The HOT! and Festive Keckler and Steele

Joseph Keckler and Max Steele

I totally loved this queeralicious HOT! Festival show, presented by Dixon Place offsite at The New Museum for Contemporary Art, regrettably for one night only. Both of these monologuists take audiences to dark, Scorpionic places, although Max Steele's sweet, ditzy, CyberGeneration persona subtly tricks you into thinking that, at worst, you've stumbled into typically dicey fairy tale territory when, in reality, you're in way deeper than that. You have never had a relationship from hell like the one that Steele had with the likes of one "Scott Panther," who sounds like his surname is more than just a little descriptive. Here's a charming Interview magazine video clip of Steele.

Joseph Keckler--a charismatic, astonishingly gifted performer all around--masters a wealth of faces, voices and sounds as he unspools strange/wacky stories or sings his songs, catching you up in silky, sticky webs of wonder and emotion. He commands a versatile vocal range, at times reminding me of Freddie Mercury, or Rufus Wainright, or Antony. As a storyteller, he's an action painter of fallen rainbows and dog-chewed Crayolas. How dangerous a spider is this Keckler? Ask the fan who found an out-of-control wireless mic inadvertently lobbed in her direction. "That's what qualifies this as peformance art," said momentarily unnerved Keckler. "The element of danger!"

Indeed. Oh, brave queer world!

When dizzy critics happen to good performers

It's good for critics to remember that we're humble humans...and ones who must mind our health. Last night, I got a vivid reminder at Club La MaMa when I tried to concentrate on a show that, I'm very sorry to tell you, was up for only one night.

I had no idea how exhausted I was until I realized that while I felt somewhat sleepy over the course of the two-hour show, I felt much more like falling over with dizziness. I've heard too many stories about people who got the flu this winter who started out by feeling dizzy. (And my wife suffered a severe case of vertigo this season.) I'd gotten my flu shot. In the summer of 2006, I was diagnosed with a mild, stable case of a lung disorder and must get the shot each year, although I've always gotten one anyway. But I'd heard that this year's shot doesn't cover every strain that's out there. The good news, today, is that I have not come down with the flu, and I feel somewhat better. I'm going to get more rest and try to make it to Bill T. Jones's Breaking Ground discussion at Harlem Stage tonight.

Now, as for last night's show....to Joseph Keckler (singer, writer and multimedia artist), who presented a monologue named Cat Lady, my apologies. Even through my difficulties, I could tell that you have mad talent, and I look forward to catching up with your work another time. To John Moran (composer) and Saori Tsukada (choreographer), who performed John Moran...and his neighbor Saori, you are both fierce--frighteningly so--just as savvy colleagues had promised. Despite my condition last night, I was impressed, amused and charmed by your visual and sonic ideas, your whimsical and razor-sharp synchronization of sound and mime, and I am prepared to become a huge fan. Would Nicky Paraiso, Club La MaMa's performance curator, have the three of you back, if I ask nice?

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Joseph Keckler on MySpace
John Moran and Saori Tsukada on MySpace