Heather Gold

Geek comedian. Relentlessly honest and interactive. Makes theatre as commons. Sample third-party triangulation of awesomeness: “I Look Like An Egg, but I Identify As A Cookie” an interactive baking comedy: Oakland Tribune “Best of the Bay,” Curve Magazine: National Lesbian Theatre Award, year-long SF run, Ars Nova (NY), SXSW (Austin). Over 22,000 cookies served. Net cred: part of first webcasting team (Apple) + iPod/iTunes precursor (Fuse) Press kudos: “brilliant” and “one of our favorite comedians” (boingboing.net), featured on npr’s Technation. Live/online interactive talk show: The Heather Gold Show featuring guests like Creative Common founder Lawrence Lessig, novelist Michelle Tea,  and flickr co-founder Caterina Fake.

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Driven to comedy by law school, Heather Gold continues to mix mind with matter, never doing the same set or show twice. Heather's unique style is a reflection of her unorthodox artistic path, reflecting her studies at Yale, Northwestern Law, Groundlings, improv legend Cynthis Szigeti and years in the geek and entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley.Heather has the unique ability to make connections between the most unlikely things, and create an immediate intimacy with any audience. Her monologues and riffing stand-up performances fuse personal stories, social observation and conversation. She counts Paul Mooney, Uncabaret, Alice Waters and the Internet among her influences."People are interested in each other. Performance has always been a way of having a unifying collective experience. Today, live performance has an opportunity to do what Congress, towns, big media and perhaps our courts are failing to do: Be a public space in which we can be our whole selves together. This is theatre as commons." Heather's hosted Austin Gay Pride, written for actor Alan Cumming and starred in her debut solo show—"I Look Like An Egg, but I Identify As A Cookie"—in which she bakes chocolate chip cookies with the audience. Cookie ran for over a year in San Francisco and was named Best of the Bay by The Oakland Tribune and recognized by Curve magazine in 2004 with their National Theatre Award. Heather won this award in 2005 for The C Word, co-written and performed with Jen Kober. In 2006, Cookie played at invitation at Ars Nova, one of Off-Broadway's hottest new theatres, which has worked with comic talents like Sarah Silverman, Sandra Bernhard and Julia Sweeney. Heather emcees and performs for venues and clients across North America, and contributes to magazines and newspapers like The San Jose Mercury News and the Toronto Globe & Mail. She is currently at work on her second show The Law Project, which has won grants from the Zellerbach Family Foundation and Theatre Bay Area, and her surprisingly-named talk show The Heather Gold Show which has been compared to This American Life in real-time and is happens live monthly in San Francisco and online.

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Download the whole story. Read Heather's thoughts on interactive performance.

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