As Los Angeles-based fans of Tim and Eric know, David Liebe Hart, the slightly off, but obviously harmless Christian Scientist puppeteer and singer/songwriter, has been one of the city’s…er best kept secrets for over two decades. I’ve seen Hart with “Doug the Dog” and his ventriloquist dummy “son” Chip the Black Boy performing outside of the Hollywood Bowl and the La Brea Tar Pits, singing his songs about alien abductions, staying off drugs and how badly he wants a girlfriend since I first moved here. Not only would I often see Hart busking for spare change, I’d also see him on cable access television with his Junior Christian Teaching Bible Lesson program. In fact, James Quall, another Tim and Eric cast member was (is?) a member of the Junior Christian Teaching Bible Lesson posse himself. Praise the lord that Tim and Eric have seen fit to provide gainful employment for these two rather eccentric fellows.

You can find numerous examples of David’s cable access handiwork on YouTube but here is a very revealing segment from The Daily Show where we catch him describing how his wife left him and trying to give out her phone number so people can harass her for committing adultery!! (I once recall seeing him tell a story about getting a venereal disease on a live cable access show and then giving the woman’s name and telephone number out on air. Each time someone would call in, the host would tease Hart that it was this woman on the line and that she was really angry. He seemed genuinely terrified every time the phone would ring).

One day my wife and I were driving down Beverly Blvd and we saw a determined guy with a deteriorating Afro darting across the street. “Hey… look… it’s….” I said, stammering at the famous face in front of my car, but she was quicker. “SALOME!” she shouted and David Liebe Hart grinned from ear to ear that, happy that at long last, he was finally being recognized.

Sadly Chip the Black Boy was “kidnapped” from David and has not been seen again. Don’t expect to see him on any milk cartons.

David Liebe Hart Was Viciously Slandered.

An uncomfortable David Liebe Hart anecdote

David Liebe Hart and Adam Papagan on MySpace (listen to their paean to “Ellen Degeneres”!)

Chip The Black Boy

He’s More Than Meets the Ear; The Hollywood Bowl’s ‘puppet man’ would like a better gig, but mostly he just wants to belong (Los Angeles Times article by Tricia Nelson)

Originally posted 08/20/09.

I think he has a great personality, but I find it weird that he has trouble matching up the moving mouths of the puppets with his voice. It’s a very normal thing with amatures, but he’s been doing it for years. I guess that gives him his odd charm and what got him into Tim and Eric’s sights. Maybe some people just have bad mouth/hand coordination.

check out DAVID LIEBE HART on The MorMusic Radio Pod!  yeeuh! 
www.skidrow.la/?p=451

I had no idea until recently that he was a real person, even though I had run into some of those hideous public access videos on the web.
I sure miss Tim & Eric!

I used to work at a public access station in Inglewood and directed David’s show many times. It was frustrating to organize, to say the least, which was ironic considering how little he varied it over the years. Sometimes, though, a wonderfully spontaneous and crazy moment would come spilling out of the studio. When he would dupe young SAG members into appearing on his program…..man, those were best shows! I would slow zoom into their confused, shocked and slightly frightened faces as the show unfolded and my week would be complete. Still, he did ask an awful lot for my wife to hook him up with a girlfriend. Not good.