Concert Schedule

The ‘Sad Clown with the Golden Voice’ is here with his heartfelt anthems and a suitcase full of Kleenex!  This Pity Party is not all sadness and longing. The show is peppered with a brilliant sense of the absurd, mixing lots of humor with the awkward, tender moments.
A veritable “Pagliacci by way of Pee-Wee Herman and David Lynch” (The AJC), Puddles Pity Party has almost 500K YouTube subscribers and over 170 million views for indelible interpretations of classics by the likes of ABBA, Bowie, Cheap Trick and Queen and his unforgettable mash-up of “Pinball Wizard/Folsom Prison Blues”.  You may recognize him from his appearances on Season 12 of America’s Got Talent and viral video collaborations with Postmodern Jukebox.  Puddles has toured extensively in the US at legendary venues like the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, the Kennedy Center in D.C. and the Troubadour in Los Angeles.  He has also performed many times in the UK at Soho Theatre London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Other worldwide festival appearances include the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Perth Fringe World, Melbourne International Comedy Fest, Just for Laughs Montreal, Belgium’s Gent Festival, Festival Supreme (LA), Bumbershoot Festival (Seattle), Moontower Comedy Festival (Austin), and Bethlehem’s MusikFest.

“It seems like a parody. But when Puddles opens his mouth to sing, it’s beautiful.  Operatic.”

• The Boston Globe

“Fantastically brilliant…originality at its best.”

       -   Simon Cowell

“His special effect is a textured voice laced with melancholy…what makes him transcend the trope is his vulnerability.”

• The New York Times

“Clever and often hysterically funny… (Puddles) is ideally suited to songs popularized by belters old and new like Tom Jones, Sia and Celine Dion, all of which he performs with tear-jerking bravura…” 

• LA Weekly

“What a voice he has. Brilliant man.”   -  Eric Idle

“Puddles Pity Party is the damndest thing…If I could sing like that, I’d never shut up.”  -  Michael McKean

“Few things in this world happier’n a sad clown that sings like a mellow-tone angel.”  -   The Austin Chronicle

“Pagliacci by way of Pee-Wee Herman and David Lynch.”  - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

The more he fails, the more he wins over the crowd. That’s the paradox of Gregg Turkington’s shockingly enduring character, Neil Hamburger. With his greasy combover, phlegm-hawking, and beleaguered, hunched demeanor, the tuxedo’d entertainer dispenses mean-spirited, pop-culture-puncturing jokes that carry the whiff of stale cologne and motel-room desperation. Grinding sacred musical cows into fodder for dyspeptic, puntastic question/answer gags, Hamburger inspires guffaws and groans with remarkable consistency. His humor feels rancid going down… and that’s the whole point. 

Sean Wheeler and the Reluctant Messengers perform both originals and unique, indelible interpretations of relatively obscure songs from the American canon. Exploring the country, folk/traditional, gospel, and soul idioms, Desert Legend Sean Wheeler (Throw Rag) demonstrates a storyteller's love of a good tale and an understanding that there is nothing separating classic American musical forms — it can all be played together, and often in the same song. The seasoned musicians who comprise the Reluctant Messengers are Billy Pitman on guitar (Jimmie Vaughn), Danny McGough on keys (Tom Waits, Dave Davies), and Gregory Boaz on bass (Tex & the Horseheads).
 
Along with newer interpretations of American classics, the band will be performing songs from the Sean Wheeler solo album Sand in My Blood, released on the Little Village Foundation label. 
“Less is definitely more in the case of this recording. A deeply felt voice, guitar, spare percussion, occasional keyboards and harmonica are all this special rough hewn music need. Open your mind and broaden your horizons with this lowdown masterpiece.” — Bluesblast Magazin