The Church of The SubGenius

and Rev. Ivan Stang, Night Club Preacher

A Primer for the Uninitiated -- Real Facts & Figures

For the Unsaved News Reporter, Radio Producer, Club Owner or other Media

Mogul

OVER 100,000 BOOKS IN PRINT

SYNDICATED RADIO SHOW IN 15 MARKETS

HUNDREDS OF SUCCESSFUL LIVE NIGHT CLUB SHOWS

NATIONALLY DISTRIBUTED VIDEO (Polygram)

AS SEEN ON MTV, JON STEWART, CURRENT AFFAIR, CNN, NIGHT FLIGHT and NIGHTLINE

POPULAR INTERNET PRESENCE SINCE 1987

ENDORSED BY MOST MAJOR COUNTERCULTURE HEROES

SUBJECT TO COUNTLESS WANNA-BEs, IMITATORS and RIP-OFFS

BOOK OF THE SUBGENIUS IN ITS 11th PRINTING -- JAPANESE EDITION COMING SOON

18 JILLION CONTACTS IN THE UNDERGROUND & INDIE MARKETS

JUST TOO DAMN "HIP" FOR WORDS SINCE 1980

SubGenius DEVIVALS

"Bob" Dobbs is the god of the SubGeniuses. Unfortunately, he's not

available for public appearances. He's too busy channelling aliens and

brokering souls. His most visible evangelist is Rev. Ivan Stang, the

crazed Texas hippie preacher who headlines the devivals, produces the main

radio show, edits the books and dictates who in the cult will live and who

will die. Although the Church is headquartered is in Dallas, "Bob's" army

of zombie-like followers encircles the globe, and a huge network of

artists, musicians, actors and side show freaks are engaged in spreading

the subversion. Almost every major city boasts a local SubGenius Pope,

"doktorband," and experienced Devival preacher. In this respect, it is

like an alternative Masons.

Attending a SubGenius live show or "Devival" can be a disturbing

experience, because it's more like a habit-forming drug than a rock and

roll show. It's like a tent-show revival in Hell. The preachers act more

like wrestlers and encourage sinning, ranting to a rock music soundtrack,

and the crazed tirades are punctuated by violent side show routines and a

constant psychedelic video backdrop. Healings. Sickenings. Miracles and

mutilation.

And the audience that the Church draws is one of the best parts of the

show. When Devivals occur in trendy night clubs, the most brazenly

weird-looking trendoids-with-nose-rings find themselves AGOG WITH

DISBELIEF at people who are EVEN WEIRDER than THEM.

What happens at a SubGenius "Devival"?

Firstly, the unexpected. Besides frenzied, shocking, and sometimes even

touching rants on the Word of "Bob," Rev. Stang and other SubGenius

Apostles deliver action-packed healings, sickenings, sacrifices, Public

Confessionals, Short Duration Mass Marriages, Time Control Ceremonies (in

which the preacher smashes the wristwatches of volunteers from the

audience), and more. You don't know what audience participation is until

you've experienced the Record Burnings, Doktormusic, chronic parties,

street demonstrations, and Head Launchings. Especially the Head

Launchings.

"The room literally exploded in ecstacy... these people (the audience) are

willing to sink everything, their last penny and their last ounce of

energy, into an idea that isn't even theirs. "

HIGH PERFORMANCE

****

REV. IVAN STANG

Everybody's mad as hell, and they're not gonna take it any more. Except

that when push comes to shove, they still take it. The Rev. Ivan Stang is

an exception. He's so anti-establishment that he offends even the most

pissed-off, disenfranchised, anti-establishment youth, but he's an

equal-opportunity offender. You may not like what he has to say about you,

but you'll probably LOVE what he says about those you HATE.

"Some truly fabulous ranting... Stang's dogged brilliance rolls

prolifically and coherently off his pen and tongue."

Linda Burnham

**********

Some of the larger Devival sites have been:

The Ritz, NYC

evolution, London, England

Psychedelic Solution Gallery, NYC

World Science Fiction Convention, New Orleans

The Stone, San Francisco

Danceteria, New York City

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

First Avenue, Minneapolis

Club Metro, Chicago (twice)

Victoria Theater, San Francisco

University of Washington, Seattle

Alexandria Hotel, Los Angeles

Caravan of Dreams, Fort Worth

Massachussets College of Art, Boston

The Twilite Room, Dallas (6 shows)

Cavanaugh's, Akron

The Icon, Buffalo

Dallas Fantasy Fairs (yearly)

The Smart Bar, Cleveland (3 times)

Club No, Dallas

Dragon Con, Atlanta (3 years)

Eye of Horus, Pittsburgh

Winterstar festivals since 1990

Starwood festivals since 1990

Dallas Video Festival

Chicago Underground Film Festival

Flying Lemur (Kulas Auditorium), Cleveland

Peabody's Down Under, Cleveland

Portland Pilgrimage, Portland OR

SubGenius Revulval, Oddfellow's Temple, Seattle

Bennington College, Vermont

Columbia University, NYC

Phenomicon, Atlanta 91 & 92

Nietzsches, Buffalo

Prop Theater, Chicago

Main preachers are Rev. Ivan Stang, Dr. K'taden Legume, Rev. Susie the

Floozy, Father Joe Mama, Pope David Meyer, St. Janor Hypercleats, Dr.

Sterno Keckhaver, and Dr. Howll Robins.

ASSOCIATED BANDS/ACTS who jam with the Church when in proximity:

ZOOGZ RIFT

MARK MOTHERSBAUGH/DEVO

MOJO NIXON

NEGATIVLAND

CIRCUS APOCALYPSE

THE RUDY SCHWARTZ PROJECT

THE SWINGING LOVE CORPSES

KINGS OF FEEDBACK/O.B.E.

HUGE VOODOO

R.STEVIE MOORE

ARNOLD MATHES

JEFF MCBRIDE/MAGNUS THE MAGICIAN

CLEVE DUNKAN

JOHN BARTLES

DR. BIZARRO

INDIAN ROPE BURN

EINSTEIN'S SECRET ORCHESTRA

CHURCH OF NEW FAITH

THE FUNKY BARDOS

The Church of the SubGenius has been featured in:

PLAYBOY

INTERVIEW

WIRED

MONDO 2000

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

ROLLING STONE

THE NEW YORKER

ReSEARCH

OMNI

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

GLOBE, Toronto

NY POST

LOS ANGELES TIMES

MOLLY IVINS

NEW YORK TIMES

VILLAGE VOICE

PEOPLE

CREEM

BOSTON GLOBE

NEWSWEEK

MONK

NEW RAVE

U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

HIGH TIMES

WASHINGTON POST

GRAY AREAS

THE MET, Dallas

LIFESTYLES, Cleveland

PLAIN DEALER, Clevelend

SCENE magazine, Cleveland

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

CITY REPORTS, Cleveland

WHOLE EARTH REVIEW

HIGH PERFORMANCE

DALLAS MORNING NEWS

NEW MUSIC REVIEW

REFLEX

PAPER Magazine, NYC

NY NEWSDAY

THE GLOBE

NATIONAL ENQUIRER

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

OUI

TROUSER PRESS

HEAVY METAL

SPIN

THE HOUR OF SLACK

-- "BOB'S" RADIO OUTREACH

Each week, The SubGenius Foundation releases THE HOUR OF SLACK for radio

airplay or home listening. The Hour of Slack is an incredible compendium

of the best from all the other SubGenius shows, bands, ranters, Media

Barrages and collage artists, tied together by Stang's maniacal tirades.

The tapes are breakneck-paced, highly edited audio collages which combine

original Church "rants," music and ear-ripping sound effects with short

illustrative sound clips lifted from such "found" sources as low budget

monster movies and radio preachers.

"Truly a somic assault, a kaleidoscopic re-education camp of SubGenius

mythology. The editing is simply astonishing... underneath it all, I

suspect these guys understand something most of us never gave thought to.

Send them money and there shall be Slack."

Scott Becker, OPtion Magazine

"Up there with Monty Python, The Firesign Theater, Ken Nordine, Lenny

Bruce..."

Irwin Chusid, WFMU (E.Orange, NJ)

"The Media Barrage tape series is earwax-melting... absolutely

stark-raving, foaming-at-the-mouth GREAT!"

Pete Scott, Zigzag (England)

"Sound collages with a tone so consistently wacky it amounts to

brilliance... transports you to the furthest realms of graffiti wisdom,

pop-culturism, advertising and religion."

Fortnightly College Radio Report

"Beware the SubGenii! They speak with forked tongues that can pierce the

thickest skull, rattling the brainpan with seductive wordplay and narcotic

mindfuck. The complex language/thought patterns of the text may keep you

glued to the toilet seat for a suspiciously long time. Its dense layers

of possible meaning can (and should) be referred to for revisionary

guidance...Glory Be to "Bob"!"

David Keeps, CREEM

THE HOUR OF SLACK currently airs on:

WFMU East Orange, NJ (& NYC)

WITR Rochester, NY

WZRD Chicago

WARG Summit, IL

WCSB Cleveland

WREK Atlanta

WORT Madison, WI

CJAM Windsor/Detroit

WESU Middletown CT

WKDU Philadelphia

WMPG Portland, Maine

CIUT Toronto, Canada

The Puzzling Evidence/Dr. Howl Robins SHOW is still heard over most of

Northern California. (KPFA in Berkeley, 94.1 FM, now on at 3 am Friday

mornings following Over The Edge)

There's also "Bob"'s Slacktime Funhouse on WREK 91.1FM Atlanta GA

Aliens. Cultists. The end of the world. The breakdown of civilization.

Mind control. The utter stupidity of modern humankind. The insanity of

politics. The war between normals and weirdos, between the sex-negatives

and the sex-positives. The quest for slack amidst ALL OUT PLANETARY

FREAK-OUT. These are the recurring themes of The Church of the SubGenius.

The Church of the SubGenius (also refered to as the Church of "Bob") is a

weird, dangerous cult, just like the Branch Davidians, Jim Jones' Peoples

Temple, the AUM Supreme Temple in Japan, or the Southern Baptists. The

only difference is, it's EVEN FUNNIER than THEY are.

The Church of the SubGenius calls itself "an order of Scoffers and

Blasphemers, dedicated to Total Slack, delving in Mockery Science,

Sadofuturistics, Megaphysics, Schizophreniatrics, Scatalography,

Morealism, Sarcastrophy, Cynisacreligion, HypnoPediatrics,

Sardonicology, Subliminimalism, Satyriology, and Miscellatheistic

Theology." It exists to spread the Word of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs: guru, High

Epopt, and Saint of Sales -- that grinning man with the pipe that The

Conspiracy would claim doesn't even exist. Dobbs set out to create the

world's first industrial church, complete with a full line of disposable,

throw-away saviors suitable for today's hectic pace.

Unless you live in a cave, you have run into "Bob" Dobbs or his followers.

Some people stumble upon the SubGenius radio show. Some find the SubGenius

books in the humor sections of bookstores. Some read about it in magazines

or newspapers, or catch glimpses on MTV or talk shows. Many discover it

while surfing the Net. The smiling face of "Bob" -- that guy with the pipe

-- is ubiquitous in fanzines, as a tattoo, and as spray-painted grafitti

in the weirder parts of town.

Some run into hardcore SubGenius fans and are instantly disgusted by their

level of fanaticism. Some BECOME hardcore SubGenius fans because they

learn their counterculture heroes are into it.

There are more than 7,000 dues-paying, ordained Ministers in the Church,

and 100,000 bookstore customers. The Official High Priest/Priestess I.D.

card that comes with Membership encourages the new SubGenius to twist the

Church for his own ends. Once they've bought the Indulgences, Doctorates,

Papalships, hypnosis tapes, etc., they are encouraged to dispense

blessings & forgiveness -- or to mete out Divine Retribution -- according

to their own personal beliefs. Needless to say, they are given loads of

tools with which to spread advertising for the Church -- for free.

Sales Figures on SubGenius books published by Simon & Schuster:

THE BOOK OF THE SUBGENIUS: 60,000 copies

REVELATION X: 30,000

HIGH WEIRDNESS BY MAIL: 40,000

3 FISTED TALES OF "BOB": 15,000

"Bob" Dobbs has been 'borrowed' as a character in dozens of underground

and commercial comic books. There is a bar named after him in Tucson.

One frequently spots "Campus Crusades for Dobbs" booths on college

campuses right next to the Christians and Krishnoids. The mighty face has

been tatooed on people around the country. Church buzz-words like "SLACK!"

are seen repeated in spray paint on mile after mile of highway overpasses.

"Bob" has made cameo appearances on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, David Letterman,

PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE and numerous movies; we have heard of people selling

LSD in California which was emblazoned with his image. Fly-by-night button

and T-shirt manufacturers are having a heyday with the unauthorized face

of Dobbs. Unauthorized translations of the pamphlets are appearing in

Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, France and Japan. Church lawyers are gearing up

for a busy year.

The Church sometimes leaps out screaming at you. Its p.r. arm, The

SubGenius Foundation, Inc., produces books, radio programs, videotapes,

magazines, and rabble-rousing, pulpit pounding tent-show revivals (held in

nightclubs rather than tents). Besides the dozen or so key perpetrators,

there are literally thousands of active supporters,

sometimes-contributors, fanatics and addicts, making it, quite literally,

one of the fastest growing "cults" in the U.S. It also lurches into

rampaging life in such forms as full-tilt parties, adventuresome

merchandising schemes, and small armies of weird, laughing people marching

through uncomprehending neighborhoods. It includes the strangest people

in the world, the proudly eccentric: performers, artists, writers,

musicians, film makers, and wild-eyed rogue entrepreneurs.

Groups of SubGeniuses, called "Clenches," are grabbing for Slack all over

the U.S.: throwing parties and revivals, setting up food co-ops,

plastering their towns with SubGenius propaganda, etc. Photocopied

SubGenius flyers and pamphlets are plastered on campuses, car windshields,

and bar restrooms by zealous young "Bobbies." At least 10 persons have

actually been arrested for putting up Church posters in huge quantities

without a permit.

SubGeniuses lurk in every large country in the world. Many consider

themselves "missionaries" after a fashion, and we are seeing a recent

upsurge of SubGenius activity in England, Australia, Japan, South America,

Holland and Canada.

Some call the Church of the SubGenius the Greatest Joke Ever Told -- if

Earth can make it to the punchline. The parables, proverbs and allegories

work on many levels... some funny, some not-so-funny, but almost all

sick. Often described by timid newspapers as "an irreverent take-off on

fundamentalism," it is actually a fanatical all-out attack on fanaticism.

For The Slackmaster Dobbs cribbed some of his best lines from the world's

least great religions.

What "Bob" offers is SLACK. The Church sells a skillfully orchestrated

form of packaged chaos, dense with punchlines that hit like nuclear

strikes at the frontal lobes. Not always easy on its audience, it's a

hedonistic celebration of the unusual and the impossible, a worldwide

flaunting of Abnormality Power.

The "secret formula" used by "Bob" in creating his Church makes it the

only viciously anti-establishment property than can be marketed

successfully within the establishment, without being watered down.

Eventually, the "Bob" face-logo will become as universally profitable as

the Smile Face. And it will do so while simultaneously standing as a

symbol against such mindless "cutesy" drivel. First we sell them on

"Bob"; then they find out what he has to say... and his is a message that

the consumer stomach does not digest easily.

NAMES TO DROP

Some of the more illustrious Church Members and/or "SubSymps" include:

ROBERT ANTON WILSON

THE FIRESIGN THEATER

TIMOTHY LEARY

R. CRUMB

KEN KESEY

PAUL MAVRIDES

DEVO

PEE WEE HERMAN

PENN JILLETTE

MOJO NIXON

HOWARD KAYLAN

JELLO BIAFRA

DAVID BYRNE

ROBERT WILLIAMS

GILBERT SHELTON

JONATHAN DEMME

GARY PANTER

Science fiction authors John Steakley, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner and Rudy

Rucker

SubGenius Video

"ARISE" -- THE OFFICIAL SUBGENIUS VIDEO, co-directed by Ivan Stang and

Cordt Holland, is a fast-paced extravaganza featuring short clips from the

most beloved Church Devival footage, interwoven with TV interviews,

SubGenius music videos, badfilm collages, and ELECTRONIC ANIMATION OF THE

GODS, all in one eyeball-slamming 2-hour video... an editing tour-de-force

of PROPAGANDA for "BOB." Narrator Dr. Hal Robins takes the initiate on a

soul-wrenching journey deep into the bowels of the Church. YOU WILL

ACTUALLY WITNESS the Head Launchings, the debauchery -- EVEN THE

ASSASSINATION OF "BOB!" Includes the infamous "BOB" IS A SEX GOD

sequence -- plus "THE LIFE OF "BOB," a perfect introduction to the Church

for illiterates, who'll also enjoy the video collages of SubGenius art and

illustrative film clips from our collection of bizarre trash. Includes

the X-rated rap-video, "WELCOME TO THE END TIMES" by Slackmaster Cleve and

the Spurious Jive. Stereo sound; music by DK Jones, Mark Mothersbaugh, Dr.

Onan's Wotan Band, Negativland, Drs. 4 "Bob," & others.

Rev. Ivan Stang also produced a one-minute "commercial" for the Church for

MTV's on-air promotions dept., as part of their "In Your Eye" art break

series.

For more information, demo tapes, or local SubGenius contacts, fax Rev.

Ivan Stang at (214) 320-1561...

email: i.stang@metronet.com

Web: htp://sunsite.unc.edu/subgenius

... or write

The SubGenius Foundation

P.O.Box 140306

Dallas, Texas 75214.

"Let us have a choice in HOW we're being screwed. Some ways are fun."

St. G. Gordon Gordon

CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO CONFRONT THE LIVING MYSTERY THAT IS

J.R. "BOB" DOBBS ??

THE CHURCH has come; checks and souls float upwards to "Bob's" Heavenly

Bank Vault and Garden of Unearthly Slack.

"For He Cometh, the Prophet who smileth and puffeth; and the Chosen, who

art diseased of mind yet stout of soul, shall be Chang'd and Made

Rich..."

PreScriptures 6:14, The Economicon, Book of Urinomics

) 1995 by The SubGenius Foundation, Inc.

HERE'S WHAT JUST A FEW AVERAGE, ORDINARY PEOPLE SAY about "BOB" DOBBS and

his mighty CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS!

"This is the best of all the One True Religions. Praise "Bob!"

Robert Anton Wilson

Author, ILLUMINATUS

"Finally, a religion even I can believe in."

R. Crumb

America's Favorite Cartoonist

"Since I found "Bob," I'm my own hero -- and hers, too!"

David Ossman, THE FIRESIGN THEATER

"Bob" is an enema for a constipated society. "Bob" has come to help a

constipated society blow it out their ass."

Mark Mothersbaugh, DEVO

"I used to be able to read the word of "Bob" in a few minutes in the

bathroom... now it takes me months to read the damned thing! But do you

think that stops me? Hell no! I just stay in the bathroom longer! This is

some of the best stuff I've read in 10 years. You want a testimonial? Look

-- put any words in my mouth you want. No praise could be too lavish."

Ken Kesey

"A rare knack for masking genuine wisdom in the guise of utter bullshit."

Jay Kinney, COEVOLUTION QUARTERLY

"A sick masterpiece... arch arcana for those who can still laugh at the

fact that nothing is funny anymore."

ROLLING STONE

"This is the damn'dest thing I ever seen."

some old nobody

"A ten thousand volt joy-buzzer for the brain... makes more sense than my

TV!"

The Seattle Rocket

"It's downright impossible to describe the brilliance, depravity,

consciousness, imagination and hopefully the ability to reform history

before we are all turned into toadstools, that is the bent of The

SubGenius Foundation. Passed off as humor in order to get passed on,

there is much more here than meets the Third Eye."

Mike Golden, Smoke Signals

"This is the most authentic American humor, spouted by riverboat men and

tough-talking women, enriched by black and ethnic humor... passed down

from Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, the Marx Brothers, Ishmael Reed and Lenny

Bruce. The SubGeniuses have made the last, best joke about the pathology

of our young civilization."

Paul Buhle, THE VILLAGE VOICE

"The Book of the SubGenius has undergone Con-spiracy censorship, but what

They overlooked is more insidious than what most so-called avant garde

revolutionary upchuckings had to show for themselves in the first place."

Bob Black, Appeal to Reason

"No one is better attuned to millenarian symptoms... takes apart

Falwellism in the most effective way possible. Good news for anybody with

an unblinkered mind."

The Nation

MegaFisTemple Lodge of People's Covenant Church of the

Wrath of Dobbs Yeti, Resurrected / The SubGenius Foundation,Inc.

PO Box 140306 Dallas TX 75214 / Fax 214-320-1561 / PRABOB