So, this next WYSIWYG? It's also going to be the last WYSIWYG.
After three and a half years we've decided to move along to other projects. And we figured why not go out on a really gay note with our annual Pride show? I think it may be the single gayest show we've ever done, too -- and if you've been to WYSIWYG before, you know that's saying a lot. It's going to be EXTRA gay. And loads of fun. We might just be back in the future with occasional special events, but for now I need a bit of a break and would love to return to just being a somewhat-anonymous blogger.
We have a great lineup for the last show and I'm hoping a lot of people come to wish us goodbye on June 13. Here's the info:
The WYSIWYG Talent Show’s Farewell Show
Gays Gone Wild!
Gayer Tales of Gay Gayness
Unfortunately, all good things do come to an end. To celebrate The WYSIWYG Talent Show’s farewell show, we will make tribute to all things Dorothy in honor of Gay Pride Month with “Gays Gone Wild!: Gayer Tales of Gay Gayness” on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at The Bowery Poetry Club.
This will be the official farewell show for WYSIWYG as we wrap up three and a half years of the first all-blogger reading series in New York City. We laughed, we cried, we wet our pants, all in the pursuit of hilarity, performance and potty jokes. Our final homage to the talented bloggers who have graced our stage this year will feature a gaggle of gay readings from the queerest of the queer, be they gay, lesbian, straight, trans, bi or robot bloggers. So get your chaps on and gussy up your Subaru Outbacks because this will definitely be the best and bumpiest ride you’ve ever been on.
“Gays Gone Wild!: Gayer Tales of Gay Gayness” performs Wednesday, June 13 at The Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery between Bleecker and Houston). Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the show show starts at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $7.00 at the door. For more information, visit the WYSIWYG website at wysiwygtalentshow.org.
Joel Derfner is from South Carolina, where his great-grandmother had an affair with George Gershwin. After fleeing the south as soon as he possibly could, he eventually moved to New York to get an M.F.A. in musical theater writing from the Tisch School of the Arts. Musicals for which he has written the scores have been produced in London, New York, and various cities in between (going counterclockwise). In an attempt to become the gayest person ever, he joined Cheer New York, New York’s gay and lesbian cheerleading squad, but eventually he had to leave because he was too depressed. In desperation, he started knitting and teaching aerobics, though not at the same time. He hopes to come to a bad end.
Kelli Dunham may be the typical skateboard-riding, houseboat-dwelling,
stealth gender non-variant, too many book reading ex nun dyke comic but she is also very a much a Dyke On A Mission. During her recent "I am NOT a 12 Year Old Boy" tour (more than 100 shows in 11 months), Kelli performed for the attendees of the Beltane Sacred Sexuality Conference (on the front row? A dude wearing a beret and a cape and nothing else), and at dozens of fundraisers, community events, colleges, and clubs. She was profiled in the May 2005 issue of Curve Magazine which declared "Kelli cracks us up" and was featured in an episode of Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit” on Showtime. She is one of the co-founders of the Famous Lesbian Comedy Road Show and Gayety, Philly's own queer experimental comedy performing series. Kelli is also the author of two books and a contributor to numerous anthologies, is currently preparing for the recording of her upcoming CD, Something About (the Virgin) Mary, and pens a humor column for Passional Magazine as well as the website Phillygaycalendar.com.
Joe Jervis is the southern-born son of Newark refugees. He has worked for a newspaper, a radio station, a television station, a theatre company, a record company and a magazine publisher. He looks forward to new media being invented, so that he can fail at those too. Joe is the director of Pride magazine, the official guide to Pride nationwide, and has been writing his personal blog, JoeMyGod.blogspot.com, since May 2004. Joe is featured in the recent Carroll & Graf anthology From Boys to Men: Personal Essays of Gay Coming of Age.
Cheryl B.’s work appears in dozens of print and online publications. She is also the creator and producer of PVC: The Poetry vs. Comedy Variety Show, a monthly event at the Bowery Poetry Club featuring comedians and performance poets. Cheryl has given readings and performances of her work throughout the U.S. and Great Britain. In 2003, Cheryl received an artist’s fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Cheryl lives in Brooklyn.
A native of Indiana, Rod Townsend pushed aside a promising writing career for an amazingly long stint at dead-end corporate slave-wagery. For having taken that career path he kicks himself daily (which he could never have done without his yoga instructor). Rod currently writes for his own sites, Manhattan Offender and LOLgay, and has a weekly column at Gawker. These activities will someday open up many opportunities for writing and performing as he continues working on his first novel. Or so he thinks. He also thinks he is devastatingly sexy.
Amnesia Sparkles (Adrian L. Acosta) is most popularly known for her
appearance in the first season of Fox's hit television show "American
Idol," an ordeal that haunts her to this very day. Her mission: To erase people's worries (if only for a few minutes) and to make your inner self sparkle with joy... but she'll basically do anything for a buck these days. "I'm all about 'LOVE': spreading it like an infectious disease."
Leigh Thompson is a Heartland escapee, a furious trans activist, and a
raging queer. He has a BA in Theatre Direction and is developing an
individualized Master's at NYU in community organizing, social change, and art. His blog, which he often calls a "personal conversation with the world," is a desperate attempt to fill the holes of his rapidly failing memory. Join him on his self-important romp of trivial life details! Read shopping lists, political rants, streams of consciousness, theory papers, bad haikus, public speech texts and more!