Name: Neal Medlyn

Title/Occupation: Performer of Note

Organization/Company: Neal Medlyn

URL: www.NealMedlyn.com

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up in Palestine, Texas but went to high school in Frankston, Texas. We somehow got WPIX on the satellite and therefore I always wanted to move to New York, where the station managers gave editorials about garbage strikes and crime on the nightly news. I therefore moved here and continue to live here to this day.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

It’s very hard to say…Madonna rolling around on the floor on MTV… reading about performance art when i worked in the school library…Lisa Carver’s zine Rollerderby….Bikini Kill’s “Pussy Whipped” record…the pop radio station in my town, Y99, and the hours and hours I sat listening to it and imagining things. That last one is maybe the ‘biggest’ one.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

The ability to kill people and them not actually die

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

A normal day involves me maybe recording a pop cover for ourhitparade.com, looking up things about people on the internet, watching Hannah Montana, eating sugar cereal, and reading some Russian novel or another. I may also take a shower but not use shampoo.

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

I got to quit my day job to do George and Martha with Karen Finley, which went very well! I’ve mostly just done shows for a living since then. Kids of America, that’s my advice, quit your job and eat cereal!!