Steffani Martin (1940-2024) RIP

It is with sadness that I have to say goodbye to my long-time friend Steffani Martin who left us September 1, 2024. I knew Steff for over 50 years. She was a profound thinker and was extremely funny with a quick wit. Whenever I called on her to take on a role as a co-conspirator in one of my performances, she was always there for me. She appeared in the Fat Squad portraying a “fat client” when I hoaxed David Hartman on Good Morning America in 1986.

In 1990, she played a telephone receptionist for both Comacocoon and Hair Today, LTD., launched simultaneously from the same apartment, and she appeared on Italy’s RAI TV coverage of the two performances. In 1995, she played a computer technician in the Solomon Project, my hoax about AI replacing the American judicial system, a fabrication that CNN fell for hook, line and sinker.

In real life, among other endeavors, she was a college administrator and later a pioneer supporting equal rights for women, particularly in the field of pornography. She was sought-after as a spokesperson on porn made specifically for women by women. Steff deserves a long and colorful obit to laud her many accomplishments, as well as a book about her life.

Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies, New Book

Cartoonist Stan Mack, a man with an uncanny sense of the ironic, has a new book coming out June 11, 2024, published by Fantagraphics. It chronicles his much revered Village Voice comic strip called Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies, which appeared weekly from 1974 to 1995. It’s a beautiful book that appropriately pays homage to his insight and talent. The book is available for pre-order here.

Columnist and author Joe Enright just published this wonderful interview with Stan: Tales of New York – an interview with cartoonist Stan Mack, Red Hook Star-Revue, April 9, 2024.

RIP Jim Walton (1941-2021)

I’ve lost another dear friend and co-conspirator to the great cosmos.

Jim Walton in 2019:

Jim Walton in 1987:

Jim was with me for my Vietnamese Christmas Nativity Burning in 1968. Although I had attained a Film Permit for the event in Central Park, the police refused to honor it and arrested numerous “actor” friends including Sam Reeves (left) and Jim Walton (right) for “littering”.

He also, among other things, helped me hang my Fifty Foot Brassiere across the U.S. Treasury Building on Wall Street in 1969.

Watch the video:

A man of many talents and passions from the terrestrial to the celestial, he was always ready to engage in the absurd. A painter, sculptor, jeweler, photographer, astronomer and more, he shared his life with and was greatly loved by a wide swath of creative souls. I will forever miss him.

Joey Skaggs, Jim Walton, Jerry Ida, 1968. Photo by Tetsu Okuhara

RIP Dino D’Annibale (1966–2021)

It is with profound sadness that I say goodbye to my dear friend Dino who unexpectedly left us last week. Words cannot express the deep sorrow and tragic loss I feel.

Dino was a true friend, compatriot and co-conspirator. He was a man of many talents with a brilliant, creative, and searingly funny imagination.

A star just went out in my universe.