Everything Is Nothing: A Psychedelic Puppet Show from Happy Accident (13+) - AMARILLO
Everything Is Nothing: A Psychedelic Puppet Show from Happy Accident (13+) - AMARILLO
Amarillo, get ready for "trash art at a high level—experiential and existential!"
For one night only, Rust Bucket Productions presents "Everything Is Nothing: A Psychedelic Puppet Show from Happy Accident." Traveling all the way from Portland, Oregon, the fine folks at Rust Bucket Productions and Mucky Duck Theatre bring you a bizarre night of surreal puppetry, performance art, and off-kilter story telling.
This show is geared for audiences age 13 and up. Psychedelic attire encouraged but not mandatory.
It's a donation show, so please bring some cash for the artists! We'll open the doors at 6pm CT, and the evening will open with a LIVE PERFORMANCE by the WT Electronic Ensemble. The show will kick off at 8p CT.
***PLUS, tune to High Plains Morning (105.7 FM) in the 11 o'clock hour on Tuesday, March 31st to hear a live, in-studio interview with the puppet crew!
And thanks to Matt and Amy for hosting this show at Old Tascosa Brewing Company!
ABOUT THE SHOW: Miracle cures. Rejuvenation. Youthful glow. Neutral tones.
Happy Accident returns with a new puppet dispatch from our beautiful cultural sewers. In their new show, Everything is Nothing, your favorite Saturday morning super pals take you on another trip through the dark alleys of modern life. Picking up where their last piece-the acclaimed Vol. 1-left off, Everything takes us further into our fractured collective psyche and OH MY it’s a BLAST. liz HOWLS and Drew Simpson pull inspiration from multi-level marketing, health and wellness culture, Mad About You, relentless pharmaceutical commercials and abhorrent technological “advancements” to create a surreal garbage world full of glitches, easy listening and flat, functional lighting. It’s like a trip to the dentist without all of the annoying paperwork and anesthesia.
Everything is fun. Everything is fabulous. Everything is what you want, when you want it. If there was a pill that would make it all go away, why wouldn’t you take it?
Happy Accident is the collaborative absurdist performance work of puppeteer/visual artist liz HOWLS and musician/lighting designer Drew Simpson. They have been building and performing together since early 2024, so not that long. But long enough.
They find most of their inspiration digging through bins full of refuse, spending late nights binge-watching horrible sitcoms, and trying to figure out how everything ended up this way. While most of their performances are based around puppetry and sound, they also incorporate mask work and elements of what is often referred to as “performance art."
Their first full-length piece, Vol. 1, debuted at the 2025 New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival and was toured nationally for 3 months in that same year. They have been guest performers at Outta Hand Puppet Slam in Portland, OR; Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam in Seattle, WA; Full Moon Puppet Show in Minneapolis, MN (which liz also runs & curates); Puppets in the House Regional Festival in Verona, WI and are tickled pink returning to NOGPF in 2026 with a new show.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS: Happy Accident explores the exponential pace of overwhelming absurdity in our world. Found objects, large scale puppets and sputtering lights bring you face to face with the cuddly nightmare that is everyday life. An anti-clown car driven by master puppeteer liz HOWLS and co-piloted by musician/unlicensed electrician Servant Baby (Drew Simpson), Happy Accident ecstatically careens down the wrong side of the lost highway leaving a trail of old copies of Weekly World News and Jack in the Box wrappers in its wake. Colorfully reimagining Saturday mornings spent drooling over piles of synthetic material in front of the TV, Happy Accident revels in naked, antipathetic Americana. You will probably laugh, you might cry, and like other designer drugs, you will want more within minutes. Ultimately you will ask yourself, “What kind of culture would produce something like this?”
