Brendan Healy (my director for The Silicone Diaries) originally turned me onto Spalding Gray when we were working on an earlier version of The Silicone Diaries which premiered in Saint John, New Brunsiwck, in August, 2009. Brendan thought that my work bore a certain relation to Gray’s who also used autobiographical material in his performances. I was blown away when I checked out Gray’s Swimming to Cambodia. I consider it a masterwork of solo performance. Rarely havve I seen someone who could excite me so much about storytelling. He used rhythm in thrilling ways. He was unapologetic about speaking his own truth even if he was confused or conflicted. I admired that he was transparent about his neuroses which inform Swimming to Cambodia but don’t become the main focus of the work. But, most of all, Spalding Gray could surf an unpredictable, sometimes violent, sea of emotion, sensory details, memory, intellectual analysis, surreal personal metaphors –his own ‘stream’ of consciousness. I was blown away.