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31:30

Growing Up Asian-American.

Poet and performer Lane Kiyomi Nishikawa will be performing his one-man show about being Asian American "Life in the Fast Kabe: Requiem for a Sansei Poet" in Philadelphia. The show contains stories and poems based on his life in Hawaii and San Francisco. He joins the show to discuss his work and life.

Interview
59:01

Spalding Gray and "The Terrors of Pleasure."

Frequent Fresh Air guest Spalding Gray takes stories about his life and anxieties and transforms them into comedic monologues he delivers in a direct fashion. His monologues include "Sex and Death to the Age of Fourteen," "A Personal History of American Theater," and "Swimming to Cambodia." His current monologue is "The Terrors of Pleasure," and it chronicles his attempts to "grow up" and experience ownership by purchasing a house in the Catskills.

Interview
39:52

New Vaudeville with Avner the Eccentric.

Avner Eisenberg, known as "Avner the Eccentric," is a "new vaudevillian"; he uses juggling, magic, acrobatics, and clowning in his act. Eisenberg also performs as a theater actor. He also appeared in the film "Jewel of the Nile."

Interview
27:53

Find the Perfect Moment

Spalding Gray's career performing humorous, autobiographical monologues has sometimes been a detriment to his attempts to break into film and television acting; no casting director wants to be mentioned in one of Gray's stage shows.

Interview
03:51

An "Off Center" Review for an Unconventional Show

TV critic David Bianculli isn't sure how best to describe PBS's show Alive from Off Center, which features music, dance, and performance art--but little dialog. He recommends an upcoming episode about composer Meredith Monk called Ellis Island.

Review
28:38

The World According to Jackie Mason.

Comic Jackie Mason. He's the star of the one-man Broadway show, "The World According to Me," a hit for eight months now. The show continues to draw more sold-out houses than any other non-musical attraction on Broadway.

Interview
09:51

Spalding Gray's L. A. Adventures.

Autobiographical monologist Spalding Gray. Gray is best known for his monologue "Swimming to Cambodia," about his experiences during the filming of the movie "The Killing Fields." "Swimming to Cambodia" was produced as a film last year, and Gray appeared in the David Byrne film "True Stories," as well as a recent installment of the PBS comedy series "Trying Times." Gray is wrapping up a 10-month residency at the Mark Tapper Forum in Los Angeles where he worked on several new monologues.

Interview
09:42

Dance, Art, and Celebration.

Festival planner Marilyn Wood. Using dance, film, sound and light, Wood designs celebrations of the urban environment. She organized celebrations and festivals like the first Riverfront Celebration in Columbus, Ohio, The Hong Kong Arts festival, and the opening of the Tehran Museum of Art. Wood used to be a dancer with the Merce Cunningham dance company. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Interview
09:59

Sandra Bernhard's New One-Woman Show.

Comic Sandra Bernhard. She's best known for her appearances on "Late Night With David Letterman" and in the Martin Scorsese film "The King of Comedy." She's now starring in the Off-Broadway one-woman show "Without You I'm Nothing," that is part stand-up comedy, part satire on the "women of rock and roll."

Interview
03:39

Sandra Bernhard Borrows the Worst of Performance Art.

Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone discusses the Off-Broadway one-woman show of comic Sandra Bernhard. Bernhard is best known for her appearances on "Late Night With David Letterman" and in the Martin Scorsese film "The King of Comedy." Her new show is titled "Without You I'm Nothing." It's part stand-up comedy, part satire on the "women of rock and roll."

Review
09:53

DEVOlving through the 80s

Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerry Casale were still in art school when they founded their band DEVO, which is equally inspired by high and low culture. They join Fresh Air to talk about their music's role in the current corporate-sponsored rock culture.

03:43

A Vaudevillian Creates Something New and Original

Critic-at-large Laurie Stone recently saw performance artist Michael Moschen's newest act, Moschen in Motion, which features expert and sometimes improvisatory juggling, as well as homages to abstract expressionist painters. Stone says she was awed by the end.

Review

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