Actor Joe Kudla of 'Puke and Snot' team dies at 58
By Dominic P. Papatola, dpapatola@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 08/11/2008 09:43:50 PM CDT
http://www.twincities.com/ci_10170496?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com

Minneapolis actor Joe Kudla - half of the "Puke and Snot" comedy team that entertained crowds at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival for more than three decades - died Monday at the age of 58.

Kudla died at his home in Northeast Minneapolis, according to his performing partner, Mark Sieve. A cause of death was not immediately available.

"I'm wondering if Bud Abbott felt this way when Lou Costello died," said Mark Sieve, who played Puke in the popular comic duo that mixed swordplay and groaner jokes. Sieve said he and Kudla were supposed to go over some new material Monday, but that Kudla wasn't returning phone calls.

"I was complaining to my wife about my irresponsible partner not answering his phone," Sieve said, honoring his late partner with a bit of gallows humor. "Turns out he had a good excuse."

Kudla was already a fixture on the local performing scene when he and Sieve conjured the idea of a pair of medieval types who would crack wise and cross swords. The first iteration of the duo, dubbed Mouldy and Wart, premiered at the 1973 festival.

Puke and Snot appeared the next year. At the height of their fame, the opening act for their routine was a young pair of comic-magicians named Penn and Teller. Kudla and Sieve trained others their shtick, and have been a fixture at Renaissance festivals across the country ever since.

In 2007, Kudla took a break from playing Thomas Snot, earning rave reviews in the History Theatre production of "The Baron," a paean to old-school professional wrestling in which he played, among other famous grapplers, Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon.

Sieve intends for the show to go on when the Minnesota Renaissance Festival opens later this month. "It would be a great tribute to Joe to keep it going," he said, "but I don't know. I might break down in the middle of the routine."

Actor Joe Kudla found fame in role of 'Snot'
He and Mark Sieve came up with the "Puke and Snot" shtick in the '70s, and they took it to festivals everywhere.
By Graydon Royce, Star Tribune
Last update: August 12, 2008 - 9:00 AM
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/onstage/26865144.html?elr=KArksUUUU

Actor Mark Sieve isn't sure what he will do when the Minnesota Renaissance Festival opens Friday. He will be there as Puke, but Joe Kudla will not be there as Snot.

Kudla died Monday of an apparent heart attack at his northeast Minneapolis home. He was 57. "Puke and Snot" have entertained hundreds of thousands of spectators at the Festival for 34 years with a feisty, vaudeville style street theater that had a ribald, Elizabethan flavor. Imagined as a lark, the act expanded to several other Renaissance Festivals, and both Sieve and Kudla became well known for their efforts.

"I talked with Penn Jillette about it and he said keep the show going," Sieve said. "It's the best tribute we can do. But it's going to seem weird to walk out on stage."

Actor John Gamoke, who has played the role, will replace Kudla.

Sieve and Kudla were acting in community theater during the early 1970s and when the Renaissance Festival came to town, they worked as street performers. Guthrie actor Ken Welsh was performing Shakespearean soliloquies and Kudla, who did a character called The Black Knight, stopped by to heckle. Welsh took after him and Kudla found it great fun. After the festival, Kudla hatched an idea with Sieve that they should use that same kind of guerrilla approach and create seemingly improvised meetings at which they would confront one another and attract a crowd.

"Our senses of humor meshed," Sieve said.

"Puke and Snot" became a hit at festivals in Texas, Maryland, Florida, Canada, Colorado and California. They also became well known in Twin Cities comedy clubs during the 1980s. Kudla was last seen on a Twin Cities stage in 2007, when he portrayed wrestlers "The Crusher" and "Mad Dog Vachon" in a production of "The Baron" at the History Theatre in St. Paul.

Sieve said that Kudla's willingness to try almost anything helped draw crowds.