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"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

"To me, he's what radio is really for ... his show makes me think he's getting to some great truth ... so completely captivating and just unlike anything else." -- David Sedaris, Writer

Listen to the full conversation between Ira Glass and David Sedaris

Joe's introduction to the Series "Somewhere Out There"

"When endowed with profound religious feeling, your skin becomes transparent and your blood begins to turn a thin watery hue until the light of the sun streaming in the window passes entirely through you. At last, having evolved into pure spiritual energy, nothing remains of your existence but a small pile of dirty underwear, damp socks, rumpled garments, a driver's license, credit cards and perhaps a small nail clipper.

"This is what happens when you achieve oneness with the air, with the sky, with the whole world and everything in it. No longer tormented by nagging questions such as the conundrum of imploding ethical systems as expressed in post-war German soup recipes, you feel a sense of ecstatic exhilaration. It is this condition of bliss that Joe Frank: Somewhere Out There will attempt to elicit in its listeners."

Shows

About the Programs

Long-time favorites with public radio audiences, Joe Frank's programs are sometimes dark, sometimes absurdist, sometimes solo recitations, sometimes ensemble pieces performed and/or improvised by actors, sometimes voices of real people heard in real situations - whether man-in-the-street interviews or phone conversations with lovers or strangers.

All or just one of these within the span of a single hour can comprise a Joe Frank show, always presented as multi-layered soundscapes intermixed with hypnotic, rhythmic music. Tackling philosophical or spiritual questions, the programs are real and surreal timeless explorations of life, death, alienation, faith and love.

Joe Frank radio programs have evolved over the years. From 1986 until 2002, Joe produced four Series: "Work in Progress," "In the Dark," "Somewhere Out There," and "The Other Side." Each of these series are unique; a testament to Joe's dedication to exploring possibilities and not settling for simply "what works" and repeating it.

Even though the shows have evolved over time, one can listen to a program produced 20 years ago, and find it relevant today. This is a delightful surprise for first-time listeners and long-time fans alike.

From listeners:

"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 a singular voice in radio. What he has done that is so amazing and impressive to me is to take this singular voice out of my radio and put it inside my head. As I listen, Frank's show invades me and becomes my own thought process. It's hypnotic, psychotic, neurotic, sad, terrifying, and some of the funniest stuff I have ever heard anywhere. I can't think of another radio performer who has come close to achieving this kind of alchemy." --Charlie Kaufman

"Joe Frank is an original whose work has helped form some of the most eccentric, dark and interesting parts of public radio's personality." --Terry Gross

"He's one of the great, original radio performers. He's created a sound and style for himself - a complete aesthetic that's entirely his own. I first heard him when I was 19 and it changed everything for me. His work demonstrated the intensity and emotion that the medium is capable of; ingenious…fantastic." --Ira Glass

From press:

"[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

"You don't have to close your eyes to appreciate Joe Frank's dense audio universe cascading out of your radio. It helps, though, because there are so many layers-of sound, philosophy, of reality-coursing through his dramas... Come to think of it, after awhile, you won't want to close your eyes because in Frank's short stories for the radio, the tension and pathos are as enveloping as they are intriguing... He travels in the emotional landscape of Bergman and Fellini; there's a tension and sense of mystery halfway between Kafka and Chandler... and a satiric edge worthy of Firesign Theatre and Woody Allen... No one else in radio is doing what Frank does." --The Washington Post

"A combination monologist-philosopher-black comic-shrink, Frank strips away radio's genteel veneer of good vibes and exposes the private fears that plague us all."
--The Los Angeles Times

"RADIO'S PRINCE OF DARKNESS RULES THE FREEWAYS" [Frank is] alternately dark, bizarre and very funny-but always hard to turn off."
--The Wall Street Journal--