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Just when you thought it was safe to venture out into the night, here come Zazoo and Satori, more gaudy and obnoxious than a 2 for 1 display at your local Kmart store. So where did these two Alien-Muppet hybrids come from and why are they here? The truth is out there (but don't expect to hear it from us).

Zazoo was born October 31, 1997, as an explosive reaction to his conservative hometown of Cincinnati. He was the un-Cincinnatian, opening closed minds as he stomped his way through Cincinnati nightlife, upsetting the locals and disrupting the tranquil balance of boredom that enveloped the city. At first, he was alone in his quest. But in time, he developed a cult following that culminated in his own special club night, Zazoo's Freakfest, a convention for the unconventional. The event was a smashing success, giving new rise to freakdom in the least likely of cities.

Of course, behind every great freak is a great frock, er, friend. For Zazoo, that confidant was Satori, the technology wizard behind the scenes, capable of balancing 35 Slinkies on one's head and other such gravity-defying feats. In September 1999, Satori started donning some freaky fashions of his own and became Zazoo's partner in crime. And believe us, dressing like this in Cincinnati is a crime.

It's really no surprise then that they spend much of their time crashing parties in cities like Chicago, New York and LA. They've left their footprints at some of the most legendary parties of the last decade. And with those shoes, their footprints leave a lasting impression.

Today, the Club Creatures are recognized the world over as some of the freakiest fashion designers in clubland. Their outrageous costumes and platform shoes will be featured in the 2003 movie "Party Monster", starring Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Lucy Lui, Marilyn Manson, and Natasha Lyonne, to name a few. Zazoo and Satori will also appear in the movie as extras, alongside Richie Rich, Amanda Lepore, Sophia Lamar, Astro Erle, Walt Paper, and many other renowned club personalities.

The Club Creatures have also appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including Genre, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Social, Boi Magazine, Ocean Drive, along with such websites as Berlin, Caffeine Culture, Club Makeup, Club Cherry, Crobar Chicago, Motherboards, Red Party, Remote, What's Up Chicago and Wigstock. They've been photographed by Christopher Makos, Rob Hollis, Nancy Stone, George Saint George and a host of other noted photographers.

So where are these creatures of the night during the day? By day, Zazoo is a mild-mannered Clark Kent (or in his case, Clark Bent). He moonlights (daylights?) as a writer at an advertising agency. Satori is an account executive at a design studio, where he specializes in promoting beauty products. Appropriate, no?

To view our creations visit our website:

http://www.TheClubCreatures.com

We take the majority of the photographs, design and maintain it ourselves. "°
Original Post

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I have enjoyed for some time (as a lurker!) "This week's brit gossip" in the New and News topic in the The Versailles Room Forum ... In fact I keep a PopIt! going for this topic, just to read "This week's brit gossip". To learn you are from Ohio makes this even more interesting ... Do you know Drew Cary or Mimi? ;-)

I've just been poking around ... http://www.theclubcreatures.com/
You two are just too creative ...

Last night, I printed your topic to read at the bar. This is not as hopeless as it sounds. On Wednesdays, I meet with a few other artists on the Lower East Side for happy hour at a bar called Swim. A good friend spins the greatest collection of rock/pop called Rock Lobster and a half dozen or so cartoonists, musicians, etc. show up every week. We drink, we talk, we do Mad Libs, we draw group comic strips, we pop into Make-up Mania next door, we wave to RevJen with her elf ears on her way to the Collective Unconscious Theater for her Wednesday night gig, etc.

Anyway, I was reading your post and I started clapping silently to myself as I found it so amusing. And, of course, me clapping to myself got the attention of my mates. So I read them a few lines from your intro and they too started applauding. So now you know ... your introduction started a percussive jamboree halfway across the country in just under a day!

Glad to have you two ArtMakers in the forum!!! I have been working on the ArtMaker interview the last few days and can't wait to learn more about you. It will be coming along by the end of the week!

Oh please make sure to vote for an ArtMaker banner!!

[This message was edited by TonyaKnudsen on 08-08-02 at 01:19 PM.]
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As club-fashion designers -- I was wondering ... what are some the most difficult materials you've worked with in your creations? Or what are some materials you've used that a few hours out and about didn't work out as you had planned?

I think the most difficult thing I ever made a costume out of was leaves from a roommates potted plant collection (see Post Modern Dame topic for image). As I can tell an entire tale about that outfit (I called it Eve), I thought you two may have some great "creation" tales to tell.
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What a great question! No one has ever asked us that.

We were making our hats bigger and bigger for a while... We've got about 4 or 5 that were never worn more than once...

One hat made out of 35 slinkys gave Zazoo a horrible headache, and kept getting stuck on people in the crowd... one slinky was stretched halfway across the dancefloor, and came snapping back towards his face. We cut our losses and left early. That one got the best of us. (LOL) You can see in the picture that it looks like it hurts:

Another hat was made out of large oil funnels. We really didn't think about the "wingspan" on it. it just about knocked out a few people. We have to reserve it for dancing on platforms now smile


We've learned from early mistakes, and make slightly more sensible headgear.

You know one material that I've had no luck with is bubblewrap. I've seen several designers use it for dresses. I've tried to make coats twice with no success...

One thing that also took a lot of trial and error was to find the right glue to stick rubber to rubber...

(psst I use E6000)

XXXOOO
Satori
From The Club Creatures Zazoo and Satori:

"He was the un-[conventional], ... opening closed minds as he stomped his way through ... nightlife, upsetting the locals and disrupting the tranquil balance of boredom ... alone in his quest ... he developed a cult ... culminat[ing] in his own special club ... Zazoo's Freakfest, a convention for the unconventional ... a smashing success, [it] giv[es] ... rise to freakdom in the least likely ..."

The original post reads slightly differently; Zazoo - would love for you to bring FreakFest to ArtMaker, must it exist only in Cincinnati?

[This message was edited by TonyaKnudsen on 08-23-02 at 12:09 AM.]
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A bit of explanation...

Mark Twain is said to have once wrote:
"When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always 20 years behind the times."

This still holds true.

We were asked to host a night at a local gay club here in Cincinnati about a year after Zazoo was "born." we agreed, but only on our terms...

What did this mean? Well...
1. Good music.
2. No crappy Drag Queens badly lipsyching to 3 year-old songs.
3. "Freaks" got in free

They reluctantly agreed to all terms, but to accomplish this, we had to:

1. Bring in our own DJ (for free)
2. Have substitute acts (for free)
3. Bring in our own crowd

The first two weren't too difficult. The third nearly killed us. We spent 7 weeks going to this club on Fridays and Saturdays(paying cover and for all our drinks) handing out flyers and promoting. We made 14 new costumes so that Zazoo would not be seen in the same one twice while promoting. We went to the local straight alternative clubs later on each of those evenings to covertly promote...

The result? The 2nd biggest night that the club had seen in about 10 years. (No way we could compete with Ms Debbie Harry.)

We had one incredible night of clubbing in Cincinnati... For one night we got a break from "Celine Dion Nation." People dressed up, the dance floor was packed from about 11pm to 3:30am. People STILL come up to us and talk about how that night stands out as one of Cincinnati's best club nights ever.

We had anticipated teaching the club how to do it. And letting them promote their own nights, and hire the DJ that we introduced them to, but it didn't happen. We got $100 for all our efforts. We've never gotten in free at the damn place...

After a few weeks the new people we had brought in got sick of the crappy Diva-House and jeans and khaki crowd and stopped coming back. After it was clear that we would have to wait another 10 years or so for Cincinnati to catch up, we decided to travel A LOT.

We have been on the cast of dancers at "Warehouse", and "Venus" has asked us to host a night, but the law of inertia holds very true here. Cincinnati is a body at rest, and it's not getting up to shake it's groove thing any time soon.

What people in larger cities take for granted, we have to hunt and work for. We don't get choices. It's not like we can say... "Hmmm. Do you feel like going to Brooklyn, or staying in the East Village tonight?" or "Hmmm. Feeling more like 'Berlin' or 'Exit'?"

And, what we do is not appreciated here. Believe it or not we get nothing from any of the clubs we go to in the tri-state area. i.e. We pay all covers and pay full price for all our drinks. "Warehouse" is the only exception.

What am I trying to say? I kinda got lost in the rant...

Oh, yes. "The Motherboards" themselves are already the online "convention for the unconventional." Chi Chi and Johnny have created it,and we love being members. It is the most remarkable way of interacting with others similar to us all over the world.

And the results for us have been direct and measurable.

The biggest being our involvement in the "Party Monster" movie. There is no other way that we could have known about Michael Wilkinson's need for costumes, and no other way we could have gotten the right contacts to get the opportunity to be extras.

So, not to squash the idea completely, if you've got an idea on how we could create a niche on here that could be more specialized we'd love to hear it and work on it!

XXXOOO
Satori

[This message was edited by TonyaKnudsen on 08-22-02 at 11:39 PM.]
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People really don't know ... and a good story to boot. And you are absolutly correct. I was fishing so to speak. I do that -- I have some odd techniques to get folks, especially artists, talking. We are still pre-launch and although topics are in place, and more are coming. I am mixing it up a bit to see what we can come up with and what people's expectations/needs are.

[This message was edited by TonyaKnudsen on 08-22-02 at 11:45 PM.]
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So nice to see you back on the boards! As you can tell, there is much catching up to do in ArtMaker!

When will you be heading to New York next?
How has your traveling been?
Any new outfits?

In Satori's Gallery -- love themile4.jpg!

Saw the links page. What links are new? (FYI -- I've been considering redesigning my home page to keep it more in tune with my current creative exploits, now I see I have to!!! After all we cannot have anybody linking off TheClubCreatures.com page to anywhere even slightly not fierce!)
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Hey smile

Oh, I've been keeping up via Popit... just haven't had much time to post smile

Hmm. Next trip to NYC. We'll be heading up for "Muppetfest 2003" if it indeed happens in NYC in 2003. This spring or summer they are planning so far. Jojo will be coming up with us too.

Our luck has been really good and really bad lately. We've been getting 50-50 good/bad on trips. Gotta get out the tarot cards to find out what's going on and when this will end frown

There haven't been a lot of new outfits that I have pictures of (yet) We've been lacking big themed events as of late, and haven't been forced to start from scratch. I have updated a few of my older looks... like this one is fairly new:




From Jojo's hallway Labor Day weekend. That one kept people at bay... should have worn it to Exit...

And this one is fairly new, although I've added silver pinstriping since this was taken. Oh... pinstriping is my new favorite customizing tool. You can pick up all kinds of colors and thicknesses at your local auto shop. It's only like $5 for 40 yards.



XXXOOO
satori
Cheers!

I have been out of touch, but not too-far out of mind, (been reading avidly JoJo's posts on Greer, and am completely fascinated.) I just closed the September ArtMaker poll (I'll have to ask Chi Chi today at the convention about archiving it.) Anyhow, I was thinking about a new poll for ArtMaker for October and I thought I would ask if you two would be interested in the creative challenge of coming up with one ...

Love this BTW ...

quote:
Oh... pinstriping is my new favorite customizing tool.
AND BRING jOjO !!!

actually just a funny semi-waking dream I had this morning. razz razz

--actually caused, most likely, from watching the performance tape from the womb show, which I had not forced myself to sit through yet. After much pulling my hair, groaning, talking very loudly and repetitively to myself and pacing about the living room, I got through it. But what I realized is that YOU TWO twats were the ones to go into shock and hustle with tons of bustle off the floor when my audio came on! mad Actually, watching that, was the most enjoyable part of seeing the tape and helped me laugh the rest of it off as I got through watching it. razz razz There is this one genious moment where even I have to appreciate the joke, it is one where I am singing to this little Japanese girl (the size of a gnat compared to me) and she is taking picture after picture after picture like five inches from my face. It's just sick. Anyway... I have had your poll on the back of my mind for the last few days and have come up with a concept I can work with (a knock-off of a subway campaign that caught my eye) that I'll be adding to your questions by the weekend. Considering the late start and how interesting your questions, perhaps we should run it through November?

I did have a notion I thought I'd run past you two ... maybe we can send it "on tour" around the boards and have it spend a week in each forum and see what it comes back to ArtMaker with... I'll have to ask Daddy and the Empress of course ... but I think it would be an interesting and low maintainence MBoard event/experiment ...

And by the way, I truly believe that with a pair of scissors, a magazine and some tape you could actually make far more apt and entertaining graphics than I for something like this.
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Ok... the setup.

We were back in New York for the first time since '99... we had just gotten in that day,Settled in, and took entirely too long to get ready... We drove across 14th to share a cab with Chi Chi. (not knowing 14th was under construction.)

Poor Chi Chi was waiting on a street corner for probably a half-an-hour...

We got to the club maybe 10 minutes before you came on... Walk into an unfamiliar club, just to see our faces all over the monitors... We manage to skarf down one drink and watch Andro burning up the dancefloor in some really fierce heels...

We decided that we were way overdressed to be standing on the sidelines... Started getting into the groove... and then your performance started.

We figured that it was a faux pas to be on the floor when it was yours... (we're conditioned to leave the dancefloor in Dayton because it raises from the ground to become a stage)

So, it SO wasn't you or your piece. We were all off balance.

We wouldn't run now we promise smile

---------

We'd love to come up for the Anne Rice bash... if only...

--------
The poll idea sounds great. I can't wait to see what you do with it!

XXXOOO
Satori
No! A dancefloor is everybody's always!!! And I did love watching it--you two running off!! You couldn't pay people to look so jarred!!

And the faux pas is mine. The theory was to make an interactive imprmptu video. The problem (well technically there were several glitches) but the biggest being -- the music is not yet appropriate for the dance floor, perhaps even to ears. If it was, people wouldn't have been so confused. But I got through it and had to laugh myself at the mockery I made.

Regardless, no matter how I manage to put together just all of what is in me to do -- and it will include the audio aspects because the full impact of what I create is empty to me without it -- I will always want to be on the dancefloor with people.

At Jackie 60 past, Johnny pulled me up on stage inturupting the lovely House of Domination and all I felt was a great deal of tension. I do not shine in the spotlight. I'm more of an ultra violet variety. And my ability to entertain -- to really generate energy and make people feel good about themselves -- is on the floor.

But enough about all of that ... my apologies, I indeed just carried 'a one' from the single digit column of my age to the double digit column about an hour ago. And it is indeed making me reflective (and I think far too much as it is!)

----Lastly tonight at Mindless Self Indulgence I was amazed. If I ever wondered about kids still being abe to find subcuture outside of 'Hot Topic' I was witness to it tonight. Those MF'ers had sold out Irving Plaza to mostly a 21 and under, screaming at the top of their young little bi / straight / gay / gender nuetral / gender variant loungs -- "I've been denied all the best ultra sex" over and over until I thought the roof itself would burst off that building.

And I do believe each and everyone of those kids has a clue what that song is referring to. Pink everywhere, trianlges, stars I saw in t-shirts and in logos -- it's a queer new world.

And although I miss seeing that boy crawl under a table at CBGBs in sweatpants and big dirty cross dangling on his chest (and staying there for a song or two) playing to oh, 6 or 7 goth-to-alt girls that must have been his high school posse --and doubly surprised several years later to learn that Mother's own DJ St James was somehow part of the act ... what those people are up to ... inspires, amazes and thrills me. It is a great feeling to take with me as I begin my journey though the next 10 years until that digit in the tens column changes again.

Perhaps on that note, I'll go watch some porn, after all I am now old enough to be a complete pervert without need of a flushed face, so i might as well get on and get used to the perks of aging.
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but my brother jay-jay and i have a gig.....we are the hilton sisters for halloween. and i will be doing a instalation for the club WHITE STAR. and performing with my bro and judging a costume contest...but back too my buddies zazoo and satori this is an art forum .....and you should see what they can do with a tupper wear bowl and action figures. It all good... i love their looks.... we go shoping sometimes when the are in chicago and we make fun of each other and what outfits we can make out of ordinary things that people wouldnt think of. it is an art ....i once made a doll out of a screen door on a dare.....much love guys....your jo-jo
Jojo,

My dad's giving me a sewing machine tonight, and teaching me how to use it. He say's it's a strong one ( strong enought to go through 4 layers of their sail canvas.) So it should be just fine on monster fur, pleather and vinyl.

So... I won't be sewing crap by hand anymore. Once I get the hang of it, I'll bring it up and we'll set up workshop smile

XXXOOO
Satori
We've updated our site to include pictures from last weekend in Chicago.

We saw Peaches, Chicks on Speed, W.I.T. and Tracy and The Plastics in concert and ran into Peaches, Larry Tee and W.I.T. out at Hollywood Grille. We got great pictures of their perf ormances, and a few from the sidelines.

We've also started a "LiveJournal" that we update almost daily.

http://www.theclubcreatures.com

XXXOOO
Satori

[This message was edited by Zazoo and Satori on 10-28-02 at 02:27 PM.]
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Lots more on the way. We were editing last night, and have around 30 pictures we want to share from Trisha's party, and a dozen or so from the other nights out.

Big changes happening at TheClubCreatures.com...
Greg Haus is in the process of redesigning our site, a bit of a facelift and flash accents. When that's complete, the next step will be a huge update with around 6 new galleries.

I just didn't want people to think I've been a TOTAL slack lately.

Smile

XXXOOO
Satori
Altho I love that 80s song by The Models (... Can't keep my body tight ...) Anyhow -- Change is good, in fact it is amazing ... I too have not been so active socially that last few weeks ... a much needed focal downtime, to refocus, re-energize and reevaluate what's important in my life (as I repaint every piece of furniture I own)... perhaps this is simply called January ... regardless ... you two have my loyal fandom and support for the long haul ... I can't wait to see the new site outta sight ... ;-)

Should I know Greg Haus? Educate me.
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Greg is our very favorite DJ, who also happens to do web design Smile

His site is here: HausWerkz

From there you can check out both his DJ site, and see a list of all the sites that he's designed. He does a lot of music industry people, and he did Jojo's site also.

His mostly html sites with flash accents (like DJ Kerri's) will work really well for us, cause we'll be able to update it ourselves once it is live.

I understand what you are saying about this time of winter. We both try to make sure that we're always planning something to look forward to, because it can get you in such a funk.

But, spring is coming, and you'll have already done YOUR spring cleaning!

XXXOOO
Satori
Twas horrible when I was a young Danish swan-gone-wrong in balet class. Here was this monster girl speeding through the routine, everyone thought the other kids were following my lead, yet they were going at the right speed .... Wink Wink Wink Wink I will check out Haus' site and report back. Or we'll have to get him here in ArtMaker ...

-------------------
Also will be getting back to you regarding that other matter before an Aeon has passed!
You both raise the bar on visual treats almost everytime you post and then you pack the added punch of a dj/web designer extradinaire. When I drop on a link (hauswerkz) with my dial up line and it loads in fast and furious with scripts and all, sets up clean in old versions of my browsers, I know I'm if for some pure web pleasure. I hope this guy is getting what he's worth. thanks big time for the turn on.

rb//nyc//bronx//bohemia
Hey thanks for the feedback! We are always working to evolve and bring in new influences.

Greg's fast loading sites are what really got us thinking that we could do a face lift without bogging down visitors in waiting times.We're also on a dial-up at home, and an original iMac(the slowest one.) So, we're hyper-sensitive to slow websites. We've never had problems getting on or viewing pages on Greg's sites, so when he got time, we jumped right on it.

Oh, I don't know if he's getting what he's worth, but we're paying him what he asked for Smile

I've already posted them in Elsewhere, but I guess here is appropriate too...

Here are a couple of temp galleries from the most recent events we've been to (4 or so more on the way)

Trisha Starr's Carnival of Chaos

Fireball 2003

XXXOOO
Satori
Congrats on the glossy, glam coverage. Making the cover really does feel good and strengthens the resolve that doing what you do is really worth doing.

I have been thinking of you two for about 16 hours now. Ran across this "new band" I'm utterly living for ... [and the CDs finally arrived in the post yesterday -- yes ordered off amazon] but the original electroclash-stylings, cunty-cunty-CUNTY bass riffs, the something calling back to Duran Duran as well as to more modern popular goth acts like Apoc.Biz. lies under the cover. Nonetheless, if you are not already all over it, take a gander at Danse Macabe by The Faint, as I think you two in particular would love this like I am loving it.

Now back to Greg ...
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Oh yeah! We're all over that album Smile Don't buy their older stuff it's not the same.

We belong to this list on yahoo:

Electroclash

Close to 800 people on there now. Including Larry Tee and Conrad Ventura. We've found SO MUCH great music on there! Also there are rumors that The Faint are getting ready to tour.

I had started a 1982 v.s. 2002 topic under Hopelessly Devoted, but it never really took off... It was before we even knew that there was already a marketing term (electroclash) for all the great new electronic bands out there.

I wish you could come over and hang out and go through our music collection, you'd die Smile

If you don't already have it, run out and get Mount Sims' "Ultra Sex" it's hot as hell. Oh, and Fisherspooner's domestic release of #1 is a must, if only for the free DVD with all their videos and a small film about their shows.

XXXOOO
S

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