Timeline

  • 1974

    First appearance of Puke & Snot at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, under the names Mouldy & Wart. Shows were ten minutes in length, largely improvised, always in the paths and lanes, never onstage.

  • 1975

    Name change to Puke & Snot, joined at the Minnesota Festival by Penn & Teller

  • 1978

    Puke & Snot branch out to Maryland and Texas Festivals, perform for president's daughter Amy Carter and classmates at Friend's School in Washington, DC

  • 1979

    First Comedy club appearances in Minneapolis at the Comedy Cabaret. First appearance of signature vegetable, handed to Puke by audience member as show begins. (see photo of actual First Vegetable)

  • 1980

    Penn and Teller join P & S as their opening act at Comedy Cabaret, marking the first public performances of Penn and Teller as a comedy-magic duo. Cabaret show features P & S and P & T performing original songs to open and close each show. Puke & Snot cross the border to entertain Canadians at Canada's Wonderland in Toronto

  • 1981

    The Colorado Festival becomes an annual venue. Florida also gets its first taste of P & S at the Sarasota Medieval Fair

  • 1982

    Comedy clubs in Denver and Los Angeles experience the costumed weirdness of P & S. Clones begin to appear in Kansas City and Maryland. Festivals in Miami and San Diego added to schedule

  • 1983

    Crowds at festivals become too large for street performances, P & S move exclusively to stages. Drunks now must actually come up on stage to interfere with show

  • 1984

    Absolutely nothing remarkable happened in 1984. Nothing. The same mind-numbing comedy continued to take place at all the same venues.

  • 1985

    P & S leave the Texas Renaissance Festival, start appearances at the Kansas City show. Bible Belt is outraged by double entendres, but crowds number in thousands, proving once again that titillation and aggravation will always be pillars of capitalism

  • 1986

    Back to Canada, Summerfest in Edmonton and two weeks as featured U.S. comedy at the World's Fair in Vancouver, sharing stages with the first season of Cirque du Soleil

  • 1987

    College appearances escalate, P & S win Best Comedy Showcase at Western Regional NACA Conference in San Jose, beating out Sinbad and a variety of "known" performers, resulting in a 22 college booking throughout California, Arizona and Utah. Puke’s father dies , cutting short the tour

  • 1988

    Six weeks of performances at Disney World in Orlando, no lawsuits. More comedy club appearances in Minneapolis, Denver and Colorado Springs. Legendary professional golfer Tom Watson flies P & S to Kansas City to perform at his 40th birthday party. Guests are puzzled but amused

  • 1989

    Corporate America discovers that men in tights are funny, P & S travel to St. Thomas VI and other exotic locations, selling their souls for a paycheck and an expense account. Young women who used to approach P & S after each show and say "We really love you guys" are now saying "Our moms really love you guys."

  • 1990

    Festivals now booked for 25 weeks annually, Puke & Snot merchandise selling out everywhere. Snot hospitalized with kidney stones, Puke performs solo at Minnesota festival, does five shows, "auditioning" potential Snots by getting them to read most popular sketches with him onstage. Snot returns for Sunday shows, minus stones

  • 1991

    First appearances on the Legend Stage at the Minnesota Festival, a gigantic three masted frigate slapped down next to the parking lot. Crowds number over 2500 at many shows. Release of first P & S album, PUKE AND SNOT VS. THE BARD: "Slipping Between The Cracks"

  • 1992

    P & S star in award winning video "The Legend of Luthario" for Lutheran Brotherhood. Two week run of THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS CIRCLE OF DEATH FAMILY FUN SHOW at Scott Hansens's Comedy Gallery in Minneapolis features Jonny Fox, Arsene Dupin and Puke & Snot, big crowds

  • 1993

    20th Anniversary of first appearance at Minnesota Festival

  • 1994

    Corporate shows for Fortune 500 companies in California and Florida further legitimize mindless lunacy of P & S. Release of second album, PUKE AND SNOT VS. THE BARD: "Vowel Obstruction"

  • 1995

    Another lost year in which neither Puke nor Snot can recall even one interesting, out-of-the-ordinary anecdote. Oh wait— a woman in the third row changed her infant’s diaper during a noon show at the Legend Stage in Minnesota. Nearby audience members were issued refunds.

  • 1996

    Puke experiences "cardiac incident," undergoes angioplasty in May. Later that month P & S are doing five shows a day at Scarborough Fair in Dallas while the owners stood in the back of every show praying Puke would survive in the 95 degree heat

  • 1997

    Release of award winning PUKE & SNOT'S COMICAL BUM, rip-roaring full length tale of treachery and revenge, featuring some of the Twin Cities best actors playing multiple roles

  • 1998

    25th Anniversary of P & S at Minnesota Festival. The King and the Royal Court interrupted the noon show to present knighthoods and a cheap scroll to the boys, both of which were graciously accepted

  • 1995 -1999

    Festivals in Sarasota, Colorado, Minnesota and Maryland are now the primary venues each year, although comedy clubs, colleges and corporate shows continue to bring P & S indoors and out of the rain

  • 2000

    A return to the magic of the Mouse: in April, the Magic Kingdom at Orlando's Disney World features P & S as "Perry & Slice," two crotchety pirate buccaneers performing daily at the Adventureland Plaza near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The Disney Corporation offered a six month contract for further performances, but apparently the theme parks weren’t profitable enough to pay the required contract, so the boys went happily back to their regular festival schedule

  • 2001

    Release of first P & S video, HERE, HOLD THIS, featuring the best of the classic P & S sketches. Young women now approaching P & S after each show saying "My grandmother really loves you guys." After 9/11, P & S pass the hat for first responders in New York City and audiences donate thousands of dollars to the relief effort

  • 2002

    P & S leave Minnesota Festival after 28 years of five shows per day, 75 shows per season, establishing some kind of record: only one half hour show cancelled in 28 years, occurring when Puke is hauled off in an ambulance and treated for dehydration at a local hospital. Maryland Festival welcomes P & S for full nine week season.

  • 2003

    The astounding return of P & S to the Minnesota festival after a year’s sabbatical caused nary a ripple of excitement in the Twin Cities press. And that’s as it should be. One too many pat-downs at the Baltimore airport by rough-handed NSA personnel convinced the boys that home is where the heart is.

  • 2004

    Tampa Bay is added to the schedule for an April-May run right before the Colorado festival. The release of SHIP OF FOOLS, the long-awaited fourth CD in the exhausting series of Puke & Snot audio discs caused small lines to form after shows throughout the season. The CD features the new “Puke Runs For Office” piece, written by long time P & S writer Michael Levin, a timely sketch just in time for the ’04 elections.

  • 2005

    Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happens. Oh wait— no, nothing.

  • 2006

    Tampa falls off the schedule, it’s way too hot in May to wear tights. Sarasota is added in November. P & S win “best theatrical show” honors, humbly accept on behalf of their families and all the little people who they’ve stepped on to get where they are today: working in a tent ten miles east of Route 75.

  • 2007

    The Pittsburgh Festival saw the debut of the latest P & S clone duo, John Gamoke and Rook. Gamoke is an old friend of the boys, he's a working actor in the Twin Cities who occasionally pops up in quirky little independent films like SWEETLAND. The regular schedule of Colorado, Minnesota and Maryland goes off without a hitch, unless you count the incident with the family of Mormons who took offense to a line in the "politics" sketch.

  • 2008

    On August 11th, Thomas Snot left us. The show will go on, as he wanted it. The laughs will continue. There's a fine line between comedy and tragedy. We will walk it. The Minnesota and Maryland festivals will feature John Gamoke as Snot Jr. See the show if you can. It's not your father's Puke & Snot, but it's still damn funny. And send the memorial fund a few bucks, Joe's daughter will be going to school this fall and she could use the help.

  • 2009

  • John Gamoke simply nailed the show from Day One last season when he walked out in front of a thousand curious and excited onlookers in Shakopee and showed everybody they had nothing to fear: terrible acting, bad comedy and cheap jokes were still available in abundance at the Puke & Snot Show. Puke wrote CALL ME PUKE in ’09. And the generosity of the fans enabled us to get Joe’s daughter Angela through school and launched into the world as an educated, working woman.
    Thanks to all of you!

  • 2010

    The regular schedule of Colorado/Minnesota/Maryland continued apace as owners and fans realized immediately that there was no dropoff in yucks with the addition of our new, nicely rounded Snot Jr. The publication of CALL ME PUKE, Puke’s autobiographical epic, created long lines at the shop after each show and when the book won the Midwest Independent Publisher’s Award for Best of 2009 in the Humor Category, and sales went through the roof. Over 6000 books sold to date. Thanks again!

  • 2011

    Nothing remarkable happened. A good year. Puke got some new tights.

  • 2012

    Another good year was clouded by the loss of our good friend and stage manager Dave Albright, one of the kindest and most thoughtful and creative people we’ve ever had the privilege of working with in this weird business. Thanks, Dave, you were a blessing.

  • 2013

    Puke’s son Pat came along to Colorado to stage manage and run the merchandise business. The release of EXTREMELY PUKE and INCREDIBLY SNOT, recorded live at the Pirate Ship Stage in Colorado, marked the fifth CD from the boys. 2013 also became the final year of Puke & Snot in Colorado, and the crowds showed up in the thousands to thank us and buy all sorts of Puke & Snot crap. We should retire from every festival at least once every four years.

  • 2014

    This year marked the 40th year of Puke & Snot, as far as we know the longest running festival comedy act anywhere. Another strong season, featuring the debut of Pat O’Brien and Chris Carlson performing P & S: SEND IN THE CLONES in Colorado. Crowds were large, but they seemed to miss the originals more than we thought they would. John and I determined not to hand off the show again until permanent retirement was in the offing. With his total knee replacement, Puke should be good to go till at least 2030. Right.

  • 2015

    Completely lost track of 2015. It might not have even happened. Hello? Anybody?

  • 2016

    The boys happily returned to the Ship in Colorado for the final three weeks of The Colorado RenFest’s 40th Anniversary Season, much to the delight of the hard core mountain fans who apparently REALLY missed us. Also added to the schedule: the Sarasota Medieval Faire for two weekends in November. Surprised how many people from across the country heard we were there and showed up.

  • 2017

    We didn’t know when the season started that Thomas Snot Jr would be wrapping up his Puke & Snot career with these final performances in Minnesota and Maryland. Ten years is a good run, and long time fans will miss the jolly John next year. His amazing takeover of the role a week after Joe left in 2008 was only topped by his making it completely his own after that. He will be forever known as The Man Who Saved The Franchise.

  • 2018

    Audiences were delighted with the addition of Snot Version 3.0 in the person of Scott Jorgensen. Scott is a long time Twin Cities actor with a large resume, you’ve seen him in some off the wall TV spots, and he’s got a legendary YouTube presence in a four part series shot in 2006 entitled FEAR OF GIRLS. Check it out. Scott will be on board for the 2019 season and beyond as the Boys return to their favorite stages in Minnesota and Maryland.

  • 2019

    Crowds thickened this year as a result of the rave reviews that poured in regarding the performance of Snot Version 3.0, the improv aspects of the show took on a sharper edge, the addition of the “Garden” sketch added another layer of not-so-sly double entendre, and even though the rains came down hard in Maryland, it didn’t dampen the spirits of the hardy patrons who donned their slickers and stood in the mud to get their annual dose of cheap laughs. Let’s see what happens in 2020.

  • 2020

    OH. MY. GOD. Upon hearing the festival would be closed in 2020, all the royals were flushed, all the knights went into mourning, all swordsmen were cut, all jugglers were dropped, all the mimes were speechless, all ropewalker were suspended, all musicians were disbanded, all magicians were disillusioned, Puke and Snot were expelled, all pillagers were sacked, all pottery makers were fired, all cobblers got the boot, the heralds were crestfallen, the armorers forwarded their mail, the weavers knew this was looming, the fortune tellers didn’t see it coming, and all the ladies in waiting…kept on waiting. See you in 2021. [THIS ENTRY IS NOW AVAILABLE AS A TEE SHIRT IN THE STORE]