…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
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.
Sadly, my dear friend Robert Forster is no longer with us. Much loved, he’ll be greatly missed.
The creative world lost a bright color from its palette.
An old friend from the sixties, Sam Shepard, has passed away.
Here’s an article I wrote for Huffington Post about those times: Lucky Loser: My Aborted Attempt to Kidnap Sam Shepard, by Joey Skaggs
Sam Shepard on his family plays (1 of 3)
The Story of the “˜Portofess,”™ the Prank Confessional Booth at the 1992 Democratic Convention
by Sarah Laskow
Atlas Obscura
July 14, 2017
Artist Joey Skaggs fooled everyone and pedaled off.
At 1992″™s Democratic National Convention, a Dominican priest showed up on a tricycle. Attached to the back was a confessional booth, with a sign that read “Portofess.” The priest said he biked to New York, where the convention was held, all the way from California. The church, according to the priest, needed to take a “more aggressive stance and go where the sinners are.” He was ready to take confession from any politician who wanted or needed it.
The Portofess made papers all over the country. But soon enough Reuters revealed that the Archdiocese in California had never heard of this priest, who called himself Father Anthony Joseph or, sometimes, Father William. All other efforts to find him after the convention failed, as well, because he wasn”™t a priest at all, but a character conceived by artist and activist Joey Skaggs, who has perfected the art of pranking the media.
Skaggs”™s works include “Fish Condos“ for upwardly mobile guppies, “Santa”™s Missile Tow,” which featured Santa and his elves bringing a missile to the United Nations, and many other sculptures and performances. He talked to Atlas Obscura about what it took to create the Portofess and what reactions he got from the police, protestors, and the public. Read the full interview here.
Rome theater fires orchestral director for denying Santa
AP
Dec. 31, 2016
MILAN (AP) “” Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Or else.
An orchestral director lost his job at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome after telling an audience filled with children that the man in the red suit who delivers gifts to good girls and boys does not, in fact, exist.
The news agency ANSA said Saturday that Giacomo Loprieno lashed out at the young audience for failing to applaud following a performance of “Frozen” on Thursday.
The theater underlined the severity of the offense with a Facebook posting of the production’s new orchestral director alongside Santa Claus.
On social media, the firing has been both applauded for protecting children’s fantasies, and derided for punishing someone telling the truth.