by Christopher Sanchez
Daily Lobo
Steve White looks at a Pez dispenser and sees more than a cartoon character made of plastic.
He sees Jesus in Wonder Woman.
He sees the devil in Batman.
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And he sees Elvis in Happy Ghost.
"I try and do something for everybody," he said. "I think art should be attainable. With Pez, sometimes people don't have something they can relate with, so I just try to make that happen."
It all started when White started collecting the dispensers in the early '90s.
"When I went to the store, they had quite a few displays of Pez," he said. "I just thought they were cool. I just got every set they had."
White started making characters eight years ago when he saw another face in a Happy Ghost dispenser. After applying some paint, he created "Elvis Pez-ley."
Besides creating characters like the Beatles and Johnny Cash, he also makes dispensers that hold a political message.
One of those dispensers is the Statue of Liberty with a white skull for its face. The original was a Wonder Woman dispenser, but after applying paint and adding toothpicks for its crown, it became the statue.
The skull is symbolic, he said.
"I think we're losing our civil liberties right now, so I made it the Death of Liberty," he said.
In March, White decided to try something new.
After creating hundreds of characters, he wanted to create political and social messages by performing plays with his
dispensers.
He performs them on a stage called Pez Theater. It's like a puppet show, but it has a Southwestern style and hundreds of dispensers attached to it.
One of his plays is called "The Price is High," a spoof of The Price is Right. The contestants are Jesus, Buddha, the Prophet Muhammad and the devil. The host is Bob the Barker.
White slouches behind the theater and holds a Playskool microphone that is attached to a bullhorn. After introducing the characters on stage, Bob the Barker tells the contestants to bid on the future of the United States.
"People can either sit at home on their comfortable couch and watch TV, or they can rise up and do something about it in their own way," Bob the Barker says. "Let the bidding begin with Jesus."
"$1 million, Bob," Jesus says.
"Nothing, Bob," Buddha says.
"Why, Bob?" says Muhammad, who is invisible on stage.
"$666, Bob," the devil says.
Bob the Barker tells everyone they are wrong.
"The actual retail price for saving America is in your heart and acting upon it in a conscious way. And the winner is you," he says, pointing his finger at the audience.
White said the point of the play is to make people realize they can be a part of change.
"Even if it's just thinking about doing something," he said. "Now that's something. But to just feel like you can't do anything, now that's a terrible feeling."
His plays focus on racism, domestic violence and civil rights. The plays are one to two minutes long.
White has performed his Pez plays about eight times, including at Albuquerque bars.
"They dig it," he said. "I've had girls that wanted to sleep with me. It's crazy."
He has sold his dispensers to the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe and has some on display at Todos Santos, a candy store.
Selling dispensers is his only source of income. He sells them for $20, which is enough for him to eat and pay rent.
Though he is a sculptor and a painter, he prefers to create Pez dispensers.
"It's a release for me," he said. "I can get things off my mind."
White said he doesn't know if he'll make a career out of it, but anything can happen.
"I can totally see me just doing a little bit of it along with all of my other work," he said. "And then I could totally see a whole insane Las Vegas show, where I have six theaters and a jumpsuit covered in Pez."
