The Kazoo Museum Comes Home!

After over a year of living in boxes in my parents' house the Kazoo Museum has gone out into the world and is once again educating people about the wonders and history of my favorite instrument. A few months back I got an email from Rick Hubbard (aka The King of Kazoos) about the possibility of moving the museum to South Carolina. His company Kazoobie Kazoos had just relocated there themselves and now had a larger space to house a gift shop and visitor center. So a few weeks ago I re-packed and mailed a few boxes from Portland, OR and last week I opened up those boxes in Beaufort, SC. The space is pretty awesome. The building used to be a lighting showroom so it's already an inviting space with more overhead power outlets than you know what to do with.

Rick and Stephen Murray (president of Kazoobie Kazoos) had already purchased six glass cases and arranged them in a cozy nook of the front room. I spent a week with them laying out a chronological exhibit outlining the history of the instrument with antique kazoos, patents, and a lot of new text I wrote up for the occasion.




In addition I also set up a few side exhibits. I really like this mini exhibit about the kazoo as one of the few instruments invented in the USA:


We also did some thrift store shopping to put together this recreation of Thaddeus Von Clegg's workshop where the first kazoo was supposedly built in the 1840s:


The Kazoo Museum is already open for business, though we're in the early stages of planning an epic grand opening celebration in October. So keep you calendar clear and start planning that trip to Beaufort!