A “how-to” series unlike any other. Bob Ross on LSD meets The Evil Dead… in Space.

Art Show! with Captain Skinner follows the misadventures of a doomed PBS-style television series. As Skinner and his tiny crew (including the stop motion animated Space Cowboy) attempt to produce a television series in outer space, their efforts are constantly thwarted by – well – everything from meteor showers to intrusive thoughts to the stark horror of an uncaring cosmos.

Art Show! with Captain Skinner is comprised of 10 episodes, each running around 15 minutes in length. In each episode, we watch as Skinner creates a unique and stunning piece of artwork.

The show is a bombastic, futuristic, gore and color-saturated love letter to shows like The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross and Commander Mark and the Secret City. Art Show! flips the script by oozing hyper-phantasmagorical slapstick, body-horror, and off-the wall comedy.

Art Show! is utterly unhinged, in the best ways possible, and seriously funny. You might even learn something from watching!

 

SKINNER

Co-creator/Writer/Star

Skinner is a beloved artist, creator, comedian, writer, and general manifestation of psychedelic nightmare experiences who has infected many medias worldwide! He’s created art for Grammy winning albums and bands like High on Fire and Mastodon, award-winning music videos and films, commercial experiences for Adult Swim, Warner Brothers, and hosted shows for Super Deluxe and various music festivals. You can find his art on murals the world over as well as on skateboards and comics and t-shirts and toys. Skinner exists as a bizarre mixture of entertainment and visual intensity.

ALLEN CORDELL

Co-creator/Writer/Director

Allen is an award-winning filmmaker obsessed with things that are weird and beautiful, especially when filmed at 24 frames per second and layered with insane sound design. He’s directed a handful of music videos for Beach House, Dan Deacon, Girl Talk (and others!), as well as the short film The Lizard Laughed adapted from a comic book by Noah Van Sciver.

NB: Why the captain hat, which I notice you’re not wearing right now, and how did you get the name Captain Skinner? And Allen can jump in with that too if he wants.

AC: One of the inspirations for the show was this show that I watched in the 80s and Skinner watched in the 80s called The Secret City with Mark Kissler or Commander Mark. I wanted to do something in the same vein as that. So I was like, let’s call it Captain Skinner instead of, It’s like a riff on Commander Mark. It’s our version of that.

NB: Is there any reference to the historical Captain Skinner? Captain John Macgregor Skinner?

AC: Skinner’s name is Skinner, but he’s the captain of his studio.

S: Okay, so, basically, Commander Mark. And so we’re doing like a nightmare version of Commander Mark show. So it’s Captain Skinner. And I’m with you. What’s up with the hat? The hat sucks.

AC: Well, I will say Skinner hated the name Captain Skinner. I was like, No, it has to be Captain Skinner. And, the hat, I just ordered it off Amazon and brought it to set. And I was like, what if every other episode you wore this hat? He was like, all right, fine, but I hate it.

S: We even address in one of the episodes how much I hate the hat, actually. It’s because I don’t… I hate it. I hate that freaking hat. It makes me look like an imbecile.

NB: How could the hat be better? What could make the hat better?

S: If it had a cool knife coming out of the side, if it was like a, maybe not. I don’t know.

AC: Like an arrow through it?

S: An arrow through it. Okay, yeah, we could do that. But an arrow through the hat straight into my brain. Could you imagine that happens? And then they take me to the hospital to take it out and there’s this embarrassing photo of me online where the doctors have me and there’s an arrow through my head. Damn it. I can already see it.

NB: Amazing. For the two of you, how did you two connect for this project? And then for Skinner, how did you pivot from live painting at events to having your own show? And if those two concepts intersect with each other, with you two?

S: Interesting, you say that because Super Deluxe was an internet type company that did videos and stuff online. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Super Deluxe. It was several years ago. Very weird, unhinged stuff. Anyway, Allen worked for them, and then they sent him to come film me doing a time lapse, actually, of a painting in my art studio. And while he was up there, I was like, dude, let’s pitch an art show, do something weird, you know? And then I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again or talk to him. But then, he hit me up a couple weeks later or something and said, hey, I pitched the art show to Super Deluxe. They want to do it. And I was like, what? And then, he arranged for it all to happen. I went down there and we filmed like six episodes, but it was me interviewing celebrities and stuff like that. It was in that vein. Basically, that ended. Super Deluxe doesn’t really exist anymore. And then years later, me and Allen kind of made another little pilot thing for fun. And with the hopes of trying to pitch another show. And then we showed it to the dudes at Etch, and they were like, let’s do a series of this. Let’s do a season. And I was like, all right. And then that’s kind of what’s happening now. Doing live painting at events and stuff is way different than this. But I don’t know which one’s more difficult. The one where I’m in a room where everybody’s quietly watching me talk to myself for two hours or one where I’m at a live event and young kids on drugs were coming up and being like, will you paint my boobs, you know, or whatever. Which happens, which is fine, but I’ve retired that. I have left that life behind me.

NB: I love that you said that, that was actually one of my questions, which is, which is harder. Live painting or painting in a studio like that?

S: Well, live painting, painting out in public is always fraught with personalities and stuff, but, I think about when I was painting at Outside Lands and, it was cool, but it’s super hot during the day and then it’s super cold at night and there’s people who want to come up and help and all this stuff. And they’re like, kids on MDMA or something and I just, you know, I let them help. I go, yeah, here you go. There’s a brush. Go for it. But it’s got every… Both have challenges, I guess you would say, but being in a studio is fine. Also, there’s M&M’s and stuff. Like I get to eat little snacks, so that’s probably better.

NB: What is the actual studio like? I can’t imagine it looks like how it looks in the show, does it? I couldn’t figure that out.

AC: Well, every now and again, there’ll be a picture in a picture or it’ll just glitch and I’ll show the green screen studio. And it’s just very bare bones. We shot it in my friend’s studio, Sword Productions. We just set up a bunch of green screens, and we shot Skinner in front of it.

S: Yeah, it looks crazy, right?

NB: It looks so cool. I was just like, whoa, I, wow. I wow.

S: It’s like I’m in a pinball machine.

NB: Yeah, for real. It’s beautiful. Amazing work. Congratulations. Okay. So this for both of you, what’s a topic you really would love to do for the show, but it’s just too unhinged to do?

AC: There’s probably no subject that I want to do that’s too unhinged. We’d probably find some way to do it.

S: I probably… I would do any topic. I mean, people wouldn’t like the topics probably. You know what I mean? Imperialism. The inherent evil of America. Yeah. I know. See that? See that? See that? See that look? You’re like…

NB: No, I mean, I’d love it. I was just like, wait, in my mind, I paused and I panicked. I was like, can I even put that in the paper? I don’t even know. Who knows? It’s, you know.

S: Yeah, I know. The fact that we can’t talk about it is why we need to talk about it. Damn it. It’s insane. Listen, this show, I’m gonna say it right now, is anti-imperialist show. All right? Straight up. Yes. Clock it.

NB: That’s so it wouldn’t be on the record, but if we clocked it, it’s on the record. How would you describe this show in three words? Preferably words that haven’t been used to describe it before.

S: Surprising? Uh. Cute. And… delicious. How about that? Nobody’s ever used those. I don’t think.

NB: What is what is something you wish you both knew before you started working on the show together? Either about the show or about working with each other.

S: Oh, yeah, Allen’s probably gonna love this. How to navigate me, how to navigate. Come on, let’s bust it out, Allen. Come on.

AC: No, no, working with Skinner is great. For me, it was realizing the amount of work needed in post production was definitely a learning process. If we do a second season just going into it, knowing what we have to, I don’t know, just approaching it with that knowledge and foresight, being able to do it in a way that makes more sense instead of whatever I’ve been doing.

S: Yeah, there’s definitely a learning curve, because, all great things have the learning curve and it’s meeting things head on and doing it with love and intention and stuff. But I think the thing that I would have done differently, I think that I would have allowed myself to be more crazy, I guess, which is nuts to say, but, because I feel like there were a lot of moments when I was caught up on worrying. Like sometimes I’m like, does this make sense? Is this good? Anytime self-doubt came in, I wish I could have just been like, no, don’t worry about that. Don’t. No. Who cares? Like that’s that’s probably it. Because then I feel like I could have given Allen maybe a little more to work with.

NB: Related to that, how much of the show is pre-scripted and how much room for improv is there?

AC: I would say it’s 75% improv and about 25% preparation.

S: Just kind of going off. I know a lot of people are telling me they’re like, this is stand-up comedy. I’m like, what? Really? Thank you. That’s the sweetest thing he’s ever said to me. I’m too scared to do stand up comedy. It seems so scary.

NB: As we are the Queens Gazette, you might see the Queens background in the back, could you share if you have any positive experiences of being in Queens or working with any Queens artists or if you have any connection at all to Queens?

S: Queens, New York?

NB: Yeah. And if not, just New York in general, if you got something from me.

S: I think I heard it in a Wu-Tang song. Oh, wait. Wait, what about, what about, that LL Cool J song we got? “She’s staying up in Queens. I’m from Brooklyn.” Something like that? I love, I love New York. My absolute hero, Jack Kirby, is from New York, and I think Brooklyn, but so not Queens, but, I don’t know. There’s also an artist from New York named Lamore Supreme, who I think might be from Queens or Long Island, Staten Island, or something. I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m really sorry. I’m from California. It’s a mess. It’s a mess up here.

AC: I lived in Brooklyn for many years. I love it there. Yeah, I may end up back there one day. I like MoMA PS1 in Queens.

S: Queens, we’re gonna go there! They’re gonna have a parade for captains for Art Show and Captain Skinner there, right? When I return to Queens… [laughs] I love Queens. How about just Queens in general? How about Nicollette, Total Queen? You know, what? Come on. This is what we’re doing, this is it.

NB: Thank you. I look forward to the second season.