Pranks! (Re-Search # 11) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by V. Vale (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Pranks comes off as a statement of avant-garde philosophy -- as a kind of wake-up call from an extended underground of Surrealist artists." --San Francisco Chronicle

"The definitive treatment of the subject, offering extensive interviews with 36 contemporary tricksters ... from the Underground's answer to Studs Terkel." --Washington Post --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
A prank is a trick, a mischievous act, and a ludicrous act. Although not regarded as poetic or artistic acts, pranks constitute an art form and genre. Here, pranksters such as Mark Pauline, Monte Cazazza, Jello Biafra, Joe Coleman, Karen Finley, Henry Rollins, John Waters and Henry Rollins challenge the sovereign authority of words, images and behavioral convention. Some tales are bizarre, as when Boyd Rice presented the First Lady with a skinned sheep's head on a platter. This iconoclastic compendium will dazzle and delight all lovers of humor, satire and irony. A great quotations section is also included.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Re/Search Publications; 2nd edition (May 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965046982
• ISBN-13: 978-0965046985
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #887,417 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem of irreverence, wit, subversion & anarchy!, October 30, 1998

By	William Errickson, Jr. "Will Errickson" (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A life-changing, perception-altering wonder! "Pranks!" is unlike anything I know. I discovered it by accident when I was working in a used bookstore, about 8 or 9 years ago. I was a teeneager just becoming aware of how repressed and stultifying suburbia was--and of the people over the decades who have tried to blast open our minds. Even so, I didn't quite know what to make of people like Joe Coleman, who geeked mice & blew himself up at performances (check out the photos, as well as the video "Mondo New York.") or Mal Sharpe & Jim Coyle, who tape-recorded some of the most absurd pranks ever. They walk into a pharmacy & ask the pharmacist for advice on home surgery! The pharmacist just freaks out after talking to them seriously for awhile--the whole transcript is here. Then there's Mark Pauline, with his Survival Research Laboratories (robots/machines he programs to destroy one another, often decorated with animal corpses) and the infamous Karen Finley. Of course there are the usual suspects--Tim Leary, Abbie Hoffman, Jello Biafra, plus a whole host of misfits, misanthropes, iconclasts, outcasts, and outlaws to round out this wildly in-depth work. Tons of pictures, millions of words. It really blew me wide open. I love this definition of pranks. They're exposing reality for the social construct it is, showing how easily people go along with it, how they adapt to even the most bizarre "set up" and often revealing the power structures that control our lives, and subvert them with not (only) political action, but humor, razor-sharp wit, sparkling, spiky intelligence--and a whole lot of balls. Absolutely worth every penny!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth it solely for the Rollins story, March 15, 2001

By	"[e-mail]" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Like all Re/Search stuff it can get a tad fawning and smug, but in this case it's deserved. The distinction between these kinds of pranks and the hand in warm water pranks is that a GOOD prank should make the person it was played on as excited as the person who played it.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Changed my life" - cheesy but true, April 21, 1999

By A Customer

A great volume, presented in the same engaging interview style as the 'incredibly strange music' volumes. Some sections are almost unbearably funny; some are grotesque and sick. All in all the book is unmissable - it makes a pretty good case for certain types of subversive behavior.