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"...Joe Frank is an invaluable warrior who stands in defense of our fears, our vanities and our forever-eroding sense of ourselves. He transforms the everyday banality of the human comedy into an inspired weirdness that feeds on pathos and irony, and feels a lot like revelation. Sartre would have called it nausea; Frank makes it art."
Spin Magazine
"I came upon Joe Frank's work by accident a number of years ago while driving to my home in the Napa Valley late at night. I couldn't believe the originality and sheer brilliance of what I was hearing. From that moment on I became a dedicated Joe Frank fan."
Francis Ford Coppola
"[Joe Frank is] the most imaginative, literate monologist in radio today... If a microphone could capture the nether recesses of the modern psyche, it would sound like Frank's absurd comical excursions: Radio Vertigo."
The Village Voice
"Frank wanders deeply into the unconscious, producing Dionysian stories with a fairy-tale intensity whose effect is often funny, disturbing and deeply memorable."
Salon Magazine
"The very first national public radio show that I worked on was Joe Frank's. I think I was influenced in a huge way ... Before I saw Joe put together a show, I had never thought about radio as a place where you could tell a certain kind of story."
Ira Glass, This American Life
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About Joe
Radio and other Works
Joe Frank is an American radio personality, known best for his engaging, often philosophical, monologues and radio dramas. Frank started his career at WBAI in New York, and also served as a co-anchor for the weekend edition of National Public Radio's All Things Considered. In 1986, Frank moved to Santa Monica, California to work at KCRW, where he wrote, produced and performed in a weekly hour-long radio program, "Joe Frank: Work In Progress." Frank's radio programs are at times dark and frequently ironic, humorous and absurd. Adding to the atmosphere of Frank's monologues are loops of music over vocal drones.
While at KCRW, Frank received several awards including a Peabody Award and two Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards. One for his acclaimed three-part series "Rent-a-Family." In 2003, Joe Frank was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Third Coast International Audio Festival. Frank is also a Guggenheim Fellow.
Joe Frank continued to work at KCRW until 2002, and his work evolved as evidenced by the diverse series he produced starting with Work in Progress, then In The Dark , followed by Somewhere Out There, and finally The Other Side.
His body of work (over 230 hours) continues to be aired on many NPR stations in the United States and on XM Satellite Radio.
Currently, Frank is performing new works for the stage; he also creates new programs for his web site.
Frank has published two plays:
"The Decline Of Spengler" (New Directions 48, New York)
"A Tour Of The City" (Tanam Press, New York)
Short films based on Joe Frank programs:
"The Hitchhiker," "The Perfect
Woman," and "Jilted Lover." Joe wrote and also starred in these
features.
"Memories," directed by Paul Rachman, featured Larry Block, Ryan
Cutrona and Joe Frank.
Joe Frank is also the author of "The Queen of Puerto Rico and Other Stories," a collection of short stories based on his radio work published in 1993 by William Morrow.
Theatre productions and Live Performances
Three of Frank's radio plays were produced for theatre:
"A Tour of the City" by Theatre Anima in Montreal, Canada, translated into French, which
included performers from Cirque du Soleil
"Rent-a-Family" by Stages Trilingual Theatre in Los Angeles
Jerry's World Onstage by Infernal Bridegroom Productions, Houston Texas
Joe Frank Live Performances
Joe Frank has played to consistently sold-out audiences since 1988:
2007
"The Blue Room" Joe Frank with musicians at Largo, Los Angeles, CA, September - October. (6 weeks, every Wednesday night)
2004
The Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA, November 21, 2004 (2 performances)
Joe Frank in Performance, October 29, 2004, sponsored by the Third Coast International Audio Festival and WBEZ, Chicago, Illinois.
The UCLA Hammer Museum, a Joe Frank reading
LA Live - Natural History Museum - Joe performed "LA Woman" as part of a series featuring several Los Angeles
artists.
The Evidence Room, Los Angeles, 2 performances with Sandra Tsing Loh
2003
Joe Frank appeared in a one-man show entitled "One Night Stand" at South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, CA
Earlier performances
"Joe Frank: in Performance" at UCLA's Wadsworth Theatre (two
performances)
"Joe Frank at the Viper Room" in Hollywood, California
"Joe Frank Live" a three-month, twice-extended series of
one-man shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
"Joe Frank at the Marc Taper Auditorium" Los Angeles, California
Awards
- George Foster Peabody Award "For creating radio of style, substance and imagination..."
- Two Major Armstrong Awards for the "Most Innovative Radio Drama."
- Two Gold Awards from the International Radio Festival of New York.
- Two Corporation for Public Broadcasting Radio Program Awards for best Performance.
- Joe Frank received an Emmy Award for "Joe Frank: Storyteller" featured on public television station KCET.
- Lifetime Achievement Award from Third Coast International Audio Festival
- Mr. Frank is also a Guggenheim Fellow.