A genre-bending work of meta-comedy by writer and performer Jess Barbarello.
Karen Davis: Bitter Pill, Mistook Acerbic for Advil is a collection of stand-up routines performed by under-received comic Karen Davis between 2010-present, whatever that is. Karen&;s career began in an apartment somewhere in Brooklyn, probably, and it has ended again and again, intermittently revived by writer/manager Jess Barbagallo and a coterie of enablers. The point being: for the eternally wounded, jokes are not just jokes. They are a broken way of life. This exhausted record includes commentary by amateur critics, inspirational prose, and strange interviews. Karen was able to locate some photographic evidence, but much was lost to disappeared phones. She is grateful to well vodka for making this possible.
Jess Barbagallo is an NYC-based writer/director/performer who has toured internationally and domestically with Big Dance Theater, the Builders Association, Theater of a Two-Headed Calf (and its Dyke Division) and Half Straddle. Jess has originated roles in new plays by Joshua Conkel, Casey Llewellyn, Normandy Sherwood, Trish Harnetiaux and many others. Playwriting credits include Grey-Eyed Dogs (Dixon Place), Saturn Nights (Incubator Arts Center), Good Year for Hunters (New Ohio Theatre), Karen Davis Does (Brooklyn Arts Exchange), Joe Ranonos Yuletide Log and Other Fruitcakes (Dixon Place), Sentence Fetish (Brick Theater), Melissa, So Far (Andys Playhouse) and My Old Man (and Other Stories) (Dixon Place). Other words have been published by Howlround, Bomb Blog, New York Live Arts Blog: Context Notes, Brooklyn Rail and 53rd State Press. He is a 2009 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab alum, a 2012 Queer Arts Mentorship mentee, and a 2013 MacDowell Colony Fellow. In 2015, Jess was selected to participate in the Persona Seminar think tank at the New Museum and was recently invited to the Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group. Jess has taught theater and writing as a guest artist and adjunct lecturer at Duke University, New York University, Brooklyn College, the Vermont Young Playwrights Festival and The ONeill Center. MFA: Brooklyn College (Himan Brown Playwriting Award 2008 and 2009).
