Here’s a bio, for anyone who’s curious.

Doug Skinner has contributed articles and cartoons to Black Scat Review, Oulipo Pornobongo, The Fortean Times, Strange Attractor Journal, Fate, Weirdo, The Anomalist, Crimewave USA, Nickelodeon, Zuzu, Cabinet, Typo, and other fine publications. Black Scat Books has published several books of his: The Unknown Adjective (picture stories), Sleepytime Cemetery (short stories), The Snowman Three Doors Down (more short stories), The Potato Farm (even more short stories), Instrumentarium (cartoons of imaginary musical instruments), The Doug Skinner Songbook (songs), The Doug Skinner Dossier (short works in many genres), Patents Pending (imaginary inventions, with Derek Pell), Shorten the Classics (cartoons aborting great books), and Nominata (novel).

His translations include Three Dreams (Giovanni Battista Nazari, Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks, 2002), Merde à la Belle Époque (various, Black Scat, 2014), The Zombie of Great Peru (Pierre Corneille Blessebois, Black Scat, 2015), The Cocktail Hour (Marcel Requien and Lucien Farnoux, with Gaylor Olivier, Corps Reviver, 2017), Collected Monologues (Charles Cros, Black Scat, 2018), Upside-Down Stories (Charles Cros and Émile Goudeau, Black Scat, 2019), The Pope’s Mustard-Maker (Alfred Jarry, Black Scat, 2019), Principles of Cerebral Mechanics (Charles Cros, Wakefield Press, 2021), Le Chat Noir Exposed (Caroline Crépiat, Black Scat, 2021), The Art of Noises (Luigi Russolo, Black Scat, 2022), Marcel Duchamp: Paris Air in New York (Corinne Taunay, Black Scat, 2022), and The Science of Love (Charles Cros, Wakefield Press). Black Scat has also published thirteen books of his translations of Alphonse Allais.

He has written music for several choreographers, including ODC-San Francisco, Pam Quinn and Michael O’Connor, Virginia Mathews, Margaret Jenkins, and Helen Dannenberg; his scores for actor/clown Bill Irwin include The Regard of Flight, The Courtroom, The Regard Evening, and The Harlequin Studies.

His own theatrical productions have included Starlight (New Performance Gallery, San Francisco, 1980), Pay Attention (American Place Theater, NYC, 1984), An Attractive Production (Dance Theater Workshop, NYC, 1985), and Eddie Unchained (Dance Theater Workshop, NYC, 1993). His puppet shows with Michael Smith have been seen in such varied venues as Caroline’s Comedy Club in NYC, the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, and Mike Kelley’s back yard. In the ’90s, he often performed with the trio White Knuckle Sandwich (with Anne Shapiro and Jen Perez); their exploits included a CD and a jingle for MTV. He also sang with The Patient Island Singers (with Brian Dewan, Clare Ellis, Nina Katchadourian, and Meg Reichardt). Nowadays, he performs his songs with Doug Roesch (guitar), David Gold (viola), and Ralph Hamperian (tuba). His albums That Regrettable Weekend, It All Went Pfft, and An Afternoon in the Arboretum are available on Bandcamp.

His cartoons have been shown at the Mary Anthony Gallery (NYC), CB’s Gallery (NYC), Dixon Place (NYC), the Flux Factory (NYC), The Mothership (Woodstock, NY), and the Elting Memorial Library (New Paltz). His videos with Michael Smith have been shown at the Whitney Museum (NYC), Somerset House (London), and the Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), and are available on a DVD from 2nd Cannons; Doug and Mike also collaborated on a mural for the Drawing Center (NYC).

TV and movie appearances include Great Performances, The ’90s, Martin Mull’s Talent Takes a Holiday, Mike’s Talent Show, Comedy Tonight!, Ed, Crocodile Dundee II, several of George Kuchar’s videos, and a smattering of commercials. He has played piano on the BBC, played ukulele on the Joe Franklin Show and at an Aerosmith release party, MC’d at the Rainbow and Stars, voiced radio spots for Listerine and YooHoo, and taught hundreds of students the ukulele. He has also lectured on various Fortean topics at the American Visionary Art Museum, the Morbid Anatomy Museum, the Bakken Museum of Electricity in Healing, the Christine Burgin Gallery, Lily Dale Auditorium, the New York Fortean Society, the International Fortean Organization FortFest, the London UnConvention, New York University, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

He received a 1991 Fellowship in Performance from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

For many years, he has also maintained a tribute site to the writer John Keel, at www.johnkeel.com.