“I’ve always thought of my programs as prayers. They may not seem that way, but to me they’re my conversation with whatever you want to call it about the condition that exists here, spiritually and physically.”—Joe Frank

As part of their ambitious, month-long Nightmare City horror film fest co-presented by Cinefamily, The Woodshed Horror Company and Cinespia, Thursday night will see a rare performance in Los Angeles by absurdist radio genius Joe Frank.

For two decades straight, Peabody Award-winning Joe Frank burned as brightly as humanly possible in the realm of radio drama, wearing the multiple hats of performer/writer/producer—but to call what Frank does simply “radio drama” is misleading, for “radio confessions”, “radio nightmares” and “radio nirvana” are all equally as accurate. Employing staged (or sometimes real?) phone conversations, tempestuous one-act blackouts, serpentine short stories and hyper-stylized monologues with equal measure, Frank’s noir-ish aural universe is unmatched anywhere in the world, and is highly addictive to boot. Tonight, Frank’s formerly disembodied voice finds a corporeal home at the Cinefamily, as he performs his brand-new, dark-hued work “Old Man” live on our stage. Come revel in it with us.

I can recall the first time I was exposed to the singular artform of Joe Frank. It was twenty years ago and I was driving home after meeting the notorious rouge CIA agent Philip Agee. It had been an odd enough evening already, now it was late at night and I was going through the radio dial trying to find something good to listen to. At first, it was hard to tell if it was real or a put-on (the piece I stumbled upon was in the form of a recorded telephone conversation with music added later), but I was sucked in—totally—before coming to the conclusion that it was, in fact, a scripted drama I was listening to, although that term seems wholly inadequate to describe Frank’s perverse theater of the mind.

In certain respects, you could look at Joe Frank like an American Samuel Beckett. Much admired by the likes of David Sedaris and Ira Glass, Frank is truly a national treasure. You can subscribe to his website and hear 230 hours of his oddball surrealist radio shows. There’s a new free one every day, too.

Below, a fascinating short film called “The Perfect Woman,” written by Frank and directed by Paul Rachman. The racy TV show seen in the beginning is a take-off of an actual show that aired for many years on Manhattan Cable’s notorious Channel J. It was called “Interludes After Midnight” and it was a nude talkshow hosted by a hairy, bearded guy wearing a huge gold medallion and little else. The first time I saw it, in 1984, I was perplexed by the sight of a naked clown juggling on my TV screen. I thought my cable was broken or something, but no, it was just a fully nude talkshow (not exactly par for the course of the Reagan era American television). I think the bar was pretty low for being a guest on “Interludes After Midnight”: you just had to be naked! (Family Guy once referenced “Interludes After Midnight” to my delighted surprise)
 

 
Get tickets for Joe Frank at Cinefamily here. And while you’re there, check out the upstairs gallery space with UNWELCOME, a horror film-themed black-light poster exhibit curated by Kramers Ergot creator, Sammy Harkham.
 

 
“xxxxxx” by Shary Boyle. Fluorescent yellow, fluorescent blue, fluorescent red, and black. Four colors hand pulled on 100# acid free stock. 20” x 26” edition of 30. Signed by the artist.

$40 at Cinefamily or at the Nightmare City online store.