Interview with Mike Daisey, part two
Part two of my interview with Mike Daisey, acclaimed monologuist, who will be performing tonight at Galapagos in Williamsburg at 8pm. (This is part of my new Boys' School initiative to cross-pollinate with the guy writers who are up to astounding things). xxoo--Elizabeth
EM: So tonight is your second segment of GREAT MEN OF GENIUS here in New York at Galapagos. Who's up for tonight and what can we look forward to in the monologue?
MD: P.T. Barnum, legend of the American imagination—supreme huckster, shyster and raconteur. I'll also be talking about hot bachelorette parties, the New York downtown performance scene and a particularly horrifying encounter I had as a young man with a Star Trek uniform. Also there are mermaids, sideshow freaks and a talking vagina.
EM: I love that you don't work from a script--it's so intuitive and brave. What are the benefits of working this way? How did you end up doing this?
MD: I grew up in northern Maine, where storytelling is inculcated from a young age, and I think that played a role. I've also always been fascinated by the intersection between the spoken and the written, because I want work that has the composed nature of written material while not becoming staid and untransformative—it's remarkable how quickly words can twist and writhe in the air into new shapes, and I love how unleashed from the page you can see how cruel they are—they never listen to you, and they do what they want.
So I think it's good, for the honesty, brevity and integrity it brings, and hard for those same reasons.
EM: Your lovely wife Jean-Michele Gregory directs your performances, 'cause you guys are the coolest couple on the block. How does she direct a monologue? I'm so nosy. I want to know the process, the process.
MD: Well, I drink a lot of coffee, and go on walks, and stare into space. Then finally I make an outline, and I talk through it with Jean-Michele, who mostly listens as I sketch out the bare outlines. After we do the show the first time, details emerge and the path is clearer, and now it's when she does a lot of work—page after page of edits and notes on what she heard, and she distills that down into succinct directives that penetrate. She's a ruthless editor, and it's her work that makes the whole hang together so tightly.
Also, she withholds sex until I do it right, and that's very motivating.