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Randall Mario Poffo (1952) Randall Mario Poffo was born into a performance family, his father Angelo Poffo was one of the leading performance artists in the 50s, and his younger brother Lanny also worked as a performance artist before transitioning to a successful career as a poet. Aurelian Jacob Smith Junior was also born into a performance family. Unlike the Poffos, Smith's famous father spent most of his time on the road performing and didn't take the time to work with his son as Angelo had with Randall and Lanny. Both Poffo and Smith's careers consisted of mainly playing second fiddle to a bigger, more influential performance artist, but it was a role that they played perfectly. Overall, their accomplishments were not as important as those they were supporting except for one performance where they worked together in 1989 that may be the most important single performance of the decade. They had been using the usual found props in their work, until Smith introduced a new prop: a live snake. In doing research for this project, the Semifold Collective believes this to be the first performance, in an art context, involving a live snake. The plan was to used the devenomized snake at an upcoming event, with over 20,000 attendees, including many women and children who would be coming to see the more family friendly performance artists. This was also the first time NBC would be broadcasting the performances live on their short lived Saturday Night's Main Event. Although the snake was devenomized, the handler warned both Poffo and Smith that the snake was one of the more aggressive ones of the bunch, a fact that both Poffo and Smith seemed to enjoy. The beginning of the performance went how their collaborations normally went. Poffo's wife, Elizabeth Hewlett, played her typical role, and the body-based persona work went exactly as planned. Both men were at the very height of their craft. That is, until the snake made it's appearance. True to the performance art of this time, the snake was hidden in the normal spot for hiding things... under the stage. The snake had been sedated before the festival so it would comfortable stay under the stage in a canvas bag until it was needed. It's handler had assured them that by the time they needed it, it would be just waking up again. Aurelian Smith slid under the stage and grabbed the bag, quickly pulling the snake out, holding it behind its head like he had been taught. He thrust the snake toward Poffo, and the crowd gasped. Again, he trust the snake, and again, the crowd gasped. The snake was moving, slowly, but still moving to ensure that the members of the audience knew that it was real. The third time Smith thrusted the snake at Poffo the snake flew out of it hands and latched on to Poffo's forearm. Immediately the audience exploded in a commotion. Poffo, somewhat exhausted from the performance, just stared at the snake as it dug it's teeth deep into his arm. Suddenly it opened it's jaw, moved slightly, and chomped again. Blood started streaming down his arm, and forming a pool on the stage. The children started screaming and crying as the snake chomped again, and again, and again. Smith had no idea what to do and ran backstage to get the handler. As he was running back, Richard Blood and Roderick Toombs burst onto the stage with the handler following close behind. They grabbed the snake just as it was pulling out of Poffo's arm and was heading toward his neck, then quickly secured it. By this time the audience was in disarray, everyone was in absolute shock, most not being aware that the snake was devenomized. Millions of people watching on their televisions at home probably had the same reaction, maybe even more extreme since the television cameras gave them a closer view of the action. Poffo, still very much in his persona, picked up on this concern and slowly stumbled to the back pretending to be affected by the venom. At this point NBC cut the satellite feed. Another unparalled work of performance that flies under the radar of many in the art world. |
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