2023 Jurors
Fan Jurors
Kendra Shepherd
Kendra (she/her) is a juicer for Needlejuice records and is an artist who specializes in the wacky and psychedelic. Her artwork can be seen on releases by comedy musicians such as Napoleon XIV, Barnes & Barnes, and Steve Goodie. Along with art and whatnot, Kendra is an administrator for Voobaha: The Barnes & Barnes Facebook Group along with being a moderator for the Official Dr. Demento Facebook group!
Lar deSouza
Lar deSouza (he/him), beard advocate, noted hat enthusiast and Internet Uncle, is really good at sitting. He sits like a champ. And when he sits, he draws. Like, a LOT. For the past 18 years, Lar has been pulling double duty as the cartoonist for the 2008 Shuster Award winning online comic “Looking For Group” (LFG.co) andthe comic “Least I Could Do” (LICD.com). Lar also continues to freelance and has been fortunate to contribute to Steve Jackson Games, most notably Super Munchkin Artist Edition, Munchkin CCG and the Illuminati second edition in 2018, among many others.
He was born to humble surroundings on a Hallowe’en night many years ago. After an apparently normal childhood, he attended Sheridan College of Visual Arts where he obtained diplomas in Illustration and Computer Graphics. While other artists might have muses that look like Grecian oracles, Lar’s wears three fingered gloves and speaks in a shout. It was only a matter of time before professional cartooning called his name.
Andy Hopp
Andy Hopp (he/him) is an award-winning illustrator, author, and game designer. He is the host and founder of Con on the Cob (which coincidentally is the location of this year’s Logan Awards ceremony, as part of FuMPFeST at Con on the Cob) and Oddmall: Emporium of the Weird, which is one of Ohio’s largest and most unique exhibitions of art & artifice featuring hundreds of artists, crafters, entertainers, cosplayers artisans, and purveyors of games, toys, comics, collectibles, and all things odd, geeky bizarre, imaginative, and wonderful!
Musician Jurors
Beth Kinderman
Beth Kinderman (she/her) is a filk singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Along with her band the Player Characters, she performs regularly at science fiction conventions and has released seven albums of original material inspired by her love of science fiction and fantasy, mythology, games, and other geeky topics. Her diverse musical output includes song parodies as well as original comedy songs, which can be found on the FuMP and at bethkinderman.bandcamp.com.
the great Luke Ski
At Dragon*Con 2004, Dr. Demento declared “the great Luke Ski” (he/him) to be his radio / internet program’s “Most Requested Artist of the 21st Century”. Since then, Luke held onto that title by having songs on “The Dr. Demento Show’s” annual year-end “Funny 25” countdown of his most requested songs of the year for 18 years in a row, including five of them at #1 (“Peter Parker” 2002, “Stealing Like A Hobbit” 2003, “Snoopy The Dogg” 2011, “Fake Adult” 2014, “Candybars” 2017).
He has won three Logan Awards; The first for his Peanuts tribute, “Snoopy The Dogg”, winning ‘Outstanding Parody Song’ of 2011, the second for his song about Disney buying Star Wars, “When You Wish Upon A Death Star” winning ‘Outstanding Parody Song’ of 2012, and the third “Candybars” about Luke’s weight loss struggles winning ‘Outstanding Parody Song’ of 2017. In 2023 Luke released his long awaited 12th album “Needlessly Meta” which along with many tracks based on many of the things going on in Luke’s actual life the past 8 years, also has songs about The Mandalorian, the women of Star Wars, The Twilight Zone, CW’s The Flash & Supergirl, Adventure Time, and Mighty Magiswords (the Cartoon Network animated series on which Luke was a storyboarder, writer, songwriter, and voice actor, available on Amazon Video and other places you can digitally buy TV shows).
Austin Ash Lemon
Austin Ash Lemon (he/him) is a music maker who makes music that is occasionally somewhat comedic. The music he makes is probably not comedic often enough to be included among the esteemed funny song people in this jury. He judged the first Logan Awards back in aught something, so perhaps a false sense of seniority has caused this baffling inclusion. He’s just gonna go with it.
He sings his occasionally comedic songs in a band called The Odd Ditties, a project begat from the band Smashy Claw, which was begat from the solo project masquerading as a band Rycehat, which was begat from the embarrassingly obvious-influence referential solo project Odd Austin. Each of these incarnations was notably more comedic than what followed it.
He is uncomfortable writing about himself in the third person, so he will now end this in an awkward, abrupt fashion.
Permanent Juror
Dr. Demento
Dr. Demento (he/him) is the on-air name of Barret Hansen, the longtime host of The Dr. Demento Show, a syndicated radio show in the U.S. that features novelty and comedy records. Hansen studied music at Reed College in Portland, Oregon and at the University of California at Los Angeles. He first used the Dr. Demento moniker in 1970, in his early days as a Los Angeles disc jockey. By 1974 he was nationally syndicated, playing rare novelty songs from the past and present, from Spike Jones and Tom Lehrer to Frank Zappa and Weird Al Yankovic. Hansen is also an avid record collector and expert on the history of recording who has produced several compilations, mostly for Rhino Records. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2009. (from Infoplease.com)
The Dr. Demento Show is radio’s weekly two-hour festival of “mad music and crazy comedy” available for streaming on the internet. It is a free-wheeling, unpredictable mix of music and comedy. Along with legends like Spike Jones, Tom Lehrer, Stan Freberg, Monty Python, and Frank Zappa, the Doctor plays new funny songs sent in by amateur and professional singers and comedians. (from Dr. Demento.com)
Chairperson
Ian Bonds (Insane Ian)
Insane Ian (he/him) is an active member of the comedy musician collective known as The Funny Music Project (aka The FuMP) as both a performer and fan of comedy music.
As a comedy musician, II loves video games. He plays them, he reviews them, he collects them, he even writes comedy songs about video games (among other nerdy subjects). Just one look at Ian’s Bandcamp page makes it obvious that Insane Ian is a comedy music juggernaut that cannot be stopped. Very recently, Ian hit a milestone in his career a long time in coming, as he had the #1 most requested song of 2015 on “The Dr. Demento Show”, the name-mangling Brit-tribute, “Benedict Cumberbatch”, sitting firmly atop the Doctor’s year-end Funny 25. With a sharp wit, sarcastic smirk, and a bit of self-deprecation, he’ll bring his unique sound to anyone who won’t tell him to shut up…and even a few that will.
As a comedy music fan, Ian is the admin of the official Dr Demento fan group on Facebook, as well as running all the press things for the FuMP. Double I has been nominated for several Logan Awards over the years but has yet to win one, which has earned him the nickname “Rap Game Susan Lucci”. Ian is now the permanent chairperson of the awards.
