when we heard about the Occupy Broadway 24-hour event, in which the protestors take up residency on NYC's Great White Way, we couldn't help but roll our eyes a little. And then this NSFW clip of Mike Daisey, the nationally renown monologuist with roots in Seattle, surfaced. more ›

The famed monologuist, formerly of Seattle, Mike Daisey has written an Opinion piece which places the recent death of Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs in a new light, at once respectful and forthright. It makes for a fascinating read. more ›

And so it seems that Seattle's Theater scene is once again on the verge of finally realizing its full potential -- nearly an ongoing state really. It's just a couple of ingredients shy from being there; José Amador discusses what those ingredients are, and what Seattle's artists could do to further the cause. more ›

Perhaps you thought last week’s roster couldn’t be topped in terms of breadth; we wouldn’t blame you really, but a quick glance at what’s on offer this week will put that notion to rest. There’s not just one, but two experimental pieces making their way into the world; two Seattle premieres, one world premiere of a local work, the latest offerings from a couple of the bigger houses AND an enormous undertaking happening down in Portland. Once again, our region’s ambitious nature shows its true colors, and it’s all enticing enough to take a gamble on. more ›

Looking for some lunchtime reading? Jose has the weeks arts news, including shake-ups and shut-downs within some of the areas most influential art-makers. more ›

On the surface, Agony is simply another entertaining entry in Daisey's series of monologues that follow a personalized formula for success. Underneath, you will find the work of a developing globally conscious thinker. more ›

The last time Mike Daisey performed How Theater Failed America in Seattle, it seemed to arrive just in time to address the then recent near collapse of the ACT...Such uncanny timing is part and parcel with Daisey's resume and increasing stature on the national theater scene, as evidenced by the emergence of The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at a time when the horrible work conditions and corporate practices in China are coming to light. more ›

Holy Week is usually a little slow in the theatrical world and this year's is no exception. Very few openings, some continuations and even an extension. We take a look around Seattle for theatrical gifts. more ›

RECOMMENDED For these Unclosings @ New City Theatre. Local visual artist phenom Susie J. Lee has taken her studious exploration of the transience of memory out of the art gallery in this collaboration with dancer/choreographer Ying Zhou. Utilizing some impressive technology, Lee has put together a dramatic live performance/art installation/dance piece that builds on her already impressive catalog of achievements. (1404 18th Ave. Fri. & Sat., 8 p.m. Tix $15.) more ›

Writer, monologist, and playwright Mike Daisey, recently profiled by Seattlest, is returning to town next month with a new monologue called . more ›

Husband and wife theater team Mike Daisey (the monologist) and Jean-Michele Gregory (the director) met and began collaborating together in Seattle before moving to New York eight years ago. We spent an afternoon in their ground floor Brooklyn apartment, talking about the move, about how starting out in Seattle helped their careers, and what they miss about our town. more ›

Tonight, 's theatre critic Brendan Kiley is hosting a forum/shouting match at Seattle Rep at 7:30 (155 Mercer Street at Seattle Center; we confirmed it's for free; there'll be someone at the door to direct you) in response to the debate generated by his Oct. 7 article, "Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves." Read it here; some of his points are good, some predictable, some are already being done, and still others seem silly. The point is, Kiley touched a nerve: the theatre, particularly here in Seattle, is struggling with its identity, afraid for the future, and confused in its business-model. We work in books in our day job, and the same uncertainty about the future we hear from book publishers we hear from the theatre artists. So we've decided to throw in our own two-cents worth for your consideration before tonight's talk. We'll be there in the audience. Hopefully we'll hear something interesting. more ›

The Moon is a Dead World is at the Annex Theatre Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through November 15th, but this weekend is Pay What You Can and a great chance to catch it. more ›

Monologist Mike Daisey blasted off from Seattle about a decade ago, but like one of its stealthy mushrooms, the Pacific Northwest keeps popping back up in his life. He was at Town Hall with Reggie Watts a few weeks ago, and then opened Portland's TBA Festival with Monopoly and closed it with If You See Something, Say Something (which has not been presented in Seattle yet and that, fellow Americans, is a minor crime). Daisey has a repertoire of fourteen monologue (so far), including the recent How Theater Failed America, the epic Great Men of Genius, the caustic Monopoly, and the dotcom-ical 21 Dog Years, but on Friday, October 17, Annex Theatre will give the world premiere of his first play, The Moon Is A Dead World. He calls it a "dark fantasia about the Soviet space program." We got him on the line a while back, asked him very short questions, and then got out of the way. more ›

Looking past Bumbershoot for a second, we want to alert you to an evening we've been waiting for with bated breath--to our doctor's surprise and chagrin. So what if we're taking days off our life? If laughter is the best medicine, we might as well put ourselves in a condition to need it. more ›

Jeremy: You know, I find it kind of funny: for a show about how theater screwed up, there was very little discussion of how theater is relevant. Mike Daisey seemed to concentrate exclusively on one aspect of the U.S. theater industry--the big regional theaters, like Seattle Rep or the Oregon Shakespeare Festival--and blamed them for their strange business choices. Not that he doesn't have a point, but it seems to dodge (or presuppose) the question: what does theater do that's so important? I have my own thoughts on the matter, but really, Daisey seemed to take it as a given. more ›

We're sure we don't need to say this, but you can't miss your caucus. This is the first year in our whole time in the Pacific Northwest where it matters what Washington voters think. If you're still wondering where to go, here are two Dem or GOP caucus locators. Caucusing starts at 1pm. We understand that if you know who you support and you don't want to spend an hour or two talking about it, you can get in and out in about half an hour. more ›

at the Capitol Hill Arts Center. Daisey takes aim at the theater for its manifold failures: its pretentions, its disconnect from the world around it, its self-satisfaction. (Check out a five-minute sample over at the Slog.) more ›

Reliable sources tell us that if you ask Mike Daisey what he does for a living, he replies that he's "a monologist." more ›

Monologuist and fascinating human being Mike Daisey arrives in town next week for a Jan 18 - Feb 3 run of his show Monopoly! at CHAC, followed by a shorter try-out of his newest piece, How Theater Failed America. We got Daisey on the horn the other day and took a walk down memory lane with him, a la Dick Cavett, to soften him up before surprising him with hard-hitting questions about how many pictures he posts on his blog. Then we hung up and bought a ticket to the show. more ›

The Hugo House Literary Series kicks off Friday night with "Lost in Translation," and the program features Seattlest-favorite and monologist Mike Daisey, novelist Randall Keenan and historian Lesley Hazleton. more ›

It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by poop. Finally D.C. contemplated taking Vermont's place as a state and marveled at the GOP lessons learned from the "Macaca Moment." more ›

If you are a fan, you likely have already heard, but a bunch of "Christian" audience members at one of Mike Daisey's Invincible Summer shows in Cambridge last week not only got up mid-show and walked out, but the apparent ring-leader destroyed Daisey's original monologue outline by pouring water on it. None of the group would talk with him as they walked out. The video on YouTube is, to steal Daisey's words, "incredibly chilling and dorky at the same time." more ›

It was a one-night-only monologue, Mike Daisey's Stories from the Atlantic Night Cafe, and CHAC artistic director Matthew Kwatinetz was happily rearranging chairs for a packed house. Backstage, the program informed us, Daisey was taking an hour to scribble away on a yellow legal pad the outline for what would be a brand-new 90-minute-ish monologue, his delivery punctuated only by pauses as he sipped from a glass of water or glared at remembered insults and injuries. more ›

SUPER BLOW: A bunch of big guys grabbing each other while wearing skin-tight clothes, with ass-slapping and Prince songs. No, it's not Comeback, its the goddamn SuperBowl. Sorry editor Dan, but we're rooting for the Colts. more ›

Barack Obama has hope, but Mike Daisey has the audacity to sit down just one hour prior to his one-man show, Stories from an Atlantic Night Café, and write an outline that will be his only guide when he steps on stage. Seattlest chatted with Daisey via e-mail as he made the cross-country trek from his home in Brooklyn to Seattle prior to his performance at CHAC on Sunday night. more ›

LOCAL AUTHOR, LOCAL AUTHOR: Clear Cut Press presents two of its novelists: Matt Briggs' Shoot The Buffalo is about a boy growing up in Snoqualmie during the '70s. Stacey Levine's Frances Johnson, set in a small town in Florida, details the random choices made by the eponymous Ms. Johnson. more ›

This item on Amazon.com:
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All music all the time wears us out, so we decided to hopscotch around Bumbershoot this year and take advantage of the talks, arts performances, and art exhibits. more ›