On Sunday, March 20, audiences at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater will see a strange sight. They might not guess it from the outfit he’s wearing, but the man on stage is a serious performer. Clad in yellow shorts pulled high on his waist, a hat with floppy brown dog ears, oversized glasses, a tight white tee-shirt, Steven Erdman takes his role as the Lard Dog very seriously.
“[I thought] if I took the Lard Dog character… really seriously, and treated it like it was the most serious thing on earth, first it would make it even funnier and then, it [make] the songs cool,” Erdman says. The final piece of his costume is the most important: A white chain around his neck with a massive oval hanging across his chest. The oval reads ‘LARD’ in bold white letters on a red background, an acronym for “Life’s a Real Dream.”
Lard Dog is the creation of Steven Erdman, an entertainer that specializes in the wacky and silly. Originally, Erdman picked the name Lard Dog because it was funny and unforgettable, but over time it gained its second meaning as an acronym, which hints at the surreal nature of Erdman’s Lard Dog shows.
On March 11, Erdman released his new album, “Life’s a Real Dream,”which harnesses the joyous absurdity that Erdman brings to the stage, with 23 tracks co-produced by Boz Boorer (Morrissey), Lee Alexander (Norah Jones), and Aaron Steinberg (Bill Nye the Science Guy).
Though now the Lard Dog and his six-piece Band of Shy have become a crowd-pleasing act on the indie kids’ theater circuit, the act began as a funny party bit.
“I had no official background, I was just lucky to be around really cool bohemians,” Erdman says. Originally from Ronkonkoma, Long Island, after moving to New York City at 18 Erdman studied art and architecture. At the same time, Erdman kept alive his natural love for music, from boogie-woogie to 60s pop like the Kinks, and developed a habit of creating sing-song bits for friends at parties. After experimenting with other characters, Erdman decided to focus on the Lard Dog, and joined forces with talented musicians to help bring the show to life. In fact, during his early days, one of his backup singers was an unknown talent named Norah Jones. “I love telling that story,” he says.
Erdman performed as Lard Dog until the early 2000s, but the character didn’t bring in the money he needed for his family. While he stopped performing formally, he continued to work on little ditties and songs. However, when his son Owen was born in 2008, something changed.
“That’s when I really started to think: ‘I should dust off that Lard Dog thing.’” Using some old contacts from his past, including producer Boz Boorer of Morrissey fame, Erdman rediscovered the Lard Dog and made the character his full-time job, which has continued to this day.
Despite currently living upstate, Erdman remains a New Yorker at heart. “I was so into New York, it was in my DNA… the subway and the architecture and the energy.”
Now, he’s excited to go from audience member to performer at Joe’s Pub, where the likes of Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello, and Lady Gaga have performed. “I’m thrilled [to play there]. Playing at Joe’s Pub is a dream come true,” Erdman says.
Leading up to his show at Joe’s Pub, Lard Dog (along with his band, the Band of Shy) has had a 15-week-run at the 13th Street Repertory Theater, in the West Village. “This recent run was just so cool, because I felt the energy. That place is a holdout in New York for that classic Greenwich Village theater highway. You can feel the energy of all these artists that played there in the past.”
Despite Joe’s Pub’s history of more adult performances, Erdman thinks his family act will fit right in with jokes that will amuse the adults in the audience. For example, Erdman has a puppet named Milhous Monkey, a nod to former President Richard Milhous Nixon. “I wanted to make this an experience for parents to go and to have a ball as well,” he says. While his Lard bits were originally aimed at adults, Erdman believes that having a child of his own pushed him and the character towards children’s shows, even though there are parts of his act that fit in with any age group.
Though Lard Dog shows have been compared to “Rocky Horror for kids,” Erdman’ is very intentional with his outrageous act. “When I perform, you look at me and you think: ‘This guy is really out there,’ but then taking it really seriously, having all these great musicians, turning it in to something that is so much cooler—it felt right.”
“I love [the name Lard Dog] mainly because it’s different, and it turns out not to be anything you think it’s going to be, and that’s the point of my music,” he says, pointing out that a second layer of the name is revealed when you say it quickly.
“It almost sounds like ‘Life’s Surreal Dream’ and that resonates with me because I am hugely inspired and influenced by the Surrealists: Salvador Dali, Duchamp, Frida Kahlo.” Erdman also lists cartoonists like Charles Schultz among his influences.
Ultimately, Erdman believes his character is about the thrill of adventure. “If he’s going to cross the street, he’s going to go the long way… he’ll have the thrill of his life.”
For more information about Lard Dog, his new album or the show at Joe’s Pub, visit houseoflard.com!
