Ira Isaacs: The P.T. Barnum of Scatology

In sterquiliniis invenitur. Can truth, redemption, and meaning be discovered in the places we least want to look? Listen to Caleb Jackson Dills and Evan Philip Lipson attempt to find out by interviewing notorious scat and zoo pornographer Ira Isaacs, director of modern cinematic classics such as Hollywood Scat Amateurs No. 7. Ira Isaccs (c.1951) is a self-described shock artist who was sentenced to four years in federal prison in January 2013 after being found guilty of five counts of selling and distributing obscene materials. Some might be surprised to learn that obscenity remains to be a punishable offense in the United States. Obscenity is not simply a relic of a sexually repressive past in which it was used to challenge provocateurs such as Arthur Miller, Lenny Bruce, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Rather, some still face penalties for advancing over the abstruse and ever-shifting imaginary line in the sand drawn by the Department of Justice. What makes an artist an artist, and who gets to determine what constitutes as art and what doesn't? How does one go about finding models willing to consume excrement on camera? Is there validity to shock as an artistic medium? Join us tonight in THE EXILE HOUR as we seek to get to the bottom of these questions and more.