Kickoff of the 2010-2011 Gallery Reading Series

September Gallery from Alex Cunningham on Vimeo.


At the end of September I read at Columbia's Gallery reading series, which is to say I conned the Gallery folks into letting me read a second time.  Seeing as this will probably never happen again, I pleased as punch to present a recording of the reading.  Presumably more of these will be posted monthly, and while they won't feature me (and thus I won't be listening) they will feather other fine, young, talented folks.

Also, just for the record, neither the hecklers shouting during my piece nor my responses were planned ahead of time.  If I'm going to put a plant in the audience of a reading to disrupt things it's either going to be a streaker or a self-immolater.   

Storytelling: Roommates, Gay Chicken, and the Secret Service.

Erik Leavitt makes a house call from MonkeyFish Productions on Vimeo.


The folks at Monkey Fish Productions were kind enough to film me telling stories to a room full of strangers--meaning both people with whom I'm not acquainted and people I know who qualify as strange.  While I suspect that the real purpose of this video might have been to create footage for a youtube mashup of "KKK Took My Baby Away," I'm happy to use them for my own promotional purposes.

You can watch the video through the player above or at the following link: http://vimeo.com/15484571

Storytelling: Roaches, Killer Bees, and Other Creepy Crawlies

  Latest tracks by Eleavitt

This is a rough cut of a recording from a storytelling session that I did in Brooklyn in July 2010.  In an ideal world this file would have an equal amount of polish to go with its spit, but for the time being it sure beats nothing.  

The actual audio starts at the 1:00 mark.

If you prefer to listen to this in another format, you can follow the link here for yet another faulty imagining of an audio version of youtube: http://blip.tv/file/4164945

Mouth and Thistle Reading, Circa 2008

Mouth and Thistle Reading, Circa 2008 from Erik Leavitt on Vimeo.

I stumbled across this video of a reading that I did of my poetry thesis back in Idaho. Frankly, I dread watching myself too much to actually review the video myself, but I figure it might be an artifact of interest. Also, it's probably the only reading I'll ever get to do while using a flip chart of astrological woodcuts. Let's hope for that much, at least.

"Hive" up at Alice Blue

I recently pulled one over on the publishers of Alice Blue and hoodwinked them into publishing a short essay of mine. Presumably when they come to their sense like someone awakening from a chloroform rag they'll do the reasonable thing and remove the piece, but until then you can read it here: http://www.alicebluereview.org/main.html

UPDATE

Fiction Daily just reposted "Hive" for all their readers to fawn over like a coffee pot at an AA meeting. You can have a look at it here if you're too good for Alice Blue: http://fictiondaily.org/2010/05/24/short-121/#comments

Brooklyn Storytelling: Duluth

Duluth, Platey, and the best Thanksgiving ever. from Erik Leavitt on Vimeo.

A few months ago I took my first crack a public storytelling where a crowd was involved and a case of beer wasn’t. I called it a practice run for getting on stage at the Moth. Fortunately, my buddy Sean took a fine toothed comb to the recording and made me sound funnier and more professional than I was within the performance. You have to listen really hard to hear the audience booing me off stage.

This is just a segment of that little event. You can have a listen on the originating site here.

Mayor of Iggy's Lounge

Mayor of Iggy's Lounge from Erik Leavitt on Vimeo.


After spending a year blousing about Iggy's Karaoke Lounge in New York, I finally decided to put my "research" to good use and write a profile on one of the regulars. What follows is a recording of a reading I did for the Columbia Gallery Reading series in December of 2009.

Intro for Your Skull My Closet

The band Your Skull My Closet has consistently given me a chance to make an ass out of myself at the beginning of their shows, so it was only a matter of time before someone made a video of it.

They say that ending up naked on the internet is a bad thing. After this I'm not so sure they're wrong. Fortunately the band is good enough to wash away the bad taste of all that pasty, screaming meat.

Also, seeing as this performance is an homage Mister Charles Bernstein, here's one of CB's countings:

http://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Bernstein/Class/Bernstein-Charles_02_1-100_1969-remastered.mp3