Slash Coleman (born August 13, 1967) is an American storyteller, producer, and writer who lives in Richmond, Virginia. The author of The Bohemian Love Diaries, a personal perspectives blogger for Psychology Today, and a laughter yoga teacher, he is best known for his one-man performance-based storytelling shows which combine clever wordplay, music, and poetic observations about family, spirituality, romantic relationships, and struggles to find a sense of home common with Generation X artists. His work is often compared to that of author David Sedaris."Backstage Magazine: Big Plastic Heroes" Retrieved on April 14, 2012
Personal life Coleman was born Jeffrey Mark Coleman in Richmond, Virginia and raised in Chesterfield, Virginia. He is a first-generation American and a third generation artist descended from a grandfather who was a dancer at the Moulin Rouge and a father, Mike Coleman,"Style Weekly: Mike Coleman, 63" Retrieved on April 15, 2012 who is a prolific sculptor. His mother, Nicole, is a Holocaust survivor who was born in France. He legally changed his first name to Slashtipher with his barmitzva money to illuminate his Jewish past and to honor his grandparents who worked for the French Resistance during the war."Local Kicks: Neon Man Hits Road" Retrieved on April 14, 2012
Coleman spent his formative years in his father's art studio"Richmond Times Dispatch: Center to Feature Artist" Retrieved on April 15, 2012 learning to draw and paint. He began playing the piano at the age of five and took up the alto saxophone at L.C. Bird High School. Throughout his teens, he played in various alternative rock bands and went on to study jazz piano and creative writing at Radford University in Virginia, Middlesex University in London, and at Columbia College in Chicago where he received his master's degree. He went on to earn a degree at East-West College of the Healing Arts and furthered his studies at the Upledger Institute and Oregon College of Oriental Medicine.
Television
Coleman produced, wrote and starred in a PBS Special in 2008 entitled The Neon Man and Me"Style Weekly: Local Color Right After Sesame Street" Retrieved on August 19, 2009."Commonwealth Times: Collaboarators Provide Intimate Glimpse of One Man Show" Retrieved on August 19, 2009. which is a tribute to his best friend, Mark Jamison, a neon artist from Roanoke, Virginia who was electrocuted while hanging a neon sign. A month after Jamison died, his girlfriend discovered she was pregnant. Coleman and Jamison met at Radford University while in a jazz ensemble called Vegetation Information."Daily Hampshire Gazette: Home to Friendship" Retrieved on April 14, 2012.
The show, which seeks to illuminate a young man's challenge with his sense of place in the world after his best friend's death, included 7 monologues about friendship and an original music score. Underwritten by The Association for Death Education and Counseling and the Wilbert Foundation, the program was distributed by (NETA) The National Education Television Alliance in 2010 and aired on PBS station nationwide until 2012. Paul Tait Roberts was the senior producer and John Felton was the executive co-producer."Internet Movie Database The Neon Man and Me" Retrieved on April 14, 2012. The story behind The Neon Man and Me was recorded for StoryCorps and included in the archives at the Smithsonian."StoryCorps: The Neon Man and Me" Retrieved on August 19, 2009.
Performance history
2000–02 Coleman lived in Portland, OR from 1997–2001. There, he worked primarily as massage therapist and a visual artist, selling his paintings at the Portland Saturday Market and through galleries."Capital fringe Interview" Retrieved on April 13, 2012 He began hosting Home Grown Theatre out of his southeast Portland apartment. The venue showcased new work from Portland performers, musicians and filmmakers and the characters in Coleman's own performance art that would eventually become a foundation of his stage work. In 2000, he formed the production company About Vision Entertainment, with Stash Tea CEO Tom Lisicki, which produced over a dozen multidisciplinary products including a line of drinking teas and educational products for the Charkas."KBOO Radio Stage & Studio Interview" Retrieved on April 13, 2012
2003–05 Coleman moved to Northampton, MA in 2003 and produced his first solo show "Love in Boxes," at the Northampton Center for the Arts on February 14, 2004. Coleman portrayed 6 characters in the production which chronicled a young boy named Jeffrey Rabbit who practiced a peculiar courtship ritual that involved giving women unusual cardboard boxes while struggling with his attempts at love and his anxieties about rejection. The set included hundreds of cardboard boxes. The national tour included theatres in Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, Portland, ME, and Richmond, VA."Daily Hampshire Gazette" Retrieved on April 13, 2012
2005–06 In 2005, the death of Coleman's best friend prompted his return to his hometown of Richmond, Virginia. There he created his solo show, The Neon Man and Me, as a tribute to his best friend, Mark Jamison, a neon artist from Roanoke, Virginia, known as the "Neon Man"."Style Weekly: Annual Arts Issue" Retrieved on April 13, 2012 The show opened at Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, on October 9, 2005 and ran for three weeks."PRWeb" Retrieved on April 13, 2012"Backstage Magazine" Retrieved on April 13, 2012 It was produced by an anonymous patron. The Neon Man and Me began to tour through regional art galleries, churches, synagogues, colleges, and public schools before running on the International Fringe Theatre Festival circuit, where it opened at the San Francisco Fringe Festival in September 2005 in San Francisco, California."Theatre Bay Area" Retrieved on April 13, 2012 Subsequent fringe festival venues included: Washington, DC;"Washington Post Article about Capital Fringe Festival: "Tough "Broads" All Over Town" Retrieved on August 19, 2009. Boulder, CO;"Boulder Weekly Buzz: On the Edge" Retrieved on August 19, 2009. Minneapolis, MN; Long Island, NY;New York Times Retrieved on April 13, 2012 and Provincetown, MA. Coleman donated 100% of ticket sales either back to the Jamison family, host venues or charities and helped raise nearly $100,000 for non-profits including children's hospitals, bereavement organizations, and schools."MN Artists: Manna Fest Destiny" Retrieved on August 19, 2009
In 2006, PBS/WCVE-TV expressed interest in filming The Neon Man and Me, pending Coleman's ability to raise the necessary production funding. Retrieved on April 13, 2012 With the help of a student filmmaker he met on Craigslist, Coleman created a documentary entitled Glow,"RU Today" Retrieved on April 14, 2012 and began a subsequent grassroots living room tour, traveling throughout Virginia homes for the next two years and taking donations until all $65,000 of the budget was raised."American Public Media: Dick Gordon Interview" Retrieved on April 13, 2012
In 2006, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Coleman created a public school curriculum entitled "Healing Community: Helping Students Come to Terms with Tragedy, Loss, and Violence.""Skirt! Richmond: "Slash Coleman Teaches Good Grief" Retrieved on August 19, 2009. He based the curriculum on the model he used to create The Neon Man and Me, then with a series of artist residencies through the Virginia Commission for the Arts, he began teaching the curriculum within the Richmond Public School system. In observance of Governor Kaine's Month of the Grieving Child, Coleman produced a tour of student monologues relating to friendship and loss that was performed at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts."Gov. Tim Kaine Designates April Month of The Grieving Child" Retrieved on April 13, 2012.Times Dispatch: "Grieving Child" Retrieved on April 13, 2012.
In conjunction with his solo performance work, Coleman began to collaborate with other Richmond performers and directors in the summer of 2006. Over the next four years, he created over a half dozen burlesque shows, first with Nouvelle Burlesque"Style Weekly: See the Ladies Dance" Retrieved on April 16, 2012. and then with his own performance troupe, The Modern Burlesque Brigade. Retrieved on April 16, 2012. These included: Ballad of the Beautiful Sex Monster, Sex Education and The Death Match of Love. Emphasizing vaudeville, physical comedy, modern dance, and live jazz, Coleman is credited as a writer/producer/performer with helping re-introduce burlesque back into the Richmond entertainment scene for the first time since 1978.
2007–08 By 2007, media coverage of "The Neon Man and Me," had appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, American Theatre Magazine and Backstage Magazine. In the spring of 2007, "The Neon Man and Me," ran Off-Broadway at Teatro La Tea in New York, NY."DC Theatre Scene" Retrieved on August 19, 2009 Later that year, Samson Trinh (composer/saxophonist) took over as musical director and a jazz trio known as The Neon Man Band began to accompany Coleman on his tour.
Later in 2007, Coleman began to explore unresolved personal themes within "The Neon Man and Me," mainly around issues about identity and those regarding his family and their experience with the Holocaust. He created a solo show that revealed his own connection to this profound material. "Slash Coleman has Big Matzo Balls.""DCist" Retrieved on April 13, 2012 opened in Washington DC at the Warehouse Theater on July 24, 2008 and was again performed at the International Holocaust Exhibit in Richmond, VA.
In 2008, Coleman also began to publish articles and teach classes on marketing for artists which were included in the NPR series "How Artists Make Money."."DC Theatre Scene" Retrieved on April 13, 2012 Then, under the pseudonym, "Mr. Fringey." he began collecting an extensive list of resources including reviews of fringe festivals for fellow fringe festival theatre performers which he shared on his blog called "Fringe or Die.""Chicago Reader" Retrieved on April 14, 2012
2009–10 In 2009, Coleman was invited to perform at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN"Richmond Times Dispatch: A Hard Act to Follow" Retrieved on April 14, 2012 at which time Susan O'Connor, director of programs declared herself, "a real fan," of his work. Afterward, Coleman rebranded himself as a professional storyteller and began to perform exclusively on the National Storytelling Circuit.
"Chaidentity" opened on July 9, 2010 at the Goethe Institut in Washington DC"Show Biz Radio" Retrieved on April 13, 2012"Washington City Paper" Retrieved on April 13, 2012 and was later performed at the National Storytelling Conference.
By the end of 2010, Coleman had been invited to perform at: The Oral History Performance Conference at Columbia University, The LA Storytelling Festival, The League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling and Stonesoup Storytelling Festival.
2010–11 In 2011, Coleman's work gained a wider audience. Coleman was invited to participate in two artist residencies:The International Storytelling Center and Portland Story Theater. He was also invited to perform at Pete Seeger's Clearwater Festival, The Timpanogos Storytelling Conference, and Gimistory International Storytelling Festival in the Cayman Islands."Caycompass: Gimistory Wows Brackers" Retrieved on April 14, 2012 Retrieved on April 13, 2012
Award-winning novelist Eliezer Sobel joined Coleman on stage for a duo version of "Chaidentity" which included a tour through synagogues in the mid-atlantic region. Both performers explained what it was like to grow up with mothers who are Holocaust survivors."Jewish Reflector: Step Back in Time" Retrieved on April 13, 2012
2011–12