Terrible performance art: an insider's perspective

Is the pandemic performance art?

Interdisciplinary artist Kristina Wong sees parallels between the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the “worst performance art” she’s encountered in her career. Wong’s sharp sense of humor and clever writing mean that she gets in some good digs at the more ridiculous side of performance art, but don’t let her funny fool you: this is an incisive piece on the role of performance, empathy, trauma, and art in all our lives.

Working as a mall elf is not always merry

Humorist David Sedaris’s classic radio piece on his time working as Crumpet the Elf at Santaland in a Macy’s revealed a darker side of Christmas, filled with tantrums and fights. First broadcast in 1992, Santaland Diaries was Sedaris’s breakout story, and NPR has annually aired the story ever since.

‘The Artist Is Present’ is one of the most famous performance pieces in history

The exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art invited visitors to sit in silence in the company of a master performer. Many shed tears or gestured affectionately, claiming to have felt a profound connection with Abramović. (This resource contains some artistic nudity.)

Watch Salvador Dalí's surreal appearance on 'The Dick Cavett Show'

During this 1971 talk show episode, Dalí enters the stage with his pet anteater, flinging it onto an actress' lap. He proceeds to talk strangely about the significance of anteaters and his mustache. Many argue such public appearances were examples of Dalí's performance art, where he made real interactions surreal.

Writer Gay Talese has unorthodox practices for researching his stories

Since Talese began working at the New York Times in the 1950s, he has woven eccentric details into his stories about the people he covers. His immersive journalistic methods, such as living in a nudist colony, sparked controversy, but also helped him uncover aspects of people's lives.

Joaquin Phoenix's bizarre 2009 interview on Letterman was part of an elaborate performance

The actor appeared humorless and pouty in the late-night appearance. Host Dave Letterman seemed put off by his guest's behavior, but poked fun at him throughout the interview. Phoenix later returned and revealed he was playing a part in a mockumentary called "I’m Still Here," which satirized celebrity culture.

Jean-Paul Sartre was amazed by American jazz

The French philosopher wrote about a 1947 trip to a New York jazz club as a transcendent experience, describing the magic of the relationship between performer and audience: "You shout, they shriek, they whistle, they are possessed, you are possessed."

Before 'SNL,' producer Lorne Michaels was a performer

Michaels was a costar on "The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour," a popular show on the Canadian network CBC. As these clips show, it was a standard variety show, something Michaels would intentionally react against with "SNL."

In the '60s, Bob Dylan often trolled the media, mocking its focus on celebrity

This 1965 press conference, just before the release of the landmark "Bringing It All Back Home," illustrates how fed up he'd become, laughing at inane questions and offering snide responses. When asked if he thinks of himself more as a singer or as a poet, he responds, "I think of myself more as a song and dance man."

A teenage Springsteen struggled with his father

Springsteen's father didn't understand why his son was interested in pursuing a music career, leading to a tense relationship that was often exacerbated by his father's struggles with mental illness. Embed: Podcast

Performance artist Thierry Mandon turns solitary domestic scenes into spectacless

Suspended in the air and attached to severed buildings, artist Mandon appears engrossed in his book while lying in bed or sitting at a table. Mandon satirizes our everyday habits while attracting and amusing passersby.

Conan's 2000 commencement speech offers comfort and humor to young Harvard graduates

In the spring of 2000, famous late-night talk show host and comedian Conan O'Brien gave a hilarious, thoughtful speech to the graduating class at Harvard, where he graduated from in 1985. He warns that once adult life begins, any stupid mistakes made by a Harvard grad will be severely mocked. He also recounts his post-grad failures and how important they were in his success. The speech has been noted ever since as a classic example of both wisdom and foolishness.

Steve Martin was a wildly successful stand-up—and abruptly quit doing it

In the ‘70s, few stand-up comics were bigger than Steve Martin, who released multiplatinum albums and regularly sold out arenas. As he detailed in his 2007 memoir, Martin had grown disillusioned with his success as a stand-up and pivoted into film.

The drama of the car dealership quota

Car salespersons are often under a ton of pressure to meet quotas at their dealership, at least partly explaining why they are known to stoop to such lows to sell cars. In this now legendary podcast episode, "This American Life" host Ira Glass and...

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Banksy turned graffiti into high art

The anonymous artist is renowned for his puckish, often stenciled street art. He's also known for the eye-popping sales those works command once they're up for auction. This podcast dives into the history of the singular artist, exploring how a British graffiti artist became a cultural icon.

Listen to an interview with Martha Graham from 1974

This interview, from the "Bernard Gabriel Views the Music Scene" program, features a candid conversation in which Graham discusses how her career did not take off until her 30s and how she learned to ignore criticism.

A collection of Prince's hilarious encounters with comedians

Charlie Murphy's story about Prince on "Chappelle's Show" became an oft-quoted touchstone in the 2000s, but it's not the only funny story a comedian has about the Purple One. This article collects some of the best from Conan O'Brien, David Alan Grier, and, yes, Charlie Murphy.

Watch one of country music's most infamous performances

Jerry Lee Lewis started in the 50s as a supercharged rock ‘n’ roll star. His career imploded when it was revealed he’d married his teenaged cousin. By the time he was invited to the Grand Ole Opry, he’d reinvented himself as a country troubadour and promised to play by the venue’s strict rules. But as this infamous performance shows, Lewis couldn’t help bringing some of his past to the stage, much to the audience’s delight.

Stand-up comedy podcasts have realigned political campaigns

Some of the world’s most popular podcasts, like “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von,” are hosted by stand-up comedians. They also now play a role in American politics, with representatives, senators, and even presidents taking part in their freewheeling conversations

Even at the height of his popularity, Spielberg felt like an outsider

By 1992, Spielberg was already one of the most successful names in Hollywood, but he had trouble kicking the alienation he’d felt as a kid. In this interview from 1992, on the cusp of the biggest year of his career, he talks about that feeling and how it motivated him.

Explore the unexpected ways people use public libraries in this 'This American Life' episode

Libraries serve as far more than book repositories. This episode follows a family experiencing homelessness that spent months living in their local library, Iranian students reuniting with family across the US-Canada border because the library straddled both countries, and a Vermont man who built his own library to house unpublished manuscripts.

Discussing his early life, David Attenborough describes how his TV career began by chance

Growing up on the University College, Leicester campus, where his father was principal, Attenborough uncovered specimens such as coiled shells in the rocks and limestone of the surrounding Midlands, which sparked his interest in nature. A week after not landing an interview for a radio job he had applied for, Attenborough was offered a position on "a new thing called television."

Stephen King, Octavia Butler, and Anthony Burgess all grew to regret books they'd published

Some, like Butler, regretted writing predictable, trope-heavy books. Others, like King and Burgess, regretted that what they'd intended as satire had been misunderstood as endorsements.

'Do one thing every day that scares you.'

-Mary Schmich (1953-present), a columnist for the Chicago Tribune

A professor explores the 21st-century impact of Gilbert and Sullivan

Willard Spiegelmanis, a former English professor at Southern Methodist University, details his childhood love for musical theater legends Gilbert and Sullivan, known for operettas like "The Pirates of Penzance" and "The Mikado," and profiles the theater companies keeping their shows alive.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.