It’s… like the Beatles getting back together! –Dr. Fiasco

OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION– THE HOUR HAS ROLLED ROUND AT LAST…

(SAN FRANCISCO)– The San Francisco Institute of Possibility (SFIOP) and Associated Artists, fresh from their notable recent production THE FALLEN COSMOS (q.v.) will soon present an unbroken, month-long run of “the original” (a.k.a. 1.0) Ask Dr. Hal! Show, just as done for its first decade at the legendary Odeon Bar.

Every Friday night in the month of April!

Mark your calendars (or do whatever it is you do to remind yourselves on your various small, portable electronic devices).

The classic line-up will also be presented: Pete Goldie’s Space Science Report, David Capurro’s web-retrieved imagery, KrOB’s musical signatures, curated cartoons and video interpolations, Chicken John’s acerbic ringmonstering and Dr. H. Owll’s question answering and store of Bardic Recitations…

It’s all at the ultra-fashionable Chez Poulet Gallery-Cabaret, 3359 Cesar Chavez.

For those not “in the know,” this venue is also referred to  more colloquially as “Chicken John’s Warehouse.”

That’s the brick red-painted bâtiment on Cesar Chavez which presents a mural (by Lloyd Mongoloid) on its traffic-facing side displaying chaotician-entrepeneur “Chicken” John Rinaldi sitting on a lofty tree branch which he’s busy sawing off— a symbolic depiction, we hasten to add, of his personal method of getting large entertainments up and running.

The show will be put on in a form recognizable to those who remember it best from its classic beginnings. Even the legendary “Smoke-Pot Guys,” according to advance publicity, have been persuaded to be in attendance. This audience subset, headed by the ever-addled Phineas T. Smokepott, are valued as Laugh Leaders– whatever anyone on stage says is sure to get a guffaw from this quarter of the crowd, which, ideally, will dis-inhibit other more reserved attendees from  expressing earthy, risible appreciation for the goings-on.

As ever, Ringmonster Chicken John will dispense the traditional shot of Fernet Branca (a potation which has its own supporting cult) for any question he deems more than usually valid for the nature of the performance.

There will be Mystery Guests, also. Whomever these may be, the mystery surrounding them is, at the time this preliminary announcement is being penned, to all intents and purposes impenetrable.

Start-time for the show is 9:oo PM. Admission is listed as $20, or for the desperately destitute, $10.00.

Come One, Come All!

For those whose favorite part of the Ask Dr. Hal! Show is the “Bardic Recitations” so frequently offered there, this show may be what they’re looking for.

DURING THE RUN of Ask Dr. Hal! at Chez Poulet Gallery Cabaret (see new post), on April 15th (a Wednesday) Dr. Hal will take a break from the show by joining the ensemble cast of poets and musicians at his show’s quondam venue, Viracocha (998 Valencia Street at 21st).

DEPEND ON IT all lasting until at least 10:30 PM.

THE UNUSUAL TITLE of the show refers to the “braiding” of disparate acts into a becoming coiffure, as it were.

THE SHOW, HOSTED by poet-at-large Martin “Rusty Rebar” Hickel and musical performing favorite Karlyn DeSteno, will feature many other entertaining lights of the night scene.

musician — andrew blair — http://www.webecameowls.com/
poet — becky foust — http://www.rebeccafoust.com/
musican — karlyn desteno — http://www.karlyndesteno.com/
poet — martin hickel — http://facebook.com/rrebar
musician — datiko gee — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3_zpK6jniI
poet — blake more — http://www.snakelyone.com/
musician — cello joe — http://cellojoe.com/
poet — hal robins — http://www.askdrhal.com/… See More

Start time for the show will be 8:30 PM; doors to the club will be opened at 8:00 PM.

A VENUE FOR the spoken word and for less traditional musical forms is presented as an alternative to the band-heavy scheduling which now dominates the potential choices for recondite late-night entertainment.

ADMISSION to this performance is a most reasonable Ten dollars ($10).

SAN FRANCISCO– The live version of the Ask Dr, Hal! Show (not the Radio Valencia radio program) will take place on Saturday, January 3rd at Viracocha, 998 Valencia St. (at 21st) at 8:30 PM.

Admission is on a sliding scale of $10 to #$20.00 (but no one turned away for lack of funds)– your payment helps make many shows and performances possible in this special local arts space. This door deal, the club has stated, reflects its need to survive in the neighborhood and continue to provide a community-driven platform for performers.

Come early and enjoy the upstairs area and Piano Bar– doors will open, as they did for our last show, at 7:00 PM. The show will end to give enough time for attendees to enjoy other night-life activities in the now-fashionable Valencia Street Corridor.

Hosting the Ask Dr. Hal! Show will be seasoned RadioValencia.FM Director Emeritus and  Show Host John Hell, whose history with the Show stretches back unto its very glory days.
Other featured guest performers will include Spy Emerson, whose ongoing project “The Hook-Up Truck” has provoked wide commentary and engaged national attention through various media outlets in 2014, including Fox News, TIME Magazine and The Huffington Post among other news sources.

We also boast Dr. Fiasco of Radio Valencia fame, who will create vital visual accompaniment for the main portion of the show, poet-in residence Rusty Rebar, primed to do a short and pithy spoken-word set, and musical sensation Karlyn DeSteno. 

Karlyn has spent most of the last decade on an odyssey of sorts, finding musical home-bases in Oakland, Brooklyn, and Saint Paul. After years of honing her popular, intimate live shows, she is finally documenting her songs for a full-length album, due in March.

Karlyn’s bi-coastal career has included recent sets at “You’re Going to Die” — both at Viracocha and the Make Out Room. Her distinct alto voice, guitar, songwriting, and storytelling occupy a spare, no-frills style that trail-blazes new emotional territories and themes, both dark and light. Often associated with New Folk and “Americana,” DeSteno’s work resists identification with any one genre. While taking heavy influence from the “expressive and experimental” language of folk forms, her songwriting is equally at home in long, weird narratives, gospel- and bluegrass-style hymns, and in what critics have called “new old standards.”

http://petaluma.opositivefestival.org/musicians/karlyn-desteno/
http://www.karlyndesteno.com/
http://vimeo.com/103141469

The entirety of the show happens to an aural background produced by the show’s long-running music specialist and editor, the incredible KrOB (also known as KrOB, the Incredible, somewhat along the lines of Varan, the Unbelievable).

Other surprises are promised, in the Bulldada vein of Monster Movies and Cartoons, the former being KrOB’s mind-altering “edits,” narrated by Dr. Hal.

The chief feature of the evening’s entertainment is of course the Ask Dr. Hal! Show‘s centerpiece, Dr. H. Owll himself, who, accepting tips, will answer any question from the audience, rewarding the best of these with Bardic Recitations and esoteric, oracular commentary.

The Ask Dr. Hal! Show has run, on and off, for sixteen years in San Francisco. In 2012 it was awarded Best of the Bay by the S.F. Weekly–

“The gang is back: … KrOB and Dr. Hal come together to astound and amaze… dispensing trivia and Fernet
while accepting gratuities from one and all (‘One dollar gets you an answer. A few dollars gets you a great
answer. $5 gets you a masterful and poetic summary of the relevant information. $20 gets you one of  Hal’s
“Bardic Recitations.”‘) Bring your good questions — do not bring your bad questions — and, as always,
“Please do not get KROB stoned before the show.”
–SF Weekly, Calendar

“We went to see The Ask Dr Hal show. Its kind of like Pee Wee’s Playhouse for super smart people. I loved it!”
–Jennifer C.P.’s Reviews

“Accompanied by strange sounds and visuals, the Church of the SubGenius’s astonishing orator Dr. Hal will
answer any question posed to him, and will do so in the most entertainingly purple, poetic, and potentially
profound manner possible. The more money you include with your question, the funnier his answer will be,
and a twenty will get you a ‘Bardic Recitation’ –an amazing, on-the-spot response in full verse. Ask early and
often!”
–SF Weekly, “Best Fortune-Telling Show”

We’ll see you when you come in and see us on Saturday night– January 2rd, 2015! –and bring your friends!

For Viracocha information: (415) 374-7048   

Listen to the Ask Dr. Hal! Radio Show Friday nights on RadioValencia.FM, 10 PM to 1:00 AM Saturday Morning. All shows available as podcasts: http://radiovalencia.fm/podcasts/?show=ask%20dr%20hal

Amnesia, 853 Valencia Street, will host the San Francisco Songbird Festival on November 1st. The Early Show, 6:00 – 9:30 PM, will feature a 20-minute set by Dr. Hal.

This first hour will also incorporate performances by, among others, Viola Booth, Tyler Weiss, Deborah Crooks and Jen Burke Anderson.

Later in the evening, interspersed through the night by DJ sets from MSK.fm, Brasil, the Inner Ear Brigade and Tiger Honey Pot, featuring Tora Fujimoto, will play.

This Late Show runs from 10 PM to the closing of the club.

Jazz and standards by Emily Anne and Heather Thiel and friends.

Come one, come all!

An all-new, streamlined iteration of the Ask Dr. Hal! Show goes on the boards Wednesday night, October 22nd in San Francisco at Viracocha, an arts space, night club and music venue on 998 Valencia Street at 21st. The performance will begin shortly after 8:00 PM.

Admission price to this event has a floor of $10.00 —cash only, pay at the door –but additional donations up to $20.00 will be gratefully accepted by Viracocha, which needs public support to continue its mission to promote live music and shows. This door deal, the club has stated, reflects its need to survive in the neighborhood and continue to provide a community-driven art space for performers.

The doors to Viracocha will open at 7:00 PM. We invite you to come in and enjoy the many features of the place, including the Piano Bar. All are welcome. The downstairs club will admit the audience at 7:30 PM, at which time the full bar will also open.

Hosting the Ask Dr. Hal! Show will be performance artist and fine artist Spy Emerson, whose ongoing project, The Hook-Up Truck, has provoked wide commentary and engaged national attention through various media outlets in 2014, including Fox News and TIME Magazine.

Other featured guest performers will include Dr. Fiasco of Radio Valencia fame, who will create visual accompaniment for the main portion of the show, poet-in residence Rusty Rebar, primed to do a short and pithy spoken-word set, and Carol Denney, a balladeer who will present an unusual musical and artistic display of her own invention called a cranky, a combination of panorama and the miniature stage. (Yes, a crank is involved.) The entirety of the show happens to an aural background produced by the show’s long-running music specialist and editor, KrOB.

Other surprises are promised.

The chief feature of the evening’s entertainment is of course the Ask Dr. Hal! Show‘s centerpiece, Dr. H. Owll himself, who, accepting tips, will answer any question from the audience, rewarding the best of these with Bardic Recitations and oracular commentary.

The Ask Dr. Hal! Show has run, on and off, for sixteen years in San Francisco. It was recently cited as Best of the Bay by the S.F. Weekly.

Please come in and see us this Wednesday night– and bring your friends!

For Viracocha information: (415) 374-7048

ONLY ADH SHOW IN APRIL IS RADIO FUNDRAISER

                                  by Blently Squibb

On Friday, April 11th, YOU are invited to participate– on the Ask Dr. Hal! Radio Show– and help keep us on the air.

The only Ask Dr. Hal! Show this month, in fact, will be this fundraiser. Purpose: to raise the dues to keep our radio show going on RadioValencia.FM in San Francisco. Periodically, it’s necessary to do this, and the hour has rolled around. For fans, this is an opportunity to visit our Radio Ministry in person, to Ask Dr. Hal on the air and have your question and his response transmitted as part of our historic, outgoing Podcast, known locally, nationally and even internationally!

Here’s how it works: come to a special location (NOT The Dark Room) –the Trucker’s Chapel — 2390 Mission Street, Suite 302, any time during our regular showtime slot, 10 PM to 1:00 AM.

Admission Ten Dollars ($10) or whatever you can give– it’s a fundraiser, after all — a sliding scale will be in effect, so no one will be turned away. This is a party and we’d like you to be there!

Also featuring: Pete Goldie’s Space Science Report!

KrOB’s Visual Vortices!

Nose Hair Lint Gland’s Sherilyn Connelly’s Internet Interpretations of Dr. Hal’s explanations!

Spy Emerson in full performance mode!

Poet-at-Large Rusty Rebar on hand for recitals!

Hosted by ADH’s fabulous Dr. Fiasco!

With plenty of other performers and Radio Stars– including you!

Come in and mingle with the ultimate elite– the recondite fans and supporters of Ask Dr. Hal!

Come one, come all. The only Ask Dr. Hal! Show this month. Keep us going. Send PayPal Donations to Radio Valencia.FM (specify for the Ask Dr. Hal! Show). Or donate in person as you become a Voice on the Show!

At The Trucker’s Chapel, 2390 Mission Street at 20th, door on 20th St. side. There will be ADH personnel present at the gate to make sure you (and not some clueless riff-raff) get into the otherwise empty building. They’ll see that you take our charming, antique elevator to the Third Floor and proceed to sweet, sweet Suite 302…

View KrOB’s projections, including cartoons and monster movies…

Meet your fellow enthusiasts– mingle, network and socialize. The Event of the Season, bar none.

And at any time (such is the nature of the Podcast) listen to the whole Megilla– on RadioValencia.FM!

SAN FRANCISCO – The latest iteration of the Ask Dr. Hal! Show comes roaring into March like the proverbial Lion. We have an exciting talent, a quondam sensation on our show (and long-term fans will certainly remember him)– let’s call him Naught Lad, from New York City. We’ll also have Information Retrieval by our own Inside Man in the rough-and-tumble political arena,  Earl Yazel. We have the redoubtable Dr. Fiasco at the helm (DJ Jazzbo Jaunty John Hell is sitting this one out). We have cartoons, Monsters and the omnipresent ambiance of KrOB. Hard Science,with special reference to the starry cosmos and the space-time continuum is and shall be the province and purview of Boffo Boffin Pete Goldie. We have Dr. Hal’s eponymous circumloquatious ruminations and answers to your lucre-sponsored submitted questions. All in all, we have an intellectual salon for the recondite theatregoer and night club habitué. To that we add the Anodyne of Lyric Poetry and the Analgesic of Comedy as prophylaxis against ennui and the daunting impediments within the Human Condition. AND, we have a swell-looking babe, the incomparable Kellita, who will dance enticingly– until all her clothes are lying on the floor. Oh, boy! Then, with a blush, a wink and a wave, her unclad form will flit, a retreating porcelain nymph in a hurry, to the dressing room. We’re going to need a volunteer to pick up her clothes and bring them to her. We’re sure those details will be easy enough to work out. In short, a memorable evening.                                       All this and more will happen at The Dark Room on Saturday night.
For Dark Room Information, call (415) 401-7987.
Ask Dr. Hal! is BACK– this March 22nd,
at The Dark Room Theatre– 2263 Mission Street–
10:00 PM– Doors open for this show at 9:45 PM.
Admission: $5! (A mere Trifle.)   Enjoy an Array of Delicious Theater Candy and Snacks.
Professional Acoustics, Sound, Lighting Design. Tiered Seating. Two Bathrooms– No Waiting.
Friendly. Familiar. A Home Away from Home. Good-Natured Dog and Cat on Premises. Near
the Beauty Bar. Take Muni’s 14 Mission or 47 Van Ness. Close to B.A.R.T.  Give us a try!                       

On Monday morning, February 17th, ADH’s own Dr. Hal will fly to Colorado and answer questions that night in front of a live audience.

This is a Reddit ‘Ask me Anything” session, and will take place at 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Ideally, many years in the traces of professional question-answering will make this task more achievable.

But tune in, Etherettes and Rocket Rookies— see how it goes!

Save the date: Artist, actor (Half-Life), SubGenius and podcast host Harry Scifres Robins will endure a Reddit Ask Me Anything session at 9 p.m. EST Mon., Feb. 17th:

https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=cXJ0bzh0ZXBqbThlc2w4aDVvbWhkZzVzZGsgYW1hdmVyaWZ5QG0&ctz=America%2FNew_York

The Ask Dr. Hal! Show will soon be seen once again at The Dark Room at 2263 Mission Street, between 18th and 19th Streets.  Admission is $5 (five dollars), and the event, which starts at 10 PM, will run until Midnight.  Featured in this iteration of Ask Dr. Hal! will be Spy Emerson as well as the usual ensemble– Pete Goldie, Sherilyn Connelly and KrOB– all hosted by John Hell, a newlywed just now returned from his honeymoon in the Antipodes. With– Special Mystery Guests, Animated Cartoon, KrOB’s Monster Movie Klip, 2-Minute Dance Party, the KrOB Moment and assorted Bardic Recitations. Rusty Rebar will also make an appearance on The Dark Room‘s stage to perform readings of his own work. The entire show will be broadcast as a Simulcast on RadioValencia.FM. It all begins at 10 PM; doors open at 9:30. Two rest rooms, tiered seating, array of candy, drinks and theater snacks. Live dog and cat on premises. Come see what all the shouting is about.

by Blintley Splervot

SAN FRANCISCO – An entirely new Ask Dr. Hal! Show is headed for the Dark Room Theater, 2263 Mission Street, and debuts Saturday night (once again, we couldn’t get a Friday), courtesy of Dramaturge Emeritus and quondam ADH Host Jim Fourniadis and Wigglesworth Productions. The show will begin at the now-usual start-time of 10 PM, and admission will still be an insignificant $5– Five Dollars.

Host for Ask Dr. Hal! this time around will be Dr. Fiasco, famed “Brazilian Astronaut” and Editor of the Spock Science Monitor in Black Rock City. The celebrated Bon Vivant will bring a welcome light touch to the question-and-answer goings on– a traditionalist where ADH is concerned, Fiasco intends, we have learned, to bring back many features which have languished undone in recent iterations of these performances. The KrOB Moment, Two-Minute Dance Party and other segments which the  cultish devotees of the long-running night club act may have noticed have been prominent by their absence are expected to appear again in their newest gloss under Fiasco’s tutelage.

Poet Rusty Rebar wll be on hand to propitiate the Muses with an appropriate Invocation.

Jazz Singer Christine Uomini will lead off the night with a musical set designed to stimulate the audience and harmonize with the concept of the show.

Performance Poet Whitman McGowan will re-appear after too long an absence to favor the ADH attendees with a dynamic new creation.

These additions will augment our regular features, such as…

PETE GOLDIE’S SPACE SCIENCE REPORT
Prevailing theory suggests that cosmic rays are accelerated to energies of billions, even trillions
of electron volts– by the expanding shock waves generated when massive stars explode. You’ll
instantly comprehend this in one flaring blast of comprehension, not unlike the searing flash that
announced the beginning of the Atomic Age, the very moment you hear ADH Science Solon Pete
Goldie expound on gamma ray bursts, and how cosmic rays with even higher energies are thought
to be powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies (our own galaxy, the Milky
Way, has one of these). Kinks in a galaxy’s magnetic field keep cosmic ray particles perpetually
bouncing back and forth between the advancing shock wave and the immediately anterior region–
revving them up, as it were, to these high energy levels. Who knows? Perhaps gamma-ray emissions
from starburst galaxies peak at the energy generated when a certain subatomic particle known as a
neutral pion decays into two gamma rays. These galactic pions can be generated only by cosmic-ray
collisions. Pete, a student of the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial
objects, as well as the formation and future development of the universe itself, also isn’t beyond a nod
to high-energy physics to make his point. And, with computer-jockey Sherilyn Connelly’s assistance,
he usually also illustrates his presentation with rare pictures of strange worlds in our own Solar
System. A Dr. Hal Show Extra-Special Featurette. 

With Monster Movie Moment, Fernet Giveaway, Klassic KrOB Kartune and a plethora of Surprise Mystery Guests.

Come One, Come All. Doors at 9:30 PM; show at 10 PM. Two blocks from B.A.R.T.’s 16th St. Station. Candy and Refreshments. Tiered Seating. Two bathrooms. Dog and cat on premises. Rated Best of the Bay in the SF Weekly.

Come and be a part of it!