Video of MR. HITLER'S NEIGHBORHOOD

Performed in 2006 at the Oregon Express, Dayton Ohio

by Jack Bowman

Comments about this Performance:

"My performances are Literary in nature.  I consider Shakespeare my only competitor.  Not other performers.  So my performances do have things like refrains and metaphor.

My Performance “Mr. Hitler’s Neighborhood” (if taken in its simplest form) is just a parody.  But it is more.  I made Mr. Hitler (Mr. Rogers) a bad guy for using the media to condition the children to accept capitalism.  If you caught the very beginning you would have heard “This program is brought to you by the Corporation for Public Education and viewers like you”  In case you are not aware there is no “Corporation for Public Education”.

The Swastika has been a major symbol in my performances ever since I saw someone come up to one unexpectedly and move away from it.  I realized it has been conditioned into the masses to mean evil.  It only means (to me) to represent that Nazi nation of Germany from the 1930’s to the 1940’s.  If you find it more than that (as most Americans do) you need to ask yourself what else are you conditioned to react for or against.  One, for sure, I can tell you, is a positive reaction to commercial products."

This site contains the script and a video of the performance at the Cleveland Performance Art Festival on May 24, 1998 Mr Hitler's Neighborhood - Cleveland  The site also contains a link to the  creation notes. This is the original Mr. Hitler's Neighborhood Performance. The performance/video is dated since it included references to then (1998) current political developments.

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