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son, Malcolm X John Lennon, to watch the tv, must l ? e the mother of the pilot of the plane. So the pilot of the plane is Malcolm
X John Lennon's father, and it is he who we find in Europe on side two. 1 personally rationalize it that way, but you may not
want to.
P.B.: I WAS WITH MALCOLM X IN THE OLD DAYS ••• MECCA... ALL THAT... BUT I ' VE CHANGED NOW.
P.A.: In a sense, the whole dialogue between the clone and the computer about its existence is: do I have a reason for existence?
Can my question be answered? The question can't be answered, and it is my assumption that that is the end of Clem clone. In
—
—
fact, it is the end of unreality, because at that point we shift, and fade into the real world, which we haven’t even known, that the
authors those jolly dogs - haven ' t given you any hint of at all, because we didn ' t even think about it until the last few days. It
didn't come to us that this was a world in the past somewhere like 1875- or a world in the future past of 2075, or somewhere
-
in a world where there are horse drawn things, and this is a travelling gypsy show. It ' s called Dr. Fircsign ’ s Travelling Theatre of
the Plains and Electric Buffalo Show, which is part of our old stage act and a myth thing we have among us about this tatty group
of Shakespearean actors moving about the West, playing for the miners/minors and sodden old wretches, who are us when we used
to tour around.
George Who For Veep

The remarkable spectacle of Tom Who being reduced to Proctor explains that he first became acquainted with
running for Vice Presidency on the remarkable assertion Papoon six months ago. George wrote to Firesign Theatre
that he KUJ not insane was prefigured with prophetic character DR. Beanbag. a regular on " Dear Friends, Let ' s
"
accuracy by, of all people, the Firesign Theatre. These Eat. the Firesign radio show on KPFK. " Dr. Beanbag came
strange men made their spontaneous anterior vision on out of my reading the transcript of the Jack Ruby trial in
March 30, 1972 at the Martian Space Party, a benefit for an anthology of sources in forensic psychiatry for lawyers.
Pacifica ' s listener supported radio station, KPFK, in Los AU the argument about whether or not Ruby was or was
-
Angeles. At that time George Pappoon of the Nat 7 not insane was couched in high falutin ' medical termin-
Surrealist Light People s Party declared himself candidate ology, but suddenly / realized that underlying all that
'
for Resident of the United States ( " If elected, / promise to seemingly powerful language was simply various people ' s
stay ") and announced his campaign motto: opinions about whether or not they thought somebody's
- personality was bizarre. So we invented Dr. Beanbag as a
PAPOON FOR PRESIDENT NOT INSANE psychiatrist who people could write in to, telling about
symptoms that made them think they were mentally
His platform? "Six inches off the ground, so no one will disturbed, and who in every case would somehow
get hurt if they fall off. " rationalize their insanity and tell them that their behavior
Papoon is against bussing. *' Particularly high- speed was perfectly sensible given the circumstances. One of the
bussing." He says, " It ' s better to be in the back of a bus letters Dr. Beanbag received was from one George Papoon,
than in front of a bus. " who signed it " Not Insane." Papoon HUS experiencing the
His position on legalization of marijuana is, " let’s smoke symptoms of narcolepsy - including forgetfulness, con-
some, then we ' ll talk about the law. " fabulation, robot behavior - and was so afraid his family
He is a strong believer in the concept of "one organism, would find out that he wrote Dr. Beanbag in invisible ink in
one vote": " There are over 180 billion aphids, slugs, flies the dark."
and mosquitos in Northern California alone who. under " Later we got to talking about the Presidential elections
current registration procedures, are disenfranchised. Many and decided that the majority of the electorate is bananas
"
of Papoon's campaign appearances have been before and that only a candidate who was willing to declare
audiences composed exclusively of organisms himself Not Insane would be able to gauge the extent of
"One man, two votes, " says Papoon, who, though Not that insanity and rationalize it to people. " Proctor and his
Insane himself, recognizes that a substantial portion of the friends were able to prevail upon Papoon to throw his hat
electorate is composed of schizophrenics in the ring, to coin a phrase.
" One man, one channel, he insists: ' Everyone has the Perhaps the most innovative aspect of his campaign,
"
right to be seen, at least by himself. " according to Proctor,is that Papoon never shows his face in
"Amnesty and amnesia, though not necessarily in that public. " He ' s not just running for President - he ' s running
"
order. says candidate Papoon. We may just have to forget for his life. So when he s out stumping, he always wears a
'
'
about the war before we can forgive people for having mask , and alters his voice - and at any one time there are
refused to fight in it. " always several masked individuals on the hustings - that
In the wake of the Tom Who disclosures, / asked way there s no way for a potential assassin to be sure that
'
Firesign Theatre Member Phil Proctor, who is closest to the particular Papoon he s trailing is the actual target."
Papoon, whether Papoon had ever sought psychiatric care. I asked Proctor how Papoon felt about the Tom Who
" He can t remember,” said Proctor. debacle. " Well, l can ' t speak for George, but in my opinion
'
Does the N.S. L P.P. standard- bearer have any skeletons Eagleton ' s mistake was that he had decided he was insane in
in his closet? " Yes he does, " said Proctor, " but only those I 960, 1964 and 1966. so he was defensive about the fact
of friends and relatives. George Papoon does not believe in that he had experienced depression. / think he could have
cemeteries. " learned something from Papoon - that all things con -
Has PaptHtn ever been cited for drunken or reckless sidered, It was not insane for him to have been insane at
driving? "No, " said Proctor, " because he doesn V have a car. those times."
George travels around in a red flyer wagon. " Craig Karpel
November, 1972 49