Dr. Destruction's Crimson Theatre

Friday June 19th, 2009 - Kenosha, WI/Lake Villa, IL

And then it rained. And rained. And rained some more. What a nasty weather day. I had a 9:30am taping time to be a guest on ‘Dr. Destruction’s Crimson Theatre’ up in Kenosha but it was pouring so hard I had a hard time finding the studio. Then I did and there was a technical problem so we ended up not being able to tape what we had originally intended.

Dr. Destruction is one of my co-hosts on the Mothership Connection radio show. He’s a Kenosha icon and truly an interesting character. He’s been doing the Crimson Theatre TV show for eight years now and it’s a horror movie show with bits in between. Everybody’s seen a show like that because most towns have them but the Doc knows what he’s doing.

He dresses like a monster movie show host should complete with makeup and a top hat and shoulder length black hair and a funky wardrobe complete with platform boots and an array of tattoos that would have made my biker father jealous. He knows how to play it.

Off stage he’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met - a true gentle soul. He has cats and loves them to death and is kind to children and I’m really glad I crossed paths with him as he’s the perfect fit for the radio show. He totally understands entertainment and as long as I have anything going on in Kenosha Dr. D will have a part of it. We work well together.

Having a cable access TV show is no easy task. I had one for a couple of years and it’s a constant variety of unexpected hassles. Most of them are technical but nobody’s paid so it kind of goes with the territory. I had a producer named Ron Lee who did all the hard work behind the scenes and I had to worry about the content. We pulled it off for two full years.

I don’t know how Dr. Destruction did it for eight and I give him my full respect. He’s a talented guy and very persistent and not only does he do the show he’s also in a punk rock band called The Dead Leathers and is a wonderfully talented painter too. He’s the founder of The Dorian Gray Art Show and this was his 25th year. The guy has a lot of credentials.

We did two interviews today that he can plug in at a later date. He’s got two hours each week to fill and sometimes the movies don’t go that long and he needs filler. I was hoping to see the movie today because it was Vincent Price’s “Dr. Phibes” which is one of my all time favorites but the technical problem wiped that out so all we did were the interviews.

After the taping we went to Infusino’s Pizza to get some lunch. The Doc works there on occasion to make an extra buck or two and I can’t fault anyone for that. He suggested that we try their individual bar pizza and it was outstanding, probably one of the best pizzas of my entire life and I’ve had some good pie in my time. That alone made the drive worth it.

As we sat and ate and talked about our lives as struggling entertainers an older group of six people came in for lunch. One of the ladies did a double take when she saw the Doc in his makeup and top hat and calmly said “Oh, I didn’t know it was Halloween already.” If he wasn’t such a gentle soul he could have been mean but instead he just sat and smiled.