Sixth & I and SpeakeasyDC join forces to present Heeb Magazine’s critically-acclaimed storytelling series — seven-minute Jewish stories from Mark Katz (Bill Clinton speech writer), Michael Hearst (musician, One Ring Zero), Erica Berenstein (documentary filmmaker), Josh Swiller (author, The Unheard), Mitch Rothenberg (journalist, comic book author), Margot Liebman (writer, teacher), and others.
I had done it before, of course. Casually, to friends, co-workers, that kind of thing. But telling one in front of a roomful of people, into a microphone, following some very funny, well-trained speakers was, well, a different story altogether.
On the second Tuesday of every month, SpeakeasyDC organizes an open-mike night in the upstairs lounge at Station 9, where folks like me tell their stories. At the monthly sessions, speakers sign up ahead of time and have up to seven minutes to tell a story around a theme, which changes every month. This night’s theme was “Rock Bottom: Stories About Falling Flat, Bottoming Out and Bouncing Back.” Without going into detail, my story involved my first day at my first full-time job, an outdoor staff meeting, an unfortunate choice of seats and an impressive amount of bird droppings.Read full article
In 1997, Vijai mortified her traditional Indian parents by giving up a career in journalism, cancelling her wedding, and becoming a stand-up comedian- and she hasn’t looked back since.
Today, Vijai Nathan is one of the leading Indian American female comedians making people laugh across America and internationally. She has performed in South Africa, England and Canada, and was featured at the Montreal International Comedy Festival and Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery in Washington D.C. This is Vijai’s second solo show, her first — “Good Girls Don’t, but Indian Girls Do.” This year she will release her first DVD, “Indian Invasion”.
Friday, October 10, 2008
7:30pm, $15 @ 1200 U St, NW
right next to U St/Cardoza Green line metro
Street parking and after hours parking lot on Ust at 14th (Reeves Building)
-In 2008 Vijai will perform at the Capital Fringe Festival, The Hysterical Festival and begin touring with “McGoddess.”
-In 2007 Vijai performed with international comedy star Russell Peters, who calls her one of the top two South Asian comics to watch!
-In 2006, Vijai was featured at The Montreal International Comedy Festival, The Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival, The D.C. Comedy Festival and Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival.
-Vijai is the first and only woman to be Nominated Comedian of the Year 2005 by the South Asian Media Awards.
-Vijai appeared on the UK Comedy Channel’s “The World Stands Up” in England March 2005.
-NBC chose Vijai as one of its top 10 comics in the Nation for their Stand-Up for Diversity Showcase in Los Angeles, Sept. 2004.
-Back Stage Magazine named Vijai one of the top ten stand-up comics in 2003.
- Vijai was chosen as one of two comics to represent America at the Smirnoff International Comedy Festival in Cape Town, South Africa in September of 2003.
-TV appearances include: ABC News’ 20/20, PBS, The Oxygen Network, and the BBC.
As part of the 3nd Annual Capital Fringe Festival, SpeakeasyDC will produce a second ensemble show featuring slam poet Twain Dooley, new dad Edwin Kubal, poet/hip-hop artist Darrell Perry, stand-up comedian Vijai Nathan, and peace corps therapist Tabbie Mann.
or by phone today to 866-811-4111. Seating is very limited.
Standing-room-only tickets left for last two shows. $10. Buy in advance or take your chance at door.
READ THE RAVE REVIEWS! Washington Post Going Out Gurus Despite the fact I can never remember the full name, “Revenge of the Cat-Headed Baby and Other True Tales about Life and Death” is quickly creeping to the top of my must-see list. Much like “Chocolate Jesus,” SpeakeasyDC’s other Fringe offering, the show consists of occasionally comical first-person tales exploring human existence.
Washington City Paper “Five performers, five true autobiographical tales, told well. No, not simply told — shaped. And that’s the key: as each story unfolds, you find yourself noting how well each storyteller directs the flow of the narrative, wrasslin’ it into submission with a gesture, callback, or well-timed pause.”
DC Theatre Scene “…a celebration of loss, recovery and redemption as experienced by ordinary people who happen to have brilliant comic timing and storytelling skills.”
Comment on Going Out Gurus I saw “Revenge of the Cat-Headed Baby” last night. It’s speakeasy DC’s (of “Chocolate Jesus” fame) new offering this year. It was great. Lighter than “Chocolate Jesus” but just as polished.”
Washington Post “Revenge of the Cat-Headed Baby and Other True Tales About Life and Death.” How could something with that title be boring? A bonus: The folks from well-seasoned storytelling crew SpeakeasyDC are behind this production, which uses storytelling to talk about life, and yes, death. And having seen comic Vijai Nathan perform, we know her story of the cat-headed baby, and let’s just say you should be so wary of karma.
Two Hours Traffic theatre blog These five seemingly ordinary people come forward and give us a piece of their history. Pieces that make you laugh and cry. Pieces that are firmly rooted in the speaker’s culture, and yet remarkably so universal.
All tickets are $15 and processed by Capital Fringe . If you plan to got to several Fringe shows, we recommend that you buy a pass The Fringe box office will open on July 7 (607 New York Ave., NW). You can also take a chance paying cash at the door, but lots of shows sell out.
NOTE:
This year, Fringe Fest is requiring the one-time purchase of $5 button. This will give you access to all the shows in Fringe. Without it, you can’t get in, but you can buy one at any venue. Hang onto the button, because you can use it throughout the festival and get discounts at a bunch of businesses. To get free tickets to shows, check out the Fringe volunteer opportunities.
Capital Fringe Festival is a two-week celebration of performances of all kinds. Cities around the world have hosted fringe festivals for decades. We are grateful that some folks got together in 2006 to bring such a great event to DC. Find out more about Capital Fringe Festival and buy tickets
If you are a student group, community of faith, theater or other group interested in presenting Chocolate Jesus, contact Amy at info@speakeasydc.org
As part of the 3nd Annual Capital Fringe Festival, SpeakeasyDC will restage Chocolate Jesus, a candid exploration of faith and identity through original, personal narrative. All five shows sold out so fast last year that we want to stage it again.
2008 RAVE REVIEWS!
TheatreMania “Each tale contains a wonderful blend of humor and more serious content… all four exhibit a wonderful energy, a real connection with their audience, and a sheer joy of sharing their stories.”
Going Out Gurus, Washington Post, Fringe Must-Sees
(We made the first on the list) “Based on past performances or talented participants, here’s a brief rundown of my newly revised list of top picks: ‘Chocolate Jesus,’ a collection of true first-person narratives about religion and identity, is back after a sold-out run during last year’s festival.”
DC Theatre Scene “…the storytelling is done with such wit, humility, acuity and humanity that it is like chocolate to the ears.”
Washington City Paper blog
Posted by Dan Owen on Jul. 21, 2008
Cheif Ike’s Mambo Room
They say: “In tonight’s show, you won’t hear actors reciting someone else’s lines; rather, you’ll hear four performers sharing true, personal stories with you. While the stories are as different and unique as each teller’s real-life experiences, they do share a common thread about coming to terms with competing value systems and what we do when values we cherish equally wind up contradicting one another. In choosing a title, we were looking for something to allude to that theme in a playful, provocative way.
Chocolate Jesus referes to an incident last year at NTC hotel that planned to dispaly a life-sized, anatomically correct scultpture of Jesus on the cross, made entirely otu of chocolate. The piece, called “My Sweet Lord” was to be exhibited during Holy Week. Members of a Cathloic Watchdog group protested and, as a result, the exhibit was cancelled and the gallery director who had arranged it resigned.
The incident begs the questions: How do we reconcile our religious faith when it collides with our civic faith?
Dan’s take: This was wonderul, captivating, engaging, profound and provocative – the gem of the Fringe. Four strong characters, a collection of poignant and powerul narrative pieces that crafted sling shots from humour, irony, surfeits of surrealism, but all infinitely grounded in reality. The compendium added up to all suggested – the endless duels in coming to terms with conflicting and competing value and belief systems.
The stories comprised the nice Jewish girl who ends up in jail, the American who becomes a venerated healer in a Mayan community, the Argentinian catholic battling the demons of atheist parents and the gay christian vieing for survival against the odds established by his mother and his saviour.
The monologues were crisp, at times funny, at others striking a nerve of pain, all in the final reckoning uplifting. There is an art to storytelling. Probing the seemingly obvious, manifest, apparent, self-evident surface can be both rudely enlightening and royally disturbing. Amy Saidman, Eva Salvetti, Travis Wright and Stepahnie Garibaldi as an ensemble deftly and assuredly proved their worth. I want to see more of this.
See it if: You’re stuck for what to say when you reach the pearly gates. And if you’ve missed it at the Fringe, you can find them through speakeasydc.org
When you find yourself cupping the balls of a bull, you know your life has taken a turn for the weird.
At least, that’s what Stephanie Garibaldi found after spending time in a Mayan village, just after deciding Ivy League College was not for her. Garibaldi’s is one of four stories involving faith and self-discovery showcased in Chocolate Jesus.
The work is performed by regulars from SpeakeasyDC, a monthly storytelling night featuring seasoned regulars and first-time open mic participants. While those evenings can be hit or miss affairs, these folks have clearly honed their material and delivery for Chocolate Jesus. The stories are reportedly all true, and never lose our interest.
Garibaldi’s tale is the hardest to swallow, but she sells it with self-deprecating flair. Amy Saidman, who tells how she got from the world’s strangest Jewish summer camp to becoming an ineffective State Department protester, has a meandering delivery that still commands attention. Travis Wright’s monologue is easily the most moving, a genuine retelling of what happens when an active Southern Baptist realizes there’s a little more behind his love of Dolly Parton and fishnets, which reaches its climax when Wright has to come out to his conservative mother. But this is no mere sob story; Wright’s opening anecdote of an eight year old’s laughable misdiagnosis of Toxic Shock Syndrome, as well as his talents in the unorthodox hobby of clogging, balance out the heartbreaking moments. And Eva Salvetti is the group’s best storyteller, introducing us to her wacky Argentinian childhood and Catholicism as an unlikely source for childhood rebellion.
They’re just stories — this is not a Fringe piece driven by carefully crafted dialogue — but that’s precisely what appeals about Chocolate Jesus, a piece that tackles big themes and life-shaping moments with plainspoken humor rather than showy spectacle.
It’s Friday evening, I arrive home from a long day at the office, I was not sure I was ready for a show called Chocolate Jesus. What I witnessed however was something akin to Toastmasters on steroids — poignant, funny stories strengthened by honesty that had the audience roaring with laughter. Growing up with Catholicism in Argentina, children’s day camp for future Jewish activists, traveling fertility goddesses and coming out of the closet in the Bible Belt. Each story is a gem but Travis Wright who performs last is fabulous. He is performing on stage for the first time but you would never guess it after listening to him tell his sincere account of coming out to his bible thumping mom.
Speakeasy DC (the folks behind this funny stuff) have developed quite a following around town with their story telling cafe shows. Be sure to get your tickets for this one fast, the first two fringe performances of Chocolate Jesus have sold out. Get to 1409 Playbill a little early and try the meatloaf it goes well with chocolate.
Comment from Theaterhound in Fringe & Purge July 30, 2007
CHOCOLATE JESUS was a terrific addition to the fest and gave me, and I am sure many others, a great intro to SpeakEasyDC. This was a very entertaining and provocative collection of personal tales from each of the 4 ‘performers’ (they are true stories informally told so I hesitate to call them actors). The title says it all. No idols here, but honest and no-holds barred stories of each individual’s faith or religious background and the conflicts and contradictions that life throws at those beliefs, be they rural Christian, Jewish or Catholic. Definitely not just faith-bashing, but very irreverant and relateable, even to this Atheist. Don’t miss it when it gets staged again. I am definitely going to check out their monthly open mic.
About the stories: What do you get when you take a God-fearing clogging champion from rural Tenessee and put him in a Ginger Spice wig and a Union Jack Titty shirt? You get a killer story, that’s what you get. Travis Wright tells the saga of his journey from the Baptist Ministry to The Closet (Knoxville’s only gay bar). Amy Saidman regales the audience with tales of her socialist Zionist summer camp, where homages to “labor” and simulations of the Crusades were the norm, and how she finds herself standing up to a drunk anti-Semitic Russian while being held in a DC jail. Eva Salvetti devotes her life to the Witnesses of Jesus to piss off her hippy parents, and Stephanie Garibaldi tells about her existential crisis while cupping the testicles of an angry and uncooperative bull.
All tickets are $15 and processed by Capital Fringe . If you plan to got to several Fringe shows, we recommend that you buy a pass The Fringe box office will open on July 7 (607 New York Ave., NW). You can also take a chance paying cash at the door, but lots of shows sell out.
NOTE:
This year, Fringe Fest is requiring the one-time purchase of $5 button. This will give you access to all the shows in Fringe. Without it, you can’t get in, but you can buy one at any venue. Hang onto the button, because you can use it throughout the festival and get discounts at a bunch of businesses. To get free tickets to shows, check out the Fringe volunteer opportunities.
About the Fringe: Capital Fringe Festival is a two-week celebration of performances of all kinds. Cities around the world have hosted fringe festivals for decades. We are grateful that some folks got together in 2006 to bring such a great event to DC. Find out more about Capital Fringe Festival and buy tickets
May 1, 2008 at 7:30 pm at Busboys & Poets (14th and V). FREE
As part of the 2008 Big Read, and in tribute to this year’s selection of The Great Gatsby, SpeakeasyDC, the region’s premier storytelling organization, presents The Party’s Over: Stories about Old Money, Loose Morals, and The Blues. Join us for a night of original, personal stories and poems that touch on the themes and times that appear in this American classic.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.
The Big Read answers a big need. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts, found that not only is literary reading in America declining rapidly among all groups, but that the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young. The concerned citizen in search of good news about American literary culture would study the pages of this report in vain. Find out more — Amy Saidman Director, SpeakeasyDC
SpeakeasyDC presents Life in a Marital Institution (20 years of monogamy in one terrifying hour)Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 7:30pm at the Arts Club of Washington (2017 I St. NW). $15. One night only before its Off-Broadway run!
First comes love, then comes marriage counseling. Master storyteller James Braly’s latest show is a poignant tale of lust, love, betrayal, reproduction, and redemption. After its critical acclaim at the famed Edinburgh Fringe Festival, SpeakeasyDC is proud to present this DC premiere just before it hits the Off-Broadway stage in NYC.
“Uproarious, poignant and beautifully raw, Life in a Marital Institution is one of the best feats of one-person-show-ship I’ve seen.” -Sarah ones, Tony Award-winner, Bridge & Tunnel. See more praise for the show after its DC debut.
RESERVATIONS ARE FULL. If you did not reserve seats in advance, there is a chance that some seats will go unclaimed. If you would like to be put on the wait-list, arrive early (box office will open at 6:30). Unclaimed reservations will be released to those present at 7:15pm.
Stephanie Garibaldi will open with her original story: Two Divorces Don’t Make a Wife.
Sixth & I and SpeakeasyDC join forces to present Heeb Magazine’s critically-acclaimed storytelling series — seven-minute Jewish stories from Mark Katz (Bill Clinton speech writer), Michael Hearst (musician, One Ring Zero), Erica Berenstein (documentary filmmaker), Josh Swiller (author, The Unheard), Mitch Rothenberg (journalist, comic book author), Margot Liebman (writer, teacher), and others.
