celebrity - The Art of the Prank

December 1, 2023December 15, 2023

Pérez Art Museum Miami Exhibition, Perpetual Motion, Curated by Barbara London Starts Dec. 6

The short film “Joey Skaggs: Celebrity Sperm Bank” is one of ten featured videos in Perpetual Motion, foundational media art curator Barbara London’s first streaming-on-demand exhibition at Pérez Art Museum Miami. Perpetual Motion explores how technological change, mass media, and the universality of moving images impact the dynamic activity of contemporary video artists.

Running December 6, 2023 through May 31, 2024, the films in this exhibition will be available free for streaming on PAMMTV (registration required) where viewers around the world can access cutting-edge video art through their web browsers, mobile phones, tablets, or Apple TV.

Other participating artists include Kamari Carter, Richard Garet, Bang Geul Han, Cornelia Parker, Wong Ping, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Aki Sasamoto, Federico Solmi, and Claudix Vanesix.

September 27, 2023December 15, 2023

“Joey Skaggs: Celebrity Sperm Bank” Nominated by Burbank Film Festival

“Joey Skaggs: Celebrity Sperm Bank”, which screened at the Burbank International Film Festival on Sunday, September 24, was nominated for Best Documentary Short Film. This is the story told by Joey himself of his (a.k.a. Giuseppe Scaggolini’s) 1976 celebrity sperm bank auction which goes awry when the sperm is stolen.

The film will also screen at The NewsFest International Film and Writers Festival in LA and the Baltimore Next Media WebFest in Baltimore in early November. Dates & times TBA.

More info about the whole oral history series is here: https://joeyskaggs.com/videos/oral-histories

July 21, 2016December 15, 2023

Donald’s Wall of Fame

Thanks Deb!

Donald Trump’s Walk of Fame Star Gets a Baby Border Wall (PHOTOS)
by Dennis Romero
LA Weekly
July 19, 2016

Los Angeles provocateur Plastic Jesus just rained on Donald Trump’s parade. On a day when the real estate mogul is celebrating his official coronation as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee for 2016, Plastic Jesus has built a wall around Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The wall only measures 6 inches high, but its statement is mighty. Read the rest of the article here.

December 18, 2014December 15, 2023

Joaquin Phoenix Pranks David Letterman Again

phoenixletterman When he retires from television in 2015, David Letterman will wrap a remarkable career of stunts, water-cooler bombshells, and awkward celebrity interviews.

In some cases, Letterman has been seemingly ambushed by guests who were physically combative (Crispin Glover), doped out of their gourds (Farrah Fawcett, Harmony Korine), or simply engaging in the unhinged antics that are their calling cards (Courtney Love, who inspired the host to quip, “I’m glad I have a son.”)

In others, the hosts and his guests have worked in collaboration. Witness the legendary encounter between comedian Andy Kaufman and wrestler Jerry Lawler.

More recently, actor Joaquin Phoenix used a disturbing and incoherent Letterman appearance to promote his controversial documentary I’m Still Here, for which he embarked on a half-assed hip hop career. Letterman later admitted that he was in on the gag.

Earlier this month, Phoenix returned to the show to announce that, like Alec Baldwin before him, he had decided to marry his yoga instructor. Read more here.

Watch the video:

October 18, 2012December 15, 2023

1976 Celebrity Sperm Bank Revisited

Update October 20, 2012: Huffington Post reports: Joey Skaggs Created The Celebrity Sperm Bank Hoax To Expose Journalists’ Incompetence

From Joey Skaggs:

In July of 1976, I (aka Giuseppe Scaggoli), as proprietor of the Celebrity Sperm Bank, planned to hold an auction of rock star sperm. The press release said, “We’ll have sperm from the likes of Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and vintage sperm from Jimmy Hendricks. All donations are certified and authenticated.” I asked about 50 actor friends to gather on Waverly Place between 6th Avenue and MacDougal Street in front of my attorney’s brownstone home. Read the rest of the story here and see some images below.

Yesterday, October, 17, 2012, (thanks Chris Cook, John Lundberg & Larry Croft for the heads-up), a new Celebrity Sperm Bank hoax called Fame Daddy was covered by ITV, the Telegraph, the Globe & Mail, to name a few.

Now they’ve all been caught with their pants down.

Continue reading “1976 Celebrity Sperm Bank Revisited”