A true collaboration, Laugh Clown Laugh is an experiment in surrealism. Or maybe it's more Dada-esque, making less sense than a fish on legs or melting clocks, sent randomly through the mail without so much as contact information enclosed for the collaboration's facilitators.

This zine is definitely not G-rated. Let me just get that out of the way right now. There are graphic images, even more graphic stories and some random profanity that doesn't seem to have any purpose other than to inject a little obscenity where there was previously only a blank page. I'm sure, in the minds of the creators of that page, it has a purpose. I'm just not able to divine what that purpose may be.

That said, I have to say that there are parts of this zine that I like, too. Things are actually sewn or pasted in in places, making this a three-dimensional experience. I love the fact that it's totally random, with each collaborator contributing a page along what I believe might be a theme, though I can't figure out what that theme might be at this point. There are crayon rubbings, longer articles and computer-generated texts. A lot of inside jokes, it seems. But in that way, it's kind of like looking inside the diary of someone with a far richer inner life than you. It's kind of nice, in a strange, nearly-demented sort of way.

I'd love to be able to tell you how to get this zine. Or who made it. I've got a list of contributors, but no return address was on the envelope it came in, just a small note that said you could pick this up in your "local zine shop." It's mystery adds to its charm.

I don't know if I'd pay the pre-printed $2 price, but as a random mail event, like it was, I'm relatively satisfied with the ten minutes it took me to look through and read the entire thing, and even if it won't be one of the ones that stands out in my mind as a "favorite," per se, it did give me some ideas for collaborations and/or enclosures in my own work.

Maybe inspiration is worth $2.

[ by Elizabeth Badurina ]
Rambles: 30 May 2002