Addresses: Home: 54 Franklin Street, New York, NY, 10013; Agent: ArtsArcadia Associates, 853 Broadway, Rm. 1208, New York, NY, 10003.
"Zaloom's work animates found-objects, debris, junk, and toys as puppetsand environments in short plays, and he uses conventional hand-puppets. He also creates paper videotapes (or "crankies"), a scroll of paper with illustrations that is unrolled with an accompanying narration. Zaloom designs and builds all of his puppets, draws all paper videotapes, and directs and performs all the work. 'Two elements can be found in all my work: first it is all funny. My primary objective is to make people laugh. Secondly, it is political. By "political," I mean that the work is about real issues and events in theworld today as I see them. I do not espouse any political line or suggest any solutions. I try to reduce complex issues like acid rain, deterioration ofU.S. underground water supplies, book banning, the greenhouse effect, civil defense planning, nuclear war, ocean dumping, etc. into simple, clear, accurate puppet scenes. But if the audience doesn't laugh, then I have failed. ldeally, the audience does laugh and has a great time; then simultaneously or even the next day, the gravity and urgency of these issues hits the audience.'"
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