Raymond & Peter

Raymond Huffman and Peter Haskett were the improbable and unwilling topics of the cult phenomenon; a set of maturing alcoholics living jointly within a crumbling SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA tenement building, their countless drunken battles and rants had been surreptitiously noted by neighbors, using the recordings ultimately achieving legendary position in the tape-trading underground. Small is well known about Raymond & Peter’s particular backgrounds, the way they fulfilled, or the way they had become roommates. For the tapes, Raymond stated to possess offered in the armed forces, a boast Peter rejected. Regardless, with the middle-’80s the twosome was ensconced within an house building in San Francisco’s Decrease Haight region; the complicated, located at 237 Steiner, was known by local people as the “Pepto-Bismol Palace” because of its hideous green exterior. In 1987, one Eddie Lee Sausage and his roommate Mitchell D. shifted in nearby, where because of the building’s paper-thin wall space these were subjected nightly to Raymond and Peter’s drunken, venomous harangues; ranting against homosexuals, the authorities, and many of all one another, the two guys bickered as an outdated (albeit homicidal) wedded few, with most every showdown finishing in Peter’s brand bon mot “Shut up, small man!” Whenever a frightened but disappointed Eddie Lee finally banged on the neighbours’ door to complain about the extreme noise, Raymond fulfilled them with the next response: “I’m flawlessly willing to destroy anyone that feels they’re tough. I had been a killer before you had been born, I’m going to be a killer after you’re lifeless.” Eddie Lee and Mitchell 1st began producing what would end up being the Shut Up, Small Man! tapes to be able to set up proof should Raymond ever make great on his risks, but quickly became enthusiastic about the recording procedure; with time, when Raymond and Peter’s personal drunken dialogue became repetitious, the neighbours even began producing prank calls nearby to further mix the container. The tapes indicate that Raymond and Peter had been at least occasionally aware these were becoming recorded, and even, the legal dynamics at the job in documenting their lives, actually given the quantity of their verbal fisticuffs, remain muddied at greatest. Occasionally, Raymond and Peter weren’t alone within their house, either: Tony, a Southern-born drifter and Vietnam veteran, was a regular houseguest aswell as Peter’s occasionally gay enthusiast; and the authorities, fire division, and crisis medical teams produced their talk about of appearances aswell. Both Raymond and Peter spent many a night time in a healthcare facility, aswell as the “stony lonesome” (Peter’s euphemism for the authorities drunk container). Also captured on tape can be a chillingly quiet murder confession shipped by Raymond, financing some credence to his promises to be a “killin’ motherf*cker.” On the top of their animosity, the bigger Peter is thought to possess pressed Raymond off their house balcony, where he dropped about 15 foot to the bottom below. Assuming the storyplot holds true, Raymond do survive the fall. He eventually died of persistent alcoholism on Feb 28, 1992. Generally unidentified to Eddie Lee and Mitchell, their tapes of Raymond and Peter — six amounts in every — started circulating in the united states, and in the springtime of 1992, Eddie received a telephone call from Bananafish mag editor Seymour Cup, asking for an interview. Bananafish’s publisher Tedium Home also pressed 500 cassette copies of every from the six tapes, which quickly sold-out; a comic reserve version boasting artwork from substitute comics superstars like Daniel Clowes and Dame Darcy shortly followed, also offering out. In the springtime of 1993, the features from the Raymond & Peter tapes had been compiled on the Compact disc, Shut Up, Small Man!, which triggered a minor press feeling, earning write-ups almost everywhere from your Washington Post to Vanity Good to Playboy. Immediately after, playwright Gregg Gibbs guaranteed rights to create Raymond & Peter to the level; with dialogue culled specifically from the initial tapes, the play Shut Up, Small Guy! premiered in LA. Now relatively flush using their monetary achievement, Eddie Lee and Mitchell attempt to locate Peter Haskett, who’d since relocated to the Bay Area’s famously seedy Tenderloin area; they discovered his new house, took him taking in, explained the trend from the tapes — Peter refused he and Raymond ever quarreled, normally — and slice him a royalty check. Peter passed away in 1996. In 2002, Bob Taicher, who performed Tony in the initial Shut Up, Small Guy! stage play, aimed the feature film Shut Yer Dirty Small Mouth!, getting the exploits of Raymond and Peter towards the big screen for a fresh global audience to see.