Fwd: Life Gone Viral – Is it really that far-fetched? Our play refers to many new technologies & Internet phenomena. Some audience members think we've made this stuff up. We haven't. Click on the photos below for samples of each You Tube genre. End of life videos Miniature unarmed drones Cell Phone Spying Nipple piercing ...and yes, our own "Cancer of Blame" More links for the truly curious... End of life videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2JaNAwY9gE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYY9WJ-SaxY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRYnlc2v9z8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeE2xg3REtA Miniature unarmed drones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkpnwnWSnnI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSCLBG9KeX4&feature=relmfu Cellphone spying: http://spousespysoftware.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3vL55xAtow&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_QVulN9MGs&feature=fvwrel Nipple piercing videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt4nTzxCup8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rr-jmNft3k&feature=related

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

< Back #6 Alan Watts, "We Am" November 22, 2023 Written by Charlie Varon & David Ford Performed by Charlie Varon We Am 00:00 / 03:03 Keep the bonbons coming! Email me when the next one is ready! Email Subscribe Previous Next

< Back #9 Bernie's Strange-Bedfellows Dream January 7, 2024 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Bernie's Strange-Bedfellows Dream 00:00 / 02:29 Keep the bonbons coming! Email me when the next one is ready! Email Subscribe Attention, writers and performers: I have openings for mentoring/coaching starting in February. Previous Next

"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

Small, rigorous class for writers wanting to push a project forward "Thank you for your classes! They have enriched and expanded my world." I've been teaching writing and performance workshops since 1993. I love the creative process, and my goal is to help you take the next step in your work. Start the New Year WRITE Being a writer is about time. Here's what I've learned about time in my 40 years as a writer: (2 min video) The odds are against us as writers. The world is not set up for us to do our best work, or to go as far as we might. To change those odds, I'm offering Start the New Year WRITE But together, we can improve the odds. Make appointments to write. Commit to a month of working on a single project. And don't write alone. Write in community. Builds on the successful Wednesday morning writing community that has been going since 2020. 2-minute video tells you what I've learned about time in my 40 years as a writer: I designed Start the New Year WRITE to get you out of the artistic waiting room and into the writing room. Write at specific times Write in community give you appointments to write in community a schedule to write, a chance to a that gives you a schedule and a writing community. and writing community that Imagine this: It’s February 1, 2024. You've written 2500 to 10,000 words of your memoir/novel/monologue/play/standup routine. Not only that. You have a plan of how to keep going. "I have a lot of ideas, but I'm a champion procrastinator." " I want to write what I've learned in my life but I don't know where to start." "I can't tell if what I'm writing is any good. " Tw o scenarios 2. It’s February 1, 2024 and you are still stuck. The problem As writers we have dry periods or get stuc k. Or never start. Guilt/dread/procrastination sets in. We get further from what we want to do . Get time on your side Most writers do better when they have regular appointments to write. But that can still be lonely. This workshop gives you 10 appointments to write in January 2024, in the company of other writers. (On Zoom. For writers, Zoom can be a gift.) 1:1 sessions / goa l setting You'll have two 30-minute sessions with me to assess your project and set achievable goals. Genre You can write in any genre you like (except poetry). Entry By application - see below. Fee $550 by Venmo or check (note that there are no refunds for this class) To appl y: Send me an email with the following: (1) what project you plan to work on & what stage it's at now (2) goal: where you'd like to be at the end of the 8 weeks, and whom you'd like to share your work with at that point (3) a commitment to attend every class and be on time (4) a commitment to write at least 500 words per week and email me your new writing the day before class (so I can put it up on the screen during class)

Overcome writer's block and loneliness by creating in community! Boost your writing to the next level. "Thank you for your classes! They have enriched and expanded my world." I've been teaching writing and performance workshops since 1993. I love the creative process, and my goal is to help you take the next step in your work. Creative Writing with Charlie Varon 6 Mondays, May 9 - June 20, 2022 (no class May 23) 7-9pm Pacific time via Zoom During the course of the 6-week workshop, you will... Email me one piece you've written (up to 1250 words) I'll email you suggestions for revision, and you do a rewrite (in 2 hours or less) In class you read it to the group, and then I give supportive feedback Each evening you will also... Write to prompts Have a conversation with another writer, where you can read something you've written Hear some thoughts from me about the craft of writing Note that you can write in any genre you like, and there is no class performance. Payment is on a sliding scale via PayPal or check: Employed/doing okay financially: $300 Unemployed/underemployed/financially distressed: $175 Somewhere in between: $225 Sign up by May 1 and take $25 off your fee! Note: There are no refunds for this workshop To enroll: 1. Click my PayPal link and pay the appropriate amount 2. Email me to let me know you've done that. I'll send you Zoom links and other information!

< Back #20 The grass is green and the sky is blue April 18, 2025 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Collaboration: J.P. TillemanSpecial Thanks: David Ford The grass is green and the sky is blue 00:00 / 02:02 Keep the bonbons coming! Email me when the next one is ready! Email Subscribe 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 Previous Next

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)

How I became part man, part eagle My Political Rebirth (Oct 2025) The great labor organizer (accidentally) taught me how to talk to voters Last month, The New Yorker ran a piece called "How Jane McAlevey Transformed the Labor Movement." She also transformed how I make phone calls to voters. Here's the unlikely story of how that happened. I am a phone banker. I call voters and try to get them to vote for Democrats. I do not like doing this. I do it because our democracy is in trouble. I used to hate phone banking even more than I do now. What changed? That I can tell you in two words. Jane McAlevey. It’s April 2020. I’m calling voters in Arizona on behalf of two Democratic candidates for the state legislature. I’ve hit a long string of no-answers, half an hour of nothing. I go out to the garden for a break. Then I hear my phone ringing, inside the house. I run in, pick up, and hear a voice. "You called me?" A voter I hadn't reached is calling me back. I’m a bit flustered, look at my laptop screen to remember the names of the candidates, launch into my spiel. I say the candidates want to know what issues were important to voters. "How do you mean?" he said. I hear myself say, "Like – If you were in charge, what are the first three things you would change?" Immediately he says: "We have to enforce speed limits." He talks, energetically, about that, for a few minutes. "What else?" I say. "Education.” He talks, I listen. What he says gives me the opening I need. I tell him funding education is a top issue for the candidates I’m calling for. I give him a bit more detail, then say: "I think these candidates would be a good match for you." The conversation stays alive and energized to the end, I of course repeat the candidates' names multiple times. I think I got his vote. That magic question — "If you were in charge…" — yielded such different results from the generic "What issues are of most concern to you?" ! Only afterward did I realize where I’d gotten that question. A couple weeks earlier I was listening to Ezra Klein’s podcast. He had Jane McAlevey on – the legendary labor organizer. Ezra Klein: Walk me through a typical interaction with a worker, specifically one who may disagree with you. Jane McAlevey: When I start a conversation with a worker, I’m going to start by telling them exactly why I’m there. There’s no bullshitting: I’m here because coworkers of yours called up and they’re in and figuring out how you can make things better in the workplace. That’s it. I’m being very honest about why I’m on your do or. The very next thing I’m going to do is ask them a question: If you could change three things at work tomorrow, what would they be? * That question had apparently lodged in my brain and, when that voter called me back, it flew out of my mouth! I continued using that question, with good results. I told the phone bank captain, who passed it on to the campaign, which incorporated it into their phone bank script. A couple other campaigns have also incorporated that question or some version of it. I sent Jane a message telling her all this, and she replied: What a GLORIOUS email! Go, fight, and keep on winning! We have so much work to do. Be healthy, safe and strong * It's July 2022. I'm once again calling Arizona. I reach a woman I'll call Kara who, according to the information on my screen, is 21 and lives in Scottsdale. I ask her what she would do if she were in charge. "Protect reproductive freedom." No pause, no hesitation. She is angry about Dobbs , and what it's going to do to abortion access in Arizona. S he loves her 3-year-old son more than anything in the world, but if she were to get pregnant now, she wouldn't want to have another child. From her voice, her manner, her self-confidence, I picture a young white woman, broad-shouldered, blond, with a ponytail. Kara has a friend who's studying to be a Catholic priest. She tells me about her conversations with him, challenging him. Now he's come around to accepting that a woman's choice shouldn't be up to him, or the Church. Okay, abortion rights, I say. What else would you change? Education. Arizona's schools aren't good enough. Kara didn't a get a great education, she tells me, but it was decent. But she has friends who got a lousy education, and some of them have become Trump supporters. She still talks to them, but it's hard. Mainly she wants a good education for her 3-year-old son, and for all the kids of his generation. What else? Voting rights. She's been circulating petitions to protect voting rights in Arizona. I realize I'm talking to a born organizer. She's passionate, direct, a great speaker, a natural storyteller. I tell Kara she needs to run for something. "That's the best compliment I've ever gotten," she says. We agree that now is probably not the time for her to run for office -- she's a single parent, working, going to school -- but I insist that she consider it in the future. I ask about her friends, the ones she's getting to sign the voting rights petition. Are they all registered to vote? We work out a plan - she's going to post on Facebook, and offer every friend a dollar if they register. Facebook's not enough, I say, and insist she follow up with phone calls. Kara and I talked for nearly half an hour. That conversation was, in one sense, waiting to happen. But without that opening question, it wouldn't have. * It's October 2023. I'm calling voters in Virginia on behalf of Phil Hernandez, a Democratic candidate for state legislature. I reach a voter I’ll call Jennifer. The information on the screen told me she’s 66 years old. From her voice, I was pretty sure she was Black. “If you could change one or two things...” “Inflation. The cost of food, gas, rent.” There was anger in her voice. Fifteen dollars is not a high enough minimum wage. Yes, women should have control of their bodies, but what good is that if you don’t have enough to eat? The woman in the house next door is in her eighties and doesn’t have enough money for food. Jennifer kept going. And it’s terrible what’s happening to people in these wars, but why are we sending them money when our people at home can’t make ends meet? I listened, reflected back what I was hearing, asked her if it would be okay if I shared what she was saying with Phil Hernandez. “It’s important to Phil to know what people in the district are thinking.” Yes, that would be okay, Jennifer said. I’ve found that some people, once they feel heard, are open to hearing from me. I gently tried to steer the conversation to Phil Hernandez. Jennifer told me she’d voted for Democrats in the past, but now she’s planning not to vote. “They promise a lot, but nothing changes.” I asked her to tell me more about that, and she hung up. * So what happened in that call? Was it a failure? A confession about that call: I didn’t use the phone bank script I’d been given. Here’s how that script started: Hi! This is _________ with Phil Hernandez's campaign. Can I speak with __________? Great! I'm a volunteer with Phil's campaign. He is running for the Virginia House so he can go to Richmond to represent you, your family and this community. Can Phil count on your vote in the November election? If I’d gone with that opening, Jennifer would have hung up on me right away. * Over the last couple years, my own, loose, improvisational phone banking “script” has evolved. No matter what issue someone is talking about, no matter what side of the issue they’re on, I take notes. I tell the person I'm taking notes. I ask them if it would be okay to pass them on to the candidate. They always say yes. And I always pass them on. Sometimes I type them up and put them in the “Notes” field on the screen in front of me. Sometimes I put them in an email to the candidate. Sometimes, as was the case with Jennifer, I suggest the candidate follow up with a phone call: She voted for Dems in the past, now is so frustrated she's planning not to vote. If you call, she might get the sense that Democrats do care. That might earn her vote. * Think of it this way: Every time you call a voter, you are setting in motion a little play. There are two actors. Most phone bank scripts cast you, the caller, as a Salesperson. And the person who picks up the phone: they’re the person you’re trying to sell. What Jane McAlevey taught me is that we can change the play. The person picking up the phone is not a customer. Not the means to our end. They are a Member of Society . They have information w e need. That makes them the expert, the protagonist. Which is how it should be in a democracy. Thank you, Jane. November 12, 2023 Find out about: My coaching & mentoring for writers My free online writing community

Before a show, after a show: maintaining sanity as a performer Spiritual Exercises for Solo Performers Stage fright. Adrenaline. Vulnerability. Before a show. After a show. A few practices I've found useful. To view or download the printable booklet, click here . STORYTELLING SPIRITUAL EXERCISES FOR SOLO PERFORMERS Political Theater Now I remember seeing Mother Courage at Berkeley Rep a year or two ago. The acting and production were excellent! But the transaction seemed off. I would have preferred a documentary film about one of our current Mothers Courage, living in Iraq or Congo. The transaction at Berkeley Rep seemed comfortable. An affirmation that by watching this play and getting it, we audience members know something about the world and are on the right side of things. Some days I wonder how much theater (and other art forms) consists of flattering its audience. Offering comfort food of one sort or another. I look at the world. Who can fathom the global economy? The future of disease? Climate change? Korea? Megacities? The massive behavior modification experiment called the Internet? I inspect my world view. Totally inadequate to the times. So for me the question is always: How do I let myself write from inside the question, and resist any impulse to offer an easy resolution, facile answers, or stale truths? When I'm doing my work right, my characters take me to places I wouldn't otherwise go, and say and do things that scare and trouble me. And now I must indict myself. Last fall, my agent got me a weekend's worth of gigs doing Rush Limbaugh in Night School in Kirkland, WA and Tacoma. I printed out the 3-year-old script -- which was itself a 10th anniversary revision. Which meant that many of the words were already 13 years old. Reading the script, I laughed. Some good jokes! It was like reading someone else's play. One of the nice surprises of time passing. You get to be the audience of your own work. I memorized, I did character work, I purchased pears. Politically the play felt dated. I cut out some lines about voting machines in Florida. But satire really wants to be fresh -- to have not just the absence of the stale but the startling new. And RLNS did not meet that test. I rationalized doing the show on the grounds that it's a well-wrought story, it's funny, and people need to laugh. And I need to buy groceries. But that is a rationalization. One night recently in my solo performance class, a guy about my age did a piece about his first job as a newspaper reporter, in the early 1980s, in a small town in Connecticut whose main industry -- silverware making -- had just collapsed. The Hunt brothers had bought up silver futures, causing the price to skyrocket, and the industry fled overseas. The performance piece was full of the texture of decay -- potholes, eviction notices posted on plywood doors of houses, bars full at 2pm. A girl rides a motorcycle without a helmet, suffers brain damage, Reagan's Medicare cuts prevent her from getting the rehab she needs. The reporter writes a series of stories about this and wins an award; some action is taken; and there is a death. So why was I riveted? Why didn't this all feel dated? Maybe it was the presence of the man who had lived it. The events occurred 25 years ago, but he's here, still struggling to understand, wrestling with the past in the present, asking me to join him on the journey. Maybe it was the fact that it forced me, uncomfortably, to see afresh. "Holy shit, I lived through this! I lived through Reagan and decimation of social programs and deindustrialization!" Or maybe it was just that he told it well. (Winter 2008) POLITICAL THEATER NOW

Alan Watts: "Puzzling Evidence" Charlie Varon 's Comic Bonbons #13: Alan Watts, "Puzzling Evidence" Alan Watts - Puzzling Evidence 00:00 / 06:00 Written & performed by Charlie Varon Collaboration: J.P. Tilleman Attention, writers and performers: I have openings for mentoring/coaching .