Arts & Events

John O'Keefe--writer, performer, one of the mainstays of Berkeley's Blake Street Hawkeyes from the 70s--will be performing his story "The Sequined Lady" this Saturday night at 8 as a living room performance in the home of Pam & Phil Clevenger in San Francisco, the second in a series of salon performances the Clevengers are hosting. 

There's no admission charge; a hat will be passed at the end of the evening. More information & reservations on the Facebook events page "Living Room Performance by John O'Keefe" ( https://www.facebook.org/events/10957415674679/ ) 

O'Keefe's been performing "The Sequined Lady" over the past few years--he calls it "my 'Ulysses,' My 'Divine Comedy,' a journey both metaphysical and material." Performed by O'Keefe with great élan, it's the first-person story of a man in his 70s who decides to cash out his bank account and ship out, emulating his father, but first see "the legenday bipolar stripper, Tiffany," to ask her for a private dance to "bless the journey." While walking down Market Street, he sees how the city's transformed from the old Barbary Coast of sailor's lore into a harder, colder place, as he thinks of his past, of life with and without his long-dead mother, and what his life's become.  

(I've seen "Sequined Lady" twice, last summer in an artist's studio in Marin, and two weeks ago at the Exit Theatre in downtown San Francisco, produced by Footloose Productions. There was no real sense of repetition; each show was unique, the second time just another experience of something familiar. With spareness, an economy of means, out of which a torrent of language, perception, emotion and humor can flow--almost erupt!--O'Keefe held the audience in thrall both times with his fantastic evocation of reality from the inside OUT ... He's a true raconteur, but does more than talk about something--he shows it to you. Up close ... )