Great Men of Genius, Mike Daisey's Funny Series About Historical Figures
Thrust Stage / Berkeley Rep (2025 Addison Street Berkeley, CA 94704)
- Full Price:
- $30.00 - $50.00
- Our Price:
- $15.00 - $25.00*
* Additional fees apply.
All offers for Mike Daisey's Great Men of Genius have expired.
The last date listed for Mike Daisey's Great Men of Genius was Sunday June 24, 2007 / 7:00pm (Tesla and Hubbard).
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- Full Price:
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8 Goldstar Member Reviews
Goldstar Member
Written on Jun 26 2007Mike is brilliant. He is funny and his interspersing his own life into the lives of others was fantastic. It was just too long, especially with 2 famous people at the night time show. I do much better with people who stand rather than sit, although I understand the difficulty of that.
Joan T.
Written on Jun 25 2007This is a "thinking man's/woman's" show and I suspect university towns would be good audiences for the program. Daisey is a talented monologuist--his voice, his facial expressions, his hand gestures convey volumes. His approach--alternately info about the men of genius and presumably personal sketches from his life--is an interesting approach altho it takes a while to realize that's what he is doing. Funny, thought-provoking. My only additional comment would be that I think the sketches are a tad too long--60-65 mins is plenty. The two I viewed went 75 mins each with a short break between.
Goldstar Member
Written on Jun 25 2007HE is the genius!
Goldstar Member
Written on Jun 25 2007HE is the genius!
More Information About Mike Daisey's Great Men of Genius
Website
Quotes & Highlights
- “The master storyteller…one of the finest solo performers of his generation.” —New York Times
- “A charismatic performer, his shows have the insightful hostility of the best comedy.” —New Yorker
- “Sharp-witted, passionately delivered talk about matters both small and huge, at once utterly individual and achingly universal.” —Boston Globe
- “Watching a Mike Daisey show is a lot like staying up all night listening to the maniacal rantings of the smartest kid in your dorm holding forth on science, art, showmanship, megalomania and, of course, Star Trek…I laughed so hard I cried." —San Jose Mercury News
- “A large man of unstoppable energy, he’s a fast, inventive, exceptionally funny storyteller with crisp comic timing and an amazingly flexible voice.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Description
Masterful monologist Mike Daisey, creator/performer of 21 Dog Years: Doing Time at Amazon.com and The Ugly American, returns to Berkeley Rep with Great Men of Genius, a series of shows that apply his trademark wit and unique perspective to fascinating historical figures. In alternating shows, Mike profiles the legendary lives of P.T. Barnum, Bertolt Brecht, L. Ron Hubbard and Nikola Tesla, exploring the nature of genius and the pride, insanity and chauvinism that bind these men together.
Bertolt Brecht: playwright, poet, lover of women and certifiable cad who escaped Nazi Germany, sympathized with the Communists, failed in Hollywood, was persecuted by McCarthy and redefined world theater.
P.T. Barnum: gifted entrepreneur, showman, raconteur, hoaxster, freakshow and circus promoter who changed the face of nineteenth century America through blatant, shameless lying.
Nikola Tesla: mad genius, brilliant scientist and visionary who sparred with Thomas Edison and died insane and penniless writing love sonnets to pigeons after bringing the world electricity as we know it.
L. Ron Hubbard: bigamist, occultist and charismatic science fiction author-turned-guru who took 1950s popular psychiatry by storm and went on to create the Church of Scientology: the most celebrity-driven and litigious organization on Earth.
Each monologue runs 75 minutes.
Created and performed by Mike Daisey
Directed by Jean-Michele Gregory
About Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey has been called “the master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by the New York Times for his monologues, including 21 Dog Years, Invincible Summer, Truth, Great Men of Genius, Monopoly!, The Ugly American, I Miss the Cold War and Wasting Your Breath, which he has performed Off-Broadway, across the country and around the world. He’s been a guest on "The Late Show with David Letterman"; his work has been heard on the BBC, NPR and the National Lampoon Radio Hour; and his groundbreaking series All Stories Are Fiction is available through Audible.com.
Currently he’s a commentator for NPR’s "Day To Day"; a contributor to WIRED, Slate and Salon; a web contributor to Vanity Fair and Radar Magazine; and his writing appears in the anthology The Best Tech Writing 2006. His first film, "Layover," is being distributed by Lars von Trier’s company, Zentropa, and he stars in the Lawrence Krauser feature "Horrible Child." His first book, 21 Dog Years: A Cubedweller’s Tale, was published by the Free Press and he is working on a second book, Great Men of Genius, adapted from his monologues about genius and megalomania in the lives of Bertolt Brecht, P.T. Barnum, Nikola Tesla and L. Ron Hubbard.
About the Ticket Supplier: Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Known for its amazing and adventurous audience, the nonprofit has provided a home for emerging and established artists since 1968. With two stages and a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, Berkeley Rep premieres exhilarating new plays and reimagined classics. In the last five years alone, the company has helped send five shows to Broadway: Green Day's American Idiot, Bridge & Tunnel, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), Passing Strange and Wishful Drinking. Come see tomorrow's plays today at Berkeley Rep.
Berkeley Rep operates two performance spaces: the Roda Theatre, a state-of-the-art 600-seat proscenium theatre, and the intimate, 400-seat Thrust Stage. The Theatre is located in the heart of downtown Berkeley's arts district, just a half block from the Berkeley BART station, near lots of restaurants, cafe, pubs, and cool retailers.