Article about the most dangerous show on earth by David Geer

The most dangerous show on earth

It Takes a Dangerous

Man to Create a

Dangerous Show

Long ago and far away (for those

who don’t live in California, anyway), it

would appear to some that poor Mark

Pauline lost his mind. Twenty-five or so

years later, he hasn’t recovered �" from

his deliriously dangerous passion, that

is.

You see, those many years ago,

Mark decided that it would be a good

idea to develop spectacles of entertain-

ment that involve lethal, multi-thou-

sand pound robots and mechaniza-

tions. That not being enough, his audi-

ences really needed to sit close enough

to the show to risk injury (though no

one has been hurt to date, the object

being entertainment, not elimination).

Finally, it was �" of course �" neces-

sary to have the occasional fracturing

of the local, state, and federal laws

that still got in the way after getting a

variance. Mark naturally came upon a

nice, malapropos name for the organi-

zation that embodied these death defy-

ing theatricals; he named it Survival

Research Labs.

Research That

Would Make

Frankenstein Proud

Moving quickly from our intro and

through the shortest disclaimer on

record (insert subliminal message that

Mark is not really crazy here), we arrive

at the gory details.

SERVO 09.2004

geercom@alltel.net

by David Geer

“The Most Dangerous Shows on Earth”

This Eldorado board blaster can shoot its wooden ammo

1,500 feet into the air!

Mark Pauline and Survival Research Labs Present

Page 2

Survival

Research

Labs creates major theatri-

cal spectacles (as major as

a venue supporting 2,000-

3,000 audience members

can get) where all of the

performers are robots,

weighing from 1,000 to

6,000 lbs each. (Okay, so I

missed this one for

“Mammoths and Dinkies

2.” I’m only human �" not

a single Borg part in my

body.)

There is a set or stage

as with any performance

of actors, as well as a

script of roles to be played. As with any

good TV show or movie, the audience

is captivated, drawn in, escaping reality

and the world that encases it.

Obstacles

The problems with building the

robots are as formidable as the robots

are themselves, but not insurmount-

able, since Mark’s day job more than

enables him to fund all of SRL’s machin-

ing needs. The biggest problems are

being able to get things done on

schedule and negotiating the safety

issues that surround fabricating the

robots.

The ideas come easy to Mark.

Mark Pauline writes all the scripts for

each show. SRL performances are

never advertised, creating a sufficient

draw by word of mouth. Mark pays for

them out of his own pocket, never

commercializing his effort.

Danger! Danger!

Mark’s robotics include a pitching

machine, basically a 500 cubic inch

Ford Eldorado motor that shoots 2 x 4s

like a gun by using two spinning truck

tires that rotate at 200 mph in oppo-

site directions. The six-foot 2 x 4 bullets

are loaded into the gap between the

two tires at a rate of two-boards-per-

second.

The boards are immediately fired

from between the tires at that same

200 mph. This Eldorado board blaster

can shoot its wooden ammo 1,500

feet into the air. (To think poor Mr. R. J.

Gattling wasted all that time on his

comparably feeble pea shooter.

Hmmm.)

As part of some performances

(each unique from the rest), this device

has been used to destroy structures the

size of small buildings in six seconds

flat. Mark calls his enormous 2 x 4

“‘pistola” the most dangerous robot in

the world. Believe me, I didn’t stop to

argue.

Each performance is intended to

communicate more abstractly than

concretely and employs 20 to 30

robots of all sizes, all running simulta-

SERVO 09.2004

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Page 3

neously for a show of about an hour’s

duration. Each robot is as unique as the

shows are from one another, yet each

approaches the same level of threat

that it can pose. Suddenly, “The Most

Dangerous Show on Earth” doesn’t

seem so out of place as a description.

Of Vices and Venues

Mark insists that venues allow peo-

ple to sit as close as possible to these

performances. In most cases �" when

the shows are permitted �" he gets his

way. In many instances, the shows

have been banned. In fact, Mark

believes they are the most banned

troupe of artists in the world.

In addition to the violence, Mark

describes the shows as having a vicious

satirical bent. Mark makes it crystal

clear that his shows are not family

entertainment. All this makes it more

difficult to get approval to do the

shows. Mark works with institutions

like museums or gets people on board

at the mayoral level to get the clout he

needs to drive the performances for-

ward.

Mark Pauline and SRL have done

56 different shows since 1979. Each

one has been as unique as a snowflake

(though not necessarily as pretty),

using a different array of machines �"

old and newly fashioned, each one

dressed differently than before, and

maneuvered or employed in a way par-

ticular to the theme of the given show.

The shows are Mark’s “calculated

hallucinations,” intended to stay with

the audience members throughout

their lives. Each show’s theme is

expressed by offering up “visual puns”’

and “sight gags.”

SERVO 09.2004

GEERHEAD

Creator and founder Mark Pauline began pouring his heart

into his art and his machines in November of 1978 in the form

of Survival Research Laboratories (SRL). An organized team of

highly trained, experienced, and creative engineers and techni-

cians, SRL is devoted to an art form that they describe as, “redi-

recting the techniques, tools, and

tenets of industry, science, and the

military away from their typical mani-

festations in practicality, product, or

warfare.”

Fifty-six performances, soon to

be 57, have been put on display

across the US and Europe to demon-

strate to the world exactly what that

means. Anyone who has witnessed

these events is very clear on that

meaning.

Robots, machines, and FX com-

bine to portray satirical themes that

are harsh and abrupt, at the very least. Whatever the particular

theme, it is branded on the minds and hearts of the audience

members �" and the technicians “pulling the strings” of these

robotic puppets �" for life.

The Doom Show

Around 2000, as the previous mil-

lennium was near a close, Mark

Pauline and his creation, Survival

Research Labs, brought forth “The

Doom Show,” an end of the millenni-

um show that Mark describes as, “a

calculated forecast of ultimate doom.”

The show included an eight-foot

tall, 35-foot wide countdown clock

that counted down to zero and back

up again at random. The clock was

destroyed and burned during the

show.

A Little Background

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Stories of True Crime

Mark mentioned quite calmly that

SRL always tries to commit serious

criminal violations at every event, with

a special interest in breaking federal

laws. Here’s an example: For a New

York City show, SRL made $3 million in

perfect, three-color, counterfeit money,

which he described as, “very passable

money.”

SRL used a catapult to fire bombs

up into the air; they were actually pack-

ages of an eighth to a quarter of a mil-

lion each of the bogus bills. (Mark

assures me that the statute of limita-

tions has run out on this particular

offense.)

The packages were fired 100 feet

up and, upon detonating, they

dropped all this cash to the ground and

onto the audience. The audience and

even the New York City police officers

present were grabbing it up. SRL actu-

ally owns some videos of these New

York City cops stuffing the faux dough

into their pockets.

As if that weren’t hilarious

enough, there happened to be a carni-

val going on next door to that perform-

ance. The very next morning �" while

the SRL gang was still cleaning up the

debris �" they were set upon by a mob

of carnies who had gotten wind of the

show and all this fake money.

The carnies surrounded the place

and started picking through the site,

hoarding all the money that was left.

They actually took it

back to the carnival to

use it as change for

their patrons. People

were passing it all over

New York City for

weeks; yet, surprisingly,

nothing ever came of it.

The SRL crew waited,

expecting a visit from

federal officers, but it

never came.

Pipe Dreams

At a recent show,

SRL employed an eight-

foot styrofoam teddy bear. The show

was at a modern art museum in

Berkeley, CA. Big black pipes support

the whole building. SRL built a fake

black tube and set it up to look like one

of the supports. Somehow, the giant

teddy bear was sitting atop this phony

support. SRL had a huge machine

come and rip that pipe apart �" as if it

was ripping it out of the building. Then

it tore the teddy bear apart.

Coming Events

SRL just completed building 21

crawling robots �" each one about nine

feet tall. These will be used in the next

show, which will be held in December

in the Los Angeles, CA area. R/C oper-

ates the robots. They look like crawling

soldiers, so SRL calls them sneaky sol-

diers.

Because so many soldiers have

been getting killed lately, SRL is going

to put on a show where they bring the

dead soldiers back to life in order to kill

them again. They will have the robot

soldiers crawling all around while other

machines are destroying them.

Ultimately, the art world will con-

sider itself fortunate to have the

achievements of SRL as part of its his-

tory, even if they do not do so today.

SERVO 09.2004

GEERHEAD

It’s now the 25th anniversary of the

birth of Survival Research Labs. SRL, one

of the earliest �" if not the earliest �"

source of gigantic, awe-inspiring robotic

spectacles, began with a dream, er,

nightmare of a dedicated team and a

couple bots. Today, between dozens

and perhaps hundreds of machines

have been retooled to create shows that

do, indeed, rival anything Barnum and

Bailey put forth.

These 25 years are celebrated with

10 of them engraved in the DVD “10

Years of Robotic Mayhem” (check with

SRL or Jon Reiss for availability).

The DVD includes films like “A Bitter

Message of Hopeless Grief,” which

appeared in film festivals worldwide,

including the Sundance Film Festival,

Berlin, and some 30-odd others. Also

included is “The Will to Provoke,” a docu-

mentary of SRL’s first European tour.

The DVD comes complete with

parts of four other SRL documentaries,

comprised of footage from early per-

formances, and the first show where

audiences were up close and personal

with the mechanized menagerie.

DVD Release �" “Mayhem” is 10 Years of the

Most Dangerous Show on Earth

The Internet home base for

Survival Research Labs is at

www.srl.org

Likewise, the Internet shingle for film-

meister Jon Reiss, who hasimmortalized

SRL’s work on DVD, hangs at

www.jonreiss.com

Find more SRL video for sale at

www.lastgasp.com/d/1303

An SRL home page, but not the SRL home

page, is at

www.canuck.com/Srl/srl.html

Images of Mark Pauline and company’s

creations

www.srl.org/machines.html

Resources

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