with his sexy Tomato Girls. But the crowd was eager to begin the onslaught and called for Brian Holtsman, but Tad had other thoughts and brought up the poet, Alitheo, the God of Truth, portrayed by the enigmatic Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall.
At the end of his ‘arousing’ performance, Sadie Demascus interrupted him but was thoroughly mocked and humiliated by the unforgiving audience before Madden-Krall was unceremoniously booed from the stage, few tomatoes tossed his way. A couple invigorated audience members took the stage but failed to inspire the crowd, followed by Fat Kathy and her insipid attempt to undermine Tad and the Institute’s revolutionary new reality show format, which fell flat.
Al Starr then took the stage. There was something about Starr that particularly irritated the audience. Menacing tomatoes blasted Starr time and again, especially after his disgusting disrobing act. Sadie Demascus once again strode the stage but again, failed to entice the audience to spend their money throwing tomatoes at such a weak performance, saving their funds for the next act, the increasingly disgusting and soon-to-become crowd favorite, Myron the Moron.
As became a custom of a Myron the Moron performance, the volatile genius began his act then suddenly left the stage, upset that the crowd was more intent on blistering him with tomatoes than listening to his rants. Tad encouraged the crowd, however, to recall the mercurial Myron, who took the stage again but just as suddenly, abandoned it, upset that once again he was not getting the respect he felt he deserved.
Tad decided at that point the show had peaked and brought all the evening’s performers back to the stage, where mayhem again ensued, Al Starr ‘winning’ the night’s contest while the others taunted the audience until every last tomato was spent.
Yet another successful event!
The Fourth Even the Score! Feb. 9, 1990
At the beginning of the night, Dr. Gordy Creech read the Rules of Engagement, which the audience very quickly ignored. Steven, an audience member, took the stage briefly before Tad brought up the Monoliths! quickly joined by a gay homeless bum who attempted to read poetry but was drowned out and removed.
Tad then called for any liars in the audience to stand up, which found Al Starr, in goggles and tennis racket, eager for the challenge. Falling flat, Al left the stage only to be replaced by Max from the audience, who gamely did his best before the unforgiving crowd. Next, a transformed and antagonistic Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall attacked Tad and the audience in what he hoped would be a dressing down, but his limp attempts were quickly found lacking. The gay homeless bum joined him and performed a mock rape, a disgusting and pathetic scene indeed, Madden-Krall getting heartily booed.
Rupert, the black homeless bum from an earlier show, paid $5 to perform, mumbled incoherently, gamely took a few tomatoes and earned his free beer by allowing the crowd to pummel him relentlessly. His street partner from earlier in the show, the gay homeless drug addict, along with a brave audience member, took the stage yet thoroughly bored the crowd, until Tad’s despicable Landlord was brought up. The audience vehemently responded, no lovers of the rich parasitic class indeed, the landlord earning a barrage of tomatoes and verbal abuse.
Al Starr then appeared, followed by previous performers from the evening, none earning any real disgust, though the first appearance of Dr. Ken Scott did anger the crowd. Scott decided to ignore the pretty girl who’d taken the mike and attempted to shame the audience, and focused his ire on the illiterate Rupert. Dave Lommen made his first appearance, though short, the event descended into mayhem, the performers rejoining Tad onstage and the prize money awarded… to no one!
The Fifth Even the Score! Feb. 23, 1990
Tad, as was his custom, opened the show with his entrada, articulating the new Hate List, taped to every table and proudly placed high on the back wall for all to see, and quickly ignore. Yes, the Hate List laid out what the audience was told they could not do, including injuring performer's heads and genitals, yet was violated almost immediately, as the Monoliths! soon found out, tomato throwers aiming directly at, yes, the head and genitals of these infamous performers.
With much fanfare, Sadie Demascus once again took the stage but, typically, failed in her attempt to entice the audience to rage and fury. Al Starr, however, would not fail, oh no! Al quickly saw round after round of tomatoes come his way, before Dr. Ken Scott decided to unveil his particular brand of noxious belligerence. Scott’s performance was suddenly interrupted by a pair of storm trooper- dressed Nazis, who berated the crowd for their tolerance and soft liberal views.
A long-haired young drunk from the audience did what he could to attack the crowd but he, too, failed mightily. Unfortunately, it was discovered that Brian Epstein, a wannabe performer, had stolen 2 full boxes of tomatoes, but his attorney, Milt Friedman, was there in his stead to do his best to explain the motives behind the theft, which satisfied no one. It was decided, since the crowd was bent on hurling missiles over watching some lame performer, that water balloons would be used for the remainder of the show, which worked to a degree...then didn’t! As soon as the water from the balloons began running down upon the bar and its patrons on the floor below, an irate manager called a halt to the show, Tad copiously apologized and no further water balloons were tossed.
Oh, a few busted tomatoes found their way up on the stage but the vicious throwing was done for the evening.
Dr. Scott, staggeringly drunk, returned to the stage but fell flat, followed by Myron the Moron, who was joined by a couple feminist women, Meredith and Pamela, who attacked Myron’s manhood and relentlessly belittled him. Al Starr gave it one more shot, disrobing while getting pelted, but Dr. Scott once again grabbed the mike yet this time, the audience found his rants agreeable and after Tad brought all the evening’s performers back on stage for the Finale, where they were all magnificently pelted, Scott was awarded the cash prize, his name placed on the coveted list of Tad’s 12 Disciples of Disgust.
Another highly enjoyable show was then brought to a conclusion.
The Sixth Even the Score! March 2, 1990
Tad introduces the show and the Hate List, wearing his updated Stevedore costume, which would become his trademark. Soon, the Monoliths! took the stage, enraging the audience with their overtly-provocative homosexual antics, followed by Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall, who immediately got blistered in the face from a huge tomato, felling our hero and earning a pause from Tad as he lay crumpled against the back wall.
Fat Kathy did what she could, no comic or even performer, quickly boring the crowd while receiving few tomatoes. Lance, a well-dressed, bespectacled and heroic audience member, took the stage and was roundly blasted for his inspiring monologue, a crowd favorite to be sure. Dr. Ken Scott followed with a searing self-deprecating rant, but the crowd was waiting for their latest hero, the spastic Al Starr, who they rewarded with a massive tomato display of hatred.
Rob Alexander, boyishly good-looking, decided to stride the stage berating the many Yuppies in attendance, who did not disappoint with their tomato revenge for Alexander’s well-pointed verbal attacks. A female audience member tried to inject some reason into the fracas but was unceremoniously rejected for her failed attempt at logic, the crowd eager to resume their vilification, until one of their favorite targets, Myron the Moron, grabbed the mike, in what can only be described as an inspired performance.
Myron ranted and raved, the crowd rising to a fever pitch, when Fat Kathy returned, only to be nearly raped there on stage by the lustful Myron, bringing the show to a close before all the performers were called back to receive the audience’ judgment, which landed upon the heroic Lance, who gamely took the cash and earned his spot on Tad’s list of 12 Disciples of Disgust.
The Seventh Even the Score! March 9, 1990
This evening will highlight an All-Star lineup, the best of Even the Score! indeed!
Tad begins the show by reading over the Hate List, then bringing on the Monoliths!, who get tomato plastered by the eager crowd frothing to render abuse. Up first among the performers is Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall, with goggles, which do not protect him, however, as mid-way into his rant, he is floored by a direct hit to the eyeballs! Tad rushes to the stage where Madden-Krall lies crumpled, but does this create some sense of pity in the audience? Hardly, for they are hot for more carnage!
Myron the Moron takes the stage next but is unremarkable; however, Rob Alexander, with football helmet, stalks about, viciously assaulting the Yuppies again and earning vast amounts of tomatoes.
Dave Lommen then emerges from the darkness for the first of his several performances, blistering the crowd relentlessly with his razor-sharp tongue. Lommen is followed by Al Starr, again with his tennis racket, which proves to be no shield to thwart the tomato missiles repeatedly sent his way. Starr yields the stage to Dr. Ken Scott, who bravely withstands the many point-blank attacks and good-naturedly praises the aim of some especially well-thrown bombs.
Eddie the Jew then grabs the mike for the first of many appearances on Tad’s stage; soft-spoken initially, Eddie raises the tempo and ignores the tomatoes while delivering a particularly articulate tirade against the many cowards who lurk in the darkness. Myron returns for another attempt, immediately rearranging the stage and disrobing while getting thwacked, before Scott and the various evening’s contestants re-take the stage for the Finale. The audience crowns Al Starr again the winner of the night and the stage explodes in mayhem, another successful and what would prove to be the last Even the Score!
What follows, you ask, Even the Score!? Oh, friends, you will surely not be disappointed in what follows! Strap in!
Oh and stick around for the footage after Tad crowns Al Starr the winner, it is...remarkable!
The First Uncle Tad Baker’s Loon Show, March 16, 1990
49er Challenge Night
A major shift has taken place: Toteras indicated it was time to refine the events even further by re-branding Even the Score! into Uncle Tad Baker’s Loon Show, as the fame from this incredibly unique reality show was spreading like wildfire and Toteras felt the spotlight should fall on Tad, now referred to as ‘Uncle Tad’ and fast becoming an acknowledged ‘Ringmaster of the Absurd’, rather than the Institute. “Uncle Tad needs to be the centerpiece,” he explained.
It was also determined to limit the amount of tomatoes thrown so early in the show by holding back sales until later, “This will keep the focus more on the show rather than the tomatoes,” Toteras felt. This proved impossible, for immediately after Uncle Tad took the stage for his entrada, the cry for “Tomatoes!” began to ring loudly, so Uncle Tad ‘opened the gates’ and soon one after the next tomato flew. After The Monoliths! mounted the stage, Uncle Tad brought up 'Joe Montana' from the San Francisco 49ers. Montana gamely answered a few questions, got thwacked by a few beefsteaks and soon exited, to rounding applause. Eddie the Jew stepped forward, with his easy-going and calm demeanor, agitating and bantering with crowd, then Uncle Tad brought Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall, who confessed, with Uncle Tad’s urging, the story of watching his wife get fucked by another man, earning the audience’s enraged disgust.
Rob Alexander next stood forth. Alexander was becoming a master at attacking the Yuppies and a crowd favorite; he did not disappoint, but the next act, Fat Kathy, most definitely did, until a random audience member stood up alongside her and saved her pathetic performance, somewhat.
But the audience wanted blood and Uncle Tad whipped them into a frenzy to see see their favorite, chants of “Myron!” filling the air, yet the fickle performer would not come to the stage and the random audience member who’d stood alongside Fat Kathy remained and simply stood defiantly while the crowd booed and refused to waste their tomatoes on so poor and belligerent a performer.
At last Myron mounted the stage and proceeded to rant and gesticulate incoherently, the crowd rising to their feet as they pelted their hero. A black friend of Myron’s joined him but the crowd, perhaps out of racial sensitivity, did not aim their hatred upon him and withheld their tomatoes, until Dr. Ken Scott appeared…
The Good Doctor, with black face and claiming to be African American, unleashed a lengthy hate-filled tirade which drove the crowd to a fever pitch; Myron’s black friend and a long-haired Indian man joined Scott and together they ravaged the audience with abuse, and silliness. Uncle Tad took the stage and called for Milton Friedman, who’s discovered his wife in bed with a 49er defensive lineman; Friedman meekly did his best to explain himself rationally, failing of course to appease the audience.
The random audience member from before now earned Uncle Tad’s ire by picking up used tomatoes and throwing them in the audience, a profound No No in Uncle Tad’s eyes. Called to account, he reluctantly was pushed to the stage, where Uncle Tad turned the tables and congratulated him for his courage, an odd turn of events indeed. Myron once again returned but this time did the unthinkable: pissing into a cup, he drank his own urine before tossing the remainder over his head, thoroughly disgusting the audience.
All performers were brought up for the Finale and Myron, of course, declared the winner, who stripped and began writing sexually upon an inflated bunny. The first of many Loon Shows had been performed...
The Second Loon Show The Homeless Shootout
March 23, 1990
The film opens with one of the staff, R. Roberti, backstage and recounting some personal reflections.
The evening is billed as The Homeless Shootout and a bum is seen at the beginning laying on the stage wrapped in an American flag as Uncle Tad takes the stage, citing the Hate List and the many rules which the crowd will surely violate. Soon, the Monoliths! appear, and the audience quickly boil over, Monolith A! smearing Vaseline on his ass while Monolith B! stalks him with his enormous dildo.
But as Uncle Tad continues to introduce the show, Mark, an Irish Bully, takes hold of the mike and proceeds to try to wrest control from Uncle Tad; a woman who’d mounted the stage in a previous show, Meredith, does verbal battle with the ruffian before Tad unceremoniously removes Mark from the stage, only to invite Lee Edward Howard Madden-Krall to continue his story of watching his wife have sex with another man, an act which the unforgiving audience finds most objectionable, Madden-Krall getting pummeled for his cuckoldry.
Eddie the Jew and Dr. Ken Scott take the stage, drunk and disorderly as usual; however, their act is cut short by the Irish Bully’s Brother. Few tomatoes are thrown his way, though, as the threat of violence from the obnoxious brothers keeps everyone from launching assaults, but Uncle Tad bravely challenges the brothers to take the stage and join the event rather than try to take it over, yet mayhem ensues after a tomato is thrown and the Irish Bully loses his composure, Uncle Tad doing his best to resume the flow rather than allow tensions to explode
Fat Kathy appears but, as usual, fails to inspire the crowd, the Bully’s Brother raving alongside her, the crowd fearful to provoke, until livid Dave Lommen bravely grabs the mike and provokes the Bullies, which the Bully cannot sit still for and dangerously hovers about Lommen, pushing him and begging for a fight, but Lommen deflects the assault back upon himself. Yes, there is danger in the air and no one wants to confront the Bullies directly.
Uncle Tad then brings up Myron, dressed as Jazzy the Street Urchin. Jazzy is frustrated in his attempts to incite the crowd, however, as the Bullies again take the mike and dominate the stage as things dissolve. Uncle Tad takes control again, joining Jazzy briefly before bringing up Meredith again, but the Bullies simply will not cooperate and there is chaos in the audience. Pamela grabs a mike alongside Uncle Tad and attempts impassioned reason, which has no affect especially on the Bullies. Dr. Scott does his best, Mark the Bully having none of it and itching to hit somebody, Uncle Tad taking the opportunity to theorize on the many difficulties in dealing with the homeless, which he has accused the Bullies of being. They will have none of it, however, “I work for a living!” Mark the Bully screams, as he pushes away anyone attempting to cool things down.
But Uncle Tad knows how to turn meaningless mayhem into the very show itself and has done this throughout the evening, now calling for the Finale, where all the performers are brought to the stage and, surprise, Uncle Tad awards Mark the Irish Bully the prize for the night, expertly diffusing the situation. Mark the Bully, caught up in the ecstasy of the moment, exposes his meager penis alongside Myron and Uncle Tad brings the event to a welcome close, no audience member truly assaulted, though the entire night was cloaked in the threat of violence.
The Third Loon Show The Missing Show 2nd half March 30, 1990
In what must be considered a true loss to humanity, the first half of the film of the Third Loon Show, involving the California Gas Chamber and an out-of-control Dr. Ken Scott, was either stolen or misplaced (Uncle Tad suspects it was stolen). Two tapes were recorded that night, as the show went on for an hour and a half, but only the second half tape has ever been found.
Many consider that missing show to be the very best Loon Show ever seen, but alas, we do not have an adequate record of this historic event, only an epic rant between Dr. Scott and Myron, in which it is impossible to actually tell what is going on and why. R. Roberti from the staff does his best to manage the debacle, Uncle Tad having stepped away in disgust, having lost control of the evening much earlier.
The footage repeatedly breaks up but if one is careful, you can discern the text of what went on between performers and stage hands. No, it was not pretty, we have no full record, and the Gas Chamber was hit with so many tomatoes one of the unbreakable glass windows was actually broken! However, in typical Loon Show style, the event was talked about for weeks as something unimaginable to behold.
The Fourth Loon Show The Dance of the Bigots April 6, 1990
Uncle Tad begins the evening with his entrada to rousing applause, the audience primed and eager to see what may come of the show. Uncle Tad did not disappoint; after introducing one of his Tomato Girls, Dominique, up came the illustrious Monoliths! Increasingly becoming famous as the world’s finest homosexual kinetic punk sculpturists, the Monoliths! captivated the crowd while thoroughly enraging them, as the acts of a homosexual when publicly viewed can exasperate anyone.
Uncle Tad then brought up a member of the KKK, Dr. Ken Scott, “A man who hates completely!” Dr. Scott, fast becoming an expert in unprecedented provocation, belittled the crowd rudely and earned his many tomatoes with his fiery delivery. The Good Doctor was followed by an audience favorite, Rob Alexander, in Nazi attire and directing his blistering, pointed verbal attacks on the many Yuppies in the crowd, who returned upon Alexander one after the other tomato. An excellent and satisfying performance indeed!
A newcomer, Eric Mueller, complete with cigar, gamely took the stage, instantly interrupted by Dr. Scott and then a man from the audience, Uh John, as Uncle Tad called him. Uh John asked of the crowd, “Is this man (Eric) boring?” to which the crowd affirmed and Uncle Tad then tossed from the stage. Uh John began an uncertain rant but Dr. Scott would have none of it, battling with Uh John from stage’s edge until another audience member challenged him before the entire scene degraded, performers coming and going randomly.
Uncle Tad restored order and brought up Al Starr, who instantly provoked the audience to rage. There was something about Starr the crowd simply could not stand, and they let him know it before more interruptions and confusion took place, Bianca from the audience entering the fray momentarily, the stage become a stream of performers coming and going. Uncle Tad then called for the incendiary Dave Lommen, and Lommen, becoming rapidly accustomed to inciting violence and mayhem, did his best and the crowd responded by pelting him relentlessly.
Eddie the Jew, easy-going and genuinely friendly, sat on a chair and dialogued with the audience, who actually listened to him attentively, until Dr. Scott once again commandeered the mic and all hell broke loose! Uncle Tad soon restored order and brought all the contestants up for Finale, going one by one until Bianca, to rousing applause, at last won the prize! The rest of the cast of Loons joined her and Uncle Tad brought the evening to a close, dancing in unison with Eddie the Jew and enjoying the rarefied air of another fabulously successful Loon Show!
The Fifth Loon Show The Torture Show April 13, 1990
A man (Myron) tied to a cross is seen on stage as Uncle Tad opens the show with his entrada, then speaks of re-interpreting the Last Temptation of Christ by bringing on the Monoliths! The audience responds with sharply-thrown tomatoes, registering their disgust time again until the Monoliths! gamely retired from the stage, wounded but never beaten.
Eric Mueller, with his back to the audience, confesses that he was there at the Death of Christ, but the crowd doesn’t believe him and pummels him for his lies. Rob Alexander briefly grabs the mike, Dr. Ken Scott follows but there’s unseen violence in the audience and Uncle Tad does his best to keep the focus on the stage, calling for the ruffians to account for themselves with a mike but they, cowards all, refuse.
Uncle Tad then calls up Al Starr, as Peter, who denies knowing, “...the son of a bitch!” An audience thug, Dan, grabs the mike from Starr, Uncle Tad praising ‘the Martyr’, who stands there provoking Uncle Tad and the performers. The threat of violence, however, remains palpable in the audience, unruly ruffians tossing tomatoes among the crowd, Uncle Tad repeatedly having to remind all to “...bring it to the stage!”
Pete Gavin, from the audience, emerges, Uncle Tad attempting to keep his focus on the stage and not the audience. He is only partially successful, verbal threats still coming from the crowd and generally disrupting things, until Dr. Scott steps up and challenges the many cowards in the shadows. Another audience thug, Bill, is coerced to the stage. Sadly, Uncle Tad must repeatedly enter the shadows to reason with the idiots who are there “...to kill fags!”
Yet another bully steps up, Buck, who has been accosting performers all night. Uncle Tad engages him but so many are here this evening simply to injure others, a true Torture Show indeed, including Buck, scanning the darkness for the next tomato that comes his way, which he promises will send him into a rage. Tomato Girl Dominique bravely joins him, until a psychologist enters the fray, getting thwacked by the thugs but gamely standing his ground.
The evening is degrading with every passing minute, Dr. Scott taking the mike and doing what he can to appease the mob. Another unnamed bully grabs a mike and begins pissing on it until staff removes him. Uncle Tad is doing his best to maintain a theatrical edge but the bullies are dominating. Finally, Dave Lommen is called, “Get the Jew to the stage!” Resident ‘centurion’ Rob Alexander drags him up and attaches him to the cross. Lommen essentially says nothing; Dr. Scott takes the mike and dialogues with the crowd until Uncle Tad again does what he can to explain the ugliness, pain and grief involved in witnessing the Death of Christ there upon his stage, Uncle Tad drawing the event to a close and bringing up the contestants for the Finale, “One thing for sure that we have witnessed: we have gone to the very bottom tonight…”
There are no winners declared, the event has lost all energy and the thugs dribble out, satisfied they have destroyed the evening, while the various performers aimlessly wander the stage, exhausted by the endless struggle they have endured…
A final note: Uncle Tad, along with the staff, have observed the events devolving from light fun and frolics to little more than moments of sheer, cruel brutality, athletic bullies heaving tomatoes point-blank at unsuspecting and exposed performers. There is a sense of growing fatigue among cast and crew, as they come to the realization that this show increasingly unleashes something they cannot control: the blood-lust desire to injure and maim over anything else...
The Sixth Loon Show Second to the last April 20, 1990
The second to the last Loon Show, a week before The Championship of Disgust!, opened with a large ‘Question’ mark on the wall, Uncle Tad offering up his entrada and the Monoliths! wreaking their usual havoc on stage. Uncle Tad then calls for Christina, the sexy Tomato Girl, and follows her up by introducing tonight’s theme, a discussion, based on Classical Greek Characters, “...on the ladies in our lives!”
Up comes Al Starr as Paris, who denounces sexual contact with all women, claiming purity and a revulsion to women, but Uncle Tad exposes the hypocrite for his underlying deviancy and is roundly attacked by the audience. Eric Mueller is next, as Oedipus, claiming love for all women especially his mother, “I didn’t know she was my mother!” he explains, though the audience smells a fraud and lets him have it, hard and fast. Dave Lommen, disguised as Dr. Sigmund Freud, appears, instantly excoriating the audience as he stalks about, back often turned to the audience, until Al Starr takes a mike in a rebuttal which, sadly, falls flat.
Myron, as ‘James’, then interrupts the Good Doctor and shoots faux-cum into the audience, Lommen hovering about him and writhing on the floor with him, one of his patients there for his ‘therapy’. Fat Kathy then grabs the mike, “But I have nothing to say,” she claims, refusing to step on the stage until Uncle Tad replies, “Yet you were saying before the show how wildly sexual you’ve become with all these men in the crowd!” Fat Kathy flounders, as usual, drawing boos for another uninspiring performance, before Myron/James launches upon the stage and smothers himself in her pubic region before taking the mike and beginning his ranting.
Myron is interrupted by an audience ruffian, Brennan, who actually appears mild and good-natured, bravely taking in the many tomatoes thrown his way, “True testicles!” Uncle Tad exclaims in his honor. Myron continues writhing about on the stage floor, until Uncle Tad calls “...for a hard man, Pentheus!” Up comes Dr. Ken Scott, who blisters the Yuppies and undergoes a most vicious attack by the offended audience, all the while Myron continuing to ‘fuck’ the filthy tomato-strewn floor.
Uncle Tad waxes poetic over his next performer, “Some call him Rob, others know him as Prometheus, who has given us the Gift of Wisdom!” Rob Alexander takes the stage and instantly assails the audience, joined soon by the mad Dr. Scott; together they launch one scathing attack after the next, certainly earning the many tomatoes sent their way, but it is Alexander who truly unifies the audience into one seriously annoyed entity.
Uncle Tad calls for the Finale, all the night’s performers take the stage, but it is Rob Alexander who earns the victory, “The 12th Disciple of Disgust!” Uncle Tad proudly boasts, raising the victor’s hand in triumph. Alexander and Uncle Tad, soon joined by Myron, and in what has become the fashion to conclude every Loon Show, dance in rhythm to PIL’s ‘Rise’, the traditional ending song of Uncle Tad Baker’s Loon Show.
Everything is now in readiness for the much-anticipated Final Loon Show, The Championship of Disgust! What happened at the Championship? Who won the coveted cash prize and vacation stay on a beach-front house on the Sonoma coast?
For those results, tune in to The Championship of Disgust! and see for yourself...