SNL - Tiki Bar skit

Last night on 'Nick at Night' (I think (?)) I saw an old Saturday Night Live show skit about a lounge singer - Bill Murrey - working a tiki bar called 'Trader Nick's'.

The tiki bar was fairly accurate. Complete with thatch, bamboo, tikis, and vintage mugs. What makes this skit interesting is that it was probably from about 1980. A time when 'Tiki' was very uncool and passe.

I could only wonder where they got the props for this skit. What hard-core, pre-revival, tiki-phile kept these hidden away as to avoid redicule by his 1980's peers.

Bigbro - was it you?

To a 'Tribe Called Tiki' - Aloha Oukou!

[ Edited by: Tiki_Bong on 2002-08-06 09:31 ]

In the 80s there already was a small avantgarde/underground appreciation of Tiki. Artists Jeffrey Valence, Boyd Rice, an S.F. band called the Tikis, Throbbing Gristle in England, Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo visiting Martin Denny in Honululu, etc.

I actually bought my first Martin Denny LP in an American Forces thrift store in Berlin in the 70s! It was "PRIMITIVA", but it was only because I fell in love with Sandy Warner. That cover belongs in the Guggenheim! I had no idea then that years later I would actually dig the music and all that surrounded it. (I was a David Bowie and Roxy Music fan, had Iggy Pop visit my pad, and hung out at transvestite bars, that was EXOTICA then!)

And in New York (for SNL), Orchids of Hawaii Co. was alive and well in the Bronx. They did not only have mugs but other supplies too.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2002-08-06 11:02 ]

There was also an SCTV skit back in the day called "Polynesiantown" with Johnny LaRue (John Candy).

Wonder if you can get a tape of that somehow?