Tales of the Celestial Shamrock

Tales of the Celestial Shamrock

Readers Digress! #16

A7, landscape, 40 pages, cardboard cover

£/$: creative exchange/stamps to cover postage

'A collection of comic wisdom from the laughing monks of the Sho Ping Temple' is how this zine from Readers Digress! describes itself. 

It is formed from a series of zen-like stories and poems that: 

gleefully celebrate the fact that in a godless universe there is nothing more glorious than the sound of poetic laughter.

Like previous Readers Digress! publications there are various levels of reality, playfulness, allusion, and theft, being carried out - this issue is an unapologetic homage to the comic genius of Tommy Cooper. The re-appropriation of the material into a cultural other is more than a dadaist act however, and encourages the reader to consider the text in other ways - that is as well as being a small tribute to the grand cosmic joke. 

As I've said before I've been enjoying immensely the output of The Bubble Dada Corporation (formerly Readers Digress!) - it is always varied, surprising, and its work is based on a diverse set of cultural references. So if you like the sound of this publication you'll definitely like the rest of their work. You can read my reviews of previous Bubblegum Dada publications here.

The Bubblegum Dada Corporation is a curiously offline enterprise based on the coast of England. But if you'd like a copy of Tales of the Celestial Shamrock you can now contact them at their newly acquired email address - bubblegumdadacorporation (at) gmail (dot) com - with offers to exchange creative endeavours, or an offer of stamps to cover postage. Please say we sent you!


Review by Nathan Penlington