On The Day Spierogie Was Born
Last night, our first episode of Spierogie and Friends dropped online at the exact moment(-ish) that Katy Perry was dancing with sharks. For those of you haven't heard me mention Spierogie and Friends, it is a short web series about a witch puppet named Spierogie who hosts a kid's show. If you think about things that shouldn't host a kid's show, a witch puppet is probably up there. It is dark and weird and meant to be funny and also educational, and you can check out our first episode "Balls" here!
It has been a group effort in so many ways- Joe Sabatino made us an original marionette and stunt puppet, Fred Brown and Drew Evans made us an amazing original score, and Electric Kite Animation helped us bring our lil' witch to life in a beautiful way by producing this thing and making it look beautiful. We also had so many talented friends give us wonderful notes on the scripts- shout out to Shannon DeVido, Brian Kelly, Tim Moore, Caitlin Weigel, & Gabrielle Utsey! But for now, I want to tell the story of how Andrew Pelberg (follow him on here at splinterinmynipple, one of the more questionable Tumblr titles!) and I initially created this bizarre world.
Drew and I had known each other for years, and we had often expressed our interest of writing together- usually when we were drinking at a party, but sometimes over cheesesteaks and wings. One fateful day we decided that although we loved eating food and drinking beer, we could do that after writing a few pages- and so began our journey to figure out what the hell we would write. We both love dark humor and things that seem a bit off, and so we decided to just go to a thrift store and see if anything inspired us. So we walked to Philly AIDS Thrift and just so happened to find a witch puppet for $10. After some encouragement from me, Drew bought it. We didn't think this would be the thing we'd write about- that happened over wings.
At about 12 in the afternoon- before eating a proper breakfast and after a rigorous exercise regimen of walking slowly around a thrift store- we decided we should grab food. Drew and I both knew that I had to take part in a Vegan Wing Bowl with my sketch troupe manipedisketch that very night, but still- there was no doubt that we would split an order of too many wings (maybe 30? I can't remember- the wings clogged my memory). It was over these wings that Spierogie was born. We began to talk about what situations a witch puppet may be in, and for some reason we thought it was funny to make her the host of a kid's show- sort of like if a shaky Land of Make-Believe puppet were to take on the role of Fred Rogers. We then began to spiral out of control (I'd blame the wings, but that's how we always are) and think of inappropriate and occult things we could sprinkle in, and how we'd make her like a weird old aunt who means well but often does things that are inappropriate. She would be clumsy and own a faulty broom and have a traditional witch name! We couldn't think of a good one off-hand, until Drew tried to conjure up Strega Nona's name- "You know, the one with the pasta pot- Spierogie!" This was the happiest of accidents. And there we had it- her name would be the word for a delicious Polish dumpling with an "S" in front of it.
And that was the beginning of the world that is now on the Internet as of last night! It's a weirdly delightful one that is equal parts witch puppets and wings and collaboration and love of the dark and bizarre. I hope it confuses people while bringing them lots of cheer. Spread her around if you'd care to, and remember- Cat spelled backwards is just Tac!