Professor Morlock Live

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This picture is a rare treat for hard core Morlockians.

When the Morlock franchise had apparently died out after “The Ghost of Professor Morlock,” Jesse Merlin tried to make ends meet by doing a pathetic show called “Professor Morlock Live” at kiddie matinees of old Morlock movies. Aided by a “beautiful assistant” (usually the current girlfriend of the guy whose couch he was sleeping on) and a transient in a cheap gorilla suit, he would go onstage and do shtick witha Professor Morlock ventriloquist dummy (a popular toy for young boys fter the original “Professor Morlock” opened) , perform a few bad magic tricks and exchange stiff “spooky” dialogue with the assistant for twenty minutes, ending inevitably by transplanting the girl’s brain into the gorilla.

Merlin admitted in his autobiography that the initial performance of this show was the reason for his first suicide attempt.