Spalding Gray- Crazy Brilliant

I can't believe I never knew about Spalding Gray before watching "Swimming to Cambodia" in class. I was really into monologues in high school... Lily Tomlin/Wagner's "Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe", anything by Laurie Anderson, et al. The monologue or life narrative just seems to be one of the most genuine ways of talking about life... life as filtered through our personal experiences, neuroses, hopes, fears. The linear narrative tidies things up too neatly. That's not how my brain works, or how I think anyone's brain works, so it doesn't really resonate with my lived experience or perception of reality. One's person is also a perfect axis to go off on all these tangents. It is a clear and concise enough base, but allows the writer to go in so many directions... essentially, as many directions as one is capable of imagining since one's imagination is part of one's person. And Spalding Gray also has extreme stamina. His monologue while brilliantly intertwining humor and despair, also was an extreme physical feat and simply entertaining to watch on that level. It was amazing that his performance, along with his amazing story-writing, was enough to sustain a feature length film shot with an extremely minimal set- table, glass of water. When it began, I was sure I was going to lose interest quickly, but he was such a captivating story teller and watching him perform this task of endurance seemed important-- seeing him sweat, become parched, yet never fail in keeping up the great speed at which he spoke. Simple camera gestures like dissolves to black also helped in giving one's eyes or brain enough of a brief visual rest to keep one visually engaged. I will be interested to explore other works of his.