RKT Biography

Rick Klaus Theis (the "Klaus" was added in 1982) was born and grew up in Warren, Ohio -- boyhood home of poet, Kenneth Patchen, who himself was born in nearby Niles. During his second quarter at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, the brash 18-year old led a protest which threatened to shut down the university. A few months later he was elected Vice-president of the student body; the next year, President. He toyed with the idea of running for a second term, but to the relief of a besieged university administration he opted to graduate (in fewer than three years at age 20).

As a child, Theis met John F. Kennedy. As an adult, Mohammed Ali took a swing at him and former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten threw a tray of coldcuts at him. He has conducted published interviews with musicians Sun Ra, Nick Cave and David Thomas of Pere Ubu. A friend of the late internationally acclaimed artists Elijah Pierce (folk art) and Chung Yung Woo (Chinese calligraphy and watercolor), Theis has heckled Presidents and Supreme Court Justices; led numerous protests; paid his back taxes to the IRS with $2000 in pennies (with a few nickels, dimes and quarters thrown in to make it harder to count) to publicize excessive military spending; interrupted a CIA recruitment meeting to make a speech detailing the sordid history of the CIA; traveled through the Berlin Wall in 1986; and toured eastern Europe and Russia (when it was still the Soviet Union) in 1988. He was one of the earliest D.J.'s at Crazy Mama's, Columbus's first punk club; and a member of several bands, most notably The Worst, The Drill Bits and 110; directed a 45-minute film in 1978-9 starring Zero Watts (Columbus's first punk) and numerous other films and videos; and created or worked on several local, cable and broadcast TV shows and even shot video for national network broadcast, international dance company tours, and museum installations. From 1991 through 1999, he drove a" white 1968 Volvo P-1800 sports car, the spitting image of the one fictional secret agent Simon Templar made famous in the mid-sixties British TV series, The Saint. He now owns no car.

Theis has had two pets. The first was a black cat called Rema, named after the British New Wave rock band Rema Rema which went on to become the band Mass and then Wolfgang Press. He found Rema as a kitten living in an abandoned garage in the alley behind his apartment and adopted her. Rema was born on or about Halloween 1980 and died of kidney failure the day after her 13th Halloween. She was a very loyal, smart and loving cat. Upon her death, Theis wrote the poem "For Rema" which appears in his book Recycled Words. His second pet was Somni (pictured left). The name Somni is short for Somnium (a Latin word meaning dream) which was the title of the first book about space travel based on scientific fact, written by astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1634. Somni was also an alley cat, found as a kitten by the friend of a friend and given to Theis four days after he lost Rema. Somni was put to sleep just after her fifth birthday after a failed attempt to stabilize her heart during an episode of congestive heart failure. Theis wrote the poem "What If" for Somni on the day she died. Somni was also an intelligent cat and was very full of life. She bravely battled her illness until the end.

Rick Klaus Theis has been a long time activist for peace, social justice, human rights, and environmental causes. He came to international prominence in February of 1998 when news reports, photos and videos of him were seen around the world. Theis was first at a microphone during the audience question period at the CNN International Town Meeting in Columbus, Ohio. When CNN attempted to censor him, Theis interrupted the live, internationally-broadcast proceedings only to be prevented from speaking and dragged out of the hall by security police. The UPI wire reported that Theis then "managed to find his way back in and seized a microphone at the foot of the stage to deliver a statement that was greeted with thunderous applause." In part, Theis said, "Bombing Iraq will not eliminate Saddam Hussein or all of his weapons of mass destruction. President Clinton admitted that. Clinton said his purpose in bombing Iraq is to send a message to Saddam. Well, we the people of Columbus and Central Ohio and all over America will not send messages written in the blood of Iraqi men, women and children." Theis also criticized the gathering as a "media event staged by CNN, not a real town meeting" since it was not an open forum for the presentation of all sides of the issue.

Theis's first major publication credit came in 1987 when his short story entitled "My Brother" became part of the book Breaking Through: College Readings by Brenda D. Smith. The volume is a required text for many university English composition classes throughout the country. His first full length book, the 180-page Recycled Words collects just about all of his finished poetry as of September 1996. It contains poems he had read at poetry readings and those he had published in literary magazines. And it added dozens that had never seen the light of day, including one he'd written a few days before publication while at a Trappist monastery in the hills of Kentucky.

Theis is currently seeking a publisher for his newest book of poems, Lorca's Grave. A companion compact disc (also called Lorca's Grave), comprised of Theis reciting or singing 17 of his poems over the intense sounds of legendary underground rock band V-3, was released in 1999. The Lorca's Grave CD and book are dedicated to Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain's greatest modern poet who was assassinated by fascist soldiers at the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

Theis is now working on a new poetry manuscript entitled Blow, Man, Blow! which will include poems that are mostly jazz, art, writing, and poetry related. He is also seeking publication of several short stories and is attempting to finish several screenplays.

Click here to read the fanciful biography of Rick Klaus Theis from his book Recycled Words.
Click here to learn more about Federico Garcia Lorca for whom Lorca's Grave is named.
Click here to learn more about Theis's future projects.