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

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