JoJo Baby had three heroes in this world. He’d met Boy George, but he’d missed the chance to talk to Muppets creator Jim Henson before he died. So when the last of the trio, Clive Barker, came to town in 2008, JoJo was going to do whatever it took.
JoJo took the shirt to Packer Schopf for a Barker book signing and was finally able to make contact. Barker not only accepted the gift—he paid a visit to JoJo’s Closet, the gallery in Wicker Park’s Flat Iron Building that’s choked with JoJo’s plaster-cast erections, his hundreds of antique dolls, and dozens of his “children”—the fantastic but eerily verisimilar dolls he constructs from salvaged materials.
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“JoJo struck me from the beginning as being an absolute one-of-a-kind creator,” says Barker. “I have been, from my childhood, a fanatic where puppetry was concerned—and still love puppets. To see this man who had held on to his passion for puppets, dolls, art, and the private sexual theater of his imagination was to me mind-blowingly wonderful. I had some friends who were equally as passionate about enlightening the world to JoJo and his art, and along with a meager budget which I provided, we set out to make this movie, which I am incredibly proud of.”
Barry Paddor was impressed enough to offer JoJo $50 a night to perform at his legendary River West club, Shelter. “Some people consider me one of the original Chicago club kids,” JoJo says. “People would say we were like gods. We’d come into a room and bring everyone together.”
Ten years ago, JoJo opened JoJo’s Closet in the actual broom closet of No Hope No Fear Tattoo in the Flat Iron, paying $50 a month. Later he moved into a larger space on the building’s high-visibility corner, above what was then the Swank Frank hot dog stand. “My shower was dripping onto Swank Frank’s grill,” JoJo says. “I told them their burgers were being grilled in the essence of JoJo.” (The space now houses a Bank of America.)
Danforth and Buning spent two weeks with JoJo, and JoJo Baby follows him as he builds a seven-foot Marilyn Monroe doll, gets tattooed, and dresses up for Boom Boom Room.
So he’s out to make as big a splash as he can for the movie. “The premiere is a lot to deal with,” he says. “I’ve never had one before.” He’s installed his ten-foot Silky Jumbo doll in a spider web on the ceiling of Berlin, which is hosting the afterparty.
