Performance Space 122 Presents: THE TALKING SHOW THE MAGICAL RIDICULOUS JOURNEY OF ALIEN COMIC. World premiere: February 18 - March 7 Written and performed by Tom Murrin Directed by Lucy Sexton
A pioneer of performance art, Tom Murrin (aka Alien Comic) takes us on a talking tour of his life---and of his travels through avant garde theatre in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s. He was a teenage magician, a Jesuit schoolboy, a Los Angeles trial lawyer, a La Mama playwright in the 60s, a traveling street performer peddling his wares from Seattle to Calcutta, and finally a leader in the performance scene that sprang up in the East Village in the 1980s. He tells wildly entertaining stories of his youth in Los Angeles, where he wore Frank Sinatra's suit and asked Jane Russell to perform at a pep rally.
Murrin also takes the audience on a ride through the American avant garde from the 60s thru the 80s: He wrote plays alongside the likes of
Sam Shepard at
Ellen Stewart's first La Mama, performed with the original Playhouse of the Ridiculous, got busted in Brussels where the police carried the 16 foot phallus from his play "Cockstrong" through the city, and wound up performing on the streets of Soho with Stuart Sherman. Tom Murrin has been there from the beginning and lived to tell the tale. Speaking with wild-eyed excitement, Murrin hits you with history, hilarity, and his extraordinary generosity of spirit and innocence. It must be seen and heard to be believed.
TOM MURRIN was a member of the first generation of La Mama playwrights. He had four plays produced at La Mama in the late ‘60's: "Hung", "Roommates", "Cock-Strong" and "Son of Cock-Strong". The latter two were performed by
The Playhouse of the Ridiculous, directed by
John Vaccaro. "Cock-Strong" toured Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam in 1970. Under the guidance of famed rock manager
Jane Friedman, Tom began performing as Alien Comic in the early ‘80's, opening for acclaimed punk bands in rock clubs such as C.B.G.B.'s Max's Kansas City, The Pyramid, 8 B.C. and King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut. Throughout the ‘80's and ‘90's Murrin continued to perform at various downtown venues, such as Performance Space 122, Dixon Place, and the Club at La Mama. He has written several plays under the name Jack Bump: "Sportfuckers" was produced at Theater for the New City, and "Dick Play" and "Who'll Carve the Turkey, or Butt Crack Bingo" were produced at LaMama, all directed by
David Soul (aka
David Levine).
Lucy Sexton directed the Obie Award winning
Spalding Gray; Stories Left to Tell at Performance Space 122 and at the Minetta Lane Theater. With Anne Iobst, she co-created the award-winning dance-performance group DANCENOISE, which performed extensively in New York (Pyramid Club, LaMama, Performance Space 122, Lincoln Center), in the UK (The Green Room, Duckie, Glasgow's Mayfest, national tour with Queer Up North) and around the world (Israel, Mexico, France, Germany, Japan). Sexton also produced
Charles Atlas' documentary The Legend of Leigh Bowery for the BBC and Arte, and is currently producing a new documentary by
Charles Atlas on Antony and
The Johnsons. As a performer she has appeared in the work of Alien Comic,
Charles Atlas,
David Gordon,
Jo Andres, Mimi Goese, Heidi Dorow,
Steve Buscemi and Mark Boone Jr, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Richard Move, Sarah Schulman, and Alain Buffard among others.
Performance Space 122 is New York's ultimate destination for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and multi-media. PS122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists who explore innovative form and provocative content and who rigorously challenge the boundaries of contemporary performance; PS122 is committed to a steadfast search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures, nations and beliefs.
www.ps122.org
The Talking Show premieres Thursday, February 18th and runs through Sunday, March 7th: Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm; and Sunday at 5:30pm.
Thursday Night Social: February 18 (a free post-show party for all ticket-holders)
Tickets: $20 and $15 (students/seniors).
Tickets and PS122 Passports are now on sale and available online at www.ps122.org, by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101, and at the Performance Space 122 Box Office.
Note: The PS122 Passport is a bundle of 5 tickets for only $55 that can be used in ANY combination to onsite Spring 2010 season performances. Performance Space 122 is located at 150 First Avenue @ E. 9th Street, New York, NY 10009
