Salame: A Morning with David Liebe Hart

There are many colorful and strange people that walk along the pop culture journey, and then there is David Liebe Hart.  It is safe to say that David Liebe Hart walks the path at his own unique pace.

Who exactly is David Liebe Hart?  David has been many things since he arrived in Hollywood in the mid 1970′s – actor, musician, puppeteer, public access television host, evangelist, writer, comedian, alien abductee and street performer.  Over the last two decades Hart has become a mainstay in the streets of Los Angeles where he can be seen nightly outside of the Hollywood Bowl and the Santa Monica Pier performing his unique original compositions with his puppet companion Doug the Dog.  David Liebe Hart is many things, but you can definitely say about him is that he is a true original.  There really isn’t anybody else on the pop culture journey like him.

Internet phenomena and Hollywood eccentric David Lieb Hart performs with Chip the Black Boy

Recently David Liebe Hart has become an internet phenomena when his long running LA based public access television program, Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show, made its way onto the internet via video sites such as YouTube.  A psychedelic religious romp, David and his puppets Chip the Black Boy, Teddy Eddie and Albert Hermann; along with a multitude of strange guests, teach the values of Christian Science.  The program is easily one of the oddest spectacles ever created, and has fascinated lovers of the bizarre and strange.  Yet, despite its questionable production values, Christian Junior Science Bible Lesson Show has a positive message – stay off of drugs and alcohol, stay away from gangs and crime, and stay in school.  It may be a goofy show, but David’s message is hard to argue with..

Tim Heindecker and Eric Wareheim, from "The Tim and Eric Super Awesome Show Great Job!" have thrust David Liebe Hart from the fringe of society into mainstream media

David’s eccentric puppet act brought him to the attention of John Stewart’s Daily Show where he made his first major television appearance in 2004, which lead to an appearance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show where he shocked the audience by talking about his belief in alien life forms, and revealed that he believed that he had been abducted by visitors from another planet when he was a child.  Not long after David was brought to the attentions of comedic duo Tim Heindecker and Eric Wareheim who recruited David to appear on their popular Adult Swim program The Tim and Eric Super Awesome Show Great Job! In 2007.  Appearing with a deranged looking orange cat puppet, David sang what would become his most popular composition, Salame, about greetings from outer space.  David’s surreal performance was a huge hit for The Tim and Eric Show, which lead to David becoming a semi-regular on the program.  However, with each performance he gave it soon became clear that David had become the victim of unintentional comedy.  His performances and message was honest and sincere, but it seemed that he had been set up as the joke.

Or had he?

I decided to track down David Liebe Hart and find out about the man behind the puppets.  My goal was to treat David with respect, and to do a serious and honest interview.  However, upon talking to David for a few moments I realized that, although a good and sincere man, David Liebe Hart was a man who walks along a thin line between reality and madness.  It left me with questions.  Should I do this interview?  Should I bring David Liebe Hart along on our pop culture journey?

Nuala Paluck - my companion for David Liebe Hart's morning of madness

Enter Nuala Paluck.  The daughter of an old colleague, upon hearing that I was to interview David, Nuala brought an outpouring of excitement and enthusiasm for the strange puppet man.  She convinced me that David Liebe Hart might be a bit wacky, but he was definitely worth interviewing.  Nuala encouraged me to just close my eyes and jump head first into David’s strange world.  In return I decided to bring her along with me.  I mean, I know better to deny a woman her David Liebe Hart.

Interviewing David was a strange and surreal marathon of weirdness in itself.  Nuala and I were to call him in the morning, but when we phoned him at the appointed time we discovered that we had not only woken David up from a deep slumber, but clearly not knowing, or even caring, who we were, he asked us to make a series of personal long distant telephone calls to Illinios for him.  Upon doing the task he asked of us, we called him back, where he sleepily asked us to give him a few extra hours sleep.  Another few hours, and another three misstarts, what was supposed to have been a forty minute interview had already elapsed into four hours of long distance phone calls.  The morning was ticking away and our time was limited.  However, just as we were ready to call it a day, we made one final phone call and David was ready to talk.

However, Nuala and I had no idea what we were in for.

Join us as we take a journey through time, space and a side of the pop culture journey that is rarely experienced as

CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE ADDICT PRESENTS

SALAME:

A MORNING WITH DAVID LIEBE HART

Note:  The opinions expressed in this interview by David Liebe Hart do not necessarily reflect Sam Tweedle, Nuala Paluck or Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict.

"NASA got mad with me because too many people who were fans were asking about UFOs and a man from NASA wanted to kill me."

Nuala Paluck and I spoke to David Liebe Hart in July 2009 via telephone from his home in Los Angeles, California.

Sam Tweedle:  Hello!  David!  Are we okay to talk now?

David Liebe Hart:  Yeah.  Okay.  But I want to tell you something.  I am careful with interviews.  NASA got mad with me because too many people who were fans were asking about UFOs and a man from NASA wanted to kill me.  He threatened me and I had to put a police report on it.  He told me I was sharing too much UFO information.  You’re calling from Canada, but the United States doesn’t want the average citizen to believe, or accept, that the UFO phenomena exists because it is where all our technology comes from and if it gets in the wrong hands it could be very dangerous.  So the United States government have people sworn in secrecy that know about the UFOs that have served in the military.  I don’t want to get into trouble for saying the wrong thing.

Sam:  Well how about you just not tell us anything that you don’t want us to print, okay?

David:  Well it’s a scary situation because normally people are killed who know this information.  So I can’t talk about the UFO phenomena even though I would like too.  Even though it is in our constitutional right that we have freedom of speech, I can’t get into any trouble because it was a nightmare dealing with that guy from NASA.  He called me up and he said “I know that you know about the UFO phenomena.  NASA doesn’t want you knowing anything about it.  We know you’re related to the Wright Brothers and you are not to discuss what your grandmother Wright shared with you because that’s classified.”  Someday this stuff won’t be hidden in secret but right now that’s the way it is.

Sam:  Well David, lets talk  your puppets.  What got you interested in puppets?

Chicago's Roy Brown and Garfield Goose - early inspirations of David Liebe Hart

David:  Oh.  Okay.  I grew up in the Chicagoland area and back in the fifties they had puppet shows galore.  They had Howdy Doody which was a marionette with Clarabelle Clown and Buffalo Bob who was the actor on the show, and TV was done in black and white and he had a funny show that taught kids games and a little bit of education.  That was my first love for puppeteering.  My second love was a show called Garfield Goose which was a local television show.  Frazier Thomas was the host of that show.  Roy Brown was the puppeteer on the show.  The Garfield Goose Show had something called Hobbytime and I was on the show and they let me show my model trains and I got to meet Frazier Thomas and Roy Brown.

According to David Liebe Hart, Jim Henson was his Sunday school teacher, and he was the one who encouraged David to create "The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show"

I was born and raised in Christian Science and me and my parents went to a family reunion in Washington DC and Jim Henson had a local puppet show before he did the Jimmy Dean Show.  I was put in Christian Science Sunday School in Washington DC and I happened to have Jim Henson as a Sunday school teacher.  He taught me the fifth commandment and the attitudes and stuff with Kermit the Frog and a rock puppet that he used on the local puppet show.  Years passed and I was going to Christian Science classes in Boston, Massachusetts and, low and behold, who was there?  Jim Henson!  Jim Henson told me that he was very sick and had a terrible flu and didn’t know if he was going to live very long and he said “I want you to do a puppet show teaching kids about Christian Science bible stories and to stay in school and say no to drugs.”  He said “I will give you some of the puppets that are not popular that I used one time to do a commercial or a special event with.”  However, the puppets that he gave me had to be rebuilt to avoid copywrite.  The horse was rebuilt into a monkey puppet.  I had the dog rebuilt into a lamb, which I called Lambadog.  I agreed to do a puppet show.  We did our first Junior Christian Science Lesson Bible Show in Utica, California in 1988.  I sent the first three episodes to the Christian Science Monitor Channel but they told me that the channel was going out of business and advised me to go on public access.  I did that and it lasted twenty years.  Prior to this I did stand up comedy and was on The Gong Show, Star Search, The Dating Game, and did walk on work on Good Times.  Even though he denies this, I was friends with Robin Williams in the early seventies.

Sam:  Why does he deny this?

David:  Well, I don’t know why.

Nuala Paluck:  Was there a falling out?

David Liebe Hart's bitter past with Happy Days producer Gary Marshall was the subject for his song "The Gary Marshall Blues"

David:  Robin Williams was raised in Christian Science, just like me which he can’t deny because everybody in Southern California knows that’s how he grew up.  We became friends.  Well we were asked by different Christian Scientists to do work at their house.  I did work at Doris Days’ house, and Ginger Rogers’ house.  I did work for Vivian Vance.  We were both starving, and we were both doing work.  Well Vivian Vance says to us, “Why don’t you two team up and do an act at the Comedy Store.  So Robin William and I did an act together at the Comedy Store way back in ’76.  Well Gary Marshall saw Robin Williams and had an interest in him, but didn’t have an interest in me.  I wrote a song about it called The Gary Marshall Blues which you can hear on the internet.  Well what happened was, that night Gary Marshall had an interest in Robin Williams and not me.  So I said “Gary Marshall, I have a lot of talent.  I have a lot I can give to you.”  So he said “You meet me at Paramount Studio and I’ll let you do the warm ups for Blansky’s Beauties, Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley.  So I did the warm ups for Gary Marshall every Tuesday night hoping I’d be cast on a show.  The different cast members kept asking me “Why are you doing the warm ups and not getting paid for it?”  I told them “I want to impress Gary Marshall so I can be cast on one of his shows.”  It never happened.  I got frustrated and told him that I didn’t want to do the warm ups anymore because I wasn’t getting what I was promised.  Now I know that Gary Marshall was only doing that because he didn’t want to hire me in the first place.  All of a sudden I lost contact with Robin Williams.  Since I was in the Christian Science Church and he drifted away, from time to time I’d get a phone call from his mother asking “How’s my son doing.  I don’t hear from my son.”  I said “I don’t know.  I only see him on television.”   So years passed, years passed, next thing I knew is that Tim and Eric saw me performing at the Hollywood Bowl as a street musician and they saw the public access show that I produced.

Nuala:  I have a question about Tim and Eric.

Did Orville and Wilbur Wright use alien technology to create the airplane? According to David Liebe Hart they did! He should know too, considering that he is a decendent of the early aviators.

David:  Their wonderful guys to work with.  Let me get up to that.  I did the first show with Tim and Eric in 2007.  They knew I was into the UFO phenomena and they had me write a UFO song.  I wrote the song Salame.  What brought the song Salame to be is that, well, on my Caucasian side I’m related to Orville and Wilbur Wright who made the airplane.  They were Presbyterian ministers.  They were originally from Ohio and moved to South Carolina.  They are related on my Dad’s side.  My grandmother told me on her death bed that Einstein and Testler and Orville and Wilbur got their engineering from an advanced group of people and she said that when she was going to die that one of the people who did the engineering was going to meet me in person and she said that they were telepathic and that they can find you wherever you are mentally and telepathically.  So I was selling my portraits at a local park and this beautiful, beautiful woman came up to me.  She looked like Bettie Page.  She had creamy white skin.  Whiter then any white person I ever saw.  She told me she was an extra-terrestrial.  I didn’t believe her.  I thought she was a crazy woman.  Then she could read my mind and she pulled off her shoe and her big toe was in the middle instead of on the side like us humans.  She said that her great great grandmother was an elder master.  Elder masters are like priests.  They can’t get married and are dedicated to their career.  Her name was Jezebel Bordious.

Is this the face of David Liebe Hart's Corinian companion Jezebel Bordious?

Nuala:  And she was a Corinian, correct?

David:  She was a Corinian and she told me that all the technology – the computers, the cell phones…the things that are used in cars to tell directions…

Sam:  GPS system.

David:  The GPS….the extra terrestrials use the GPS system to travel in outer space to find their way around.  They said that her ancestors helped in the engineering for Orville and Wilbur Wright when they made the airplane.  I only met her once in the park and, mentally, when she said goodbye, she said “Go into the light until we meet again,” which in their language is “Amaka corbay gak abay abay abin” and then she said “Salame.”  And so I went to work for TIm and Eric, the first song I wrote was a song called Salome.  That song made me famous on the Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job.  That was the very first show I did with Tim and Eric.  There studio used to be on Highland and Hollywood across from the Jack and the Box restaurant..  I guess they moved it because they wanted their privacy and I’m not allowed to give their new address.  But anyways, we did Salmae and I subconsciously did not know that I repeated what Jezebel said to me when she left.  Well after that her protector Quizelquoy contacted me.

Nuala: How did he contact you?

Saleme - Good will and peace and protections in your travels.

David:  Well first he called me up and contacted me by phone.  He said “We’d really appreciate you not using extra-terrestrial language because we want our privacy and you’ve infringed on our privacy by using the word Salame.  Its the word that UFOs use when traveling.  When two UFOs meet in space they say Salome which means “Good will and peace and protections in your travels.”  I was not aware and I told Quizelquoy that I would not use that language again.  Then he told me he was Jezebel’s protector and so he kept contacting me, and concealing me and teaching me stuff.  He told me that they were vegetarians and that’s why they live to be three thousand years old and that meat in poisonous and that we re destroying our ozone layer by using gasoline and diesel fuel and that they gave us electricity a long time ago.  So, after that, I didn’t hear back from them again.  Then another guy contacted me named Meldroma.  Well finally people were asking me a lot of questions about UFO phenomena and I was told that they didn’t want the common people contacting extra terrestrials, so I told the extra terrestrials to not contact me anymore and I haven’t heard back from them in six months.

Nuala:  I heard rumors that you had an abduction experience.  Is that true?

According to David, he was abducted by aliens himself in 1988

David:  Yes.  I had an abduction experience when my parents moved to Park Forrest, Illinois   My parents bought a home from a retired military captain and this captain was in contact with extra terrestrials, and his room was the back cottage and when my parents first moved into the home in 1988 and these things, called the Grays, they’re lizards, just like the Reptilians are, they also communicated telepathically and said “We are not going to hurt you.  We just want to see what makes you tick.  We’ve tested a white species.  Now we want to test a black species.”  So they took me into a beam of light into their space ship and they operated on me.  They put a tube up my nose, they took samples of my skin. they laid me on a table and took samples of my hair, my blood and put it in test tubes.  They said “Don’t be afraid or alarmed.  We’re going to let you go like a kid catching a fish.”  Well my parents didn’t know where I was.  They thought I had gone to visit my grandmother in Chicago.

Nuala:  How long did your abduction experience last?

David:  It lasted three days.

Nuala:  Did they feed you?

David:  I don’t remember.  I don’t know.  Maybe they fed me through the tubes that they put up my nose.  I know that where the UFO landed in the field, no grass could grow there, the snow would melt and finally my Dad dug up the clay part and put new soil there and things started to grow.  But even though he moved the clay, still nothing grew on it because of the anti-electricity that those UFOs use.

Sam:  Let’s go back to your message from your public access show, which is also the message you’ve been bringing to people through The Tim and Eric Show.  It’s a very positive message, telling kids to stay off of drugs and to stay in school.  Have you ever had anybody come to you over the years and tell you that your message has changed their life?

David Liebe Hart's puppet companions Chip the Black Boy and Teddy Eddy changed lives and told kids to stay away from gangs and drugs on "The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show"

David:  Yes.  There was a white guy who contacted me and he said he had a very bad pornography problem and a bad cocaine problem and it got him in the brink and he was stationed in Oceanside.  He said he was watching The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show in San Diego and he said after watching it he made an oath to his girlfriend that he’d stop smoking weed and taking crack and he continued watching the program and overcame his drug problem and his porn problem and he was ab le to get married and became a member of the Christian Science church.  He got out of the military and then he moved to Colorado and about six years later his parents called and said he had passed on but at his funeral they said what changed his life was the Junior Christian puppet show.  There was another situation.  Somebody saw my Junior Christian Science puppet show in the Chicago area and these two people wanted to commit suicide and he was staying at a hotel and he turned on the TV and saw the Junior Christian Science Bible Show and the bible lesson I was reading was about probation after death and  that Easter show touched him so much that he took the bullets out of his gun and he never thought about committing suicide again.  He got married and started all over again, but he said he’d never forget that show.  He called me up and told me this and made a donation for five hundred dollars.

Sam:  Well the Junior Christian Science Bible Show has become an internet phenomena.  I know you have a number of the tapes…

David:  I have all the tapes from 1998 all the way to 2008 when I did my last show.

Sam:  Have you ever thought about marketing those on DVD.

David:  Well the problem is, I would love to market them, but the cable company owns half the rights to them.  That’s the problem.  When you do a public access show you sign an agreement that the cable company own half the rights to the show.  If you sell the show they get half the rights.  Its only right.  You use their studio equipment.

While performing outside of the Hollywood Bowl, David Liebe Hart was discovered by Tim and Eric's people, leading him to a regular gig on "The Tim and Eric Super Awesome Show Great Job!"

Sam:  So lets get back to your gig on The Tim and Eric Show.  Can you tell us about how you met Tim and Eric for the first time?

David:  Okay.  I met Tim and Eric when one of their employees saw me singing at the Hollywood Bowl and asked for a CD.  The employee saw that I had talent and she bought one of my CDs and told Tim and Eric to watch me on my public access show and that’s when Tim and Eric called me for a cold reading.  Then they had me write a song, which was Salame, which started my career.  They liked me, and they cast me in the show, and the next thing I knew I became a semi-regular.  I’ve been on the show ever since 2007.

Sam:  Are you currently making any episodes now?

David Liebe Hart found a cult following after he and his freaky cat puppet sang "Salame" on "The Tim and Eric Super Awesome Show Great Job!"

David:  Oh yes.  We’re working on Season 5 now.  I play a police officer in Season 5.  I’m doing it with James Quall.  James Quall doesn’t like the part because he has to hit me on the head.  I wrote a new song called The Instinct of a Woman and a military song called Puberty Military People, talking about how they wont get AIDS if they wear protection.

Sam:  Lets say I’m coming into LA.  Where can I come and see you perform?

David:  I will be performing at the San Diego Festival with Tim and Eric and James Quall.    I am still at the Hollywood Bowl and the Santa Monica Pier.  I don’t make enough money from The TIm and Eric Show so I have to supplement my income by being self employed.  I bought a business license from Santa Monica Pier and I am there from 1 to 5, Wednesday through Friday selling my portraits and my CDs there.  I am at La Brae Tar Pits Saturday and Sunday. from 1 to 4.  The Hollywood Bowl will be starting up and I’ll be there night from Tuesday through Sunday.

Sam:  When you perform at the Hollywood Bowl, what puppet do you bring with you?

David Liebe Hart can be found with Doug the Dog performing outside of the Hollywood Bowl, the Santa Monica Pier and La Brae Tar Pits

David:  I only use Dog the Dog.  I’ll tell you why.  These puppets are expensive to repair.  I already had the original Chip the Black Boy stolen and it cost me five thousand dollars to have him rebuilt all over again.  It took two checks from The Tim and Eric Show to pay for it.  I lost Albert Herrmann as well.  A lot of people want my shows.  Dick Clark loved my puppet show and he wanted my shows for his private collection so I was going in and out of my storage place to give Dick Clark, but one day I accidentally left the storage door open and Albert Herrmann got stolen.  His head got stolen with a bunch of hand puppets.  They were priceless.  I paid a guy to built Albert Herrmann but he couldn’t build him right so Albert Herrmann is gone for good.  So I only bring cheap puppets because when people are drunk they will pull on puppet, they will spit on the puppet, they will throw on the puppet and when I’m working at the Hollywood Bowl I run into people who’ll say “Hey nigger go back to Africa.  All you niggers are idiots.  Why don’t you go to another country.”  Now I love all God’s people and there is no reason for people to be prejudice.  Blacks are now part white, and it doesn’t end here.  The Irish come from the Omegan race, the Germans from the Armanian race and the Romanians come from the Corinian race.  Every race on this planet comes from….

Sam:  Hold on a second David!

Nuala:  Slow down bud.  The Corinians?

Are you from Ireland? If so, according to David Liebe Hart you are part Omegan.

David:  Yes.  Anybody who is Romanian is part Corinian and anybody is Irish is part Omegan.

Nuala:  Where are the Omegans from?

David:  The Omegans are from Targalaghan which is thirty three light years away from Earth.  They are carnivorous.  They brought cows and horses to planet Earth, and they brought bears and lions here.  They built the original rune stones in England.

Nuala:  Why did they come?

David:  They were conquers.  They conquered and blended in, just like the Swedish and the Norwegians came from the Paladian race.  They were Vikings.  They would conquer planets.

Nuala:  I’m Finish.  Am I derived from an alien race?

David:  Yes you are.  Every race is derived from an alien race.  Even the black race is not from here.  The Africans are from Sirius B.  Planet Earth used to be uninhabited like the moon.  Different races came and races were killed off during Atlantis, but the first people who came to this planet were the African race from Sirius B and then the other races came and blended into this planet.

Nuala:  Do you think the alien races on Earth are benevolent or benevolent?

David:  There is a mixture of both.  The English come from a lizard race called the Reptilians.  There is a bloodline that are huge lizards that can shape shift and they drink blood.  They come from the lizard.  The ones that are still here are in the aristocracy and are high up in the military but I can’t go much in it or I’ll be killed.

According to David Liebe Hart, the British Royal Family are not what they seem to be!: "All the Royal Family are extra-terrestrials and come from the Reptilian race."

Nuala:  Well I just want to pick your brain about this for a second.  If the British royal family is derived from the Reptilians, what about the Royal Family?

David:  All the Royal Family are extra-terrestrials and come from the Reptilian race.

Sam:  Like Prince Charles and Prince William and Harry?

Nuala:  Like the Queen of England?

David:  All of them.  All of them.  I hate to say it.

Sam:  Well look David.  We got to wrap this up but I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.  Thank you for your honesty, your information, your openness and putting up with us calling you all morning.  You are a very wonderful person and have such a good soul.  I’m really glad we had the chance to talk with you.

David:  Well I just hope I don’t get killed for saying too much.  We really don’t have freedom of speech in America.

Sam:  We’ll try to take care of you.

David:  I’ve already been threatened already.

Sam:  Look.  Take care of yourself, alright?

David:  Alright.

Nuala:  Please do.  It was a pleasure to speak with you.

David:  Thank you for your help.

Thus ended our morning with David Liebe Hart.  Yet our visit with David created even more questions then before.  Is David living in another reality or does he know something that we don’t?  Is the world laughing at him, or is he the one who is actually laughing at the world?  Is David right?  Do aliens really walk amongst us or was he just putting us on?  Perhaps we will never know.  However there are certain things that I do know after my conversation with David Liebe Hart.  David Liebe Hart is a good man with a positive and sincere message.  When you strip away the puppets, the cable network show, the talk of aliens and the rest of the kookiness all that David Liebe Hart wants is for people to stay away from drugs, for kids to stay in school and for everybody to be good to one another.  I don’t care what planet you are from but that is a beautiful message from a unique man.

POP CULTURE ADDICT BONUS: THE DAVID LIEBE HART EXPERIENCE

You’ve read the interview.  Now its time to experience the phenomena that is David Liebe Hart via our friends at YouTube!

British comedian/magician Andy Nyman gives an overview of The Junior Christian Bible Lesson Hour experience.  Includes a montage of Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson’s greatest, and most surreal, moments.  Check out more Junior
Christian Science Bible Lesson at YouTube.

Behind the scenes of The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson
Show from the documentary Public Access Hollywood.  David also
talks about his life, his puppets, his message and his show in this interesting
and well put together sequence.

David Liebe Hart, via Chip the Black Boy, recounts his stormy relationship with famed TV producer Gary Marshall in song, singing The Gary Marshall Blues on Junior Christian Science Bible Hour.  What this has to do with Christian Science is beyond me.

David Liebe Hart performs, and speaks about alien abduction, on The Jimmy Kimmel Show.

David Liebe Hart sings about drinking milk and staying healthy on an LA based
telethon.

David Liebe Hart talks about Area 51, and performs his biggest “hit” Salame at the Nokia Theatre in 2009.

POP CULTURE ADDICT NOTE:  I’d like to Nuala Paluck for spending the morning interviewing David Liebe Hart.  It was a long and often surreal moment, but I enjoyed her company and she was a great help in keeping David Liebe Hart talking.  Furthermore, I would like to thank the many people who encouraged me in completing and presenting this interview.  Your support and opinions were well received and appreciated.