NEW VIDEO: David Liebe Hart "Season's Greeting!"

On a unexpectedly warm/less cold day this winter in Los Angeles, I met up with David Liebe Hart and Adam Papagan as they painted Christmas decorations on the windows of a local dry cleaners.

I was previously unfamiliar with their work—both on public access television, and with Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

While the dynamic duo help spread some holiday cheer in the Silverlake neighborhood, I was given an impromptu lesson on a variety of subjects ranging from the darker side of Hollywood to the origin of the human species via extraterrestrials.

David Liebe Hart (all images from the new Carnage video by ELLA//OHARU)

Name: David Liebe Hart

Place of origin: Los Angeles

What’s your group called?
Adam: It used to just be me and David, so it was David Liebe Hart & Adam Papagan. But now we have the band, so it’s called the David Liebe Hart Band.

What’s the instrumentation like between you two?
Adam: I play guitar. We have a drummer and bassist and lead guitarist. He sings [points at David].

What’s up with the sign painting?
Adam: This is how it works—he does the outline, then I come back and do the coloring. We have places all over. We just did Hadley’s Fruit Orchard, in Cabazon where the outlets are.

David: I’ve been doing it since 1976. I started doing it with my cousin. My ex-girlfriend Sonia also used to help me out with the Christmas decorations. I needed money to pay my bills and I wanted to express my artistic talent.

How’d you guys get involved with one another?
David: Well, Adam Papagan, he started his own show called the Del Talk Show. I was a guest on the Del Talk Show with all his young friends. He’s super talented. Way before he had the Del Talk Show, he hosted my show when he was a young boy. He admired Johnny Carson.

David Liebe Hart's music collaborator, Adam Papagan

Adam: Yeah, I used to have the Del Talk Show on public access. I would just interview people—my friends, my teachers…the janitor. I used to be on his show and I had him on my show. Then public access went down and we just started doing stuff together. That was in 2004. In 2008 I got a Mac with Garageband on it. So I started making songs and stuff. I asked David: “Do you wanna write some songs with me?” And he said, “That’s a great idea!” So we did the first album, then we’ve just been kinda going since then. A couple weeks ago we both went out to North Carolina. Some guy flew us out there, he’s a real big fan of us. So it was a free trip to Charlotte. It was a place called the Milestone—it was an old southern bar. R.E.M. used to play there. Super old school, dirty, graffiti everywhere…. [Adam has to run off to grab the two some lunch, so I’m left alone with David. We chat while he continues painting.]

Can you give me some personal background?
David: I was born and raised in Chicago, but my parents moved to the suburban area of Park Forest, Illinois. When I was growing up in Illinois I used to be part of two big bands now—one called Styx when they were small, and Chicago when they were small. I was a singer for them a long time ago in the ’70s. My parents wanted me to go to the military—they were very patriotic—and that ended my music career as a singer for rock bands. Then I used to do music with a friend of mine—we played all on the North Side and all over Chicago. I started doing music for the Christian Science Church when I was a kid. I would play songs on piano and the classical songs. I’ve written a lot of songs, a lot of Christian praise bands use my music. All blacks that are born in America are part white, because of what happened during the slavery times. I am, on my Caucasian side, a stock Irishman, and I’m related to Orville and Wilbur Wright—they made the airplane—on my Caucasian side, my dad’s side.

How’d you end up in L.A.?
David: I came out here in early 1976 to pursue an acting career. It was great. I worked beside big name entertainers like Robin Williams—he’s forgotten who I am now. We used to do stand-up comedy together at the Comedy Store. I’ve done a lot of television work. I’ve done tons and tons of television work. I had a free public access show for my church called the Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show. Now I’m getting kinda faded outta the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! I was very famous for a while—had a big following, and still do. On the show, I was an actor named David Liebe Hart—they used my real name. I did comedy, I did drama, I was a ventriloquist. But what happened was that Tim and Eric faded me out even though I worked for hours on the program, which I didn’t think was right.

Why’d they do that?
David: Well they didn’t like that I became so much more popular than any other character on the show. They cut back on the show—very sad that I was taken off the show. But don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful that Tim and Eric gave me so much work on their show. But I don’t like that they’ve cut me off. We’re still friends. They called to see how I’m doing. They called me on tour. They asked me to help them make up with their girlfriends—some misunderstanding with their girlfriends.

[David begins to get comfortable and, without further ado, launches into what I’ve found to be one of his favorite topics: extraterrestrial life and its impact on our human society. The reader will forgive this author for misspelling certain alien names and locations, as I am wholly ignorant of this area of study.]

It’s no big secret that the pyramids are one of the great wonders of the world. The pyramids weren’t built by slaves—they were built by extraterrestrials. For some strange reason, the bible took out the book that talked about the aliens that taught the prophets in the bible. They built the pyramids, they worked with the Mayans. Many of the races that are from earth are descended from the extraterrestrials and don’t even know it. Like the Irish come from a race called the Omegans that come from Star Taladad. And the Omegans taught the Mayans, and the Corinnians taught the Egyptians. And, sad to say, all of our modern technology, it all comes from the government and certain people working with extraterrestrials. We’re not alone in the universe, and everyone knows it. The East Indians and Germans and the Armenians are descendants of the Corinnians from the Star Corridor, which is 411 light years away from earth. And it’s sad that the extraterrestrials that have given us so much power, we have yet to overcome one thing—called WAR.

So where are the Chinese from? [Me being a descendant of the Chinese race]
David: The Chinese people come from a race called the Timurth. They’re not originally from here either. And the Swedish and Norwegians come from a race called the Paladians.

How do you know all this stuff?
David: Well I’ll tell you how I know it! I was friends with Colonel Wendelle Stephens, who died this year. He was a Christian Scientist. He worked for the Air Force. He wrote many books about the local phenomenon, and he was a friend of mine. I also had the pleasure of meeting an Omegan in person. An Omegan man came up to me—he told me this waaaay back in 1989—that there was gonna be a president that was gonna be part black and part Irish…and we have Obama now! And he’s part black, part Irish.

How’d you know he was an Omegan? He just told you?
David: He came up to me and told me he was an Omegan. He looked like a reguar Irish guy. His name was Monohan Maldrownum, Maldrownum Monohan. And I had an extraterrestrial woman who I spoke to named Chelsea de Ordeus. She was very beautiful. She was very frustrated she couldn’t get married. By the way, I had Jim Henson as a Sunday school teacher in the Christian Science Church. He was super talented.

What was he like?
David: Oh, he was a super funny guy to work with. He taught us with Kermit the Frog. And he had rock puppets back then that he never used later.

So are you a regular church-goer?
David: Not anymore. The Christian Science Church refused my membership because they didn’t want a black member. They’re overcritical. These old Republican senior citizens, if they don’t like you, they will criticize the hell outta you! I’m a professional singer and piano player and they criticized my singing. They said, “Oh, we don’t like your singing voice, the tone of your singing voice is too loud.”

Do you also believe Jesus was an extraterrestrial?
David: Jesus was an extraterrestrial. He was part alien. That’s why he could do miracles regular people couldn’t do. But the Jewish church took out the books that talked about that. Jesus was an alien, he was half human and half alien. In Genesis, the bible talked about how the angels—angels is a term for extraterrestrials—how the angels took the lives of women on earth.

Do you believe that God is an alien too?
David: No, I believe God is a supreme being, all-powerful, visible and spiritual, and he’s created everything. I do believe in God. I am not an atheist. Many people believe I am. I am not. I am a strong believer of God.

So what do you think the aliens are?
David: They are watching over us.

What’s their relation to God?
David: Extraterrestrials believe in God. They have bibles on their planets. The Omegans, from Star Kaladan, believe in God. Their bible is similar to our bible. A form of Jesus came and visited them and taught them right from wrong. The Corinnians come from Star Corridor, which is 411 light years away—they told me the same thing. They told me they were also taught in the supreme God, but they call it something different from the God we call.

So why do they even come to earth? What’s their purpose?
David: We are their descendants. They’re watching over us. They see the mess we’re making, they see how we’re destroying our planet. Like the Omegans and Corinnians and the Paladians and the Melusions have told us to stop using gasoline oil. But we are doing doing what we wanna do, we’re like spoiled teenagers, we have a mind of our own. They’re like our older sisters and brothers we’re not listening to. And I think it’s disrespectful and arrogant for them to give us all this technology, and for us to be brainwashed to believe they’re not real when they are. It’s like telling your mother or your dad who brought you into this world that they don’t exist. It’s just totally disrespectful.

[Adam returns with the food]

UFOs are real. Aliens are real. They’re not a myth. They’re as real as me having this interview, and this camera in my face.

[We take a break. Adam and David eat hungrily. The outline for the painting is almost done. David goes off to finish up the outlining at the other window. Adam begins filling in the outlines already done.]

Are you also from Chicago, Adam?
Adam: No, I’m from here. L.A. I grew up in Westwood.

Is this your only project?
Adam: Yeah, pretty much.

What do you do normally?
Adam: This, pretty much [laughs]. Various odd jobs. You get paid minimum wage to sit in a studio audience for game shows. I find ’em on Craigslist and there are a couple services that do ’em too. Game shows. I did a court show one time. I worked on the elections, loading the ballots up into trucks.

Thoughts for the future?
Adam: Oh I dunno…keep doing stuff with David, I guess. I mean—he’s never gonna stop, y’know? It’s not like he’s gonna retire or something. I just think he has so much potential.

Anything special for the show?
David: I’m going to do Christmas carols. I’m going to do “Jingle Bell Rock” with a big five-piece band, and I’ll be doing some original songs. I also write songs about aliens. You know, I used to be a big fan of Mr. T and Gary Coleman…And it can be a cold, cold town here in L.A. sometimes, and people can walk by you as if they didn’t see you. And I always said that if I ever got famous, I would be respectful and nice to people. I like Easter, I like Christmas. I like Easter and Christmas. There’s a lot of good in Christmas. I know some people say it’s a pagan holiday, but it’s a wonderful holiday. To bring joy and love, and to give to others who are less fortunate than you are. And Easter, it was—Jesus overcame the grave. He was resurrected from the grave, he was an overcomer. Jesus taught me to be an overcomer. The story of Jesus is the story of success, that we can be healed in prayer, that we believe and keep the faith. Jesus says what a man thinketh, so is he. So if you have positive and bright thoughts, you’ll have positive effects.