One of the fondest memories of my teens is The Love Workshop, a fifteen minute comedy program produced in Phoenix for KDKB radio back in 1976. Nowadays, we’d call its themes and subject matter “politically incorrect.” But during its brief run, the Love Workshop’s hosts, Vern & Craig, were merely “offensive.” In fact, they still are, and the modern potential listener would be wise to take this fact under advisement.
In one segment, they microwave then eat a small boy surrounded by an accompaniment of jawbreakers and new potatoes. In another, they seduce the recently widowed wife of a Vietnam vet with bourbon and Quaalude. In another, they punch out the subject of a public television “empowerment” program after calling her a stupid lesbian. In still another, they force a guest to try out an I.U.D made of pop tops and bottle caps attached to a dead scorpion.
Offensive it may have been, but my friends and I worshipped Vern & Craig. They make “bad boys” like Howard Stern and Jimmy Kimmel look like insipid hacks. They regularly offered listeners “shows about nothing” fifteen years before the notion gained respectability. (In one of the samples available here, the boys enjoy a light snack while Vern recounts his weekend in Rocky Point with some “typical west Phoenix types.”) And the kitschy background music used on the show can only be described nowadays as highly collectable.
The writing on the show was brilliant. Their sense of comic timing and attention to detail was impeccable. And in the climate of the mid-seventies, the scorched-earth nature of material didn’t raise as many eyebrows as it would now. (They did get into trouble with the State Banking Examiner, however, for their fake ads for American Woman’s Credit and Trust.) But not everyone admired it, apparently. Just as the show was poised to expand into other markets, it was suddenly cancelled as part of a controversial housecleaning of KDKB management.
Here’s an interview that ran in the Phoenix New Times Weekly the same week the show was cancelled.
This ad ran in a local magazine shortly before the show’s cancellation.
After the cancellation, Vern Schaub joined the staff of the National Lampoon. Later, he worked in Hollywood, where he supplied screenplays for “Clean & Sober” and the film version of the Workshop-inspired “O.C. & Stiggs” stories he wrote for the Lampoon. By the end of the 80s, however, he had disappeared without a trace. Craig Hoover, meanwhile, put aside his career as a local celebrity (which included an unsuccessful run for Governor), became active in Scientology, and settled into a successful living as one of the top producing residential realtors in the country.
I used to have a good collection of Love Workshop shows on cassette. But I foolishly loaned them to an acquaintance and never got them back. Now all I have left is about an hour’s worth of material on a beat up old tape. Like so much of the crap I have in my back rooms, however, I have no recollection of where it came from. I seem to recall a friend of mine running into Vern several years ago, and asking him about the whereabouts of the master tapes. If my memory serves me right, I believe he gave my friend the impression that the Love Workshop was a part of his life he’d just as soon not revisit. I’m afraid I cannot share his sentiments.
Download what’s left of my Love Workshop collection.
EXTRA: Thanks very much to reader Blixco for digitizing and posting his Love Workshop collection! In his words, “Good lord! We’ve got the most complete Love Workshop archive ON THE PLANET!”
Frankly, I hope he’s wrong, and a few more kind souls come out of the woodwork with more shows. (I remember one in particular in which Craig screams at a guest for being the sort of person who might own a large tub of “cut-rate peanut butter found ONLY at department stores like Newberrys.” I’d love to hear it again.
The Blixco collection can be found here
NEW: Thanks to reader Alan for sharing his recording of “Frog Night!”
Were Cris and Curt as enthralled with the Love Workshop as Derrick? The interview with Craig and Vern is an earily early precursor to meat puppets’ humor.
I dunno. I didn’t know them back then. If it came up afterwards, I don’t remember.
I’ll bet you could probably find a few mp3s of this program with some kind of file-sharing software.
I have roughly ten tracks from various love workshop shows split across a couple of CDs. I’ve started downloading yours; once I have them downloaded I’ll compare and let you know what I may have that is different, get a download set up, etc. Then we’ll have the largest collection of love workshop on the entire planet!
The DVD for OC and Stiggs is now out, by the way. Damn fine movie.
If you did that, not only would you be The King, but you would be living proof that this blog is not a waste of my time!
Yes! Thank you for posting these tracks! You will be laughing your ass off at the shows that blixco puts up. Blixco and I received them from a friend of ours. His Dad lived in Scottsdale/Phoenix area in the 70s and recorded them. The quality sucks, but they shows are really damn funny. Some real classics in there…guess where I am, Anita Bryant, cryptographer joke, decorating for the poor, crashing the airplane into a Ferrels, Brewster McRooster and his pal Pedro in Abortion Misfortune, a different version of the scorpion IUD…oh man, blowing up a baby kangaroo…insurance. It’s classic. There’s another tape that I had in my possession for a very short period…maybe 40 minutes long that I know I can get a hold of…it may take some work, but when I do, I’ll get it on the web. It had the Indian olympics, the first Mexicans in space…some other stuff I can’t remember at the moment…good stuff though.
My friend and his brother had tracked down Craig at one point a few years ago. He had made up these Love Workshop t-shirts and wanted to give him one. He found him through asking around and discovered he was working in real estate. Gave him the shirt, which he was quite surprised to see, and asked him about any master tapes that might be floating around. Craig seemed to act a bit surprised that anyone would really care, and told him he wasn’t sure what had happened to that stuff. The shirt was nice. It said “Put on a happy face…it’s time for Love Workshop” and had a picture of some random guy holding a gun or something. I don’t really remember. Anyway, thanks for the new tracks. Let us know what you think of the shows Blixco puts up…
Man , listening to love workshop was a trip, downloaded the stuff you had on the site, laughed my ass of again after 30 years Jesus Christ air conditioning repair man and the guys in the sistean chapel? Well anyway i went to school with you and hung around the gearheads and Cory McCarter(RIP) and graduated with his brother Kevin who i still talk with. Lots to say, but have to go for now, will look for my old tapes of Love workshop, whick Kevin and I taped religiously, he may have some also. Loved Mrs. Trimble ooh la la. I remember one quote of yours, a hole is a hole and an orgasm is an orgasm LOL Later Scott
I’ve uploaded two archives, called loveworkshopcd1 and loveworkshopcd2, roughly 106 megs worth. I think we have one part of a file in common, but the rest of it is completely different from your stuff.
Yours is stuff that i remember being on the one missing tape that Ryan mentions.
Good lord! We’ve got the most complete Love Workshop archive ON THE PLANET!
http://derrickbostrom.com/bostrom/wp-content/loveworkshop/loveworkshop02.zip
If we rocked any harder, it would hurt.
Blixo — The crown you wear is large and sparkly. May you carry it proudly, always. I remember the show featuring Anita Bryant and the Cyptogphers, and I also recall the routine about flying a plane into Farrell’s Ice Cream. The rest was new to me!
Many, many thanks!
Ryan — My friend who ran into Verne tells me that Verne himself also had no idea what happened to the tapes. I find this difficult to believe if the New Times interview is correct in stating that they were recorded at his house. There was once a rumor that LW would be heard on Rado Free Phoenix (http://radiofreephoenix.com/), but I see no evidence that this occured.
Scott — Kevin is the abovementioned acquaintance that I foolishly loaned my cassettes to!
yu 2 kool
thank you thank you thank you for the love workshop material!
so bitter. so mysogynist. SO funny!
both mr. bostrom and mr. blixco sport the most fabulous of crowns.
i think the original tape that mr. bostrom dubbed his shows from (mine) has disintigrated.
also: years ago i wrote to todd (verne and craig) asking (begging) for access to the shows. he too seemed amazed that there was any interest, and, as i remember, wrote that he had no idea of their whereabouts.
i’ll have to dig up the letter.
anyway, thanx and kudos.
robertd
The 2nd CD from blixco is gone. Any way I can find it or get it from someone else? It’s great to hear these 2 after 30 years!!! They rocked back then and they still rock.
Eddie –
I updated the link. Unfortunately, you’ll have to DL part one again, since I’ve combined the two parts.
Glad you’re enjoying them!
Thanks to you, I am the Love Workshop’s newest fan. Hearing them was a revelation.
Chuck Kelley
Mr. Kelley, the excellence of your taste is only matched by you eminence as a gentleman.
Ok, so I just heard a rumor that they are going to start releasing Love Workshop shows from the archives. I need to get more details, but I heard it from Siusla!
I know of rumors to that effect. Time will tell.
HI, Any more stuff on the live workshop?
Hi Derrick, I remember this show. I was digitizing some old cassettes when I stumbled on one I’d recorded back in the 70′s. I decided to google Craig and Verne/Love Workshop, and here I am. I downloaded and listened to the collection, and one or two I remembered. It’s been a long time, but I remember a couple of shows not in the collection that I once had on tape, but they are long gone. One was called “This is your wretched Life” where an Ethiopian –Azumbu was his name, was told about his life, and he had to guess the identity of significant people in his life based on their stories. One “participant” related how they thought they found some food, but it was only dirt. Another told how the wind came along and blew the dirt away and then they didn’t have anything to sit on, and finally, how they ate someone’s shoulder. Gruesome stuff! Another show featured a family who was lost in a strange neighborhood and there weren’t any Circle K’s and they didn’t have any snacks, so they had to eat the baby. The last one I remember was called, “The Bensons: America’s favorite migrant working family”. They basically ate meals from a sewer pipe… Anyway, I have an mp3 of one not in your collection: “Frog Night at the Love Workshop”. If you are interested, let me know. It’s not one of the best, but it’s one more you don’t have. I would never have thought anyone else would remember these guys, but I’m glad I was wrong. Apparently others appreciate sick humor too 8c)
Wow; I remember those shows!
I would love a copy of your file Alan! Shoot me a file or a link and I’ll add it to the collection!
Well, I’m still searching when I can for whatever scraps we can find. Ryan is doing the same. At some point, we’ll have to chase down these rumors about the archives, and offer to purchase them for, oh, some cash.
I’ll pony up some dough for more Love Workshop! Thanks for Frog Night, Alan. It fits right in with my collection.