Can a Solo Performer Act Alone?

HowlRound: This is a work of total subjectivity. I want you to know that from the outset. I also want you to know that I’m not tight with Mike Daisey. I mean, I’ve met him. He sat behind me on a plane and we chatted. I think we met briefly another time, too. Not too sure, and I’m not sure who could verify something like that. Of course I’m one of his 70,000 Facebook friends. (This figure may be exaggerated. My favorite fact-checkers are busy on my new book, which is a work of nonfiction. I don’t want to interrupt them.) I’ve seen Daisey perform and think he’s terrific, comparisons to Spalding Gray aside—that’s just a taste thing, very subjective. I missed his recent solo show, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, for reasons that aren’t dramatic enough to include here (you know, leave the dull bits out). I wish I had seen it, especially so I’d have some credibility, writing this. Just for the record, though, I have never seen any thirteen-year-olds outside of the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen. I don’t recall ever posing as an American businessman in China. I don’t know how to spell hexanne.