Writing my novel looked like this.

In a protest against Russian apathy, political indifference, and police brutality, performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky stripped nude yesterday in Moscow’s cobblestone Red Square, sat down, and nailed his scrotum to the ground.

Pavlensky’s act kicked gossip rags the world over into high gear, but amid all of the salacious chatter and gawking at the “freak in the square,” the poignancy of the performance is getting lost.

Following on the heels of Pussy Riot and announcements that social media will be banned at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Pavlensky’s incredible piece (no pun intended) shines a spotlight on Putin’s desperate but heavy-handed efforts at silencing not only dissent, but any form of expression deemed potentially threatening to the state.

We should all take heed that when a state-ordered gag has been in place for as long as Russia’s, people on the street begin to forget what unsanctioned language sounds or looks like. Which, of course, is what the State wants: to make the unsanctioned literally unthinkable, in every sense of the term.

Watch the reactions of crowds to Pussy Riot, and of the police to Pyotr. Onlookers don’t just seem surprised; they look positively bewildered, like natives witnessing the sudden arrival of an interloper whose culture is so foreign, so unimagined, and so dangerously unpredictable, that they can’t, at first, move. Even after getting their bearings, the spectators remain reluctant to approach the message-bringers; even the politsiya sniffing around Pyotr are careful not to get too close.

This reminds me of J.G. Ballard’s dystopian story, “The Concentration City,” in which a student named Franz journeys into unmapped territories of the City despite the State’s bureaucratic claims that the metropolitan space extends infinitely in all directions and contains no unmappable areas; the existence of anything that has not been characterized officially by the State is denied.

Pussy Riot and Pyotr are effective precisely because they show up at officially mapped locales, but then present language that falls outside of what has been deemed possible by the State. Their messages can’t be contained because they’re already on the other side of the State’s hegemonic fence upon arrival; how does one rein/reign in something that’s not even supposed to be possible? (Answer: you send her to Siberia, then pray). Riot and Pyotr are liberating because they call into question the way space and power have been parceled—they prove, in a glint of hope, that not everything has been mapped, which is poison to a totalitarian state.

*** UPDATE: An interview with Pyotr has been posted here.

This just in: my WET THE HIPPO pals and I will be headlining at the 2013 L.A. Comedy Festival this Saturday 11/16 at 9PM! Nominated for BEST COMEDY at this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, we’ve developed a ton of new & insane material, so you will not want to miss this! Tickets only $10 online, $12 at the door. Full show & ticket info here. See you there!

The TWO PERFORMANCE ARTISTS book trailer is here! You can play it below, or watch it on YouTube.

To learn more about how it was made, check out the novel’s FAQ page. And to the tireless cast, crew, and volunteers who made it all happen: THANK YOU!

11:34 PM. I just finished printing the PDF—it’s the designer’s first try at the novel’s interior layout. And . . . relief: she made it look lovely.

But that thought is short-lived. Because this all suddenly feels surreal—maybe even like some kind of prank—my holding it now, here, in my hands, after having spent so many years thinking about it. I wrote this? I’m in disbelief. Reading through it again now, the text feels new, alien, so removed from me. Maybe it wrote itself? And I’ll admit it: starting now, I am officially nervous as hell. The web site and trailer are about to go up, the PR’s about to hit the wires, and in a month or two, reviews will begin popping up as people actually begin reading this thing! All of my generalized self-doubt—and terrors about what I did or didn’t write right—and the realization of my boyhood dream, of one day writing the kind of novel that I would want to read—these have all coalesced under tectonic-like pressure into the diamond now held in my hands. “Any press is good press” is fine for playboys, but what about for first-time novelists? I’m scared, but also exhilarated, to find out.

I was interviewed on TVRadio’s ARTFUL UNDRESS show in Hollywood, where I talked about performance art, my novel, nudity, nakedness, and much more with lovely hosts Kira Pandukht and Polina Hryn. You can watch the whole interview online here. Thanks, Kira & Polina!

“For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with howls of execration.”
    —Meursault, just before the guillotine . . .
        . . . and every performance artist’s dream.
 
From The Stranger, Albert Camus, 1942

It’s been crazy since July when we began shooting the novel’s trailer, but the footage is DONE and editing is well underway. The HD & 35mm footage are stunning, thanks to the cast & crew & lab.

But more importantly, the novel’s interior layout has begun, and the cover art is complete—I can’t wait to hold the first copy in my hands! Early reader quotes have also been pouring in. The latest, from Marc Wilmore, Writer & Producer of The Simpsons: “A well-written, hilarious adventure I’d recommend to anyone.” Holy shit, I’ll take it!

I just finished watching Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, an incredible documentary from 2006 by Mary Jordan on performance art forefather, Jack Smith. I’m an idiot for not having watched this sooner. If you’re a fan of Jack Smith—or of Warhol, Fellini, John Waters, Jonas Mekas, or if you’re an artist or an art patron or a wacky postmodernist—trust me, it’ll blow your mind, witnessing Smith’s influence on pretty much all things art. No doubt, he was a god. I dont know if this is official, or how long it’ll stay up, but Destruction of Atlantis is presently on YouTube here.

Our small-but-mighty crew has begun shooting the Two Performance Artists video trailer! The first shots were in San Francisco—we spent the day dodging Tenderloin freaks at the corner of Turk and Taylor, and trying not to fall from a rooftop where the sun’s heat was intense in spite of freezing wind and swirling white clouds that were so low we could almost touch them.

Days 2 & 3 were in Hollywood, where we shot bits of the novel’s skating scene, and later, a narrow alley exterior that turned out to be right beside the studios of surrealist photographer & artist David LaChapelle.

For my fellow cinephiles, shooting was on a Nikon D7000 with its standard 18-105mm telephoto lens, a Nikor 35mm 1.8 prime, a Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 wide angle, and a Sony HDR-XR200 for backup. For an upcoming apartment interior, I’ll be using a wind-up 35mm Bell & Howell Eyemo. Loading it is a bitch (requires doing it blindly with safety scissors in a change bag), but the look is gonna be sick!

I don’t want to give too much away, so for now, here are just a couple of footage samples. Release is scheduled for October—about 6 months before the book’s publication date.  Can. Not. Wait.

The 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival nominated our show Wet The Hippo for Best Comedy, and we ended up taking home the award for Best Stunt! Not bad, considering there were 150 shows this year. The Fringe also extended our run through the entire month of July, so come see us any Friday or Saturday @ 9PM! Hilarious insanity like nothing you’ve seen before, I promise, and tickets are only $10.