After These Messages: Hobo Kelly with Gwynne Garfinkle

Gwynne Garfinkle is back with us to talk about obscure children’s shows from her youth. Specifically, we talk about Hobo Kelly, the magical hobo clown...

After These Messages: Hobo Kelly with Gwynne Garfinkle

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! To celebrate, Gwynne Garfinkle is back with us to talk about obscure children’s shows from her youth. Specifically, we talk about Hobo Kelly, the magical hobo clown who has a leprechaun fly her around and drop her off at Hobo Junction. Sure and begorrah, ‘tis she!

Listen to "After These Messages: Hobo Kelly with Gwynne Garfinkle" on Spreaker.

If you are like, “whhhhhaaat?” —yeah, so were we!

Here are the only clips we could find. Here’s a teeny 30 second clip medley.

And here’s the full Hobo Kelly opening (very low quality, sadly)


We could not find more of this, but Gwynne remembered being excited about Hobo Kelly’s magical sunglasses and bag full of prizes. Di you ever see this as a kid?

Next we watched a segment of Zoom about a girl named Noreen who broke her arm. That segment starts 12 minutes and 25 seconds into this episode.

Geoffrey had a little trouble saying “regularly” at the ending this episode, which led us to conclude he’s probable Scottish… And we watched this tiktok, which is not safe for work.

If you would like, you can also read a transcript of this episode.


Check out Gwynne’s books, including her novel, Can’t Find My Way Home, a political ghost story about a soap opera star in the 1970s who is reunited with the ghost of her best friend who died protesting the Vietnam war. She’s also got a poetry collection called People Change.

If you would like to listen to one of her stories, you can find “A Wild Patience” in three parts on Escape Pod: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

And if you want to read a free story, you can check out “Sinking, Singing” in the May 2021 issue of Mermaids Monthly.