Despite the fierceness of their culture, they were quite kind to him. According to Wikipedia, the people of Nagaland were known for their hospitality to strangers. My cousin did not know this at the time, but head trophies were taken only during battle and since he was not waging a war with them, he was safe. He was treated as a friend in need. In fact they liked him so much they tried to find him a wife.

You can hear my story at our live show AND I AM NOT LYING LIVE this Saturday. But in the meantime here are some images and links to video. Look now or come back and learn more after hearing me tell this truly amazing family story!

Want to buy this? This photo is from a tribal art site and is selling Naga human skull trophy arts.

I think it looked like this kid before it was “harvested”:

Jimmy claimed the girls were constantly dancing for him and that the chief encouraged him to enjoy his wife. But Jimmy “…had a girl waiting for me in New Jersey! Besides what if I got someone jealous? Someone like the chief? Next thing I’d have my head on a spike! Nope, I was having none of that!”

I’m not sure I believe him – here is Youtube video of a present day Naga girl showing off her shimmy.

Some girls at a festival event:

Want to see more? Check out this documentary online!

Captured By Women is a one-hour documentary in four parts that focuses on film footage by two British women in the 1930s - Beatrice Blackwood in Papua New Guinea, and Ursula Graham Bower in Manipur, India. (Which borders on Nagaland.) Here’s the first part:

Captured by Women (2011) Part 1 from Pitt Rivers Museum archive films on Vimeo.

And you can see an in depth interview by Ursula Graham Bower recorded in 1985.

At least you’re allowed to punch a bully right in the face.

When my family lived in the DC suburbs in the early ’80s, it was pretty bad. I got beat up a lot and I was pretty scared to leave my house. My family was tremendously loving, and I had a dog that was my best friend in the world. But once I left the yard it was like a movie about Vietnam directed by Todd Solondz.

Nobody ever talks about this, though: a lot of times, the kids that are getting bullied get pretty mean, too. Being and underdog and a good guy are not the same thing.

I told this story at the And I Am Not Lying live show at Union Hall back on October 5th. It goes long, but I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. I tried to compress it to a tight 5 minutes for a Moth Grand Slam last week and it was a stunning failure. I got more nervous than I’ve ever been in my life, skipped parts and just blacked out completely on my feet. It wasn’t booze-related, just flop-terror. I came to a few seconds later, literally standing in front of several hundred people who were looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to say something intelligible into a microphone.

A lot of people have that experience as a nightmare.

I hope you guys enjoy my telling of this story more than I did teliing it the other night, anyway.

I’m also obliged to mention that I’m coming to DC on November 2nd and Philadelphia on November 6th with Brad Lawrence, Cyndi Freeman, and Runaround Sue. You can get tickets for the DC show here: And I Am Not Lying: A Night of Storytelling, Comedy, & Burlesque.

My other favorite show was Hogan’s Heroes.

There was no chick who looked just like me, but they were cool guys thwarting Nazis. This prompted me and a friend from Hebrew school named Janet to write our own script entitled Wonder Woman Meets Hogan’s Heroes. Alas, I do not have any documentation of this fine work of art. But for months we acted out the scenes that we crafted in her basement.

So while doing my research on my Wonder Woman show, I did a look into Hogan’s heroes and discovered. Almost all the Nazi characters were played by Jewish actors, many of whom had lost their families at the hands of the Nazis. There is a tribute site that has been set up for them – Hogan’s Jews - It is an informative and entertaining read.

But, here are some other things I’d like to share. Now the show has always had its critics and I have always disagreed with them.

Several years back The Boston Globe printed an article written by reporter Renee Graham, she had this to say about the show,

“Call this political correctness if you like, but under no circumstances should a film of `Hogan’s Heroes’ be made. For those who don’t remember, this was the 1960′s World War II comedy starring Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer and John Banner that presented the Nazis as the biggest cutups since the Keystone Kops. Let’s be clear here: Nazis are never, ever funny. Ever. So it’s with great joy that I report that the film version of `Hogan’ is on ice, at least for now.”

Where I respect her disdain of Nazis (yick!) I accept her outrage but counter it with this:

“I was never crazy about Hitler,” says Mel Brooks. Who was? But even now, more than 50 years after the fall of the Third Reich, the man who masterminded the extermination of more than 7 million people is still handled with care, as if the magnitude of his crime demands no less. Brooks had the guts, and gall, to realize that the simplest way to demolish Hitler was to mock him.

“If you stand on a soapbox and trade rhetoric with a dictator you never win,” says Brooks, 75. “That’s what they do so well; they seduce people. But if you ridicule them, bring them down with laughter–they can’t win. You show how crazy they are.”

Hogan’s Heroes was revenge through sitcom.

A quote from John Banner “Well, who better to play Nazis than we Jews?”

And it was Winston Churchill who said, “History is written by the victors.”

To me Hogan’s Heroes is exactly that and I bet Mel Brooks would agree.

Other cool things I found

Jews singing Christmas Carols! John Bannerand Werner Klemperer singing Silent Night in its original German plus Robert Clary (who played Louis LeBeau) singing a French Carol on the Bing Crosby Christmas Special – 1965 with the special bonus of the commercial that leads into the segment where the catch phrase is “Isn’t that wild?”

Hogan’s Heroes and Carol Channing selling Jell-O

Hogan’s Heroes in German! The German show is called Ein Käfig Voller Helden and translates to mean “A Cage Of Heroes.” From what I have read, the accents chosen for the German characters are supposedly hilarious if you’re German, and they gave the British prisoner (played by Richard Dawson) a stutter. I’m not sure why, but I think if you’re German, stuttering is funny. I wonder what if they laugh at screenings of The Kings Speech. Also, saying “Heil Hitler” in Germany is against the law, so whenever they Heil they say things like “How high is your corn?”

Hogan’s Heroes in French – the show is called “Papa Shultz.” Ummm okay, why?

And two on Robert Clary:

An interview about his book From The Holocaust to Hogan’s Heroes.

Plus a documentary about his experiences during the war.

…and finally, an Air Force recruitment ad, directed to the ladies, staring Hogan himself – Bob (I’d like to film you naked) Crane:

You may know her from the NYC burlesque scene as the fabulous Cherry Pitz — she does a spectacular routine with Vincent Price’s disembodied voice. (Link goes to video that may be considered unsafe for work, but inarguably awesome.)

Now she’s working on a one-woman show show that traces her journey from a little suburban Jewish girl obsessed with Wonder Woman to a fabulous burlesque Queen in NYC.

The show’s called Wonder Woman: A How-To Guide for Little Jewish Girls.

It will be presented as part Frigid New York 2011- February 23-March 6 – learn more at
www.frigidnewyork.info

You can see the show yourself at The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery)

Wed Feb 23rd – 8:00 PM
Sat Feb 26th – 9:30 PM
Tue Mar 1st – 8:00 PM
Thu Mar 3rd -11:00 PM
Sat Mar 5th – 2:00 PM

Tickets are $10 ($7 Students & seniors), available at www.smarttix.com or call 212-868-4444.

However, Cyndi needs to do a bit of fundraising to cover the costs of putting the show on. To make a donation, you can visit her artist’s profile at The Field and type “Wonder Woman” in the “additional information” field.

I know this thing is going to be great – Cyndi has mentored and coached me in storytelling, produced some stunning burlesque shows and produced our And I Am Not Lying Live show. Obviously she’s got skills and taste …

PREVIOUSLY IN AWESOME KIDS’ DRAWINGS: young Jeff tackles the Transformers.

She and my grandfather helped take care of my sister and I when we were growing up. I feel so lucky to have lived close to them and had them as a constant, steady presence in my life for so long. Daro grew up during the Depression, and we always had so much fun with her without spending any money at all. She knows something that a lot of parents today don’t: it doesn’t take money or electronics to have a good time. Making ice cream, painting a picture and writing a story with someone you love is the deepest, best kind of fun you can have.

She’s full of all kinds of wisdom — and doesn’t think much of people who get bored easily.

I visited her in her apartment over the Thanksgiving holiday and asked her to share her secret for having such a long and happy life. Here’s her answer:

I think the real secret of Daro’s happiness is this: for her, life isn’t about getting the stuff she wants. It’s about being happy with what she has. She lost her husband (Pop-Pop, my grandpa) a few years ago and has since had to move into a retirement community. She couldn’t be happier there. She gives devotionals in the community church about how to be happy with your life and accept all kinds of change as part of being alive. I’ve never known anyone who was as happy to be alive as she is.

Here’s Daro holding up a list of some of her favorite sayings, which she winds into her speeches:

Every time I talk to her, I think about how much the world has changed — and how she’s managed to keep up while staying flexible, open-hearted and loving. I don’t know if I’ll make it as long as she has, but I hope I can enjoy what I’ve got as much as she does.

What time you going on break? When you getting off today?

That’s because working as a cashier and bagger at a grocery store SUCKS. Like any other job that secretly sucks, it’s not the work itself that’s the problem. It’s the other people. It’s the other people, and all that stuff in between the cracks of the job description that nobody tells you about but everybody deals with.

I worked as a bagger at a Food Lion in Norfolk, Virginia for a few summers during high school and college. Calling a bagger a “bagger” is like calling a garbage man a “truck driver.” The job title describes a skill set that’s technically crucial but utterly irrelevant once your face is right in the steaming stink of things.

Not everyone in the neighborhood had indoor plumbing. A lot of ‘em were walking around with bad plumbing, too, and it was well known that the restroom was open to the public. I kept it pretty clean, most of the time.

I regularly broke up fights between winos right there in the store. And I was expected to help run down and detain shoplifters. That part was hard for me.

I told a story about working at that Food Lion onstage at Southpaw back in March at a Moth Slam. It seemed to go over pretty well, anyway. I felt comfortable and the laughs felt right:

Hope you enjoy it, more to come soon.

By way of explanation, their creator offers:
“Vintage pinups are the pinnacle of art. Robert Downey Jr is the pinnacle of sexy. It’s not rocket science.”

Previously in WTF imagery:
Chihuahua on Cheeseburgers
Doctored Science Fair Photos
Sci-Fi Fans at Home
Captain America Brushes His Teeth With Whiskey

As a kid I was intrigued by the fact that a monster COULD exist, and so I went to my Jr High School library and took out a book called The Search for Bigfoot. Written by Peter Byrne – whose bragged in his introduction that he was “…the only man alive who has made a profession out of this extraodinary search and through the support  of many dedicated associates and sponsors, continues that profession on a full time basis twelve months of the year.”

I found that just as fascinating as the monster. What kind of person decides “I am going to hunt Bigfoot for a living!” And my family thought I was plotting a life of silly risks wanting to be an actress!

Since age 12, I have watched hundreds of hours of cryptozoology programming in which Bigfoot is never ever found. If I am stressed, the thing that will distract me more than anything is Bigfoot stuff. This mild obsession has been my solace during many a dark sleepless nights. But again, it is not just the monster that makes me smile…it is the folks who claim to have seen him.

I think my heart connects mostly with the people who spend there lives hunting for the creature. I think this is because it is a quest even harder than being an artist and that strikes as madly heroic. I have spent a lifetime defending my “lifestyle,” as my mother calls it. I want to know what do these guys say when asked by a hottie sitting on the next bar stool, “So what do you do when your not here drinking.” Or when a well meaning relative asks “So when are you going to get a real job?”

Granted, I am not the only performer whose parents tried to discourage.

I have read countless books and articles on the subject dating back to 1871. My latest fun read was: Anatomy of a Beast: Obsession and Myth on the Trail of Bigfoot by Micheal McLeod, who points out facts like: in an ancient Tebetan dialect, Yeti actually means Snow Bear….not Snow Man. His book goes into gorgeous detail about the lives of Bigfoot searchers. Men like like Roger Patterson.

I am sure you have seen the famous Roger Patterson film of the illusive creature

Paterson was always a charismatic thrill seeker and long before he captured the worlds imagination with his infamous film, he was pursuing the lime light. As a teenager he and his brothers created a tumbling act and made extra money staging exhibitions, he spent a short time touring europe as an acrobat, before making a name himself on the rodeo circuit, riding bulls and saddle broncs. A man “who disdained full time work,” he would spend hours inventing gadgets in his shed and was always trying to dream up the “next big thing.” When he read about Bigfoot in a True Magizine (1959) he came up with a plan to capture and display the beast, but alas just couldn’t find the hairy guy, so instead he wrote a book. Meanwhile he started a battle with cancer and also started to film a documentary about the monster. In and out of remission, his physical health diminished, he spent the last years of his life on the lecture circuit.

He claimed, even on his death bed, that what he had filmed was real. However there is also the guy who claims that wearing the gorilla suit.

Most of the sighting have been proven to be hoaxes, this I think is hysterical. Just how much free time do you have? Mathew Whitton of Georgia has a lot of free time now that he got fired from his job as a police officer after the Bigfoot hoax, that he staged with pal Rick Dyer, ended up being covered by CNN.

Rick Dyer now leads expeditions searching for Bigfoot in Russia, (and i am not lying – really) for more info and instructions on how to donate to his defense fund, regarding fraud charges go to  Bigfootracker. Both Whitton and Dyer say the 2008 hoax was all in fun, but the Bigfoot community was not entertained; these are people who believe they have seen the creature and are out to prove that what they have witnessed is real.

They were seriously pissed off – well maybe not seriously – but they were pissed off.

Autumn Williams from OregonBigfoot.com had this to say on her blog after Whitton accidentally shot himself on the job…that is while he still had one…

“I have a song running through my head suddenly…

Shot through the arm
And you’re to blame
You give Bigfoot
A bad name…

I have nothing but respect for our boys in blue, who risk their lives every day sniffing out the bad guys. I just don’t have much respect for a guy who tries to ruin the credibility of something I’ve worked 18 years to educate the public about.”