Musician Harlan T. Bobo goes over the top with stage props at Christmas Show

Harlan T. Bobo

Earlier this week, Memphis musician Harlan T. Bobo and his French-born fiancée, Anne Ciriani, sat in a cold Midtown house that they’d turned into a temporary workshop.

The home, which belongs to Bobo’s cellist, Jonathan Kirkscey, was mid-renovation. Wallpaper hung in strips, and hardwood floors were covered in plaster dust. The parlor had been transformed into an art studio — giant swaths of canvas, painted in a DayGlo jungle scene, were hung to dry — while plywood panels depicting cartoonish stained-glass windows leaned against the wall in a sitting room.

Harlan T. Bobo, who enjoys the visual aspects of his work, has an interplanetary theme planned for Saturday night’s show.

Harlan T. Bobo

After toiling for weeks, Bobo and Ciriani were putting the finishing touches on the 3-D sets for his fourth annual holiday show, slated for the Hi-Tone Café Saturday night.

“It’s the story of the Interplanetary Church of the Cosmic Claus,” Bobo explained. “The job of the Cosmic Claus is to make one day of the year the most special day for all of Martian-kind. For them, it’s a religious celebration, but for us, it’s a great party, really.”

Bobo has always enjoyed toying with his fans. In recent years, he’s donned house painter’s stilts and mechanical angel wings, and employed homemade shadow puppets during his live performances. At one memorable gig at Goner Records, he flipped pancakes for audience members, hovering over a skillet while strapped into his stilts and singing and playing guitar.

And more than a decade ago, Bobo created Merry Christmas Spaceman, a 20-song collection of holiday songs, including a languorous rendition of “Silver Bells”; a beatnik version of “We Three Kings,” replete with bongos and xylophones; and a kazoo-driven take on “Auld Lang Syne,” reinterpreted as “Old Angst Ien.”

This weekend the musician, a mad-scientist type who, when it comes to the visual aspects of his work, is inspired by “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” stop-motion animators Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, will take the joke to an intergalactic level.

Bobo said that he came up with the concept for the Cosmic Claus during a plane trip to France to visit Ciriani earlier this year.

“I don’t know what happened — the flight seemed to take 12 hours,” he said. “Four of those hours were unaccounted for, and when I woke up, I had the Martian text.”

Come Saturday night, his band — which includes bassist Jeremy Scott, drummer Paul Buchignani, organist Brendan Spengler, and guitarist John Paul Keith — will don their costumes, hand-sewn by Ciriani, and perform the Martian religious ceremony. After a short intermission, they’ll return with a holiday-oriented rock set.

Christmas, Bobo says, has always been one of his favorite holidays.

Though he conceals most of the details of his personal life, including his given name, Bobo recounted childhood memories of bundling up with his brothers and sisters — he was the youngest of eight in a combined family — and drinking hot cider while looking at the Christmas lights.

“We were in Ohio, so it would snow every year,” Bobo said. “I still love the lights and all the colors.”

“It’s just fun,” he said of his props and costumes, which will likely be used once, then discarded.

“Sometimes the music is enough, but I’m sure people get tired of the same old stuff,” Bobo said. “For sure, I lose a lot of money every year, and I lose my health for a month, but it feels really great to go over the top.”

“This time,” he said, his eyes twinkling, “I think we’ve finally topped ‘Rudolph.’ I hope I’ve interpreted the text correctly. I’d hate for the Martians to be upset, because they could easily obliterate everyone in the Hi-Tone.”

To hear music Harlan T. Bobo and see videos, click here.

The Harlan T. Bobo Christmas Show

Hi-Tone Cafe, 1913 Poplar, starts at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Cover is $7.

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