Tom Noddy. Bubble Magic. 1989 Czechoslovakian TV feature. Brilliant.

[@TomNoddy]

Thanks Keith. I am just now seeing this post for the first time. That is Bolek Polivka, a beloved comic character in Czechoslovakia (and later in the countries that came from the changes to Czechoslovakia). We met in San Francisco in 1987 at the New Vaudeville Festival and Bolek invited me to be on his show. But at that time the so-called "Iron Curtain" divided the communist countries in the Soviet orbit from the West and, ... well ... their money was not convertible to our money so it was difficult for them to fly someone so far. But he asked if I would connect with him if I was already in Western Europe and they could do the paperwork and make it happen. I got a gig on Italian television and we connected. My girlfriend came with me and we spent more than a month on the road, including a week or so in Prague and then in Brno for the shooting of this show. You should know this ... Bolek was one of several artists who had signed the Charter 77 petition calling for human rights in the East Bloc countries. He was too well known for that to result in banishing him from the airwaves but many of his friends who opposed the restrictions by that government had a hard time. I spent time with some of those friends and when I showed them the Star bubble we had some laughs when they first joked that I shouldn't be making the five pointed star that was the symbol of the governments of the East bloc, the Red Star. I assured them that I would do a six-pointed star and they approved. It was for them that I made the comment on the show ... that mine would be a six pointed star. I figured that it would come off as an innocent statement of fact but my friends would know that it was, for them, a subtle political statement ... said on national television. I was wrong about it being subtle, I didn't say "this isn't a five pointed star", I only said that it was one of six points. This turned out to be just six months before what came to be called the Velvet Revolution, the government was overturned ... at this time the whole country was being subtle and they all knew exactly what I meant when I stopped to say that and the reaction was much more dramatic than I expected ... it wasn't just the laughter that we hear here, there were people stomping their feet and cheering. The government people who handled me afterwards were not pleased.

[@MrFiddleedee]

Tom Noddy and Bob Ross should have a chill off to see who would win

[@sampseon4340]

RIP Bob Ross :(

[@michaelstudeny8848]

Oh boy, Thats Bolek Polívka hosting Tom Noddy! My life is complete after seeing this

[@MrFiddleedee]

really liked the czeck comic as well. knew how to work the crowd as well at the same moment he had to translate for a foreign act; not an easy balancing act to be sure!

[@davidherron9151]

Perfect and so chill and laughing with it

[@Hx_jamie]

10:01 Sasuke mangekyo sharingan

[@Kallamadama]

Spongebob was the OG bubble-ologist. Change my mind.

[@bolgertom1]

So nice! :)

[@frankieguevara9807]

Lsd will make you see things the normal cant

[@baby-rp7zb]

Hello! I really loved that video of Eiffel Plasterer on a talk show that you had up, and I watched it every once and a while, I recently went back and saw that it had been taken down for copyright reasons and I am wondering if you could somehow send it to me? It wouldn't be used or reposted, just for me to have...

[@KeithJohnsonBubbleguy]

Hello. I don't know which of Eiffels videos went down for copyright. Did you mean kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6GciIqKm6-YoNU ?

[@baby-rp7zb]

Thanks for responding!! It wasn't that one, it started with kind of a panel of people joking about bubbles and then it was a mixture of his bubble show and him talking about bubbles and his process and they briefly went to his farm- I think it was some sort of variety or talk show...

[@KeithJohnsonBubbleguy]

How about this one? kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpDQpZpuhat3f6s

[@baby-rp7zb]

Yes! It was definitely that one, it says it's down for copyright by 'average joes' entertainment but it matches a link I saved before it was down.