0:00

I don’t know quite what was the initial

0:02

inspiration for the banana Olympics but

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parody is a very major tool in my move

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for sure I mean vial and banana rag is a

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newsletter and so the banana Olympics I

0:18

don’t know what what triggered it

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whether there was an olympics games that

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year that might have i know i don’t know

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even with the other one but anyway

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somehow or another it came into my field

0:30

of vision and and the idea of doing a

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parody just was delicious and there were

0:38

a lot of events that had already been a

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report reported to me that were of an

0:44

Olympic nature in other words there were

0:45

many wild long banana split events that

0:50

people would send me newspaper clippings

0:52

about and then there seemed to be an

0:55

ongoing war who could do the the longest

0:57

banana split so so I think that might

1:01

have helped you know bump me over into

1:04

the Olympic fields and thinking well

1:06

what can you do with that and in the

1:09

possibilities were just so so delicious

1:13

to me that because for one thing I find

1:20

spectator sport to be something that is

1:25

such a distraction for most people and

1:28

such an investment you know the bigger

1:31

the event the more money that gets

1:33

invested in it and it’s only about

1:36

everybody watching somebody doing these

1:38

little things on to me the banana

1:41

Olympics would make it open to anyone

1:43

who didn’t have to be athletes they

1:46

didn’t have to be artists sake anyone

1:48

who was inspired to come in

1:51

and create a costume the terms of the

1:53

Olympics were all all people could

1:58

participate you could costume yourself

2:01

however you wanted and that the way to

2:04

win the races wasn’t to cross the finish

2:07

line first but to do it with the most

2:09

appeal and so and puns are another thing

2:13

that I like to play with so it was

2:17

encouraging people to be creative with

2:19

their performance of the race rather

2:21

than just going for it to try to be

2:24

their first so those were all background

2:27

information about where I’m coming from

2:29

that was incorporated into this these

2:31

events I was by then working for the San

2:35

Francisco Bay Guardian and the staff of

2:38

the Bay Guardian had already

2:40

participated in my 1974 columbus day

2:44

parade entry and they were keen even the

2:47

publisher now i don’t think the

2:49

publisher came into the banana olympics

2:52

but his partner team Dibble did I saw

2:56

her in one of the races so they decided

2:59

to give me the back page the whole back

3:01

page of a bay guardian the tabloid paper

3:04

and we came up I asked my network for

3:08

suggestions for the races so that the

3:11

network was involved and I actually had

3:14

some people come for the event for that

3:17

but always with the idea of parenting

3:20

the real things so and humor obviously

3:23

is the way to go as far as I was

3:25

concerned so the bay guardian also the

3:29

the page had a series of me and my goofy

3:32

banana costume across the top and then

3:34

there were the rule the races and the

3:37

rules and then in the lower corner there

3:39

was also a banana music contest which is

3:41

where they ran the lamb of people that

3:43

came in to the and Billy shoot sheets

3:46

and the

3:47

I don’t know who wrote the song i

3:49

suspect perhaps it was Billy sheets but

3:51

anyway so it was a big invitation to the

3:56

community at large to participate and

3:58

there was a coupon for the them to clip

4:02

and fill out what their names were and

4:04

so on and we received between the time

4:06

that that went in the paper and when the

4:09

event took place over a hundred people

4:11

entered as contestants for the events so

4:16

where do we go from there that was the

4:20

determination of the event and the

4:23

actual execution I had meetings in my

4:27

home I had people coming and taking

4:29

different roles as far as volunteers or

4:32

concern there was no money exchanged in

4:35

the whole thing there were no what do

4:38

you call them in fees to participate

4:42

nobody put money into it the parks board

4:47

allowed me the use of that plaza with no

4:51

charge no thing except a few weeks

4:54

before the event I went to check out the

4:56

plaza and found that they were all these

4:59

crafts people occupying embarcadero

5:03

Plaza and I was like oh so I went around

5:05

and talked to people and they were not

5:07

amused with the idea of a banana

5:09

Olympics because then people would be

5:11

watching the Olympics and not buying

5:13

their crafts or whatever they were

5:15

selling so we ended up with a crew going

5:19

to the plaza at five in the morning

5:21

before any of the crafts people showed

5:24

up and delineating what our area was

5:26

because there was a stage and there was

5:29

a place where they dragged could be and

5:31

they were on the periphery and not very

5:33

happy but we managed to do that and the

5:37

day of the event it all went very well

5:40

there was no conflicts that I was aware

5:43

of there was one strange street person

5:46

that sort of interjected himself a

5:48

couple of times

5:49

to the things but for the most part it

5:52

was a day of participation and amusement

5:55

and the music and then there was a guy

5:58

with the data poem who came along and I

6:02

guess he was part of I don’t know

6:04

whether he heard about it well he might

6:06

have just seen it in the paper and said

6:07

I want to do a data piece like well okay

6:09

sure and so it so it went one guy came

6:15

from Albuquerque New Mexico with a guy

6:17

with that big black Darth Vader costume

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thing he was one of my correspondence

6:22

and the correspondence Klaus girl came

6:25

from Germany he was one of the judges

6:28

and there was a guy who came from Canada

6:31

whose name I’ve slept he was part of it

6:34

and then there was also maricon uski who

6:38

came from Poland got to New York got on

6:41

a bus traveled all the way across the

6:44

country by bus which must have been

6:46

excruciating and arrived in San

6:49

Francisco five hours after the event was

6:52

over so he got his picture in the

6:56

newspaper as the late comer for the

6:59

event but and they were probably other

7:02

Bay Area artists were all involved all

7:05

the Bay Area Taoist and anger zone like

7:08

I said there was about a dozen people

7:10

that I had been corresponding with when

7:12

I first arrived in San Francisco so they

7:14

were like the core group really the Bay

7:17

Area datos of course of their data

7:19

costumes the costumes were quite

7:21

wonderful in that whole event

7:24

and nobody nobody was paid they just did

7:27

it I thought it was fantastic

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