Saul Tannenbaum

What can you say about a man like Saul Tannenbaum? Friend to all, except that colony of marmosets in the Steppes for reasons he’d rather not go into right now, Saul spends his time creating joy and whimsy within the respectable boundaries of satire and fair-use regulations. Scroll down to see some of the many lives he’s enlivened through the magic of song, as well as a sampling of the sort of thing you can expect from him and his friends and collaborators!

To contact Saul about booking a performance, commissioning original work, or using any of his songs or jokes for your own purposes, you can either talk to that pigeon he knows down on Third or send an email to saul@thehouseofhello.com.

A holiday classic entering its sixth year, SAUL TANNENBAUM’S CLAUS FOR CELEBRATION featuring THE JINGLE BELLES is a veritable house fire of joy, wonderment, and cheer. Drawing from Christmas classics secular and bechurched alike (as well as some original tunes), CLAUS FOR CELEBRATION is, in the words of the man himself, “the only Christmas show you’ll ever need, so forget about your niece’s recital, I was the choreographer on that piece of garbage for a week until they kicked me out for so-called ‘philistinism’ but I know Phil and he’s a nice guy who would never say anything like that about me.”

2016 will bring Saul Tannenbaum’s Claus for Celebration to glorious digital audio cassette disc with At Home with Saul and Mona: Claus For Celebration VI! Look for it in the cloud or in the tubes or wherever the hell people find these things in December!

Meet Saul Tannnebaum’s charming chanteuses, a tuneful trio known as THE CHAMPAGNE SISTERS! Olive, Rosemary, and Irene bring their signature blend of harmony and charm-ony to any occasion, whether it’s a manifestation of the feminine mistake mystique in SAUL TANNENBAUM’S GIRLS AHOY, a celebration of the true spirit of giving in SAUL TANNENBAUM’S HORN O’PLENTY, or a trip across the pond in SAUL TANNNENBAUM’S SPRINGTIME IN PARIS. From the Great American Songbook to tunes definitely not made up in the car on the way to the venue, THE CHAMPAGNE SISTERS are sure to woo whatever’s left in your cynical, dead husk still capable of being wooed!

Mona von Horne was born just outside Berlin during a war. Although there hadn’t been a war actually in Berlin for some  time, she was deeply affected by the dark night of humanity’s soul, and turned to the theater as a way to find consolation through art and the attention of strangers.

She started out working as a chorus girl in Max Hermann’s all-sousaphone review before catapulting to fame on Berlin’s underground cabaret circuit with her one-woman show “Mona: ein schöner Vogel singt über Scheiße.” The success of her act brought her to the attention of writers, producers, and club owners the world over, though it wasn’t until recently, after reconnecting with old friend and touring partner Saul Tannenbaum after a long estrangement, that she brought her talents to dinner theaters and community playhouses throughout the United States.

Her relationship with Saul Tannenbaum is one of the few verifiable accounts of her long and storied career. Mona first encountered Mr. Tannenbaum while she was performing at the Green Orchid, a private club with an unmarked door in Paris’s 14th Arrondissement. Mr. Tannenbaum had been told about a particularly delicious baguette available at a patisserie on the other side of the city but due to a cultural barrier he ended up hearing Mona’s performance. Though ascribing his reaction at first to hunger-induced euphoria, once Mona had led him through the streets of the city to an even more superlative baked good he realized his rapture had been real. Tannenbaum’s naive enthusiasm touched Mona’s worldly heart, and she agreed to appear as a special guest for his upcoming tour of the Continent, SAUL TANNENBAUM BATTLES THE BULGE featuring THE RUSSIAN FRONTS. The tour was a modest success.

Mona appeared with Saul and his troupe as the spirit moved her, though after a terrible falling out on the long road between Vladivostok and St. Petersburg Mona returned to Berlin, where she recorded several hit records including “Die einsamste Frau der Welt,” “Anstatt zu weinen Ich werde mit deinem Mann schlafen” and, simply, “Love.”

Very little information exists about Mona’s personal life and relationships; rumors have long circulated about a secret marriage to a Russian spy, as well as affairs with heads of state, cultural leaders, and celebrities, but due to several unrelated Records Office fires, judicial gag orders, and FBI redactions, tracing the exact narrative of her life has thus far proven nearly impossible.