Around the same time Monty Python began popping up on American television, Duck's Breath formed in Iowa City in 1975. Spawned in bars and the university student union, Duck’s Breath became a lively "new vaudeville" act featuring recycled costumes, odd props and flying non-sequiturs. The group spawned a stream of one-act shows including "Gonad The Barbarian," "A Midwestern Night's Dream," "Senseless Cruelty: A Ravioli Western," and "A Cliff Note's Hamlet." Migrating west, it added community centers, off-Broadway theaters, and coffee houses to its performance venues, and found itself part of San Francisco's fabled '70s busking scene, passing the hat at the Cannery, Ghiradelli Square, and Union Square.
They cut their comedy teeth mounting shows at a pre-punk Mabuhay Gardens, the Haight's Shady Grove and Other Cafe, and eventually at classic venues like San Francisco's Boarding House, Great American Music Hall and Berkeley's Julia Morgan Theater. They expanded to national touring- hitting colleges, multi-purpose rooms and even movie theaters, the high point being selling out two shows at the legendary Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, and winding up in Manhattan to full houses and sweet reviews.
Along with its many live performances, Duck's Breath has given birth to audiocassettes, albums, and compact discs - as well as a 30th anniversary DVD, not to mention its involvement in side projects, books and specials, from Dr. Science and Ian Shoales. Troupe members include Jim Turner (the eccentric folksinger Randee of the Redwoods, a 1980s MTV regular), Dan Coffey (Dr. Science), Merle Kessler (Ian Shoales, NPR's acerbic mile-a-minute sneer artist), Leon Martell (the beleaguered art instructor) and Bill Allard (the flustered nun Sister Mundi Mr. Johnson).
Called "an American Monty Python" by Newsweek Magazine, Duck's Breath rarely performed together after 1988, concentrating on individual ventures. It re-emerged in 2007 for performances at the Freight & Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley and Mill Valley's Throckmorton Theater. In their latter day public appearances, Duck's Breath concentrated on their rapid-fire series of short sketches; the quintet contorted themselves into famous works of art from "The Birth of Venus" to "Nude Descending a Staircase," became a parochial school demonstration of "How To Carry Chairs," performed a used car opera to impress a skeptical customer, offered death-defying marshmallow tricks in their absurdist theatrical style, and often concluded with what a fan called their mantra, a late night commercial parody called “More Than a Box.
Troupe factoids: Duck’s Breath was the opening act for The Ramones' first San Francisco appearance (which inspired the troupe's garage band, The Marones). "After seeing Duck's Breath," announced Joey Ramone, "gimme, gimme gimme shock treatment."
On public radio, the troupe regularly contributed sketches and satirical commentaries to NPR's "All Things Considered" during the 1980s and two members created the long-running "Ask Dr. Science" series of "misinfotainment" that aired on 200+ public radio stations during a marathon 25-year-run.
They had a hit song, "Herb Caen Blues," about the famed San Francisco newspaper columnist, sung to the tune of "Cocaine Blues. “It became a hit so fast on KSAN Radio that we didn't have time to get a single made of it," recalls troupe general manager Steve Baker.
NBC censors made "Laugh-In" producer George Schlatter remove a Duck's Breath sketch from the late night "Great American Laff Off" national television special featuring San Francisco comedy talent.
A Fox TV kids television version of "Dr. Science" won an Emmy for best local television series in Los Angeles. It also got a rave review in The Village Voice, which so many children, alas, did not read.
