Last Weekend in April: Two Chances to Catch Me — If You Can Run Fast Enough!

If I look crazy in the photos above it’s because I must be! I booked two very involved and very different events back to back in two geographical locations that are both far from my house and far from each other! And I’m not the svelte and perky maniac I used to be! But I think you’ll understand why I had to do ’em both and I especially hope you can attend them! Here’s what’s coming up:

Saturday, April 27, 8pm: Surf Vaudeville

I have all sorts of reasons to be excited about hosting this upcoming show. The first is that, unthinkably, I have not stepped foot inside Coney Island USA in five years! My knees will probably buckle when I walk in. I’ve missed it of course, and have watched it online the whole time, but distance, a pandemic, and other factors (such as a lack of having been INVITED to speak or perform there since 2021) combined to keep me 30 miles away. (30 miles away. God, New York is a big city!)

Anyway, the other reason I’m excited is that I am getting to collaborate again, after a gap of a couple of decades, with Radio Free Brooklyn’sRobert Prichard, the mighty motive force behind Surf Reality, that much missed incubator of alternative comedy and populist performance art on the Lower East Side. Does Coney Island USA know that one of their staff just happens to have been a downtown impresario whose club was a mecca for New York’s hippest comics from the 1990s and into the new century? If they don’t, they’ll soon get a schooling! Besides meself, others on the bill of our monster variety show will also include major league Art Stars like Faceboy, who ran the white hot open mic there; Rev Jen, whose own Anti-Slam was at Collective Unconscious, but who starred at Surf about as often, and Michele Carlo, a.k.a. Carmen Mofongo! Back in the day, I also saw Matt Mitler of Dzieci perform at Surf, though he truly belongs to the entire cosmos.

But that ain’t the half of it. For this grand extravaganza also contains a bunch of other Coney Island/circus/sideshow royalty. There’s the great author/ lecturer/ sword swallower The Lady Aye! Big Apple Circus vet Glen Heroy, founder of the new Coney Island Clown School! The reigning Miss Coney IslandAurora North, along with her circus act The Brides! And Coney Island USA’s Chief Bottle Washer Adam RealMan!

Plus contests and free prizes! For real! All for a $25 ticket! Come early or stay late because there’s also the Freak Bar, the boardwalk, the beach, Luna Park, and the many other watering holes on Surf Avenue.

More info and tickets here!

And for some related reading with my memories about Surf Reality Back in the day, see these posts:

Memories of Surf Reality (scroll down ’til you come to the Surf Reality logo)

My 2003 Village Voice article about the closing of Surf

On Trav S.D.’s American Vaudeville Theatre

Sunday, April 28, 3pm: Remembering the 1964 New York World’s Fair

From all the way in South Brooklyn…to Flushing, close to the Northernmost reaches of Queens! Of course, I am just a hair too young to have attended the 1964 New York Worlds Fair, though technically I could have attended in my mom’s womb during the fair’s last months. (As it happens, my older brother did attend). Anyway, the origin of this talk was my 2019 presentation at the Queens Theatre about the 1939 Worlds Fair, which was a big hit. (For newbies, the Queens Theatre is located in Flushing Meadows Park, the very site of the fair). Anyway, a logical outcome of that last talk was that many folks expressed memories of the more recent fair…and here we are at the 60th anniversary of that one. This is the sound of the other shoe dropping, then!

This talk will have the benefit of input from…everybody. Unusual for one of my historical presentations, people are actually alive who witnessed the event. So following my own show and tell slide show with actual photos from the fair (which will include memories of folks who’ve shared them with me), I will also have brief interviews with three folks who were in attendance: David Adamovich, also known as The Great Throwdini, who worked the fair as an acrobat, plus old school entertainer Michael Townsend Wright, and the great teacher and clown Deborah Kaufman. We round out the event with an open floor, where you, too, can share your World’s Fair memories! And, check it out, it’s the first talk I’ve ever given that will have a ASL sign interpreter!

Furthermore it’s a kick off for a TERRIFIC series the Queens Theatre has planned. Tix are $17 and all the info is here.