The Kipper Kids were a duo composed of Martin Rochus Sebastian von Haselberg (born 20 January 1949) and

Brian Routh Brian Routh (9 March 1948) is a British performance and sound artist. He is known for his performance work with Martin von Haselberg as one of The Kipper Kids who became notorious for their rowdy and rebellious performances in the art world; i ...

(born 9 March 1948) two artists known for the extreme and often comedic

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

they made together in the 1970s and after. Von Haselberg lives and works in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, U.S.; and Routh was recently living in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, England. From 1971, the duo were also known as Harry and Harry Kipper.

Biography

While attending

East 15 Acting School East 15 Acting School (East 15) is a British drama school in Loughton, Essex.Its degrees are awarded by the University of Essex, with which it merged on 1 September 2000. As of 2020, Essex University, where East 15 is located, has been ranked N ...

, Martin von Haselberg and

invented a character they called Harry Kipper. Upon being expelled from the school on the claim of "too experimental", they began working as a touring act. They were originally called Harry and Alf Kipper and had two distinctly different characters. Later, they dropped the name Alf and decided to call each other Harry and make their characters identical. From 1971 to 1975, most of their performances took place in Europe. In 1974, David Ross, later director of the

Whitney Museum of Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942 ...

and the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, saw them in performance at Gallerie Rudolf Zwirner in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

and invited them to do some shows in California.''Matrix/Berkeley: A Changing Exhibition of Contemporary Art''; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, by Elizabeth Thomas with Project Projects The Kipper Kids moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

in 1975 and became associated with the early years of

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

.''California Video: Artists and Histories''; Los Angeles The Getty Research Institute, The J. Paul Getty Museum, edited by Glenn Phillips. In 1982, they stopped actively collaborating. Their final performance together was at the

National Review of Live Art The National Review of Live Art, also known by the abbreviation NRLA, was an annual festival of live art which ran from 1979 to 2010 in the UK. History The festival owed its origins to a one-day event called simply the Performance Platform, wh ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

, in 2003. They reunited as The Kipper Kids in 2018 to perform the song "

Mah Nà Mah Nà "Mah Nà Mah Nà" is a popular song by Italian composer Piero Umiliani. It originally appeared in the Italian film '' Sweden: Heaven and Hell'' (''Svezia, inferno e paradiso''). It was a minor radio hit in the United States and in Britain, but bec ...

" for the album ''

Dr. Demento Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograp ...

: Covered in Punk.''

Performance career

Quoting from an announcement for the

Berkeley Art Museum The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

: "Through actions that at times stress the visual, and the violent aspects of social rituals, the British Team of Harry and Harry Kipper perform in a fashion that combines the zany theatrics of

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Colonial India, where he spent his ...

with a

scatological In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of feces. Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (and thus where it has been), health and diseases s ...

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such ...

that is all their own". Routh and von Haselberg created elaborate but purposely low-tech installations in which they would perform "ceremonies" using mostly found objects. Examples are "Tea Ceremony" (1972) a

Japanese tea ceremony The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or ) is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . While in the West it is known as "tea ceremony", it is se ...

-inspired piece and "Boxing Ceremony" (1972) in which one performer beats himself until bloodied whilst the other acts as referee. Japanese rituals, English

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Br ...

Viennese Actionism Viennese Actionism was a short-lived art movement in the late 20th-century that spanned the 1960s into the 1970s. It is regarded as part of the independent efforts made during the 1960s to develop the issues of performance art, Fluxus, happening ...

, and the work of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...

were amongst their influences. The Kipper Kids made two projects for television. For HBO they produced ''Mum's Magic Mulch'', and for

Cinemax Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent ...

, ''K.O. Kippers'', while the Kids also appeared in a 1982 project for HBO executive-produced by von Haselberg, ''The Mondo Beyondo Show'', a one time presentation for performance artists (including a pre-

Stomp Stomp may refer to: *Stomp (strike), a downwards kick using the heel Music and dance * ''Stomp'' (album), by Big D and the Kids Table, 2013 * Stomp (jazz), a type of rhythmic jazz tune popular in the 1920s *Stomp (theatrical show), a percussive p ...

Yes/No People, La La La Human Steps,

Bill Irwin William Mills Irwin (born April 11, 1950) is an American actor, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has made a num ...

Paul Zaloom Paul Finley Zaloom (born December 14, 1951) is an American actor and puppeteer, best known for his role as the character Beakman on the television show ''Beakman's World''. Career Born in Garden City, Paul Zaloom was educated at The Choate Sc ...

and others) hosted by Bette Midler's Mondo Beyondo character. Von Haselberg made a number of films at the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Lead ...

with Routh in the lead role: ''Quiet Lives'' (1991), ''People Are No Damn Good'' (1991) and ''Your Turn To Roll It #54'' (1992). They also were seen as characters in the 1982 film ''

Forbidden Zone ''Forbidden Zone'' is an American absurdist musical fantasy comedy film produced and directed by Richard Elfman, and co-written by Elfman and Matthew Bright. Shot in 1977 and 1978, the film premiered in 1980 and was distributed in 1982. Origi ...

'' and the 1989 film ''UHF''. Another television appearance came during the fifth season of ABC's ''

Moonlighting Moonlighting may refer to: * Side job, a job taken in addition to one's primary employment Entertainment * ''Moonlighting'' (film), a 1982 drama film by Jerzy Skolimowski * ''Moonlighting'' (TV series), 1985–1989 American television series, s ...

''. First aired on

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...

, 1989, "I See England, I See France, I See Maddie's Netherworld" featured The Kipper Kids as a pair of gravediggers in a surreal dream sequence. The Kipper Kids also performed a song in the 1991 comedy film ''

The Addams Family ''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over ...

'': " Playmates" which can be heard in the film and on its soundtrack. Later, Martin von Haselberg created a series of large photographic images made into

inflatable An inflatable is an object that can be inflated with a gas, usually with air, but hydrogen, helium and nitrogen are also used. One of several advantages of an inflatable is that it can be stored in a small space when not inflated, since inflata ...

sculptural shapes titled ''Floatulents'',.

Filmography

Personal lives

Von Haselberg has been married to

Bette Midler Bette Midler (;'' Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden ...

since 1984. They have one daughter together, actress

Sophie von Haselberg Sophie Frederica Alohilani von Haselberg (born November 14, 1986) is an American actress, best known for co-starring in the Woody Allen film '' Irrational Man''. Early life and education von Haselberg was born in Los Angeles, California, the d ...

. Routh was married three times: to

net.art net.art refers to a group of artists who have worked in the medium of Internet art since 1994. Some of the early adopters and main members of this movement include Vuk Ćosić, Jodi.org, Alexei Shulgin, Olia Lialina, Heath Bunting, Daniel Garcí ...

pioneer Nina Sobell from 1975 to 1981,''Franklin Furnace & the Spirit of the Avant-Garde A History of the Future''; Sant, Toni to performance artist

Karen Finley Karen Finley (born 1956) is an American performance artist, musician and poet. Her performance art, recordings, and books are used as forms of activism. Her work frequently uses nudity and profanity. Finley incorporates depictions of sexuality, ...

from 1981 to 1987,''On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century''; Carr, C. and to digital artist Patricia Wells.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kipper Kids, The Art duos British male film actors British male television actors British performance artists Performance artist collectives Kipper, Harry British contemporary artists