Penny Arcade Performance

In 1985 at age 34 after performing in other people’s work for close to 20 years I created my first one woman show - first at The Poetry Project invited by Chris Kraus and then a few months later at PS122 invited by Mark Russell. The shows were a combination of three things: improvised characters based on real people I knew, songs with a crack band (the best musicians New York had to offer), and improvised rants directly to the audience. In 1986/87 I moved the show to Univers...ity of the Streets above the restaurant 7A, 4 nights a week in the 100 seat theater on 7th Street and Avenue A. One of the characters I did was the massage parlor Hasid based on a client who came to a massage place I worked in the West Village. I rewrote Muddy Waters Mannish Boy into I’m A Mensch. The show is out there and captures the rawness of East Village solo performance. No one in the downtown scene did anything remotely like me. I guess I picked up where I had left off in 1971. My work has the edge, that anarchic energy of what had left the punk scene in its wake. In a day or two, we’ll be uploading the entire show to my Penny Arcade Performance Patreon and you can watch by subscribing for as little as $2.00. https://www.patreon.com/Penny_Arcade?fan_landing=true Despite running for 4 months four nights a week, the show was never reviewed by the Village Voice. It’s a great story with great commentary by none other than Jack Smith and a very amusing punchline which in itself is worth $2.00. Music Director and Keyboards Jonathan Hardy, Singer Kay Funk, Slide Guitar Dave Tronzo, Bass Bob Milbeck, Drums Robert Bond, Lights Drew Gladstone. Sound, Stuart Lerman, The On Stage Stage Manager was Mr David Francis and Kate Huh was at the door. Special thanks to Daisy Wake for the subtitles.

A great night in...tonight at 8pm, a holiday show featuring many of the great performers who perform at Pangea as a BENEFIT FOR PANGEA - our beloved downtown bar, restaurant and cabaret! Please tune in tonight at 8pm Eastern!!

Sometimes as life moves along we lose things we had: objects, memories, friends. Sometimes they come back to us as in the case of this video from a tree trimming party at my old loft in 1992. Charlie Steiner came over and videoed! This was at the height of my Christmas decorating mania and I had the luck of having David Pace in my life - arbiter of all aesthetics! David knew the secret of perfect Christmas tree lighting which is revealed in this video. We were in the middle o...f Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! at Art D'Lugoff's Village Gate and our crew was 24/7: Sean Meriweather and Kirk Lawrence-Howard who ran the box office and then our lights!!!! Bill Johnson, our stage manager, @Ken Angel Davis and Leta Davis (no relation! my two lead dancers). We have guests coming and going like Steve's roommate at the time Liz Cross and pal Alan Niewald.Shanna Melghan, Sharon Rosner, my cat Shatze and many others. Dean Lance visits and I am trying to insert a bit of 30's Yiddish-ness playing Bei Mir Bist Du Shein!!!! I am wearing a Generic Queer tee shirt I got from Lori E Seid which had become part of the shows message. "We’re generically queer and we believe that an attack against one of us is an attack against all of us. xoPenny We just uploaded to my Patreon page, the full 20 minute Charlie Steiner film of the tree trimming. Enjoy this excerpt! You can watch the entire film on Patreon. You can join Penny Arcade Patreon for as little as $2/month to see this film in it's entirety, plus many of my shows and performances, as well as Lower East Side Biography Project - Stemming The Tide of Cultural Amnesia biographies, and all my archived talks and special live events! Since mid March of this year, we’ve uploaded nearly 100 unique posts to Patreon, a real treasure trove of all things Penny. Please join, watch everything there and be part of my community on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/Penny_Arcade?fan_landing=true

For over 22 years I have collaborated on art projects with Chris Rael everything from Chris scoring shows of mine like Bad Reputation, producing tracks (absolutely NO ONE can go into a recording studio as Chris did and make a cast album from beds to final production as he did of Bad Rep in 4 days!) We have made videos, films, he has been part of The Lower East Side Biography Project - Stemming The Tide of Cultural Amnesia since its inception and operated as editor, camera cre...w, etc., whatever needed to get done. I became a better writer from living closely with him for ten years because of his love for language and literature, films, art and anything rich with culture and he has always been a great editor in any medium with an expansive overview for what any project needs. Like @Steve Zehentner, like me, Chris is a worker - no slouch - and always brings MORE to everything he does - no stinting EVER! Not in his nature. So when I wanted to collaborate with him on Feliz Navidad! I was expecting excellence but what I got was so far beyond that! Chris played all the instruments on this track..produced it and edited the final video and imbued the tune with longing of moment in a dissonant under edge. I chose Feliz Navidad for our mutual Spanish Iberian connection- from the moment I saw Chris i saw something very Spanish about him although he looked like a white dude with kind of slanted eyes - turned out he was Chicano on his dad's side, from early Raels, two brothers who were Maranno Jews, who sailed with Cortes from Spain to conquer Mexico, and eventually intermarried with Apaches and Navajos in New Mexico when it was still Nueva Espana - Chris and I discovered this living family of his in 2003 on a long road trip west and I who have long been identified with Spain and Spanish, bonded with his Aunt Ruthie, the Rael Matriarch, speaking Spanish fluently as I do. So to her memory, one of the most joyous, caring, no BS, dancing 90 year olds I have ever known, who died just shy of her 100th birthday, I dedicate Feliz Navidad! The spirit of the song touches me deeply in this year of Covid - of no work and so much cause for worry..."Happy Christmas! A prosperous year to you and happiness!"

Over the weekend, we uploaded to my Patreon page, a December 1992 performance of Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! from Art D'Lugoff's Village Gate. We thought it would be fun to offer our Patreon pals a glimpse into that show then! Filmed by Charlie Steiner on December 11th, Steve Zehentner, my dancers and I showed up at The Village Gate to perform for the eight brave souls who turned out to see Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! during a record setting blizzard. You will hear me excl...aim "I finally got what I wanted! a show with more dancers than audience! In December of 1992 B!D!F!W!, then in its 6 month of ongoing performances, continued to be improvised each night and there were so many monologues and bits that were added and dropped and replaced as B!D!F!W! developed over more than a two year process from 1990 to 1993. Neo Burlesque was unheard of back then and I had no idea of what I was pioneering by merging performance art with erotic dance and burlesque. The performance you will see is raw but has the charm that spontaneity offers and that sense of ‘wildness that my work had in the 1980’s and 1990’s. You will recognize some of our dancers: Ken Angel Davis, Betsy Brock, Jason Jaworski, Bill Graber, Tigger-James Ferguson, Jill Morley, Leta Davis, Alicia Hopkins, Diana Moonmade, Noel Robichaux, Benjamin Pride. The audience dance break, a popular part of B!D!F!W! happened despite the self consciousness that usually occurs with a small audience. As I enter my 70th year it is fun to see myself naked at 42! I know for certain I did not know I would be doing B!D!F!W! 28 years later nor that those improvised monologues would become so polished without losing their authenticity! In this excerpt, you will see a bit I used to do about the famous muse of not only Jack Smith, but of Andy Warhol, Charles Ludlam, Ronnie Tavel and John Vaccaro: MARIA MONTEZ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montez It was their fascination with that B movie star that cemented their friendship and led to many collaborations. You can join Penny Arcade Patreon for as little as $2/month to see this show in it's entirety and many many others as well as Lower East Side Biography Project - Stemming The Tide of Cultural Amnesia, and all my archived talks and special live events! You can cancel any time. https://www.patreon.com/Penny_Arcade?fan_landing=true

Need A new Penny Arcade fix? Miss being part of the excitement the excitement watching Penny on the tightrope as she improvises her way to a new full length show? In Notes From The Underground Penny returns to her original 1980's format of singing in her shows. You have a front row seat at this new exciting, mystery laden and evocative show with songs by Bob Dylan, Loudon Wainwright, Jarvis Cocker, Rufus Wainwright and Richard Thompson...with an exciting live mixed soundtrack by Penny's long time collaborator Steve Zehentner http://www.pangeanyc.com//penny-arcade-notes-from-the-und/

This coming Friday, livestreamed from Pangea!

Following up on the phenomenal thought provoking livestream conversation I had with journalist Al Giordano last night, today we uploaded to my Patreon, our biography on ARON KAY, the ‘mad Yippie pieman’. https://www.patreon.com/Penny_Arcade?fan_landing=true In this biography, Aron talks about the trial of the Chicago 7, a topic that Al and I spoke about last evening as Al worked with Abbie Hoffman in the 1980’s. Here’s an excerpt. The conversation with Al Giordano is archive...d on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/penny-arcade-al-43036058. If your interested in original political analysis about the upcoming election and U.S. political culture, the conversation with Al is well worth your time. xoPenny ARON KAY, the Groucho Marxist of the anti-capitalist brigade, has been dubbed the mad Yippie pieman for a whole series of pie-in-the-face attacks stretching across almost three decades, and including such victims as right-wing political commentator William F. Buckley, former CIA director William Colby, former New York Mayor Abe Beame, Phyllis Schlafly and many others. - pieman.org

Tonight night at 9pm New York time on my Patreon, I’m in conversation with journalist Al Giordano. Al and I will converse about the crisis of media in our times, Al’s projections on the 2020 election, his insight into the Democratic Party, America in the age of Trump, and his reflections about the newly-released Netflix movie, 'The Trial of the Chicago 7,' in which actor Sacha Baron Cohen portrays Al’s late mentor, Abbie. A conversation between Al and myself is always exciting, thought provoking, at times hilarious. You can register here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/penny-arcade-al-43036058 xoPenny

We just uploaded to Penny Arcade PATREON, Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! San Francisco!! Here's an excerpt, you can watch the entire show as if you were there at Brava Theatre in 2009 on my Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/Penny_Arcade?fan_landing=true In 2008 Earl Dax introduced me to Raelle Myrick-Hodges, who was artistic director at the women centered Brava Theater in San Francisco and she was stunned that Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! had never played San Francisco and Raelle... decided to remedy that! In February 2009 Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! premiered at The Brava Theatre in the Mission District in the former York Theater, the 1926 Vaudeville theatre. On a trip to find erotic dancers for the show, I was introduced to dancer Steven Satyricon, who immediately became ground zero for the production! Everything good that would happen manifested through first thru Steven. Another miracle was the appearance of Gita Srinivasan, a brilliant theatre and literary person who just 'showed up' from the street to be my assistant! Next came the auditions and the most wonderful group of dancers showed up including Steven Satyricon, Nina Stavinga, Cinnamon, Crowe, Gary Stamina, Betty, Miss Muffy, Olen Holm, Sweetcheeks and Danny Starling. We brought New York's Amber Ray to be dance captain during auditions and once the show was up Tigger-James Ferguson, an original dancer from the 1992 Show, was in town and danced one night! We ran from February 25 March 7, 2009 Everything came together in one of the show’s most beautiful productions with an amazing crew headed by lighting designer Cathie Anderson, front of house, camera ops, electricseverything was just perfect, just powerful.but it was the dancers at the heart of the show which made it so magical and now YOU can experience it as if you were there in this great three camera shoot of Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! San Francisco style!! xo Penny

Dear Friends. You have been loyal and committed in your support of the very vulnerable photographer Laura Rubin, in her 70's , alone in the world, very ill, wi...thout anyone to appeal to in order for her to stay in her apartment. She is too sick to work and despite her strong opinions, she herself is not strong and is even too ill right now to be on social media. She has been diagnosed with a very strong infection that apparently has been in her system for months, she is deathly ill and she was already sick, suffering from Lupus and chronic auto immune illnesses and the stress of being poor and at the mercy of strangers. She was a great photographer and for very little money you can own one or more of her photographs, photos that are rare and represent a world that is disappearing. Steve Zehentner my long time collaborator has donated his time to insure the prints we make for Laura's donors are of the highest quality , on archival paper, printed from negatives now owned (by donation before she became so ill) by The Warhol Museum) Available for donations of $165 with postage locally and $215 internationalbut any amount helps!! https://www.gofundme.com/f/helplaurasurvive with deepest appreciation xo Penny From Laura: (Oct 14 update) My bloodtests are still positive for bacteria. The numbers are higher then in August & September. I am suffering from Typhus O & H, and paratyphoid A & B. (advanced Samonella) This is the middle of the 3rd month. Several rounds of antibiotics did not help. The last resort was as series of injections for 7 days mid September which was not effective for these infections. People like me with chronic imflammatory/ intestinal problems are especially at risk. Newer tests showed the red blood cells lack oxygen. The immune system can not fight the bacterias so i am at risk for Septicemia. I'm very uncomfortable as my spleen is enlarged & the symptoms have escalated. The doctor still recommends the 6 hour IV and out of kindness he will wait to be paid. So far I was able to pay for all the tests last week thanks to the donations from everyone. The donations that exceeded the basics were spent on these blood tests & medications. I do not have medical insurance. The costs for photo production for donors are deducted from the funds. The 6 hour IV the doctor is recommending would be a strong vitamin mineral mix to boost immune. He wants to do that then begin another round of injections. An IV is very risky, I am not in a stable position of health to do this. The doctor said to return in 2 weeks for CBC test etc. I'm aware there is only a short time frame that a person can survive this kind of infection, which is maybe another couple of months. It is difficult but I am trying to do what I can but I cannot do it without your continued support. Penny Arcade will feature a selection of my photo images, as there are 18 at this point. Thank you to everyone who has donated and recieved my work. It means alot to me to have my photography so appreciated. I would be deeply grateful if my FB friends can share these and this on their feed. Thank you to everyone who has donated every little bit counts. You are keeping me alive. I thank each and everyone of you . Thank you , Laura

@Stephen Lennon....from Ireland sent me this great link to RTE Irish Television from 1994 I had never seen it before! "The thing that’s really controversial about this show is that I’m talking about racism, sexism, classism, homophobia in a way that’s not usually done." Penny Arcade Yup That was Mainstream Irish TV in 1994.

Fantastic biography on BINA SHARIF uploaded to my Patreon page today!

Tonight at 9pm EDT, on my Patreon page, I will be a reading (and commenting) on the memoir I am currently writing. People have told me to write my memoir since I was 17 years old. I suppose that is because I have always been a storyteller. I come from a southern Italian story telling tradition and as a small child I spent many evenings playing under the kitchen table among a jumbles of legs and feet, as the adults sat high above me, recounting the stories and legends, scanda...ls and histories of their lives. My history at this point is no longer a ship floating on the sea of time but more like flotsam, the result of many storms and collisions. Yet, in its finery and decay, it is all still floating, half submerged perhaps, but still visible, still recallable, still preserved whether by salt or the sands upon which it has washed up, dried by the sun. Here’s an excerpt from my last memoir reading on Patreon where in my intro, I discuss the difference between memoir and autobiography. This link will take you to the reading tonight. Hope to see you there. xoPenny https://www.crowdcast.io/e/penny-arcade-memoir If you are not a patron of mine on Patreon, you can still join the livestream but first you have to enroll in Patreon for as little as $1/month. Afterwards you can cancel your subscription if you choose.

Just uploaded to my Patreon, Gentrification of the Mind, a conversation I had with Sarah Schulman at Soho Theatre, London in 2015. Here's an excerpt. You can watch the entire Lower East Side Biography Project - Stemming The Tide of Cultural Amnesia program on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/Penny_Arcade?fan_landing=true

TOMORROW at 9pm New York time, I’m reading from my developing memoir on my PATREON page. This link will take you to the reading. https://www.crowdcast.io/e/penny-arcade-memoir If you are not a patron on Patreon, you can join the livestream but first you have to become a Patreon patron for as little as $1/month. Afterwards you can cancel your subscription if you like. Hope to see you there. xoPenny

Dear Friends You have been loyal and committed in your support of the very vulnerable photographer Laura Rubin, in her 70's , alone in the world, very ill, without anyone to appeal to in order for her to stay in her apartment. She is too sick to work and despite her strong opinions, she herself is not strong and is even too ill right now to be on social media. She has been diagnosed with a very strong infection that apparently has been in her system for months , she is deat...hly ill and she was already sick, suffering from Lupus and chronic auto immune illnesses and the stress of being poor and at the mercy of strangers. She was a great photographer and for very little money you can own one or more of her photographs, photos that are rare and represent a world that is disappearing. Steve Zehentner my long time collaborator has donated his time to insure the prints we make for Laura's donors are of the highest quality , on archival paper, printed from negatives now owned (by donation before she became so ill) by The Warhol Museum) Available for donations of $165 with postage locally and $215 international https://www.gofundme.com/f/helplaurasurvive with deepest appreciation xo Penny Arcade Here is the latest from Laura Rubin: I have been re-tested, and it appears that I have not recovered from the two advanced Samonella infections. Last week I had additional tests and there are now six infections; 4 advanced Samonella (para typhoid), plus Proteus, entero bacteria- e cloacae, that carry a 46% mortality rate. It appears that I have been infected for several months. I have not responded to the combinations of antibiotics that were prescribed thru August (resistant). The only treatment left is a series of injections. Nurses are coming to the house because I can not travel. There is a window of time that a patient can survive with these diseases. The doctor is lending money for the lab, nurse, medications, lab fees. He recommended IV treatments as a last resort. Photo: Penny Arcade East Village roof 1969 by Laura Rubin See more

Wonderful photos of Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, Penny Arcade, Andra Whips, Francis Francine and Mario Montez from photographer Laura Rubin and available for a good cause to help Laura with her difficult medical condition. xoPenny