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Joe’s Birthday

By Michal Story on August 19, 2024 in News

August 19, 2024

Today would have been Joe’s 86th birthday. For me, it seems strange to say “Happy Birthday” to the departed, but today, I’m thinking: “I’m happy Joe was born.” So, it is a happy day to remember Joe’s birth!

Joe had a profound effect on my life and in my growth. And I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as often and as deeply with anyone as I did with him. My only regret is that I did not record him and our conversations more often so that I could share more of him with you. I’m humbled by your expressions of Joe’s impact on your lives. With that, I assure you that I continue to assemble the extent of Joe Frank material that I do have in order to bring it to you in the future.

I still receive email from people who’ve only just recently discovered Joe. I’m a little envious of their fresh exploration of Joe’s incredible work. He is unparalleled and inimitable to this day.

What is your personal favorite Joe Frank program?

The following article by Andrew Leland for the New York Review of Books, written shortly after Joe passed, is an excellent read – especially for those newly-introduced to Joe.

And, for a short time, enjoy the classic show “Eye in the Sky” on SoundCloud. After you’ve heard that, enjoy all of the other shows and selections there.

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones,

Michal

Thinking of you and missing you even more today, my man.

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Reviews of Joe’s Work

"The world of Joe Frank is a wildly entertaining surrealistic universe...hilarious, unsettling, zany, powerful, moving and perhaps the most unique, inventive and effective use of radio since Orson Welles convinced much of America there was a War of the Worlds."

The L.A. Weekly

"Frank has created a series of dead-pan radio monologues so sharp and intelligent that during the quiet bits you can almost hear God taking notes."

The UK Guardian

"Although commonly categorized as radio drama, Frank's work bears very little resemblance to the stagy artifice of plays performed over air. Frank wanders deeply into the unconscious, producing Dionysian stories with a fairy-tale intensity whose effect is often funny, disturbing and deeply memorable."

Salon

"[Joe Frank] is 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, This American Life

"Joe Frank's often bizarre scenarios for the mind are decidedly offbeat radio fare...part surreal satire, part bizarre meditation, part fever dream."

Los Angeles Daily News

"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, Fresh Air

"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

"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

"Joe Frank is a singular voice in radio. What he has done is 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, filmmaker

"The perfect Joe Frank experience is driving down an unfamiliar highway alone at night. You turn on your radio and are greeted by a lush, resonant voice that lulls you into a seemingly simple tale of love: a man at an airport saying goodbye to his wife over the phone, which abruptly turns into a vision of betrayal, alienation and death - often from obscure disease - all brought about by some profound personal failing, which is redeemed at the last moment by a nearly transcendent moment of joy."

Salon