“Endurance is the undercurrent,” Malcolm Peacock said of his work in the Whitney Biennial. It was the only piece in the entire exhibition that drew me in. Threads of hair forming a great redwood stump. Quietness amid the loud media galleries. It was beautiful. It seemed Alive.

It is, in many ways, how I have felt this winter. Cut down, yet surprising myself, still capable of new growth.

Spring has struggled to start this year. New Yorkers seem to agree. This was a hard winter. I lost my funniest uncle Rod. Then, a blizzard stranded me in Saint Louis. A mid month flu shifted my priorities and took all my fitness seemingly back down to zero. Time slowed. Even this entry arrives late, now in the first week of April. The minutiae of winter lingers. Loneliness, job loss, and bitter cold converged. The New York hustle never stops, but winter can still humble all of us.

Then, on March 20, I turned 40 years old.

I designed another birthday for myself. I encourage you to do the same when your time comes. Mark the moment. Celebrate life. It matters more than we often allow.

Friends flew in from across the country to welcome me into this fourth decade. It felt like a rebirth. I realized something quietly profound. I had never really imagined my life beyond this point. And yet, here it is. A fresh canvas. Check out the 12 minutes on stage from my birthday on YouTube (unlisted).

The weight of the past feels lighter now. I feel firmer in my body. Standing taller. Like a California oak.

I may not have achieved the financial milestones I once imagined by this age. But I am proud. Like a redwood stump, continuing to bring forth new life and for sure, more laughter than I ever could have imagined. Endurance is the undercurrent.

We all have the ability to renew ourselves. To transform. To breathe again.

Here is what is going on in New York: VISUAL ARTCaravaggio at The Morgan LibraryExhibition A rare intimacy. The Caravaggio works felt close, human, devotional. There is something about seeing Caravaggio paintings in the quiet rooms of The Morgan that makes me closer to my body. The way he paints skin, eyes, and position is so sensual. Having never been to Italy to see his “greats,” I never miss an opportunity to get close to one of his pictures. They are really unlike anything I have ever seen. So much so, I am going on a pilgrimage to Potsdam, Germany to view the Incredulity of St. Thomas, one of my favorite paintings and I have never seen in person. How can something become a favorite without ever seeing the real painting?

The Book of the Dead Scrolls and Christian Marclay’s DoorsExhibitionI rarely go to the Brooklyn Museum, but I was pulled in by their new exhibit of recently restored pairing of the Book of the Dead scrolls. Along my visit, I was able to view Christian Marclays’ newer work Doors. Unsurprisingly, I was not as moved by the doors as I was The Clock. I have a special relationship to The Clock, much like others.

Though, viewing the Book of the Dead for the first time right after a contemporary film makes one wonder what our contributions and beliefs come from. Much like the cinematic repetition, I started to see the repetition in the scrolls. A gateway to another world, a promise, and an ancient belief system of hope.Raphael at The Met :: Sublime PoetryExhibition

The first word that comes to mind is overwhelming. At over 140 objects, the exhibition is ambitious, perhaps too ambitious. There is a sense of density, with many studies crowding the galleries. The paintings themselves don’t always have the space they deserve to breathe.

Still, having never been to Italy, it was a gift to see so many Raphaels alongside his contemporaries and influences. The exhibition becomes less about individual masterpieces and more about immersion into a moment of artistic expansion.

Whitney BiennialExhibition

The Whitney Biennial remains one of the best ways to take the temperature of contemporary art in America. Some works resonate deeply, others less so, but the overall experience feels like it remains essential.

One work, in particular, stayed with me. Malcolm Peacock’s piece. Threads of hair forming a redwood stump. Endurance as material.

It mirrored the season.

Other Works I’m Reading Walter de Maria at Gagosian in FranceMichael Heizer at Gagosian in New YorkFeature in NY Times

COMEDYFortune Feimster at The Beacon TheatreI love the way Fortune Feimster tells stories. There is an ease to her delivery. Personal, warm, and grounded. She expands small moments into something shared and human. It is the kind of storytelling that feels effortless, but you know is deeply crafted. I aspire one day to be as carefree as she is on stage.

Max Amini at Madison Square GardenI had never experienced anything like it. Twenty thousand people from around the world gathered at Madison Square Garden. Max Amini commanded the audience with remarkable confidence and calm. What struck me most was how seamlessly he wove deeply personal stories (many of loss and pain) into his comedy. The scale was massive, yet the material remained intimate.

He also became the first Iranian American to headline Madison Square Garden. It felt meaningful to be in that audience, witnessing both a cultural milestone particularly as we attack Iran.

Gregory MeanderI made it into the quarterfinals of the Laughing Buddha Festival.

I blanked on stage. And then I recovered.

After watching the quarterfinals and some of the semifinals, I noticed something important. None of the comics flinched. They stayed calm. Steady. Present. I am learning what I need to do to be better. Check out Finals here.

I have been going up almost every day, working in five minute increments, and I am looking forward to trying out a new tight five on April 25.

Being part of the festival was energizing. I connected with many new comics across the city. Comedy continues to reveal itself as a generous and supportive community. Thank you to everyone who came out to support.

March 21:: 40th Birthday

Wow.

Thank you to the 40 plus friends, both new and old, who came out for my 40th birthday at Playa Betty’s and Westside Comedy Club. It was incredibly special to have everyone in the room. We sold out Westside at 105 people. My first sold out crowd.

We had a great lineup of comics, and I am deeply grateful to those who flew, took trains, and traveled from far away to be present. The night went by far too quickly.

I performed 12 minutes on stage and truly felt the love from the audience. The extra time allowed me to settle in. My set felt more comfortable, more grounded. I am beginning to understand what I can achieve with a tight five and how that expands when given more space.

I worked further on the “Becoming a Clown” bit, a longer story that may eventually weave into a larger 60 minute piece. Less punchlines. More story..

I see myself increasingly at the intersection of storytelling, stand up, and clowning.

I am grateful to be entering this new horizon of my fourth decade.

Here is the unlisted 12 minute birthday set for those who could not be there.

Upcoming PerformancesApril 25 at 6 PM The new Tight 5Westside Comedy Club Write my name: Gregory Meander when purchasing tickets.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gregorymeander.substack.com

What a cold and wintery January. I have walked through the old growth forest most days now in my new neighborhood at the tip of Manhattan. This past Sunday, New York City was encased in 11 inches of snow. The forest acts as some sort of portal that transports me back to when Manhattan was inhabited few humans. I wander through the forest along the icy Hudson and wonder at the bluffs. The forest is a magical gift to have it everyday now. I have both my city - and my nature at the same time. It has created a good sense of grounding for me during these challenging times. With renewed purpose to tell my story, make people laugh, and of course to become a clown. I have to work a bit harder to get down to my shows in midtown, but I still manage to ride the A Train Express. I can’t help myself, but I feel like I am living in Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights. I write on the subway, I clown on the subway, and I listen to comics on the subway to pass the time.This month has been mostly hibernating and working on my 60-minute solo show. I have been sharing it 1:1, with my playwriting class, and on stage. Some say 60 minutes takes five years to produce, but we will see how long this takes. I have a good north star and I making the right connections with creative people who give great feedback. I get energized by all the creative energy in comedy and storytelling. It often reminds me in trying times, Joan Didion reminds “we tell our stories in order to live.” Sometimes in dark times, we need our stories even more. What story is giving you life these days? Remember, it might be your own. Comedy I continue to do open mics when I get the chance. They are around $12 a pop for five minutes of mic and light time. Professional comics have told me that I need to be going up around 14 times a week to get better. That accumulates to one hour of mic time. I am managing 2-3 times a week. I go up tomorrow night at West Side Comedy Club at 6 PM. I have submitted to present 10 minutes of my show at The Barrow Group on March 14. I wrote a short description of the show (work in progress), here it is: “Age / Sex / Location” is a dark, story-driven show about growing up in the age of the internet. Blending comedy, art history, and lived experience, it traces a journey from an American Suburb to the streets of San Salvador as a lens for examining our bodies, power, and survival. Moving between humor and confessional, the piece asks what it means to inhabit your body when you’ve spent a lifetime observing it from the outside.Opera Porgy & Bess ⭐️⭐️⭐️The Metropolitan Opera This was the first time I have ever seen Porgy & Bess in any format. Initially staged as an opera, it has been adapted quite a bit to be more “Broadway friendly.” The Met’s cast was perfect to hold this story. It hit harder than expected. I see so much and sometimes I don’t or can’t process what I am experiencing in real time. Sometimes it is delayed upon reflection. But, this production of Porgy & Bess really hit me. They were able to capture the reality of being poor and black in the south, yet celebrate the community. There is a resilience in this piece that I never knew was there until I witnessed it. It is dreadfully sad. There are dreadfully sad things that happen. Systematic injustices. Betrayals. Difficult relationships. And yet, they persist. I think it hit me as a deep message to persist no matter what. BroadwayOklahoma ! At Carnegie Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️I love Rogers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! The music, the dream ballet, and the drama. I recently learned that it was an adaptation of Lynn Riggs's 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs where she introduced the characters in Act 1 and then the drama happened in Act 2. It seems as if this format is leveraged widely in the more theater the more I see on stage and the more I read. Act 1 always seems to lag. But, they are creating the world in which these characters operate. Much like a novel dedicates entire chapters to one character. How does a writer make you care about what we are doing? In comedy, we have a short window to make the audience care. It all comes to timing and building trust quickly. This evening at Carnegie Hall made me think about these characters more than ever before with the minimal staging and focus on the music. I do wonder why this musical captured little Gregory’s imagination, first in film, then on stage at The Muny. Every time I hear the first notes of the overture, I am transported to a mystical place in my brain where things are simpler, there is opportunity on the horizon, and there picnic baskets full of homemade goodies for auction. For most young boys, it might have been Star Wars or Lord of the Rings that captured their minds, but for me it was the simplicity of: There's a bright golden haze on the meadow,There's a bright golden haze on the meadow,The corn is as high as an elephants eye,An' it looks like it's climbing clear up in the sky.That anticipation was always enough to get me dreaming. I am always glad to hear this music treated well with a full orchestra and beautiful talent singing filling the hall. It was a beautiful night for Oklahoma!, for sure.

All Out ⭐️⭐️Bad writing is bad writing. No matter how famous you get, you can see incredible comics muscle through bad writing and it is still just okay. Staging, lighting, and costuming were all there and directed by the wonderful Alex Timbers. For me, sitting in a 60% full theater of a strange mix of baby boomers and Gen Z, everyone equally confused on why they were in the theater. I find going to things that don’t hit the mark for me hone my understanding of the responsibility of the comic/actor/writer to give you the reason you are there in the seat. And of course, the audience wants to laugh.

Galleries (Not recorded on podcast) Highlights included Dan Flavin, Mark Dion, and Bruce Conner

ReadingParadiso edited by Mary I started reading this after reading this review in The Atlantic. My exposure to Dante’s poetry has been limited to sculpture and paintings made in response to it. I have never attempted reading it and I now know why. It is challenging. I am taking a few pages at a time. Like most poetry, I am looking words up as I go along. Yet, I understand why it has become such fodder for artist interpretation. Well worth the attempt. Ways of Seeing by John Berger A classic - a Bible of sorts - I often revisit in winter time. I am not quite sure, but I love watching the series on YouTube. It is a great winter activity. Best Stand Up Special Jessica Jensen Working It Out with Mike Birbiglia

Upcoming Dates:2/24 ‘Love Bombed’ Storytelling TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24 AT 7PM PETE’S CANDY STORETBD: 3/14 at The Barrow Group: 10 minutes of “Age/Sex/Location” TBD: 3/21 (40th Birthday show) Stand Up at Westside Comedy Club

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gregorymeander.substack.com

This past year was defined by working hard to hold onto New York. A tighter budget meant learning to hunt for rush tickets, lotteries, and discounts—and choosing to see fewer things, but better ones.

But this year was different: I started performing. (Gaga gets it).

In January, I took a class at Westside Comedy Club and got onstage for the first time in February. Since then, I’ve done seven sets, performed in front of more than 150 people (which many of you read this - thank you!), rewriting jokes, tightening setups, chasing the punch, created a stage name, all while figuring out who I am onstage. I write on the subway, while running in Central Park, wandering galleries—everywhere. I’m having fun. And it’s a real challenge. We can do hard things.

We live in an age of content machines where everything feels rushed and fractured. I don’t want that. My story is layered. I want to enjoy the process as much as the finished product. “No one should know about your first year of comedy,” said interview with Josh Johnson. So let’s just say this: I’m only getting started.

This year I also took a Solo Show workshop at The Barrow Group, currently in Playwriting with Kate Tarker, and started haunting open mics while building friendships with other comics. All of it is feeding toward an eventual 60-minute show: part stand-up, part storytelling, part clown. Give me five years. It’s going to get good.

And maybe I just started noticing because I want to do it myself, but this felt like the year of the one-person show. They were everywhere—from basements in the Lower East to SOHO theaters to Netflix. Morgan Bassichis’ Can I be Frank? held the room with humor, queerness, obsessiveness, and tenderness. Abby Wambaugh’s The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows showed how dark topics can be held with love and levity. I was at the taping of Mike Birbiglia’s The Good Life (now on Netflix). And Alex Edelman’s WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? at Carnegie Hall—truly unforgettable.

So this is my year in review: the performances that stayed with me, the jokes that surprised me, the writing that opened something up, and the art that made me feel more alive.

I’m just getting started. And I am trying to widen my audience a bit more, so if you think someone else in your life might enjoy reading along or seeing me perform, please comment, share, or forward. It all helps!

Best Overall Art ExhibitWifredo Lam : When I Don’t Sleep, I DreamMoMA

I had never heard of Wifredo Lam and I had never knowingly seen a painting by him. I think that is what captured my imagination : a net new artist that re-aligned the artistic canon. It is hard to ignore Ruth Asawa’s retrospective installed at the same time on the sixth floor (which I saw also in SFMOMA). But, Lam’s work has stuck into my own dreams. He created a visual language of monsters, jungle creatures, and otherwise that shifted my thinking about the artistic world of my own that I am creating. His work feels personal. And I don’t think I am alone.

Runner UpNancy HoltEchoes & Evolutions: Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels This gallery show was validating in a lot of ways after visiting the Sun Tunnels twice in 2020, particularly for Summer Solstice, when I witnessed the alignment. Nancy Holt’s work looms large in my world (as she was partnered to Robert Smithson), but more importantly as a visionary researcher and art practioner. She never limited her vision and the discourse she desired to have with the natural world. This exhibit displayed much of her process, photographs, drawing, planning, and a maquette for the Sun Tunnels. It was a comprehensive deep dive into a sculpture that is out in the high desert of Utah. There was a continuity to the pieces that I loved. Though in a private gallery, I felt like it was museum quality and hope for her work to make it into the larger public dialogue one day.

Honorable Mentions:I don’t have time to break down all these exhibits and I saw so many other ones that are worth attention. It was a great year for art that took me off guard, great curatorial work, and interesting exhibits. I loved Sargent and Paris at The Met mainly because of his incredible early work as a young man in Paris. Divine Eygpt at The Met helped finally understand the religious hierachry of ancient Eygpt. And Ruth Asawa at MoMA and SFMOMA helped me revisit an old friend in an unparalleled manner.

Best Unexpected ExhibitMan Ray: When Objects Dream I walked in curious and walked out electrified, primarly with the density of rayographs on view and the incredible exhibition design. I think this was the smartest exhibition design I saw, which made give the category of “unexpected.” Exhibition design can prevent decent viewing, but it rarely adds to the experience in a remarkable way. The central break down featuring a film and objects that Man Ray used to create the film was unlike anything I have ever seen. It was a clear connection to the absurdity of the objects and the magic of film.

Favorite SurpriseJoan Mitchell: To define a feeling: Joan Mitchell, 1960–1965David Zwirner

Best of BroadwayLittle Bear Ridge Road (My Review) Now closed, I saw it three times. Every time, it hit differently. I look forward to seeing Laurie Metcalf tackle Arthur Miller’s Death of Salesman.

Best Unexpected ExperienceAlex Edelman at Carnegie Hall For some reason, I felt like he was speaking directly in a room full of Upper East Side Jews, the Catholic/Evangelical kid in the balcony understood every one of his Jesus jokes. He spent 10 minutes on seashells and brought in Amy Grant, too. It was like he lived exactly the same childhood as me but like he was a voyeur. He is an amazing storyteller and I love watching him fly around the stage. He announces his tour on March 7 and certainly will be coming to a city near you. Check him out or watch Just for Us on HBO.

Best Overall PerformanceFidelio at The MetLudwig van BeethovenMonths later, if I remember any part of an opera, it usually sticks with me for life. This opera, performed first in Vienna in 1814, still strikes a political chord today. Opera, a universal storytelling vessel, is a magical experience for me. I won lottery tickets and I was thrilled to be in the orchestra to watch a beautiful duet between a wife (dressed up as a solider) as she tries to save her husband from political death. Separated by a wall, the wife and husband sing to boundless joy after being able to see each other. Watch the climax here. Oh, nameless joy!Oh, happy time!At last, at last, the long-awaited here!I follow you, I follow you!

Best Behind-the-Scenes MomentI won free tickets to a filming of The Colbert Show featuring an interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren. It seemed special to witness one of the remaining shows being filmed in the Ed Sullivan theater. The best part of the six hour experience was the warm up comic, Paul Mercurio. I was pulled up on stage and interviewed for some quick crowd laughs. Being on stage of The Tonight Show will be a special memory for a long time. I just kept looking out at the audience and laughing because I saw a dream in the future. I had a little fun with the warm up comic. Stephen spent some time with the crowd and was genuine, funny, and kind.

Bonus: Jokes + Poems at The Public Theater with Mike Birbiglia and J Hope Stein

Best PodcastWorking It Out — Mike BirbigliaThis podcast is a comic for comic podcast, so. you might not enjoy it as deeply as I do. But, this is comedy gold and gives great insight to the challenges of writing a punch line, finding your audience, and all the different types of comedy including clowning! When I listen to it, it validates my journey, my desire, and my effort towards some of my comedy goals. Give it a listen.

Favorite Episodes include Arthur Brooks : The Science of Humor and Happiness

Favorite New Art

Favorite FilmTrain Dreams on Netflix I don’t watch too many movies anymore, but this one captured me. It felt more like a long-form poem that leveraged a lot of my aesthetic preferences of the natural world. I enjoyed the simple story and reflection on what life might mean as the main character faces loss, hard work, and the passage of time. Thank you for reading/listening all these years. I started my first newsletter in 2016. As I go into 2026 with my new focus around storytelling and standup, please follow along and share with people you might think might be interested in following a new performer. I will continue to use this space to highlight my up-coming performances (1/31 at Westside Comedy Club) and what I am seeing in New York City. Don’t worry, my love of art history will be making it’s way into my material on-stage, too. I love hearing from all of you, please email, comment, or share. Here is to 2026! Cheers!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gregorymeander.substack.com

This year is barreling down towards the end so quickly. Why do some years move faster than others? The light is dimmer, the air is a bit heavier, and the theater is still vibrant in New York. This month were my sixth and seventh sets at West Side Comedy Club — Danielle, Eliza, Marlene, Debra, Katie, Claire, Susan, and Meredith in the audience, cheering me on this strange, exciting pursuit of mine. Thank you to each of you for showing up and supporting. Comedy keeps me honest; it demands rhythm, risk, and presence, not unlike any worthy pursuit. This time, it feels different for me. I still haven’t hit my year yet and I am more energized than ever to keep working out my material, my stories, and performance. At the same time as stand up, I am continuing to craft 60-minutes through a playwriting class with Kate Tarker full of some other great respective New York-based artists.

All the while, the season turned into winter before us with a beautiful snow fall. The city was encased in white and for a couple of hours, it felt as if I was living in quiet postcard. It quickly melted and become a slushy mess. It was my first real snow fall living in New York and it was magic. I ended the strong with a few performances and will have a great 2025 review as a follow up to this month’s review.

THEATER & COMEDY

November was stacked with performance. Bat Boy at New York City Center (⭐️⭐️⭐️) was a strange delight — campy, sharp, and unexpectedly moving. Childless Freak, a friend’s solo show, at UCB (⭐️) pushed at the edges of absurdity, while Jerrod Carmichael (⭐️⭐️⭐️) offered something entirely different: discomfort as art, intimacy as confrontation (rooted in his tradition of Rothaniel (on HBO). Jerrod left me calling out a fellow audience member uncomfortable and audibly gay bashing him. I stood up for me in the present and me in the future, as I know I will face backlash from people I make uncomfortable with my material. Though, I know I have made people uncomfortable most of my life for my mere existence. It was a stark reminder that most people are still uncomfortable even with the words around gay life and their assumptions around our lifestyle. I was proud of the woman for feeling confident enough to spill her distain with “our lifestyle.” I wanted to make sure she knew someone was listening to her.

Alex Edelman at Carnegie Hall (⭐️⭐️⭐️) was a masterclass in vulnerability and structure — proof that storytelling and stand-up are siblings, not cousins. I was empowered after the 60 minutes of material. I am so glad I was able to see him live, though I was one of the few people in the audience that understood his jokes around Evangelical America. He also has inspired me to go deeper into clowning, as he was a clown at a children’s hospital in Jerusalem (and still clowns to this day). (If you have not watched Just for Us on HBO, do yourself a favor and watch an Emmy-winning performance). I also caught Gimme a Sign by Bailey at Under St. Marks (⭐️⭐️) and Jokes and Poems with Mike Birbiglia and J. Hope (⭐️⭐️½), a reminder of how laughter and stanzas can share the same breath.

I saw Gruesome Playground Injuries (⭐️⭐️⭐️) with Kara Young (two time Tony winner) and a vibrant revival of Tony winning, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) offered opposite poles of emotion — one raw and introspective, the other joyous and improvisational. Chess on Broadway (⭐️⭐️½) was somewhere in between, beautifully scored (and beloved by the Broadway community), but trapped in its own uneven story.December With December, comes the holiday shows. I was able to take in the 100th anniversary of the Rockettes at Radio City Hall with a remarkable gifted sixth row seat. The show is always a treat and this year (their 100th), I learned that Rockettes started in my hometown of St. Louis. I revisited an opera standby, Puccini’s La Boheme for my seventh time. You can start to hear the nuance after so many viewings of a classic. There is nothing like how The Met puts on a Parisian winter city Christmas market scene. It is pure joy with a real donkey and horse on stage!

Archduke at Roundabout Theater ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ A 2017 play by the same writer of Gruseome Playground Injuries, Rajiv Johnson, explores the radicalization of the assassins of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and ultimately an disastisfying ending. Costumes and set were great with some great young actors filling out some unfinished characters. I think they did their best with the material. It was an interesting query in what we might consider a version of the early 20th century incel. The F*****s and their Friends Between Revolutions at Armory ⭐️Based on a beloved essay from 1975 of a queer fantastical imagination of Larry Mitchell and illustrations by Ned Asta. The essay has been part of my life for quite some time as Larry wrote it after a visit to the Castro District. Imagine, this was Pre-AIDS, and there was a quiet revolution building. There was love between men in the quiet alleyways and Victorian closets of San Francisco. A love I experienced in my time in the city by the bay, a love that I try to tap into through time and space. It is a love that I try to hold onto in the age of an America culture that doesn’t want to hear about our love, create fear around our bodies across genders, and create laws that prevent me from having a full life. It must have been beautiful - in the quiet, dark corners, there could be love expressed without fear of a murderous disease that destroyed a generation of my brothers. I try to channel the spirit of the 70s, before a plague took so many. Regardless of American laws, regardless of leaders across institutions that advocate for puritanical and nuclear family, regardless of your quiet religious fervor, we will continue to love in glorious spite of you. For this show at the Armory, I was disappointed with the investment in time, energy, and talent. The performance landed flat and was confusing. The production wasn’t sure what it was. Was it a dance piece? Was it an opera? I don’t mind non-linear storytelling, but for the source material to be so challenging, hopeful, and unapologetically queer - I was left wanting more from this piece. Read the essay, please. It is magical. Beau: The Musical ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️I love being surprised by Off-Off Broadway pieces. This musical has been being worked on for about eight years. Sadly, I don’t think it will ever travel or get its Broadway moment for lots of reasons. Maybe some pieces are their best off-broadway? Scale and amplification isn’t always the goal? Beau is a net new story and music, let alone a “challenging” story to some. But, I connected to it in a deep way. As an audience member, you are transported into a Nashville bar and the band is about to play. Rather than a regular set, you are whisked away into a compelling story of a young man searching for a father-figure (who isn’t) and find a kind soul trying to forgive the sins of his past. One of my favorite Broadway stars, recently Tony nominated, Jeb Brown takes on quite a role and he is worth the price of admission to hear him up close. Beau is an interesting and all too common story, and not told enough. I was glad my friend took me as it is playing just down the street at The Distillery at St Lukes on West 46th (playing through Jan 4). Listen to the first recording of the show here. Tracy Lett’s new much-hyped revival of Bug ⭐️ ⭐️This revival featuring Tracy Lett’s wife Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood. I love Tracy Lett’s writing because it never lets you off the hook as an audience member. This one doesn’t let you out of a hotel room outside Oklahoma City. I am not sure if this 2009 play is what we need right now on Broadway, but of course the star power is driving this production. I think it will have a short run on Broadway as I think most people like their delusional, violent content streaming via streaming services on the comfort of their couch, rather than a night at the theater. I might be wrong, but it isn’t worth the price of the ticket for 45 seconds of theatrical magic.

VISUAL ART

Early November brought a visit to The Met and a stunning Rauschenberg exhibition at the Guggenheim, followed by Joan Mitchell at David Zwirner, Agnes Martin at Pace, and Wifredo Lam (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) at MoMA, whose luminous forms haunted my own dreams lately.

At the Whitney, I finally saw Calder’s Circus, marveling at how something so playful could feel so spiritual. November taught me that reflection doesn’t always arrive as revelation. Sometimes it’s a quiet look across the table, a walk through half the city, or a hand still reaching for light

.December On Christmas Day, my friend took me to one of her traditions, a winter concert at the Museum on Eldridge Street (the oldest snyagogue in the United States). The temple went through a 20 -year restoration completed in 2007 and wow, what a job they did! It was a beautiful restoration of 19th and 20th handiwork and craft. I got up to The Met’s cloisters and visited a new exhibit, Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages. I would consider medieval art one of my weak points among many in art history. Another visit to Wifredo Lam’s When I don’t Sleep, I Dream has quickly entered my lexicon as a must-see and one of my favorite exhibits of 2025. He created a strong visual language and welcomes the viewer into a fantasy that both terrifies me and comforts me in the same way. I have found myself running over to MoMA near closing times and visiting some of my favorite canvases and being alone with them. His mastery of coloring and structure quickly puts him into the likes of Picasso and George Braque. I do love when an institution takes time and a risk on an unknown artist (to the American audience) and creates an exhibit that stays with us that is strong enough to disrupt the art historical canon. It happens rarely, but I do think MoMa did it with this exhibit.

Sidenote: Maybe it might be a good sign as this was co-curated by Christophe Cherix, The newly appointed David Rockefeller Director (along with The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art, with Damasia Lacroze, Curatorial Associate, Department of Painting and Sculpture, and Eva Caston, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints). Mr. Cherix doesn’t seem like the biggest risk taker and is once again another white, straight, older, male that is a master fundraiser. I guess that is all we have ever looked for in American leadership (as we look to the Philadelphia Art Museum new appointment after ousting a younger woman for a branding faux paux). Alas, I think I might be the only one that cares about who might be leading our cultural institutions in a time when fear is taking hold at all classes, the rich and the poor. I resist, possibly quietly to most people, but I resist the temptation to give up on accountability for our leaders in civic institutions.

WHAT I’M EXCITED ABOUT IN JANUARY 2026 - Becoming a clown. - Continuing a playwriting course with Kate Tarker- All Out with Mike Birbiglia and other comics! - Oklahoma! live at Carnegie Hall - Porgy & Bess at The Met - Ulysses at The Public- Caravaggio and Bellini at The Morgan Library

GREGORY MEANDER LIVE PERFORMANCESJanuary 31st at Westside Comedy Club at 6 PM Get your tickets now! It is cheaper in advance - write Gregory Meander. February 24th at Pete’s Candy Store TBA “Love Bombed” is the theme and I share a 8-9 minute story.

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October was a month of feeling the flow of fall, changing colors, crisper air, and a rush of new art. Autumn has never been quite my favorite, but I noticed it a different arrival this year, it arrived slowly, humid and hesitant, and yet everything seemed to move more smoothly. The theme running through the month: taking a risk as restorative. Nathan Lane’s line in conversation with Mike Birbiglia rang true — “The safest thing you can do is take a risk.”My risk this month was starting a 5-week solo show workshop at The Barrow Group (Seth Parrish directed Mike Birbiglia’s first three specials). I am currently about half way through and have been working on the outline. I have often compared my ambition to Hannah Gadsby and Mike Birbiglia miraculously had a baby and it is Gregory Meander. Here is an example of the story breakdown. The outline itself is challenging as I am working with 18 + years of material at this point. I had started it as a memoir in El Salvador in 2007, wrote a libretto to a musical in 2021, and have three drafts of plays that seemingly have nothing to do with my personal life. I have taken three essay writing classes, a playwriting class, and now I find myself in a “solo show workshop.” Yet, still through all of this I have not published anything other than these silly little blogs. All this “process” was parallel to mental health and physical healing. The story itself - asking myself- what is the intersection of interesting, stragetic, compelling, and of course, funny? I want this dark material to be funny. I am not setting out to shock, or be a provacteur for no reason. I want you to laugh. I want you to release the tension. But, first, I have to learn to build it, create my world and invite you into it. Testing out a story last weekend at West Side Comedy Club was liberating. The standup’s goal is to feel as comfortable as I am in everyday life on the sidewalk and take that to the stage. The bridge from sidewalk funny to stage funny is a long one. I have been known to crush at Schmakery’s cookie shop and Sullivan Bakery in Hell’s Kitchen. Showing up in unexpected places and making people laugh has been a new goal of mine.

I ran 20 miles for the first time, began work on a solo show workshop, moved on from coaching after two years with Team New York Aquatics, and launched a new personal website for my professional work. Here’s what kept me inspired this month:

THEATER & COMEDY

Little Bear Ridge Road (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) was the most stirring play I’ve seen all year — crafting silence as language, grief as subtle shifts across a stage. I have seen it twice now in previews, and it is a riveting 80 minutes. Beetlejuice (⭐️⭐️⭐️) was a wild night out again, campy and dark in equal measure. It has returned to Broadway for the third time ending their national tour at the Palace Theater.

Comedy kept me grounded during this unstable time. I attended Mary Beth Barone & Friends (⭐️⭐️⭐️) — small room, big laughs, and a lot of new comics. I started my Solo Show Workshop at The Barrow Group, where I’m shaping The Dope (working title). It’s part stand-up, part archaeological excavation. I want people to laugh, but also to hold their breath a little, to feel that tremor between truth and and the relief of laughing. I was able to test out a story this past weekend at West Side. It was interesting to hold the audience for a bit longer looking for that longer pay off after spending 3 minutes setting up the punch. Another risk! It paid off…this time.

VISUAL ART

Two exhibitions stood out this month: Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective at MoMA (⭐️⭐️⭐️) and Divine Egypt at The Met (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️). Asawa’s wire sculptures feel like drawings of space in suspended in air, elegant systems made from nothing more than patience and vision. Egypt’s ancient belief systems that reminded me how devotion and design overlap.

NATURERunning became my moving motivation again — the Blue Line Run with Frontrunners New York, 20 miles of the NYC Marathon course was a highlight. I found myself returning to my breath, noticing how the neighborhoods shift block by block as I ran from Brooklyn through Queens into the Bronx and finished in Central Park. It’s a reminder that I can do hard things. I signed up for my first marathon this coming April in Jersey City.

WHAT ALREADY HAPPENED IN NOVEMBER• Prince F****t (⭐️⭐️) Closing December 13• Bat Boy: The Musical (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) Closing November 9th• More time writing The Dope and rehearsing

WHAT I’M EXCITED ABOUT IN NOVEMBER• Studio Museum in Harlem Reopening• New York Comedy Week :: Alex Edelman at Carnegie Hall• Chess • Mike Birbiglia and J. Hope Stein at Joe’s Pub • Macy’s Day Parade Balloon Preview Tradition

UPCOMING LIVE PERFORMANCESDecember 6, 2025 at Westside Comedy Club at 6 PM Get your tickets now! It is cheaper in advance - write Gregory Meander.

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What Happened Live in September?

This unseasonably warm September has me back running in Central Park as I train for a few up-coming half-marathons. Fall art season is back in full swing and I would have to say Man Ray at The Met is the stunner of the month and my only five star review is Biscayne Bay National Park. I am still painting everyday as a meditation. Some are silly paintings, but the act of painting is a deeply satisfying way to record my daily perspective. Rockwell Kent’s line came to me mid-stroke: We are simply instruments recording in different measure our particular portion of the infinite. I like this idea of being reminded of the infinite in our challenging times right now. I think as a reader you have picked up on my taste, or how I question or build my own taste. What do you do to define your taste? I was featured on a podcast this past month with the Director of my graduate program at California College of the Arts Justin Lokitz, Design Shift: Designed to Listen . Have a listen. I talked about taste and how it is the intersection of time and experimentation. We live in a culture when everything is immediate and experimentation is threatened. How might you carve out time for both as a radical act? Here is a few highlights of September and what is exciting me in October.

NATURE

Mid-month, I went scuba diving in Biscayne Bay, my thirty-second National Park (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)— it was the first time I dove shipwrecks and I loved it. I even found a rare sighting of a nudibranch. Diving to me is just like going to an art museum. Diving is about calming your breathe, close looking, and allowing the elements to hold you.

THEATER

I am back in the city and I ran to Broadway. I was back in a seat at the Wintergarden Theater featuring the National Tour of Mama Mia! with my dear friend Meg and her sisters (⭐️⭐️)—it was light, predictable, and familial. A very dangerous scene with boys in neoprene and fins has me questioning all their costume decisions. The crowds love it! I caught a preview of Punch (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️). Never have I experienced such a whiplash from Act 1 to Act 2. It feels like a punch. But, I almost would consider Act 1 - boring to a fault. I don’t say this lightly. Act 2 was a masterclass of acting with Victoria Clark playing a grieving mother (give her a Tony nom)! It was so stunning, so emotional, and a great night of theater.

I checked out a new comedy club in the Lower East called Caveat with - Skipped History Power Broker, Part 1 with Ben Tubin (⭐️⭐️)—rough edges, but ambition. Galas at Little Island (⭐️⭐️), a signal that summer was leaving us and fall performance had arrived.

The Fall Dance Festival at City Center (⭐️⭐️) featuring CLARA FUREY/BENT HOLLOW, Dog Rising, LIL BUCK & DAVÓNE TINES, RESURRECTION and HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO IMPASSE. Later, I saw Turandot at the Met. Liu was the stand out performance with her final aria. I have seen this opera now eight times and it always captures my imagination around what does it mean to sacrifice for the love of another? Justin Vivian Bond’s Flaming September (⭐️⭐️⭐️) was a reminder of what cabaret does best: collapse intimacy and performance into the same breath. Mystical, Mysterious, and Wonderous in a 19th century church in Brooklyn. The performance was a re-interpretation of Marianne Faithfull’s comeback performance in the 1990s was educational, inspirational, and iconic. My fifth set at West Side Comedy Club (⭐️⭐️⭐️) went well with an entirely new 5-minute set and it was exciting to have 15 more people in the audience supporting the dream. I have now had 150 people see me live at West Side Comedy Club. I try to go up around once a month and getting out to more open mics.

VISUAL ART

The Met preview of Man Ray:When Objects Dream (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) and Echoes & Evolutions: Nancy Holt on the Upper East Side (⭐️⭐️⭐️) played like call and response: surrealist interiors vs. land artist horizons. I was moved to see a gallery treat Nancy Holt’s masterwork, the Sun Tunnels, with such reverence, intentionality, and class. I have visited the Sun Tunnels twice in my life and I live with it on my Apple Watch Face. The piece constantly reminds me that our earth is in motion through space and this in fact grounds me in my daily life. I particularly love the viewfinders on 86th street looking across the street and into the sky.

Miami gave me sea life including a rare nudibranch sighting, but also slight disappointment with an underwhelming visit to the Perez Art Museum(⭐️). The museum, designed by Herzog de Mureon, is hard to get to museum while set along the Bay. I made the effort and I would say my highlight was a Mark Dion installation and a surprising exhibit by brothers Elliot & Erick Jiménez: El Monte. Other than that, the curation seemed to be jarring from gallery to gallery. Moving through the space, the museum seemed incomplete and hard to access.

What I am excited about in October : Erich Heckel at Neue Galerie Ruth Asawa at MOMA and The Met Opera And already preparing for: *** New York Comedy Week *** Studio Museum in Harlem Re-Opening

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I jumped off the Black and Gold ferry on Labor Day at 9:03 AM PST into the mouth of the San Francisco Bay. With the Pacific to my back while bobbing up and down in the crisp cold waters that I used to call home, I thought about the concept of August. Taylor Swift sang about not too long ago, poets have written about the late summer month frequently, and august means respected and impressive. I think I had an impressive month in San Francisco. I have spent the last four weeks taking care of my friend’s dog, Cactus, an operatic Blue Heeler. It also was exactly a year since I completed the 211-miles of the John Muir Trail. I returned to the trailhead in Yosemite, gazed over the valley at Olmstead Point, and swam in the clear waters of Tenaya Lake. These landscapes speak to me in ways words generally fail. There is a feeling in Yosemite that I get unlike anywhere else for me. I think it might a genuine sense of freedom. For me, these places of wildness is where my creativity is nurtured, roots take hold, and I am able to return to the urban spaces ready to produce.

In terms of the art experience in San Francisco, I re-visited my old haunts and read poetry at City Lights, walked the Mission murals, and saw my drag queens perform. The uniqueness (often overlooked) of San Francisco is that it is small, intimate, and it has that feeling that “you kind of have to know” to seek it out. San Francisco expects something of you unlike other cities in the world (and particularly US cities), the viewer, to be engaged. It is not the moveable feast of Paris, it expects you to bring a hot dish to the party. Nor is it the cacophony of New York City, San Francisco expects you listen. This is why so often, people get faked out by it’s stunning natural beauty and miss it’s real pervasive culture. I have often said, I really did leave my heart in San Francisco, but my brain and body are in New York. San Francisco forces you to feel, forces you like an unstoppable tide to ask yourself a question, and maybe you might just experience something new. Like many expectations of humans, we disappoint, and we move on. You don’t ever have to answer a question you don’t want yourself to answer. I won’t ever move on from San Francisco because the gift it gave me whether I wanted it or not. I look closer because of San Francisco. And for that vision, I am grateful. ART

Black Gold: Untold Stories at Fort Point ⭐️⭐️Hot Take: Context is everything. Unexpected, Dialogue, Thoughtful Now on view through Nov 2 at Fort Point and organized by FOR-SITE. Black Gold: Stories Untold invited 17 contemporary artists and collectives to “reflect on the resilience, struggles, and triumphs of African Americans who lived in California from the Gold Rush to the Reconstruction period following the Civil War (c. 1849–1877).” I was moved by one sculpture by Demetrie Broxton, Eyes That Have Seen the Ocean Will Not Tremble at the Sight of the Lagoon, 2025. His use of beadwork and scale captured my imagination. You could see the sculpture glimmering from rooms away, which felt like a European museum with a strong sightline to the end of the fort. The textile was refreshing against the dark red of the brick. Having been to Fort Point before, seeing new sculptures take up this abandoned military structure was powerful. Similar feelings to Christo and Jeane-Claude’s work of temporary installations in the landscape. Their intention was by placing work in a context for a temporary amount of time makes you see that existing landscape differently and for the viewer, it is changed forever. It seems to me, this work was working similarly but more additive. These art objects are adding, not subtracting. These stories are widening a once narrow reporting of California history.

Ruth Asawa at SFMOMA ⭐️⭐️⭐️Hot Take: Comprehesive. Materiality. Inheritance.

Ruth Asawa deserved this kind of show while she was still alive and the de Young tried to give it to her in 2006. Yet, her children have done an amazing job at raising her national and global profile since her death in 2013 ( I was honored to have assisted with her memorial service and loved passing underneath her sculptures every day at work). Though, I have been disappointed with SFMOMA since it’s reopening after the pandemic. It doesn’t seem like they have command over their space and this lack of understanding shows. They closed the Botta skylights and made the the special exhibit space darker, in what it seems to be an effort to control the shadows made by the sculptures. But, by doing this - they suffocate the room and the feeling is unnatural. Instead of the general lightness and organic tendencies Asawa was working for, the sculptures weight the viewer down.

My favorite part of the installation was a re-creation of her home in Noe Valley with wood paneled ceilings of the 1970s and her working with her family. Ruth, at her core, was a teacher. And teachers don’t just teach the children they are assigned. They teach their children, their neighbors, their politicians, their businesses, and us. Ruth teaches us through her sculptures about movement, light, patience, and material. I walk through each gallery and it is so clear to be that I am being taught not only a new way to see, but a new way of making. To make, to do, and to be different in those spaces. I look forward to this exhibit in New York and to see how New Yorkers (and the world) responds to this unique San Francisco teacher.Kunié Sugiura at SFMOMA ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hot Take: New artist for me (and she is 81!). Stunning scale. Specificity. Color! I went to SFMOMA for Ruth Asawa and I stayed for Kunié Sugiura. Wow, what a delightful surprise of canvases. From the beginning of the exhibit, I was captivated by what she was able to achieve with a camera and canvas through her “photopaintings.”She made me miss New York with three canvases, Central Park, Deadend, and Ferryboat. I love the canvases of color and closeness she was able to achieve. Her work invites you into the color and I felt like I was swimming in the trees, or lying down on the sand. The work is tactile and I could feel it. I do hope she gets some new exhibits here in New York (she was exhibited at MoMA in her 30s), I feel like she is still underrepresented in the canon, especially in the shadow of Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol.

What I am excited about in September : Nancy Holt :: Echoes & Evolutions: Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels at Sprüth MagersMan Ran: When Objects Dream at The Met Galas at Little Island and The Met Opera Returns (Turandot and others!) Mark Dion at the Perez Art Museum (Miami)

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It is the height of summer and some of my favorite things in the city are not necessarily arts related. I have seen most of the summer blockbuster art exhibits, so I have dug down to find some other more off the beaten path. I have been drawn to my desire to be outdoors as much as possible, my runs and yoga have taken be through Central Park, up the Hudson, the beaches of Fire Island and the forest of Purchase College. My favorite piece of art this month (on-going through September) was Morgan Bassichis’ Can I be Frank? at Soho Playhouse. As someone dabbling into the comedic world, I connected directly with Morgan’s whipsmart point of view. There was an certain obsessiveness about his 70-minutes on stage that I gravitated towards. Funnily enough, I often agreed with his take down of gay culture and also celebration of an artist gone too soon. I quickly realized why most of his audience was women. Gay men often don’t like a mirror shone to their lives (and who does for that matter)? I have a similar vision of a 60-minute show taking you through my childhood surrounded in silence, an early loss of innocence involving a handmade bunny rabbit, the process of creating a custom Phantom of the Opera cape, and the subversive not-so-often spoken of patriarchal power structure of American suburbia. From my own experience of open mics and going up on stage, it seems to be a long journey to get there. It feels good to get started. It is something that I think about everyday mixed in with my full-time hustle in design and tech. It has been a fruitful two years uninsured, piecing together rent, and fighting for my New York life. The dream is still alive. Sometimes it is is hard to focus with everything that is going on the world particularly with uncertainty around finances. But, I have found when I am in these spaces of art, it helps me locate something inside myself that is restorative. I wish you all have that restorative practice in the heat of the summer. Sweat it out. Seek it out. Find something that gives to your body and say yes. That might just be enough right now. ART

In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️The Drawing Center Hot Take: Sensual, vibrant, exciting, gayI am so glad I was able to go see this visionary artist’s work. Friends with Georgia O’Keeffe and James Baldwin, Mr. Delaney was a bright spot in his time, but never fully appreciated as it is often with the best of us. His work lept off the paper. I was so motivated by Beauford’s work that I went down the street and bought a gouache kit of my own. Amy Sherald: American Sublime ⭐️⭐️⭐️The Whitney through Aug 10 Hot Take: Textile, textile, textile, & paint on linen!I had no idea painting on linen was so perfect. Her paint on linen was sublime as promised. Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers ⭐️⭐️⭐️Guggenheim through January 18, 2026 Hot Take: Challenging, Interesting, Facing my whiteness I think I need deeper about how to write on this exhibit. I felt implicated. It is on view for a long time, so see it if you are in New York.

Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College ⭐️⭐️Hot Take: surprising, gentle, interestingI was able to visit my friend Christoph who lives with his partner Shaka on the campus of Purchase College this month. I was pleasantly surprised by their art museum (designed by the fraught Phillip Johnson). I tend to love university collections. With their smaller collections, they usually hold great examples of work. You can sit with the prime examples typically overlooked at larger art museums. Purchase has Edward Hopper’s largest canvas, a portrayl of a barber shop, which ironically is not that impressive. He seems to have met his match with scale. I love his more intimate canvases. I was impressed by three installations Proscenium, Liminal In Nature, and Molten Metals beyond their permanent collection that included a great sculpture in neon, a Stephen de Staebler, and Harry Bertoia, much to my delight.

Carrington House on Fire Island ⭐️⭐

Fire Island and Dance: The FortiesHot Take: historic, commercial, and art was overpowered by spaceI have been to Fire Island twice before this visit and I still had not made it to the Carrington House. This house is steeped in art history as the house where Truman Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffanys,” Georgia O’Keeffe stayed, among a litany of other great American artists. Both of my visits to the island before had been brief with less of a focus on my deep desire to walk in the shadows of my favorite artists. I finally was able to go and have my brief seance in the attic (pictured above) where I know Georgia sat and I am sure Truman stumbled up drunk one night. Who I am kidding, he was probably drunk the entire time he wrote “Breakfast” like I think Jack Kerouac was when he wrote Big Sur. I live in these artist dreams and I like to go to the places where I think some of those dreams came true. There was a small exhibit of George Daniell’s photographs, but the space overpowered the the black and white photographs, somewhat hung without care. The house spoke for itself.

Queer in Nature at The Arsenal Building, Central Park ⭐️⭐Through August 20th Hot Take: small, hard to get to, interesting setting, and fresh workThe Parks Department hosts art exhibits in their administration building in Central Park. You have to check in with security, get a name tag, and the gallery is located on the third floor. But, I think more administration buildings should host public art exhibits. It seems like it was a great opportunity for younger, less established artists the space to showcase work and they even had a price sheet. I liked some of the references to queerness in nature, some direct and other a bit more abstract. I feel nature is queer inherently because nature will always find a more resilient way to heal and grow. Queer people are constantly fighting to heal against a human society where we are unwanted, undesired, and lack any form of protection from the systems that we expect to create a safety net. In nature, there is nothing wrong with us and we adapt accordingly. And I learned that humpback whales can be gay and that made my day. Walter de Maria ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THEATERJoy: A New True Musical ⭐️Hot Take: confusing, long, silly, unfinished, at times funny I often see things that take me off guard for the wrong reasons. I wonder to myself: Does this story need to exist in this format? It has nothing to do with the cast or creatives, but it does have to do with the capital that produces such pieces of theater and get all the way to full productions Off Broadway or On. I would say I would put Joy in the same vein as this season’s Boop the Musical (another one with an incredible leading lady Jasmine Amy Rogers). These stories are seemingly marketed as arcs of empowered women. But, they aren’t fully actualized characters and lacking the agency I am looking from any empowered person in 2025. I don’t think these stories need to exist in the stage format. The best part of this show is Betsy Wolfe and she is a vision. She is shoe horning this material to work for her instrument and still getting the laughs (and heard some back channeling that she was basically directing it, too). It showed. Unfortunately, they have a few repetitive songs, nothing too catchy, and a lead that never really gets to her “I want” song. I never thought that we needed a new, true musical about a mop and I was right. This was not the story of the entrepreneur or innovator, it was more a story of a white woman who wasn’t supported by any one in their life. Though this is a common story, I don’t think a musical is the best format for it be in the world. I don’t foresee this making a Broadway transfer, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it did somehow. Can I be Frank? Morgan Bassichis at Soho Playhouse ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️July 24 - Sept 13, 2025Get Ticket HereHot Take: weird, smart, gay, funny, emotional I often talk about talk about living in the shadows of my queer heroes. I think of teh art not made. The shows not seen. The dances not danced. The men that died too soon from AIDS. An entire generation of laughs, tears, and forward momentum. I grieve this often in my walks. I feel implicated to create and take up the torch of my gay brothers and creative ancestors. I recently saw the first preview Can I be Frank? by Morgan Bassichis at the Soho Playhouse. The comedic stand-up/performance hybrid is being directed by Sam Pinkleton, fresh off his Tony win for “Oh Mary!” I even greeted Sam afterwards and I just said “thank you” and I fan boyed out as I walked out onto the Avenue of the Americas. It has been a while since I had seen a real piece of performance art. Can I even say that? In ways, stand up comedy is a performance art and who even writes these definitions. I have found art historians lack real humanity when they attempt to define art, hence why most artists resist being labeled when they are alive. And why even try? We name in order to understand. Sometimes, we need to sit with the art before we name it. I think that is an aspect of what Morgan is mining in his new show as he enters into his queer fantasia of performing artist and comedian Frank Maya (source material on YouTube from 1989 :: I was three). Frank was the first openly gay comedian on network television. And his life was cut short. Morgan inhabits his shadow. It is smart, it is funny, and I cried a lot. I cried because Morgan brought Frank back to life even for some mere moments. You could feel it in the room. And if that isn’t a miracle, I am quite sure what is. We all would like to understand at a deeper level what this human experience is at its fullest. I think Frank understood what it means to live to the fullest as a queer person in a world that kept saying no to him. But, what happens if we say yes. Morgan is saying yes to life, yes to Frank, and yes to his audience. Go. Say yes and I would love to hear what comes up for you.

What I am excited about in August: - I am in San Francisco for the month of August, so I am looking forward to previewing Ruth Asawa at SFMOMA before it heads to New York’s MOMA in October. - Walks on Ocean Beach, runs in Golden Park, climbing in the Pinnacles, and taking my friend’s blue heeler Cactus to the Redwoods. - My queen, my muse, my queer icon in Fauxnique. So Relevant. at Oasis, August 13 *SOLD OUT*- I celebrate my 18th Gay Birthday on August 29. It has been 18 years since I came out of the closet in El Salvador. - Reconnecting with my San Francisco community. If you are in San Francisco and want to connect, reach out!

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It was PRIDE month all month (they really do it big in New York), but I think it really comes down to that final weekend that commemorates when young people got fed up with the policing at Stonewall Inn and they finally fought back. Pride has and always will be a protest for freedom. And as our country tries our best in corners everywhere to have deeper conversations keeping democracy alive. I stand with you, the quiet ones, who don’t feel represented or have the words, or can even articulate what your opinion might be. For much of my life as an athlete, I felt like I could not be openly gay, or even explore how I wanted to show up in relationships. I spent my Pride moving my body in protest. Queer bodies rarely are supported to make healthy choices for longevity. I swam in the Atlantic Ocean at Brighton Beach and the Hudson River Pride Swim (6/14) for my younger self who dreamt of being able to swim in wide open bodies of water while trapped in the middle of the country. I ran for my present self in the Pride Run in Central Park with 11,000 other runners and raised $1,200 for Lambda Legal. And I marched for future generations in the streets of New York surrounded by 2 million other people supporting the queer communities across the world. This protest has always been about freedom and respect. It seems to still be the case. I will always fight for freedom and respect. In the midst of all of the trials, the stressors of daily life, and things that go beyond our control, I find comedic writing and art to be the salve I most desire. Here is a breakdown of what I saw in June.

COMEDYI went up again at Westside Comedy Club for the fourth time. It is still a lot of fun and I am going to more open mics, which is helping me get more comfortable with a stage, a light, and a mic. From the video, I had a bit lower energy. I successfully improved a bit on a conversation I had with my mom about water sports (look it up) and it landed. Before I went on stage, I saw a couple that had not laughed the entire night. I told myself that it was my mission of the five minutes to try to make them laugh and it was my conversation with my 75-year old mother on gay kinks that did the trick. You never know what might make someone break. I intend to keep discovering all the ways. Thank you to everyone who came out from the swim team and otherwise to support. Have you seen Mike Birbiglia’s The Good Life on Netflix. Check it out. I was in the audience for filming at the Beacon Theater!

ART This month, I spent quite a few return visits to some shows that are up for the summer. I have found myself popping back into MoMa quite often. On a recent visit, I walked into a gallery so well-curated that I loved every piece. I rarely have that experience and it was all artists I had never heard of, which was even a better surprise. I was immediately drawn to this golden chair and top hat. I came to find out it was an homage to one of my favorite painters, Eduoard Manet. The gallery features artworks borrowed from the museum in Zagreb alongside MoMA’s holdings highlighting the work of the artist group Gorgona, active from 1959 to 1966 in Croatia. It took me down another art history rabbit hole. Thank you Gallery 406.

Revisiting Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers at MoMA ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️This exhibit at MoMA has captured my imagination. I have now visited it three times and keep looking closely at her sensitive brushwork. I have been trying to replicate her color and variations. I think I am enamored so much because I am water coloring every day.

THEATER Bowl EP at Vineyard Theater ⭐️⭐️⭐️This off-broadway play written by NAZARETH HASSAN transported me to a space I never have physically been before - a skate park. As the audience sits around the “bowl,” two queer black characters spend 90 minutes flirting. It was so much more and the audience comes face to face with their own demons. It was a powerful, smart, and almost poetic dialogue. Not quite spoken word, but the demon’s rant reminded me something out of Waiting for Godot (which funnily enough is coming back in a revival with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter this fall). This was my second play co-presented from the National Black Theater and it is always a treat. I will follow them from now on. Call me Izzy at Studio 54⭐️⭐️⭐️I have known Jean Smart since I was a little boy watching Designing Women. Us little gay boys seem to gravitate to cast full of empowered Southern women. Now, Smart is riding her Emmy-winning star with HBO’s Hacks with a stint on Broadway. This character was written for her by Jamie Wax. And it was a pure joy to see her on stage. She seamlessly plays multiple characters in this 90 minute one woman show. Though at times, it was hard for me to believe that this woman stayed in this abusive relationship for so long, but then again, what do I know about marriage? Smart certainly captures your imagination as a viewer and you are rooting for her the entire time. Though quite sad, there was something to be said for about writing against all the odds, even when you don’t have a paper or pen. There is still toilet paper and eye makeup to write. What length would you go to keep doing what you love to do? Survival has a way of pushing humans to the brink, and then further. Hello Dolly in Concert at Carnegie Hall ⭐️⭐️It is always a treat to hear a bunch of Broadway stars come together to raise money for new art. This concert raised money for Transport Theater Group. The biggest surprise was Jennifer Simard taking the house down with her rendition of the main song. She filled in for Beth Leavel with less than 12 hours notice. The show must go on!

Coming down the pipeline in July for me includes Can I Be Frank? by Morgan Bassichis, Joy: A New True Musical, and a smattering of visual art. The summer in the city seems slow. What is going on other places that I find interesting: Rachel Zegler stars as Eva Péron in an Evita revival in London? And LACMA opens a new art museum with no art?

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I am a few days late after May (June is now bustin’ out all over), but it was a nice balanced month of the final operas of the season and rounding out Tony nominated shows. I was able to take in some of the summer blockbuster exhibitions for the first time and I am expecting a few repeat visits. I was pleasantly surprised with Superfine, the new fashion show at The Met. The curatorial thesis is one of the strongest I have experienced in quite a long time. And it is always a joy to view any work of Hilma af Klint. I also saw the new Frick, which is pleasant as ever. We will see which exhibits rise to the top during the summer months. OPERA Salome at The Met Opera ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️A fever dream of lust and power. The staging leaned Victorian maximalist with black silks, the best projections I have ever seen, and a chilling stage shift into a prison cell. It was a haunting night at the opera. Antony and Cleopatra at The Met ⭐️⭐️I have trouble with any opera sung in English. It was great to see John Adams conduct his own work. The staging and costumes were grand and golden. It was was two messy Shakespearean characters unfolding on stage. The chemistry simmered between the two leads, never boiled. The visual opulence (those robes!) did most of the heavy lifting.ART Superfine at The Met Museum ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Subversive, stylish, and smart. Go and see it if you are in New York this summer. Another separate essay is brooding that highlights three historical objects with three contemporary fashion items. I was able to greet Monica L Miller at the grand staircase the day I saw the exhibit in Preview. I recognized her from her YouTube vids speaking to the exhibition. I thanked her for her scholarship and stewarding the exhibit. It is always fun to thank the people behind the exhibits that we enjoy. The conversations in the galleries are apparent, clear, and nuanced. It is quite a feat for any art exhibition, particularly for a fashion show. The exhibit is by far my favorite of the fashion exhibits The Met has done in recent memory.

The Met Museum’s New Wing Preview⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Clean lines, big promises for the new Africa, Americas, and Oceania wing at The Met. The future of the museum is being drafted — and this feels like the blueprint for a new institutional voice. The new stories and contextualization of the objects are fresh. I am curious to see how rotations will help keep this wing in dialogue with the rest of the institution. It was quite a hole for five years and I am very happy it is back in such a beautiful and approachable way.

Salman Toor WishMaker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️My favorite contemporary painter, Salman Toor.

Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers at MoMA ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️A revelation as always. Spiritual abstraction rendered with botanical precision. This exhibit at MoMA felt like standing at the opening a new portal to nature. One of the best shows of the year.

THEATER Bus Stop at Classic Stage Company ⭐️⭐️⭐️I love William Inge’s writing. Simple, direct, and Midwestern. I started reading his work while I lived in Kansas. My landlord actually told me what I consider a myth, that William had actually stayed in the carriage house that I was renting in Lawrence for some time, so I now think I have some mythical connection to William through my queerness in Kansas. I know it is a stretch, but I did start writing in the carriage house during the pandemic, so stranger things could occur. Gentle and claustrophobic at once. Strong ensemble work by an entirely Asian -American cast. I have never seen a production of Bus Stop, so I don’t necessarily know if the re-casting hit harder than an all white cast per se. The performances were precise and each actor embodied Inge’s thoughtful characters. I was so glad to see a staging of his work and seemed as timely as it was when it was first written over 50 years ago.

John Proctor is the Villain ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Sharp and timely. Think The Crucible meets Gen Z. High school desks, cancel culture, and an ending that hits harder than you expect. What was your favorite song from high school?

Here is to June. Coming down the pipeline for me includes Bowl EP, going up again this Saturday at Westside Comedy Club, swimming the Hudson River, and PRIDE. Seems like Pride might be more important than ever.

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