Dr. Hal (Harry S. Robins)

From Tentacle Session #1 2/21/99 Hal Robins is a renowned underground comic artist and his work has appeared in Last Gasp’s Weirdo, Salon Magazine’s Dark Hotel and many other publications. For over a decade he has been the co-host of KPFA’s bizarre radio show, “Puzzling Evidence.” Reverend Hal is the Master of Church Secrets for The Church of SubGenius. As Dr. Howland Owll, he has served as MC for many unique San Francisco events including Chicken John’s “You Asked For It!” game shows. Recently, Hal contributed his unique vocal talents to the award-winning interactive game Half-Life.

Chicken John (John Rinaldi)

From the SF Weekly 10/15/03 [Chicken John] is much maligned and often misunderstood, but his influence as a facilitator of outsider art and instigator of insider lunacy cannot be underestimated or ignored. Over the course of his career, Chicken John has donned the unsavory mantle of game show host, used car salesman, punk rock ringmaster, grafter, grifter, and sower of discord for the benefit and bemusement of his audience and artists alike. He has created, among other things, one of the country’s first traveling punk rock circuses, the city’s only live-action game show series, and a nefarious vortex known as the Odeon Bar where Hawaiian yodelers and contortionists are pitted against human beatboxes, sock puppets, and theremin players according to some unnatural rhythm and whim. You may not always agree with his booking, billing, or bullying, but, as Chicken John says, artists need enemies and somebody’s gotta do it.

KROB (Robert Cole)

From the SF Weekly 5/11/05 San Francisco has one of the highest DJ-per-square-inch ratios in the country: We’re famous for it. Many DJs are insincere victims of a trend (we may be famous for this as well). But Rob Cole, aka KROB, is a man following his vision so tenaciously that San Francisco ought to be famous for housing him. In fact, it may not be accurate to call him a DJ; he runs two, sometimes three radio shows and provides mixed sounds for a variety of events… His talent even extends to video manipulation and other entertainments. Cole himself uses purposely vague language to describe his work: “I’m doing a multithingy after the St. Stupid’s Day Parade,” he’ll say, or, “I’m going to play noise and shit in a band and do video DJing, too.” Then there’s his video work with Loop! Station, a tech-heavy act fronted by Robin Coomer, aka Ruby Iron. Cole’s making videos and working on a DVD for the duo, and sometimes does projections during performances. Heavily influenced by the oddball pseudo-religion the Church of the SubGenius, Cole reflects, through his incessant antics, the group’s love of free-form creativity; as for the sacred imperative to “slack,” however, he’s not exactly with the program. He’s too busy.

David Capurro

David Capurro, also known as “the Yo-Yo King,” is one of the most talented yo-yo performers in the world, possibly the very best. He has toured with the Jim Rose Circus and was featured on their Travel Channel reality series “The Jim Rose Twisted Tour.” David puts his nimble wrists to use during each and every Ask Dr. Hal show, searching the internet at unfathomable speed for hilarious pictures that relate to each and every question and comment. It’s not uncommon for the show to be stolen temporarily by David’s instant projections of star clusters or snowmen with boners.

Pete Goldie

Pete Goldie is a tiling craftsman, lead engineer on the construction of the Cassini Orbiter (paper version), tropical disease researcher, frequent purchaser of fine gorilla suits, loving husband, and our very own NASA correspondant. He gives us the low down on recent developments in astronomy at the beginning of each show.