Jackson’s Private Zoo was a short music video that celebrated the relationship between the reclusive pop star and a very special monkey. In Jackson’s Private Zoo, I cut out and animated drawings I sourced from the National Enquirer. The video’s soundtrack was an a cappella version of Beat It sung with Liz Hara (responsible for the foley of Van Halen’s guitar solo).
I filmed Jackson’s Private Zoo at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT with Tim Lagasse, Mark Gale, Liz Hara, and the Video Anarchy strand of the 2005 National Puppetry Conference. At the time, Jackson had been embroiled in his second protracted child abuse trial as a result of Martin Bashir’s controversial documentary, Living with Michael Jackson.
The initial screening of Jackson’s Private Zoo at the O’Neill Theater Center happened to be just two days after his acquittal from seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering intoxicating agents to children (what came to be known as “Jesus juice”). Subsequently, I showed Jackson’s Private Zoo at Perishable Theatre in Providence for the Fledgling Festival, at the California Institute of the Abnormal Arts in North Hollywood during the Festival of Mirth, and at Savage Vanguard in Austin as part of Fusebox Festival’s Not Humanly Possible program.
Screening History
2009 – Not Humanly Possible, Salvage Theatre (Austin)
2007 – Festival of Mirth, California Institute of the Abnormal Arts (North Hollywood)
2006 – Fledgling Festival, Perishable (Providence)
2005 – National Puppetry Conference, Eugene O’Neill Center (Waterford, CT)