Doug Skinner
Encyclopedia
Music
Skinner has written music for many dance companies, including ODC Dance/San Francisco and Margaret Jenkins. He has often written for the theater: in particular, he has had a long association with the actor/clown Bill IrwinBill Irwin
William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...
; he wrote and performed the music for Irwin's Murdoch ('81), The Regard of Flight ('82), The Courtroom ('85), The Clown Lecture ('02), The Harlequin Studies ('03), and The Regard Evening ('04). He often performs his songs in NYC
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
clubs. In the '90s, he frequently gigged with the ukulele and vocal trio White Knuckle Sandwich.
Performance
As a performer, he has been active as actorActor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, monologist, and occasional ventriloquist
Ventriloquism
Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered "dummy"...
. His full shows include Pay Attention (1984), An Attractive Production (1985), and Eddie Unchained (1993). He regularly shows cartoon slide shows on Robert Sikoryak
Robert Sikoryak
Robert Sikoryak , a.k.a. R. Sikoryak, is a comic book artist who specializes in making comic adaptations of literature classics, producing a mashup of high and low cultures...
's long-running Carousel. He has also created many puppet shows and videos with performance/video artist Michael Smith
Michael Smith (performance artist)
Michael Smith is an American artist born in Chicago, in 1951. He is an influential figure in performance art, video art, and installation art. In the 1980s, he was perceived as "the quirky Ed Sullivan" of the time.-Mike:...
.
According to the online magazine nth position, for which he occasionally writes, Doug Skinner has also played piano on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, cello at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, and ukulele on the Joe Franklin Show
Joe Franklin
Joe Franklin is an American radio and television personality. From New York City, Franklin is sometimes credited with hosting the first television talk show...
. He also appeared as the character referred to as "Toilet Citizen" in the 1988
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
film Crocodile Dundee II
Crocodile Dundee II
"Crocodile" Dundee II is a 1988 Australian adventure and comedy film. It is a sequel to the 1986 film "Crocodile" Dundee, and was followed by 2001's Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles...
.
Writing
In recent years, Skinner has devoted more time to writing and lecturing, particularly on Fortean subjects. He has been a frequent speaker at the International Fortean OrganizationInternational Fortean Organization
The International Fortean Organization is a network of professional Fortean researchers and writers. John Keel, author and parapsychologist, in both his writings and at his appearances at INFO's FortFest, says "the International Fortean Organization carries on Charles Fort's name as successor...
(INFO
Info
Info is a common shortening of information.It may also refer to:* .info, a generic top-level domain* info:, a URI scheme for information assets with identifiers in public namespaces* .info , a computer magazine...
) Fortfests and the Fortean Times UnConventions. He has also contributed to Fortean Times
Fortean Times
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing and then I Feel Good Publishing , it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2010, its circulation was approximately 18,000...
, Fate, The Anomalist
The Anomalist
right|The Anomalist #1The Anomalist is a magazine of anomalous phenomena, edited by Patrick Huyghe. Its first issue came out in June 1994....
, INFO Journal, Strange Attractor Journal, Weirdo
Weirdo
Weirdo was a magazine-sized comics anthology created by Robert Crumb and published by Last Gasp from 1981 to 1993.Weirdo served as a "low art" counterpoint to its contemporary highbrow RAW...
, Nickelodeon, and other publications on such subjects as Richard Shaver
Richard Sharpe Shaver
Richard Sharpe Shaver was an American writer and artist.He achieved notoriety in the years following World War II as the author of controversial stories which were printed in science fiction magazines , in which he claimed that he had personal experience of a sinister, ancient...
, John Keel
John Keel
John Alva Keel, born Alva John Kiehle was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist best known as author of The Mothman Prophecies.-Biography:...
, the early Fortean Society
Fortean Society
The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 during a meeting held in the New York flat of Charles Hoy Fort in order to promote the ideas of American writer Charles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City. Its first president was Theodore Dreiser, an old...
, John Dee
John Dee (mathematician)
John Dee was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy....
, Boris Vian
Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
, the scientific method, the cultural history of Darwinism in the US, and hoaxes. Regular features have included the column Let's Ask Skinner for Crimewave USA and the comic strip It's Fortean for the kids' paper ZUZU
Zuzu
Zuzu is an administrative ward in the Dodoma Urban district of the Dodoma Region of Tanzania. According to the 2002 census, the ward has a total population of 5,371....
. His translation of the alchemical text Three Dreams, by Giovanni Battista Nazari, was published in 2003 by Opus Magnum Hermetic Sourceworks in Glasgow.
External links
- Doug Skinner at the Internet Theatre DatabaseInternet Theatre DatabaseThe Internet Theatre Database is an online database with information about plays, playwrights, actors, legitimate theater, musical theater, Broadway shows, and similar theatrical information....
- Doug Skinner at the Internet Broadway DatabaseInternet Broadway DatabaseThe Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....
- Profile at the Film and Video Art Web Site
- Nth Position profile
- No Shame Theatre Archives (1992-1993)
- FortFest Tapes featuring Doug Skinner
Reviews
- The Regard of Flight from the New York Times (1984)
- An Attractive Production, from the New York Times (1985)
- The Harlequin Studies (2003)