WHITE-MAN’S FORD GALAXY hurtles between Earth and planet Caucazoid and aliens are arrested in the above photos from “White Like Me.” Paul Zaloom, pictured below, uses a variety of household items and toys as props for his show.
Paul Zaloom brings his cheeky political satire “White Like Me” to Bowdoin College’s Pickard Theater on Friday. A seasoned veteran in puppeteering and comedic acting — he is famous for his role as the the mad scientist Beakman in the ‘90s cult classic “Beakman’s World” — Zaloom has been touring his latest creation around the world.
Zaloom scrapped the idea he’d been working on, and pitched the show he would call “White Like Me” the following day. The show was instantly commissioned, and the title came shortly after.
“The title popped into my head because the book ‘Black Like Me’ loomed heavily in my consciousness as a kid,” said Zaloom of journalist John Howard Griffin’s 1961 nonfiction account of African American life in the deep south. “You can say whatever you want about the title. I’m not interested in analyzing it. I just think it’s provocative.”
Zaloom stresses that heavier topics are sometimes easier to convey through comedy.
“The heavy-hand approach isn’t interesting to me,” said Zaloom. “There’s a sort of release to laughing.”
Since the inception of “White Like Me,” Zaloom has brought the show to cities across the country, including Atlanta, New York City, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles. Furthermore, the puppeteering maestro has brought his production overseas to Sicily, Turkey and Slovenia.
This is Zaloom’s first time bringing the show to Bowdoin, but he has visited the college in the past.
“We brought him here 10 years ago,” said Davis Robinson, professor of theater at Bowdoin. “At that time he was doing a show based on a sort of Turkish Mr. Punch. He really developed what we call ‘object theater’ to a new form. People really enjoyed it.”
Robinson stressed that Zaloom is a comedian with a “unique political presence.”
“He’s got a great way of telling stories, and a great stage presence,” Robinson said.
Robinson first went to see Zaloom perform back in the ‘80s, when the comedian was working at Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, Vermont.
“They used to do an annual circus festival, and Paul was the ringmaster,” said Robinson. “They did a show about our nuclear policy, and Paul played a civil service guard instructing the crowd what to do in case there’s a nuclear attack. Everything he said was taken from civil defense handbooks. He does really good research.”
This political research is what brings Zaloom to the forefront in terms of cutting edge political satire. “It will be interesting to see the reception (to ‘White Like Me’) at Bowdoin,” Zaloom said. “People are very engaged with these issues on college campuses. I think because of the subject matter people will show up.”
The show begins with Zaloom introducing old school ventriloquist dummy Mr. Butch Manly, who has been packed away in a box for 50 years. Zaloom updates the dummy on political events that transpired while he was away, from gay marriage to the first black president. But the largest revelation for the dummy is the fact that whites will become a minority in America by 2040. This information sets the stage for the main event of the show, “The Adventures of White-Man,” which chronicles White-Man as he travels to Earth from Planet Caucazoid to “civilize it,” only to realize that whites are becoming the minority.
“White Like Me” includes a vast array of props, Zaloom said, such as “junk, tools, toys, action figures and dolls.” There will be a high-definition screen behind the stage so everyone in the theater can see what’s going on. But the highlight will certainly be Zaloom’s skilled ventriloquist work.
“A lot of the material is written in improv,” said Zaloom. “It sounds silly, but there is a way dummies have of inhabiting you.”
Though the subject matter will be heavy at times, Zaloom said his “number one goal is always to make people laugh.”
“White Like Me” will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Bowdoin College’s Pickard Theater. Tickets are free and available only at the door.
bgoodridge@timesrecord.com
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