Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/07/24/another-puddles-pity-party-app.html
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By any measure Puddles is a national treasure.
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Hello America from Britain.
This fellow is in the grand tradition of music hall.
Talent and a gimmick, well applied. That’s all you need, and it’s what he has in buckets.
Which is not meant as an insult. If he can do this reliably, across multiple songs, he’s a superb act.
If he can throw in some decent slapstick when he’s working with someone else, he’s a genuine national treasure.
I wish him luck.
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I always tear up a little when Puddles sings a great, sad song.
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Put this clown on Broadway!
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I wonder if he stays here:
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or Vaudville/Burlesque/Caberet. Sad clown sings real good is an old gag. But Puddles does it about as well as you can do it.
Google for some other vids. Dude clowns good. Subtle sort of slapstick though.
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His cover of Pinball Wizard sung like Folsom Prison Blues is bloody magical
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I’ve been listening to Puddles for a few years now. I’ve enjoyed his performances. I hope he sticks around.
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Have you seen the vice-versa version?
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He also has a cover of Folsom Prison Blues sung like Pinball Wizard that is damn good.
I learned about him through Postmodern Jukebox on Youtube.
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I wish I could watch this show. Hulu used to show it for free, but not no more.
You’re better off watching clips. What could be a fun show is absolutely ruined by the constant, cringy, over-acted audience reaction shots that the editors insist on torturing us with throughout the actual acts (when they’re not jumping to god-awful camera shots that either miss the action or focus on narrow views of it). Not to mention the ridiculously fake, slack-jawed responses of the judges. Honestly, I watched an episode of Honey Boo Boo once and didn’t feel so annoyed by the producers’ clear disdain for their viewers’ intelligence.
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I saw Puddles at the Kennedy Center on Friday. It was everything I hoped it would be, and more.
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Or look at his reaction to the question “happy to be here?” in this video. He definitely has some comedy chops there (as, it seems to me, Howie Mandel picks up on).
As to the sad clown shtick: I think performers, male singers in particular, have a challenge to face in breaking through our cultural expectations against emotional vulnerability. There are genres (country, blues) where the act of singing itself affords a lot of permission to be vulnerable. But his sad clown act works really well for the kind of melodramatic material that he tends to favor.
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Yeah, this seems like a calculated move for his second performance. “All By Myself” is nowhere near his full range and potential .
Compare to his audition:
He really works the pity angle at the end there. Assuming they push him through, I think he’ll step it up next round.
His Wiki page says he’s 6’ 8". That’s a lot of clown. I wonder if he’ll be performing at The Gathering of the Juggalos this summer.
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looks like i’m late to the party, but i guess you find puddles when you need him – it’s been a week of loss and heartbreak. thanks puddles.
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If you have a chance to see him perform, I recommend it. He does the whole show alone and silently apart from song (but with chosen members of the audience as props) and with a video/slideshow display. There’s YouTube clips of course.
