Blog Posts
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.
Robert Forster in Art of the Prank. Courtesy Relight Films.
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.
Planting Peace Sends a Message to Kim Davis, September 11, 2015
Following the June 26th Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, Rowan County clerk Kim Davis refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses in her home state, citing that doing so compromised her religious beliefs. That day, she became the poster child for the anti-gay movement.
As has been painstakingly observed time and time again, the anti-LGBTQ movement is comprised of a substantial number of zealots who unfailingly refer to their rigid interpretation of religious text to narrowly define “traditional” institutions and values. They pick and choose what they wish to convey as immoral and unacceptable, while seemingly sweeping lines of scripture just a few letters away completely under the rug.
In response, Planting Peace has constructed a message for Kim Davis and the anti-LGBTQ movement. The intent of the billboard is to expose this narrow interpretation by Davis and others that they use to defend their discrimination against the LGBTQ community. It is important and relevant to call this out, because these messages and actions are not simply about a political or religious debate. There are LGBTQ youth across the world who are taking their lives at an alarming rate because of these messages from society that make them feel broken or less than. We have to meet hate with love”¦intolerance with compassion.
Our message to our LGBTQ youth is simple:
You are loved, valued, supported, and beautiful.
There is nothing wrong with you, and we will stand by you.
You are not alone.
photo: Huffington Post
From Erin:
Here’s an example of the cartoons created by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo prior to today’s brutal attack on their office by Muslim extremists in Paris, France, during which 12 people were killed and numerous others wounded. The cartoon says: “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter.”
This issue, published in 2011, invited Muhammad to become a “guest editor.” After its publication, their office was fire-bombed. They refused to stop using humor and satire to combat fanatic fundamentalism. We stand in solidarity with them.
See more Charlie Hebdo cartoons at Huffington Post here.
Two Argentinian artists, Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini, will present their take on popular culture with “Barbie, The Plastic Religion” on October 11 in Buenos Aires. Read more here.
via BoingBoing
Teen May Get 2 Years For Pic Of Fake Oral Sex With Jesus
by Hilary Hanson
The Huffington Post
September 11, 2014
Will this boy get punished for coming to Jesus?
A Pennsylvania teen may face up to two years behind bars for allegedly taking a photo of himself simulating oral sex with a statue of Jesus, Kron 4 reports.
The photo was taken in front of Love in the Name of Christ, a Christian organization in Everett, Pennsylvania, and posted on Facebook back in July. Read the full story here.
Naked Satan Statue Has Vancouver Locals Asking, ‘What The Devil?’
by David Moye
The Huffington Post
September 9, 2014
What the hell?
That’s the question some Vancouver locals were asking after a naked, anatomically correct statue of Satan was mysteriously erected in a local park.
The 9-foot-tall statue was a representation of the devil, complete with red skin, a pointed tail and horns atop his head. The statue also holds one hand up in a devil-horn salute familiar to heavy metal fans the world over.
But what has aroused controversy is the statue’s prominent, erect phallus, CTV News reports. Read the whole story here.
From Joe King: We can proceed blithely into the chaos of war or financial ruin provided we ignore obvious truths…
John Gray, a political philosopher and author of False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism
From IBTimes.co.uk:
A group of Satanists who hope to build a statue of the devil next to a monument of the Ten Commandments by Oklahoma’s Capitol building have unveiled their proposed design.
The Satanic Temple, a New York-based organisation who describe themselves as “the most active satanic organisation in the world”, applied for a permit to erect a monument of Satan next to the Ten Commandments memorial.
Read the rest of this article here.
Watch the video from the group’s Indiegogo fund raising site, where, with 10 days to go, they’re already 10% above their goal.
From Joe King: Christ, will they ever stop picking on the guy?
Scholar Claims Jesus Was a Roman Hoax
by Benjamin Radford
news.discover.com
October 11, 2013
A historical scholar claims to have found evidence proving that the story of Jesus as described in the New Testament is a fiction, and that historical claims about Jesus were actually created by Roman aristocrats to control the poor.
According to a news story in The Independent:
“Joseph Atwill, who is the author of a book entitled “˜Caesar”™s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus”™, asserts that Christianity did not begin as a religion, but was actually a sophisticated government propaganda exercise used to pacify the subjects of the Roman Empire.”
Atwill”™s take on Jesus is of course not new. In 1844 Karl Marx famously declared religion as the opiate of the masses. History is filled with skeptics, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and other doubters who have questioned religious doctrine and dogma. (more…)
Welcome to the Art of the Prank, produced and edited by Joey Skaggs. Here you will find insights, information, news and discussions about art, pranks, hoaxes, culture jamming & reality hacking around the world - past, present and future - mainstream and counter culture. You are invited to contribute to its development. May your journey be filled with more than your expectations.
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