Al Ridenour

About Al Ridenour

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ART OF BLEEDING & FRIENDS at California Institute of Abnormal Arts

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The Art of Bleeding returns to the curio-crammed sideshow environs of California Institute of Abnormal Arts for another night of grievously misguided health-and-safety lessons. Abram the Safety Ape, RT the Robot Teacher, and the wise old hand puppet Dr. Moody are joined by the delectably unprofessional Art of Bleeding Nurses in the latest episode of “Magic Ambulance Theater.” Surgically reconstructed AoB “funmaker” Dr. Sunshine (with surprise guest) offers new and powerful demonstrations of laughter as a medicine of last resort. Outside medical consultants of Kabeza de Vaka Arcestra provide a visionary soundtrack makeover for a vintage classroom health-and-safety film. Alternative comedian Robert Selander explores the possibilities of home surgery, and magician Bieno Svengali exposes audience members to high levels of X-ray radiation, all in the name of Safety Consciousness. The evening will be hosted by Danny Shorago of the Fuxedos. 

SPECIAL PRIZES FOR THOSE ARRIVING IN HOSPITAL ATTIRE!
$12 at door, $8 w/ costume. 

 

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The Art of Bleeding with The Fuxedos and Friends

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The Art of Bleeding performs alongside The Fuxedos, The Blasting Company, and Oso in a compact little one-evening festival of theatrical absurdity and absurdly theatrical music and performance.

The night kicks off with a set from the exuberantly excellent Oso, who’ll be traveling down from Santa Barbara to deliver their dynamic brand of spirited, melodic, proggy world music:

https://www.thebandoso.com/

They’ll be followed by the wickedly squirmy comedy of The Art of Bleeding with their distinctively inappropriate mélange of kiddy show characters, fetishized nurses, puppets, vintage school films, gruesome displays and ghastly revelations, all wrangled under the moniker: “Magic Ambulance Theater” 

https://www.artofbleeding.com

Next, you’ll get your tuchus pleasantly punted by The Fuxedos — America’s favorite surreally hilarious, theatrical punky storytelling art rock band. 

https://www.fuxedos.com

Followed by The Blasting Company debuting a brand-new, electronic-infused, turbo-folk version of their big Balkan brass band sound, joined by special guests.

https://www.theblastingcompany.com

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The Art of Bleeding at Fetish Nation

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On the first Saturday of the month, the cavernous Circus nightclub in Hollywood becomes Fetish Nation, a sovereign state of clubgoing dedicated to things dark and deviant. In March, the monthly debauch addresses the theme of medical fetish, and quite naturally invited The Art of Bleeding to assist. We will contribute an interactive installation, parking the AoB ambulance in the Circus courtyard as the centerpiece of a field hospital for the morbidly curious. Instructive materials and strict medical “screenings” will be available within, courtesy of our highly qualified and minimally clad nurses, while the improvised outdoor infirmary will feature exquisitely debilitated patients participating in an “educational” multimedia tent show.

 

(NOTE: There will be no children’s show characters at this “nurses’ night out.” Fearing the adult nature of this event could damage tender psyches, the avuncular and ever-protective hand-puppet Dr. Moody has promised to lock to Abram the Safety Ape and his friend RT the Robot in a dark closet for the evening, while he settles in for an early night of scotch and Valium.)

 

For those with needing a break from The Art of Bleeding’s ego-destabilizing program of health-and-safety re-education, there are the usual diversions of the Fetish Nation, best described in their own words:

 

“Explore a 40,000 square foot sprawling complex of three massive DJ dance music areas (electro- industrial, ebm, futurepop, noize, dark 80s / darkwave / retro- industrial/Electro) and an expansive outdoor courtyard decorated by looming statues. Circus has state of the art lighting/laser systems, numerous big projection screens, top notch EAW Avalon sound system, reasonably priced drinks, and a decent amount of lot/street parking particularly for early arrivers. BDSM performances by resident players: CharlyB, Mistress Cyan, Master D, Exceter Miles, Fetish Noir, Miss Joy Villa, Master Liam, Mistress Melissa, Mistress Nicolette, The Professor, Meister Schmerz, Sir SkipDog, Goddess Soma, and the Ladies of the Dominion, Servitus LA: Asylum of the Soul.”

 

9pm-3am (AoB performs between 10pm and 1am). 21+, $25 or $5 before 10pm, 

Al Ridenour

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Al Ridenour (AKA “Reverend Al”) is the director of The Art of Bleeding a multi-media performance troupe providing darkly comic faux-educational programs in first-aid and safety at clubs, galleries, and art events.  Staging shows from an actual ambulance, The Art of Bleeding creates a “paramedical funhouse” wherein puppets and Saturday morning-flavored costumed characters mingle with decidedly less wholesome elements. The group’s ambulance also functions as a mobile recording studio for their Gory Details Project, in which true-life tales of medical trauma are gathered from passersby and shared online, often interwoven with original audio and video.

 From 1991-1999, Al served as the Los Angeles “Grand Instigator” of the Cacophony Society, a national network of provocateurs serving as prototype for “Project Mayhem” in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club.   Under the banner of Cacophony, he orchestrated hundreds of darkly absurdist culture-jamming spectacles ranging from the detonation of a pyro-charged 80-foot replica of Disney’s It’s a Small World ride to a Christmas face-off between a two-hundred-strong mob of Santas and a riot squad. 

In a more placid moments he has worked as a journalist, writing on culture for periodicals both snooty and moronic, and is the author of Offbeat Food: Adventures in an Omnivorous World, arts contributor to Underground Guide to Los Angeles, and the inspirational coloring book, Crayons for Jesus!.  He also worked as computer animator for 10 years, contributing work on Academy-award winning sequences, and continues to work as writer, director, editor, and grunt on independent videos, occasionally collaborating with his wife, comedian Margaret Cho.

He is not afraid of ghosts, but he wishes he were.