This is me performing on Saturday at the Fifth Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street in Liberty Square. Photo courtesy of Owen Long.

This being the first day of the Trump presidency, it seemed as auspicious a time as any to premiere my latest iteration of my one-man play HOW TO STOP THE EMPIRE WHILE KEEPING YOUR DAY JOB–THE PRESIDENT TRUMP EDITION. I was unable to book a gig today, January 20th, because, well, I have a sort of day job and I need to keep it by showing up. Also, to be honest, I wanted to wait til the last possible minute to let the play loose on the world, because my sense was that it should be up-to-the-minute fresh. Did I think of a funny riposte two weeks ago? Too bad–somebody else probably did, too, and in any case the incident would be forgotten by today. I also had the technical challenges to work with. My sound system could be better and I could use a real webcam. But I could do the performance today, on the day that Donald J Trump takes the White House. So there’s that. 

Need some help on that lighting: how to stop the empire on video live feed.

So instead of showing up and doing the play live, I decided to do a live video broadcast. FB now allows for streaming video from individuals. It’s not easy to get used to. I decided I’d try to do it close-up–there’s nothing all that expressive about my hands, and you don’t need to know that I’m wearing gym shorts. In terms of content, I remain true to the original play, which dates back to the early days of Occupy Wall Street. I am not going to please the people who still feel allegiance to the other people who ran against Trump. In my mind, ‘Jerry’ has no hope for the electoral system, for good reason. And I tried to convey that in the piece. I’m channeling the people who inspired me to write the play. And while I can’t tell you everything about them, I can tell you that activists aren’t waiting for 2018 or 2020, and they aren’t going to involve themselves in ‘working in a system’ that betrayed them. I explain why in the 40+ minutes of the play.

In the meantime, I am (mostly) ready to tour the piece. You can see the play right now (as it stands) by going on my Facebook Page for the Brooklyn Culture Jam. Comments are encouraged (here or on Facebook). I have a feeling I’ll be updating this on a regular basis. I apologize for the parts of the performance where I lost my train of thought. But the play has content that you need if you want to change the game in the coming months.

Give us a view!