Turn back the hands of time Charlie Varon's Comic Bonbons #17: Turn back the hands of time Turn Back the Hands of Time 00:00 / 04:43 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Special thanks to J.P. Tilleman Coming up Sun 1/12/25... Free webinar w/me & Kenny Yun

Charlie Varon's satire and other mischief Charlie Varon 's Comic Bonbons #6: Alan Watts, "We Am" We Am 00:00 / 03:03 Written by Charlie Varon & David Ford Performed by Charlie Varon Keep the bonbons coming! Email me when the next one is ready! Email Subscribe

"Grandpa at The Moth" Charlie Varon's Comic Bonbons #23: "Grandpa at The Moth" Grandpa at The Moth 00:00 / 06:51 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Collaboration: J.P. Tilleman Special Thanks: David Ford Serving suggestion: Brew a cup of green tea. Take three slow sips. Close your eyes, and begin listening. Next live show at The Magic Patio in SF - date TBA

Storytelling + community We Are All Storytellers A performance series presented by Charlie Varon and benefiting Or Shalom Jewish Community of San Francisco Saturday evening, April 6, 2024 at Noe Valley Ministry in SF Storytellers: Evelyn Martinez, Rabbi Me'irah Iliinsky, Rabbi Dan Goldblatt, Charlie Varon Buy tickets “We are storytelling creatures, and should have been named Homo narrator , rather than the often inappropriate Homo sapiens . " - Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist and evolutionary biolo gist (1941-2002)

The Nocturnists Charlie has narrated audio tours for museums around the country. MFA_Boston_FrayFelix_Intro charlievaronart charlievaronrockwell charlievaronphoenixfamilytour Clients (partial list): Antenna International * Art Institute of Chicago * Blue & Gold Fleet Bay Cruise * de Young Museum * Earprint Productions * Getty Museum * Guggenheim Museum * High Museum of Art * Jewish Museum of New York * Los Angeles County Museum of Art * Metropolitan Museum of Art * Morgan Library & Museum * Museum of Fine Arts, Boston * Philadelphia Museum of Art * San Francisco Museum of Modern Art * Walters Art Museum Available to record on short notice. Can work with your production team or mine. Contact: charlie@charlievaron.com 415 648 6782

1-on-1 writing coaching with Charlie Varon The world is not set up for us to do our best work as artists. The odds are against us. But with commitment, structure and guidance, we can change those odds. "Not just a great director and writing coach, Charlie helps me navigate my creative life. He is a therapist for artists." Emily Silverman , M.D. , founder of The Nocturnists medical storytelling series "My memoir was stalled for a decade. Thanks to Charlie's guidance, I now have 20,000 words under my belt." Barbara Saunders , writer and writing coach "Charlie has been my collaborator, director and mentor for 20 years. He has helped me stay on my creative path with dignity, self-reflection and joy." Dan Hoyle , playwright and performer “Charlie Varon helps me explore, deepen, and find joy in the creative process. He is a master of character development for both the page and the stage.” Kenny Yun , solo theater artist Email me if you'd like to find out more about my coaching/mentoring, and set up a free 20" consultation .

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"Out of Office" Charlie Varon's Comic Bonbons #20: "The grass is green and the sky is blue" The grass is green and the sky is blue 00:00 / 02:02 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Collaboration: J.P. Tilleman Special Thanks: David Ford Get tix now Buy before May 1 and get $5 off w code COCOA More announcements #1 Don't postpone writing your memoir! Say What You Mean Before You Die New session starts May 1 #2 Can't stand what's happening in this country? Life is better when you're doing something to change it Here's one place to start

Charlie Varon's satire and other mischief Comic Bonbon #1 About this page A few months ago, my friend Joe Dunn told me, "The world needs your voices, your comedy." A podcast, we decided. But, 20th century man that I am, I quickly got overwhelmed and the idea languished. Then my friend Emily Silverman (herself an award-winning podcaster, and a millennial) told me I could just put up my audio pieces on my website. That seemed doable. I thought, One piece, once in a while, each piece less than 5 minutes. Comic bonbons. So here goes... Comic Bonbon #1: Gunther's Dream It's January 2021. The depth of the pandemic. The medical storytelling podcast The Nocturnists, has put out a call for dreams. Physicians should make audio recordings of their dreams and nightmares, and upload them; some will be included in an upcoming episode. So, one day I'm talking to the podcast's host, my friend Emily Silverman (mentioned above), and she tells me they've just received this amazing dream from this German-accented physician. I didn't have the heart to tell her... Gunther's Dream 00:00 / 04:46 Please feel free to share this bonbon with friends! For the next bonbon, click here

In the fall of 2002, Charlie Varon discussed the new performance form he and David Ford have devised. QUESTION : How did you come up with this new way of creating theater? CHARLIE : In the summer of 2001, I found myself artistically adrift. I asked Stephanie Weisman to book me for two weekends at The Marsh. The plan was, David Ford and I would create a show from scratch in ten days, and I'd perform whatever we came up with. I hoped it might give me the idea for my next play. The process was the most intense and thrilling of my life. It was full of surprises. But perhaps the biggest one was that I didn't end up wanting to write a play. I wanted to keep working in this new form. QUESTION : How long does it take to make SOUP? CHARLIE : Last time, ten days. This time we're giving ourselves a month. But a short process, with a deadline, is good. It forces me to work intuitively. When I did plays, I'd take a couple of years on each, writing, honing, indulging my perfectionism. Now, in middle age, I'm becoming an imperfectionist! QUESTION : What excites you about the form? CHARLIE : It's utterly unpredictable! I begin with an idea, or a line, or a voice for a character. Then I start improvising, David asks questions, we go back and forth. We end up someplace I could never have imagined. We keep doing this, until we have six or eight monologues. Then I go onstage, with absolutely no idea what an audience will make of it! QUESTION : What did the audience make of it? CHARLIE : People loved the form, the risk of it, all the topical stuff, the comedy, and the mix of pieces, from satire to storytelling. The fact that we came at them from so many different angles. So we extended the show, and recorded it, and now it's out on CD .