NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

"In the theater, we have something called a unifying moment. That's where everyone in the audience and on stage feels the same thing. All of us are silent. The audience, the actors, except for one eight year old boy and he knows what he saw and he is LAUGHING. I don't know what to do. Do I break character? Do I keep going? I decide to go onto the next line. 'Aren't they waiting for the eternal part of themselves to come out pure?'"-Monster in a Box

Spalding Gray's body has been found, and although I am happy his family now can begin the healing process, there is a part of me that misses being able to imagine that he out there somewhere gathering notes for a new monologue. Metafilter has some touching comments on the topic. This site has some nice links to his work, including a short film.

"'Spald, you're barking in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 'And I am. I'm barking in the Metropolitan Museum." -Monster in a Box

The first time I became acquainted with his work, I was maybe ten or eleven. I turned on HBO one rainy day, and there was a man sitting at a table talking. I was riveted and discovered the film was called "Swimming to Cambodia." I became a slavish fan to his monologue work. I was fascinated by how a person sitting at a desk could be so interesting. As I was in CT at the time, I had to rely on HBO to his work. But I taped Swimming to Cambodia and Monster in a Box off of HBO and watched them over and over.

"This guy was the Elvis of psychic healers."-Gray's Anatomy

My first year in college, our speech teacher made us learn a Spalding Gray monologue. I was thrilled by the assignment, although I thought having each of perform his work actually diluted his talent. Became clear to me after watching so many different material performed so many different ways that his talent wasn't just in writing the material, but in the unique way he communicated with audience. That there was some ineffable way that Spalding connected during a monologue that was necessary for the work to actually succeed.

"She threw me out of the garden of Eden!" Monster in a Box

I saw him twice in person. The first was more dramatic. I saw him as I was walking through Penn Station. He looked like Moses. His white hair was long and disheveled. He was sun burned which intensified the translucent white of his hair. He was wearing some loose pants and I seem to remember a peasant type shirt and a long woven coat. He looked both determined and lost.

He looked the way I always imagined he would.

"I just accepted that as a part of my life, accepted that forever I would always be a little in the place that I was not." Impossible Vacation