A bunch of years ago when I was at PS122 Paul Zaloom did a show there, I forget what it was called. I watched parts of it in rehearsal and it was really funny. One of my cousins from Cleveland came to town during the run and he had a date with a girl and they came and saw the show and …. well. Sometimes you forget that just because you’re totally comfortable with surreal Dildo Puppet Punch ‘n’ Judy sketches, people from Cleveland may not be.

I haven’t seen Paul since, but when it comes to surreal political object theater you don’t get much better than Mr. Zaloom. Known to many as Beakman, of the TV show Beakman’s World, Paul Zaloom has another history – crazy downtown political satirist. Kind of like the late great Tom Murrin, Zaloom uses found objects and strange props to tell stream of consciousness-sounding stories that lampoon the world, the state of the state and our cultural sacred cows.

Here’s how the new show, White Like Me, is being described:

Zaloom employs the intimate medium of toy theater to tell the story of the archetypal White-Man: he leaves his planet Caucazoid, travels through space to “civilize” Earth, becomes a philanthropist, a savior, and finally freaks out about his approaching minority status. The puppet cast is drawn from a gigantic collection of bric-a-brac collected over the years: action figures, toy cars, dolls, found objects, weird junk and more. Plus, Zaloom’s creepy dummy sidekick, Butch Manly, drops in to spoil the fun.

Always a fun time, truck on down to Dixon Place and check it out.