Paul Zaloom
Encyclopedia
Paul Finley Zaloom is a U.S. actor
and puppeteer
best known for his role as the character Beakman on the television show Beakman's World
.
(now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, and began his entertainment career at Goddard College
with artists in residence the Bread and Puppet Theater
, a troupe specializing in self-invented, home-made theatre. One of their performance locales was Coney Island
, where Zaloom is said to have given advice to the "unofficial Mayor of Coney Island", Dick Zigun, on how to bring in the crowds. In his solo work he utilizes found-object animation, in which he takes objects as varied as coffee pots and humidifiers and turns them into elements of political satire. His personal politics are liberal; he has referred to Elizabeth Dole and Margaret Thatcher as "right wing nut jobs." He has also been a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy since the early 1980s, having helped to lead a disarmament march during the Cold War
.
In 1992 Zaloom starred in the cable TV children's science program Beakman's World
. The show moved to CBS
in 1993 and aired for four seasons. Zaloom has also written, designed and performed eleven full length one-man shows, including Fruit of Zaloom, Sick But True, Mighty Nice, and The Mother of All Enemies, the latter a shadow-puppet show featuring traditional Mid-west Asian comic puppet character Karagoz. His latest effort tackles social issues such as privacy, the war on terrorism, and discrimination based on sexual orientation and ethnicity. Aside from shadow puppetry, Zaloom's idiosyncratic work utilizes techniques such as overhead projection, government document expose, cantastoria
picture performance, toy theater
, as well as hand, rod, found object, and dummy puppets.
Paul Zaloom has produced two films; the first is a mockumentary
entitled In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias, recounting a fictive war between Los Angeles and San Francisco, released in 2003. The second film, Dante's Inferno
, is a retelling of the poet Dante
's journey through hell, set in Los Angeles and performed in a style of puppetry called toy theater
that uses paper cut-outs for puppets and sets. Zaloom cowrote the script and was head puppeteer and performed multiple voices for the film. Both films feature the artwork of Sandow Birk
.
Zaloom has performed his work across the U.S. at many types of venues, including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Walker Arts Center, Spoleto Festival U.S.A., UCLA Performing Arts Series, the American Repertory Theater, L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art, King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut, and hundreds of others. He’s also played the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Les Semaines de la Marionette in Paris, the UNIMA
World Congress in Dresden, Vienna Festival and many others on nine international tours. Zaloom has received a Village Voice Obie Award
, an American Theater Wing Design Award, New York Dance and Performance Award (the “Bessie”), LA Weekly Theater Award
, and four Citations of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry from UNIMA-USA. He’s also been granted a Guggenheim Fellowship
, four Jim Henson
Foundation grants, a C.O.L.A. Fellowship, four National Endowment for the Arts
grants, to name a few.
He has taught puppetry and cantastoria
at colleges and universities in the U.S. and Europe, including Cal Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Emerson College, the Omega Institute, George Mason University, the University of Michigan, and the Institut Internationale de la Marrionnette, Charlesville, France, amongst others. He continues to perform as Beakman in Beakman Live! stage shows, and is involved in any number of artistic projects as an advisor and mentor.
He also attended a furry convention called Megaplex as a guest of honor in Orlando, FL in 2010.
and has a daughter, Amanda Israel Finley, with his former wife Jayne Israel.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and puppeteer
Puppeteer
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, such as a puppet, in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or...
best known for his role as the character Beakman on the television show Beakman's World
Beakman's World
Beakman's World is an educational children's television show produced by ELP Communications, Columbia Pictures Television, Universal Belo Productions, and Columbia TriStar Television Distribution....
.
Career
Paul Zaloom was educated at The Choate SchoolChoate Rosemary Hall
Choate Rosemary Hall is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational boarding school located in Wallingford, Connecticut...
(now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, and began his entertainment career at Goddard College
Goddard College
Goddard College is a private, liberal arts college located in Plainfield, Vermont, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Goddard College currently operates on an intensive low-residency model...
with artists in residence the Bread and Puppet Theater
Bread and Puppet Theater
The Bread and Puppet Theater is a politically radical puppet theater, active since the 1960s, currently based in Glover, Vermont...
, a troupe specializing in self-invented, home-made theatre. One of their performance locales was Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
, where Zaloom is said to have given advice to the "unofficial Mayor of Coney Island", Dick Zigun, on how to bring in the crowds. In his solo work he utilizes found-object animation, in which he takes objects as varied as coffee pots and humidifiers and turns them into elements of political satire. His personal politics are liberal; he has referred to Elizabeth Dole and Margaret Thatcher as "right wing nut jobs." He has also been a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy since the early 1980s, having helped to lead a disarmament march during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
In 1992 Zaloom starred in the cable TV children's science program Beakman's World
Beakman's World
Beakman's World is an educational children's television show produced by ELP Communications, Columbia Pictures Television, Universal Belo Productions, and Columbia TriStar Television Distribution....
. The show moved to CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in 1993 and aired for four seasons. Zaloom has also written, designed and performed eleven full length one-man shows, including Fruit of Zaloom, Sick But True, Mighty Nice, and The Mother of All Enemies, the latter a shadow-puppet show featuring traditional Mid-west Asian comic puppet character Karagoz. His latest effort tackles social issues such as privacy, the war on terrorism, and discrimination based on sexual orientation and ethnicity. Aside from shadow puppetry, Zaloom's idiosyncratic work utilizes techniques such as overhead projection, government document expose, cantastoria
Cantastoria
Cantastoria comes from Italian for "sung story" or "singing history" and is known by many other names around the world. It is a theatrical form where a performer tells or sings a story while gesturing to a series of images...
picture performance, toy theater
Toy theater
Toy theater, also called paper theater and model theater, is a form of miniature theater dating back to the early 19th century in Europe. Toy theaters were often printed on paperboard sheets and sold as kits at the concession stand of an opera house, playhouse, or vaudeville theater...
, as well as hand, rod, found object, and dummy puppets.
Paul Zaloom has produced two films; the first is a mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
entitled In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias, recounting a fictive war between Los Angeles and San Francisco, released in 2003. The second film, Dante's Inferno
Dante's Inferno (2007 film)
Dante's Inferno is a 2007 comedy film performed with hand-drawn paper puppets on a toy theater stage. The film was adapted from the book "Dante's Inferno" by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders , which is a modern update of the canticle Inferno from Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy...
, is a retelling of the poet Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's journey through hell, set in Los Angeles and performed in a style of puppetry called toy theater
Toy theater
Toy theater, also called paper theater and model theater, is a form of miniature theater dating back to the early 19th century in Europe. Toy theaters were often printed on paperboard sheets and sold as kits at the concession stand of an opera house, playhouse, or vaudeville theater...
that uses paper cut-outs for puppets and sets. Zaloom cowrote the script and was head puppeteer and performed multiple voices for the film. Both films feature the artwork of Sandow Birk
Sandow Birk
Sandow Birk is an American artist from Southern California. He has an extensive history of exhibitions both national and international, and has received many prestigious grants and awards. Five books have been published on his works and he has made two films. The majority of his work has dealt with...
.
Zaloom has performed his work across the U.S. at many types of venues, including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Walker Arts Center, Spoleto Festival U.S.A., UCLA Performing Arts Series, the American Repertory Theater, L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art, King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut, and hundreds of others. He’s also played the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Les Semaines de la Marionette in Paris, the UNIMA
UNIMA
UNIMA was founded in Prague in 1929 . In 1981, Jacques Felix moved UNIMA's headquarters to Charleville-Mézières, France...
World Congress in Dresden, Vienna Festival and many others on nine international tours. Zaloom has received a Village Voice Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
, an American Theater Wing Design Award, New York Dance and Performance Award (the “Bessie”), LA Weekly Theater Award
LA Weekly Theater Award
LA Weekly Theater Award is an annual critics' award established in 1979, given by the LA Weekly for outstanding achievements in small theatre productions in Southern California...
, and four Citations of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry from UNIMA-USA. He’s also been granted a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, four Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
Foundation grants, a C.O.L.A. Fellowship, four National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
grants, to name a few.
He has taught puppetry and cantastoria
Cantastoria
Cantastoria comes from Italian for "sung story" or "singing history" and is known by many other names around the world. It is a theatrical form where a performer tells or sings a story while gesturing to a series of images...
at colleges and universities in the U.S. and Europe, including Cal Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Emerson College, the Omega Institute, George Mason University, the University of Michigan, and the Institut Internationale de la Marrionnette, Charlesville, France, amongst others. He continues to perform as Beakman in Beakman Live! stage shows, and is involved in any number of artistic projects as an advisor and mentor.
He also attended a furry convention called Megaplex as a guest of honor in Orlando, FL in 2010.
Personal life
Zaloom is openly gayHomosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and has a daughter, Amanda Israel Finley, with his former wife Jayne Israel.