My Birthday was this week, and I did what I like to do most on my b. day, perform. I have a long list of birthday shows including The Bach Dynamite and Dancing Society in HMB, Ashkenaz in Berkeley, and this year at a House Concert in the Oakland Hills. Birthday crowds are special, they are cheering for you, and this year I did what I saw Uncle Dennis do on his 65th (or was it 60th) and went around the room giving everyone a reverse roast. Instead of us roasting him, he roasted us. “Josh, your too young to be heard” is what he told me. When I was 27 I tried such a thing, in the Berkeley hills, roasting all my attendees like Nana, seated next to Glynn Washington. I was trying his reverse roast out again this year and I brought it back to much acclaim. The house concert Friday featured a poet reading Hafiz, A Ude player named Om, and a full band featuring a singer from Mali, called Orchestra Gold. It was truly an eclectic evening, and the host and organizer of the event ADAM, put me on dead last to close out the entire ceremony with my reverse roast. I had my doubts that people would stay after a full band, but at some point, I had to put my faith in the organizer that he knew what was best. Before I went on, dear friend Eli Zaturanski brought me to the kitchen, where he placed a red thread on my left wrist to celebrate the occasion, asking me to envision the next year. He also gave me Rosie-colored spectacles, a necklace, and a balloon to carry. The gifts in the kitchen from my former Moishe House roommate, made me feel light and even high off the love. I wasn’t nervous, because there was no material to recite. I was just going to get up there and celebrate the moment with whatever came to mind. I am realizing more as I get out there more to perform (7-8 times this year) improv is one of my specialties. In creating a performance that is unique to the moment, it will only happen once. There is no duplication. And listening to this tape of the performance you may find yourself saying, ‘You really had to be there’. I still record everything I do for my own documentation and occasionally share it with this list. Someone asked me what I wanted to do next year, and I said, I wanted to perform in front of 10 times the people that were in the living room and have it professionally filmed as a document to be digitally streamed. I would like to have an example of what I can do, so far at this point in my artistic development.
This email thread is helping build those chunks to be developed as performance and writing, thank you for supporting this journey along the way. Thank you to those who have supported me thus far.
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