Tom Rubnitz Videoworks: Sexy, Wiggy, Desserty

Tom Rubnitz

01:08:11

Collection: Single Artist Compilations

Tags: Camp, Gender, Home DVD, Humor, LGBTQ, Music, Performance, Videoworks

Tom Rubnitz Videoworks: Sexy, Wiggy, Desserty

Until his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, Tom Rubnitz produced short, humourous videotapes featuring some of New York’s most outrageously talented musicians, artists and drag queens. Influenced by mass media entertainment, Rubnitz crafted hilarious videos which simultaneously celebrated and parodied pop culture’s bountiful energy and inventiveness. As Tom said, “I wanted to make things beautiful, funny and positive—escapes that you could just get into and laugh through. That was really important to me. I felt like good could triumph over evil.” We hope that this compilation will extend Tom’s critically important, uplifiting and ground-breaking work to new audiences who have never had the privilege or pure pleasure of witnessing these exhilarating videos.

The quintessential New York underground collection of film/video artiste, Tom Rubnitz. In this compilation Rubnitz takes a bite out of the Big Apple and spits it out in a wild kaleidoscope of unequivocal camp and hallucinogenic color.

“Inimitable and ineffable, Tom Rubnitz’s glitter-dusted videos distill the sensibility of a generation of TV babies whose venue of choice was the Pyramid Club rather than the Whitney Museum.”

—Village Voice

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Included Titles
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Produced by Tom Rubnitz in collaboration with Tom Koken and Barbara Lipp, The Mother Show is a tribute to mothers everywhere, starring Frieda, the “living” doll. Frieda asks her mother a series of…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: LGBTQ

A rockumentary about East Village club Pyramid star John Sex. The blonde, coifed performer exposes his penchant for padding his package with socks and explains that his last name is the result of his…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Humor, LGBTQ

Tom Rubnitz

Chicken Elaine

1983 | 00:01:00

Rubnitz’s short cooking clip showcases a chicken casserole recipe from the kitchen of Elaine Clearfield. All you need is chicken, rice, a packet of Lipton onion soup mix, a can of cream of mushroom…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Humor, LGBTQ

Combining Rubnitz’s skillful manipulation of the familiar “look” of TV shows with an extraordinary range of characters, performer Ann Magnuson convincingly impersonates the array of female types seen…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Feminism, Humor, Media Analysis, Performance, Television, Self-Reflexive Video, Mental Landscape

This rapid-montage music video for John Sex’s song “Hustle with My Muscle” portrays the singer as a ladies’ man with ample endowment to share. “Can you handle all the man below my belt?” he…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Humor, LGBTQ

Tom Rubnitz

Bump and Grind It

1986 | 00:03:15

A glittering, Las Vegas-inspired music video for John Sex’s song "Bump and Grind It".  With an outrageous fountain hairdo (by stylist Danilo), Sex sings his catchy pop lyrics, “You gotta put…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Humor, LGBTQ, Music

A dragumentary about a day in the life of a score of drag queens on the lookout for photo opportunities at Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Museum, Tiffany’s, and in SoHo. A tripped-out Hapi Phace…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Humor, LGBTQ

Tom Rubnitz

Undercover Me!

1988 | 00:02:00

A movie trailer for a non-existent Bond-style spy thriller "coming soon to a mini-mall cineplex near you!" Featuring John Sex, Hapi Phace, Laura Levine, Dany Johnson and The French Twist. This title…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Camp, LGBTQ

Having a party and in a fix for a dessert? The “Lady” Bunny has just the recipe: combine a doughnut, Cherry 7-Up, jelly, strawberries, and whipped topping. This title is only available on Tom…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: LGBTQ, Television

Tom Rubnitz

The Fairies

1989 | 00:05:00

Based on a tale by Charles Perrault, Tom Rubnitz's The Fairies comes complete with frogs, princes, kind fairies, and evil stepsisters—all costumed à la Rubnitz. Featuring Sister Dimension as the…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Dance, LGBTQ, Literature

Produced in collaboration with MICA-TV, Summer of Love is a public service announcement produced for the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Featuring The B-52’s, David Byrne, Allen Ginsburg,…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: AIDS/HIV, LGBTQ

Rubnitz’s tape celebrates and documents an early installment of the “storywig-in,” shot nearly a decade before the feature-length documentary. Presenting the festival during its Tompkins Square Park…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: LGBTQ

Tom Rubnitz

Pickle Surprise

1989 | 00:01:40

A short, hilarious cooking mantra, featuring Sister Dimension, The "Lady" Bunny, RuPaul, David Dalrymple, Lahoma Van Zandt and Maria Ayala. "Where's the pickle? That's the surprise!" This title is…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Camp, LGBTQ, Television