Artist/prankster Joey Skaggs, patron saint of culture jammers everywhere, is speaking and showing video at the Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles tonight, 8pm. Joey's trickster career bagan in the late 1960s. For example, in 1968, suburbanites were "sightseeing" in New York's East Village to watch hippies in their natural environment. Skaggs responded by organizing bus trips for hippies to see the sights of suburban Queens. Here are just a few of his other amazing gags, listed in his Wikipedia entry:
* Cathouse for Dogs (1976): Skaggs published an ad for a dog brothel in The Village Voice and hired actors to present their dogs for the benefit of an ABC news crew. The prank annoyed the ASPCA and the Bureau of Animal Affairs until Skaggs revealed the truth after a subpoena. ABC did not retract the story (the WABC TV producer insisted that Skaggs had said it was a hoax to avoid prosecution), possibly because the piece had been nominated for an Emmy Award. It was subsequently disqualified.
* Celebrity Sperm Bank (1976): Skaggs organized a sperm bank auction in New York; the sperm bank was then robbed and semen was supposedly taken as hostage.* Geraldo Hoax (1991): Skaggs appeared on Geraldo Rivera's TV talk show and told a story about New York artists living in water towers–which he had not done.
* Brooklyn Bridge Lottery (1992): Skaggs released a "leak" informing the public of a lottery where the first prize would be renaming rights to the Brooklyn Bridge
• Art Attack (2000): Espai D'Art Contemporani (EACC) in Castellon, Spain asked Skaggs to organize a presentation; in response, Skaggs created a computer game where people could shoot passersby in the outside corridor going through the building.
Link to Echo Park Film Center, Link to JoeySkaggs.com
Previously on BB:
• Universal bullshit detector watch by Joey Skaggs Link
• Skaggs pranked bOING bOING the print 'zine Link
