{"id":211441,"date":"2026-03-09T10:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T10:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/211441\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T10:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T10:24:21","slug":"almighty-opp-puppet-shows-draw-massive-crowds-to-l-a-street-corner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/211441\/","title":{"rendered":"Almighty Opp puppet shows draw massive crowds to L.A. street corner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The artist known as Jeffrey\u2019s Human Persona has remained anonymous for nearly 25 years \u2014 the same length of time that he has staged guerrilla-style musical puppet shows titled \u201calmighty Opp\u201d<\/a> on a gritty street corner in Koreatown on the last Saturday of each month. He missed only three shows in the first 19 years of what he refers to as his \u201cservices.\u201d However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced him online in 2020 and a family tragedy kept him away from the corner for another few years. <\/p>\n

In December he returned live in front of the used car dealership at Western and Elmwood for the first time since the pandemic-induced shutdown, drawing a crowd of several hundred devoted fans. In February he staged his first ticketed event called \u201cSecret Somewhere Services,\u201d<\/a> which drew close to 50 guests who paid $100 each for the pop-up show at a private residence in the San Fernando Valley where Willie Nelson\u2019s youngest son, Micah, served as the opening act with his art rock project Particle Kid.<\/p>\n

\"People <\/p>\n

The view of the stage from the back of the crowd during January\u2019s \u201calmighty Opp\u201d puppet show, which has returned to Koreatown after a nearly five-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a family tragedy.<\/p>\n

(Carlin Stiehl \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed funerals, I missed Christmases, I missed friends\u2019 birthdays. I never took a vacation,\u201d Jeffrey says of his devotion to his monthly performances during a recent phone interview after his late January show, which also drew a large, excitable crowd of supporters. \u201cI treated it like a knife to my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmighty Opp\u201d is truly about Jeffrey\u2019s heart. Services take place in a specially designed black stage populated with a variety of custom fabricated puppets. These creations are not from Mister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood of Make-Believe. At a recent show the ringleader wore a red dirndl with gray knee socks and black ankle boots. His angular head topped with a green felt crown; his toothy mouth a sinister, grimacing gash; his eyes blackened with what looks like charcoal. Other puppets cavorted around him: A tubby, clownish, snowman-like creature that spits water at the crowd; a tall, spindly clown that uses a miniature pump; a weird sock puppet made out of adhesive bandages; a discarded, disheveled baby doll on strings.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

One of the main marionettes used in the \u201calmighty Opp\u201d street show. The puppets sing songs written by the show\u2019s creator, an artist who goes by the name of Jeffrey\u2019s Human Persona.<\/p>\n

(Carlin Stiehl \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Music is the focal point of each service, with Jeffrey playing guitar and keyboards behind the curtain, singing in a wavering voice reminiscent of Jeff Mangum about the subjects, ideas and feelings that have occupied his mind at various stages of his life. To date, \u201calmighty Opp\u201d has put out 33 albums on Bandcamp<\/a> featuring songs from services over the years with titles including \u201cEvery Day\u2019s the Worst Day,\u201d \u201cMisbegotten Human Beings\u201d and \u201cBubble Burster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPretending I had a choice, just as long as we said we did, but now it\u2019s much worse than it seems five years later,\u201d sings a puppet that looks like a bizarro Humpty Dumpty with a huge egg head on a body of red pants during January\u2019s show. \u201cSupporting someone else\u2019s dreams because your good nature\u2019s being used.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

\u201cAlmighty Opp\u201d employs a variety of richly detailed, hand-crafted puppets. The show\u2019s creator once worked as an assistant to sculptor Chris Burden.<\/p>\n

(Carlin Stiehl \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

A common refrain, which almost everyone gathered on the gum-stained sidewalk sings in unison, is, \u201cIt\u2019s OK to not be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffrey loves the spontaneous possibilities of the street corner and what he calls the \u201cstumble upon\u201d nature of the services, but the core audience is a returning one. The nearly 200 people gathered on this January evening just past 9 p.m. stand on stools and chairs in the back and loll on the sidewalk on their elbows in the front. They scream and chant and sing along. They turn and hug one another or shake hands when Jeffrey encourages them to meet their neighbors at different points in the show. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Lars Adams attends an \u201calmighty Opp\u201d show on the last Saturday in January. During the show the crowd is encouraged to turn and greet their neighbors.<\/p>\n

(Carlin Stiehl \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I\u2019m performing, I don\u2019t really consider myself a performer,\u201d Jeffrey says. He also isn\u2019t a busker, although his shows are free community events. And even though there are puppets, he doesn\u2019t call \u201calmighty Opp\u201d a puppet show. He is, he says, \u201can obsessive maker.\u201d The audience is \u201cjust coming along for the ride for me \u2014 life\u2019s ride \u2014 of how I\u2019m feeling at that time. It\u2019s kind of like a Catholic Church service, where the sermon changes, but the structure of it remains the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike a church service, shows are rowdy and a bit untethered. A bus whooshes by, an unhoused man screams as he walks by with a shopping cart. Jeffrey\u2019s wife, known as Shambles, operates the puppets from behind the curtain, while wearing their 5-year-old daughter, known as Crumbo, in a sling. Two other assistants, called DingDing and Cylo, can also be seen behind the black curtain \u2014 their faces hidden in knitted clown masks or shielded by makeup. Jeffrey comes before the crowd toward the end of the show \u2014 wearing a white mask and a red hoodie \u2014 and asks audience members to give testimonials. People stand up and talk about having been changed by the show over the years.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened with Micah Nelson. He came when Jeffrey used to hold mirrors in front of people\u2019s faces and have them watch themselves while the crowd watched them. The sessions were uncomfortably long. Nelson later contacted Jeffrey to say he was covering some of his songs, and that his experience with the mirror had a profound effect on him.<\/p>\n

When Nelson introduced Jeffrey at the recent \u201cSecret Somewhere\u201d show, the things he said about Jeffrey made the performer blush. Life, Jeffrey said, has a funny way of coming full circle.<\/p>\n

\"Jeffrey's <\/p>\n

Jeffrey\u2019s Human Persona, who created \u201calmighty Opp\u201d in the early aughts, asks audience members gathered on a Koreatown street corner to give testimonials about the show, which he calls a \u201cservice.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Carlin Stiehl \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Jeffrey moved to L.A. from Pittsburgh in 1995 when he was 19. His father bought him the plane ticket after Jeffrey found himself in a bit of a boredom rut with friends and getting into the wrong kind of trouble. He wanted to work in the film industry \u2014 he thought L.A. would be like a 1970s Jim Morrison fever dream, but found it not as inspiring. The film business, in which he worked making fantasy art and other fabrications, was not a creative haven, but rather a soul-sucking void. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m tired of making other people\u2019s puppets,\u201d he told a friend one day, and \u201calmighty Opp\u201d was born. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just show up for a paycheck, what are you really doing?\u201d asked Jeffrey during our interview. \u201cI\u2019d rather be a flop and believe in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kids <\/p>\n

Children gather at the very front of the stage during January\u2019s \u201calmighty Opp\u201d show, which features original songs on guitar and keyboard. A total of 33 \u201calmighty Opp\u201d albums are available on Bandcamp.<\/p>\n

(Carlin Stiehl \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

He made the original puppets and wrote the first \u201calmighty Opp\u201d album in the second-floor apartment where he lived, just a stone\u2019s throw from the corner where he still performs \u2014 the corner where he would propose to his wife during a particularly difficult period of his life. During all those years he worked in a variety of creative roles to support himself: for the toy industry; briefly for the Disney Imagineers; and for about eight years as an assistant to sculptor Chris Burden for whom he helped fabricate the whizzing future land \u201cMetropolis II,\u201d which resides in Los Angeles County Museum of Art\u2019s permanent collection.<\/p>\n

Now that \u201calmighty Opp\u201d is live again, Jeffrey is benefiting from the therapeutic aspects of writing down his emotions and experiences. The \u201cSecret Somewhere Services\u201d will continue once a month, or maybe every two months. Guests can check Instagram<\/a> for tips on how to score a coveted ticket, which comes with its own handcrafted entrance token and map to the ever-changing private venue. Jeffrey is making big puppets for these performances \u2014 one is 7 feet tall \u2014 and experimenting with the form of the event.<\/p>\n

Still, the street corner will remain the soul of his operation \u2014 and the music at the heart of it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about honesty, and the people who understand it and keep coming, they know that it\u2019s something absolutely real,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Almighty Opp<\/p>\n

Where: Corner of Western and Elmwood avenues, in Koreatown<\/p>\n

When: The last Saturday of every month, 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

Tickets: Free<\/p>\n

Running time: Varies, but usually about an hour.<\/p>\n