Yard Dogs Road Show
Encyclopedia
Yard Dogs Road Show is a thirteen-member traveling cabaret
that features a unique blend of performances, including vaudeville
, burlesque
, stage magic, sideshow oddities, and beatnik "hobo poetry." Performances include musical interludes, song and dance numbers, and background music from the Yard Dogs cartoon heavy band. Originally from San Francisco, the Yard Dogs made their first full-fledged national tour in the Spring of 2005, playing 25 shows in 35 days with seven sold-out performances. Their show is used as a vehicle to travel and promote an independent lifestyle and spirit. All the performers are completely independent and 100% collaborative in creating their performances on stage. Their main objective is to inspire others to create and express themselves outside of the box
. Consequently, creative communities are increasing in towns they have visited and revisited.
The Yard Dogs Road Show is collaborative group of friends who love to travel and perform together. Through their collaborative performances they aim to bring other artists together and create more independent artistic communities throughout the world.
For use in this Wiki entry, the bands manager allowed the use of the song Blockhead as an example of their style
formed by Yard Dogs founder Eddy Joe Cotton
. The jug band started out playing in the road houses and dance halls of the west coast. During this time, band members took part in modern day acid tests with the likes of Ken Kesey
and the Merry Pranksters
. For the next year, the band toured up and down the west coast in a 1967 Ford Galaxy 500. It was on a cold night in 1999 that the band stopped to roll out their sleeping bags off Interstate 5 at a place called Dog Creek Road that the band found its new name and new calling. Thus the Yard Dogs Road Show was born.
One by one, the band attracted its colorful cast of performers. The band now sports such members as Tobias the Mystic Man (sword-swallower and magician), Guitar Boy (a spandex-sporting "guitar hero"), Hellvis (a musclebound fire-eater), and the Black and Blue Burlesque dancing girls. Founder Eddy Joe Cotton
has also performed with They Might Be Giants
and has been featured on NPR, West Coast Live, and To the Best of Our Knowledge. He is also the author of Hobo - A Young Man’s Thoughts On Trains And Tramping In America, which made it to the Denver Post best seller list.
The Yard Dogs Road Show has performed at venues such as the Knitting Factory in Hollywood and NYC, the Wakarusa Festival in Lawrence, Kansas
, the Bluebird Theater in Denver, Colorado and the Orpheum Theater in Flagstaff, Arizona. They have collaborated with Teatro ZinZanni
, Red Bull
, Lucas Films, and New Belgium Brewery, and they participate in annual Native American
cultural exchange fesitivals with the Quechan
and Mohave tribes. Members have also collaborated with The Hall and Christ World of Wonders.
Honorary Members
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
that features a unique blend of performances, including vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
, stage magic, sideshow oddities, and beatnik "hobo poetry." Performances include musical interludes, song and dance numbers, and background music from the Yard Dogs cartoon heavy band. Originally from San Francisco, the Yard Dogs made their first full-fledged national tour in the Spring of 2005, playing 25 shows in 35 days with seven sold-out performances. Their show is used as a vehicle to travel and promote an independent lifestyle and spirit. All the performers are completely independent and 100% collaborative in creating their performances on stage. Their main objective is to inspire others to create and express themselves outside of the box
Thinking outside the box
Thinking outside the box is to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to novel or creative thinking....
. Consequently, creative communities are increasing in towns they have visited and revisited.
The Yard Dogs Road Show is collaborative group of friends who love to travel and perform together. Through their collaborative performances they aim to bring other artists together and create more independent artistic communities throughout the world.
For use in this Wiki entry, the bands manager allowed the use of the song Blockhead as an example of their style
History
The Yard Dogs began in 1998 as a three-piece traveling jug bandJug band
A Jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments. These home-made instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making of sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, stovepipe and comb & tissue paper...
formed by Yard Dogs founder Eddy Joe Cotton
Eddy Joe Cotton
Eddy Joe Cotton is the author of Hobo - A Young Man’s Thoughts On Trains And Tramping In America, which made it to the Denver Post best-seller list. Cotton wrote the book about the first three weeks of tramping at age 19 after leaving his father's home in Denver, Colorado...
. The jug band started out playing in the road houses and dance halls of the west coast. During this time, band members took part in modern day acid tests with the likes of Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
and the Merry Pranksters
Merry Pranksters
The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived communally at his homes in California and Oregon...
. For the next year, the band toured up and down the west coast in a 1967 Ford Galaxy 500. It was on a cold night in 1999 that the band stopped to roll out their sleeping bags off Interstate 5 at a place called Dog Creek Road that the band found its new name and new calling. Thus the Yard Dogs Road Show was born.
One by one, the band attracted its colorful cast of performers. The band now sports such members as Tobias the Mystic Man (sword-swallower and magician), Guitar Boy (a spandex-sporting "guitar hero"), Hellvis (a musclebound fire-eater), and the Black and Blue Burlesque dancing girls. Founder Eddy Joe Cotton
Eddy Joe Cotton
Eddy Joe Cotton is the author of Hobo - A Young Man’s Thoughts On Trains And Tramping In America, which made it to the Denver Post best-seller list. Cotton wrote the book about the first three weeks of tramping at age 19 after leaving his father's home in Denver, Colorado...
has also performed with They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
and has been featured on NPR, West Coast Live, and To the Best of Our Knowledge. He is also the author of Hobo - A Young Man’s Thoughts On Trains And Tramping In America, which made it to the Denver Post best seller list.
The Yard Dogs Road Show has performed at venues such as the Knitting Factory in Hollywood and NYC, the Wakarusa Festival in Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...
, the Bluebird Theater in Denver, Colorado and the Orpheum Theater in Flagstaff, Arizona. They have collaborated with Teatro ZinZanni
Teatro ZinZanni
Teatro ZinZanni is a circus dinner theater that began in the neighborhood of Lower Queen Anne in Seattle, Washington. It has since expanded to a site on the waterfront at Pier 29 on the San Francisco, California The Embarcadero....
, Red Bull
Red Bull
Red Bull is an energy drink sold by the Austrian Red Bull GmbH, created in 1987 by the Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz. In terms of market share, Red Bull is the most popular energy drink in the world, with 3 billion cans sold each year. Dietrich Mateschitz was inspired by an already...
, Lucas Films, and New Belgium Brewery, and they participate in annual Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
cultural exchange fesitivals with the Quechan
Quechan
The Quechan are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California just north of the border with Mexico...
and Mohave tribes. Members have also collaborated with The Hall and Christ World of Wonders.
Members
- Eddy Joe CottonEddy Joe CottonEddy Joe Cotton is the author of Hobo - A Young Man’s Thoughts On Trains And Tramping In America, which made it to the Denver Post best-seller list. Cotton wrote the book about the first three weeks of tramping at age 19 after leaving his father's home in Denver, Colorado...
- Straw Boss & Founder - Lily Rose Love - Singer & Trombone
- EEnor Wild Boar - Lead Guitar & Singer
- Micah D-Liscious - Bass Guitar & Showman
- Sidecar Tommy - Drums
- Kid Casbah -Trumpet & Special Effects
- Sansa Alexander Asylum III - Accordion & Singer
- Tobias the Mystic Man - Contraptions & MysticismMysticismMysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
- Broadway Freddie - Song & Dance Man
- Zoe Jakes - BurlesqueBurlesqueBurlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
& Belly Dancer - Teri Lynn Sage - Burlesque Dancer
- Shenandoah Sassafras - Burlesque Dancer & Singer
- Richy - Sound Engineer
Honorary Members
- LeightonLeighton- Businesses :* Leighton Holdings, the largest project development and contracting company in Australia- Places :In Australia:*Leighton, Western Australia, a beachside locality in Western AustraliaIn the United Kingdom:*Leighton, Cambridgeshire...
- Bell Pod Jablinsky - Choreographer
- Gypsy Jablinsky
Discography
The Fabulous Yard Dogs Road Show CD (2006)- Jug Jam
- Driving Down the Road
- St. James
- Death March
- Norton P. Eletric
- King of the Hobos
- Red Light
- Ricardo Del Fuego De Manga
- Thou Art Hypnotized
- Blockhead
- Spectactometer
- Guitar Boy
- Tobias the Mystery Man
- New Day
- Turkey Neck Shuffle #23
Community
- El Radio Fantastique
- Panty Raid Burlesque
- Vau De Vire Society
- Lucent Dossier
- Circus Contraption
- Rosin Coven
- Bingo Show
- March Fourth Marching Band
- Hot Pink Feathers
- Mojo Juju Voodoo
- Vagabond Opera