User:Maxwellcoldpepper/Shannon O'Hare

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Shannon O'Hare is an artist from Vallejo, California. His creation, "The Neverwas Haul" has been a centerpiece of a growing cadre of steampunk culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. O'Hare spent his early childhood living in Children's Fairyland, a community amusement park for children located next to Lake Merrit in Oakland, California. In his young teens he performed internationally as a clown in former Soviet-bloc countries. He became involved with Renaissance Fairs in the US, and became a prolific designer and builder of castles and period architecture for two renaissance fairs in Texas. He also created and operated two grisly torture chamber attractions for these parks with his former wife.

In 2002, O'Hare performed in "The Chasm of Spasms" a live horror show based in San Francisco. The show was was a collaborative effort inspired by the Gran Guignol theatre of 1800's Paris and the campy spookshows from the 1940's and 50's. O'Hare contributed much to the creative direction of the show, which performed in several underground venues during the Halloween season such as the Haunted Barn and Cyclone Warehouse. In The Chasm of Spasms' final show, O'Hare introduced an act called "Eternity Tonight" in which he portrayed Satan as a talk show host in a low budget cable T.V. channel. As Satan, he interviewed other historical and literary characters, O'Hare went on to perform Eternity Tonight as a spinoff show into 2006.

In 2006, the flagship Neverwas Haul was unveiled for Burning Man festival. A rolling victorian museum, the "Haul" was "from the future that Neverwas" O'Hare (in his Major Catastrophe character) is the commander of an expedition from an imaginary Hibernian Empire, and the Haul is the vehicle. Several other characters in Victorian costume are in tow, often contributing sideshows, music, or other performances. The project is ongoing collaboration conceived of by O'Hare, and built with the help of Kymric Smythe, Peter Luca, and others at The Shipyard, an artists compound in Emeryville, California. Since its christening the Haul has visited festivals, parades, Maker's Fair and the Exploratorium science museum, along with three other trips to the Burning Man Festival.