Josh Kornbluth (born May 21, 1959) is an American comedic

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

monologist A monologist (), or interchangeably monologuist (), is a solo artist who recitation, recites or gives oral interpretation, dramatic readings from a monologue, soliloquy, poetry, or work of literature, for the entertainment of an audience. The te ...

based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

who has toured internationally, written and starred in several feature films, and starred in a television interview show.

Early life and education

Kornbluth was born in 1959 to mother "Bunny" and father Paul, the oldest of four children. Raised in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, he briefly attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

but dropped out, never completing his undergraduate degree.

Career

Overview

Kornbluth's live and filmed works are almost entirely solo monologues based closely on events and people his life, his upbringing, and his career. As such he is among a small group of artists that includes

Eric Bogosian Eric Michael Bogosian (; born April 24, 1953) is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian-American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and attended the University ...

Lily Tomlin Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. Tomlin started her career in stand-up comedy and sketch comedy before transitioning her career to acting across stage and screen. ...

, and

Spalding Gray Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – ) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist. He is best known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s and 1990s, as well ...

. Most of Kornbluth's monologues relate to personal and societal ethics, self-fulfillment, and the role of the individual in society, drawing a connection between his own personal foibles and larger issues of citizenship. Playing a hapless, sincere, and sometimes buffoonish everyman caught up in world events, he demonstrates the relevance of these concepts to daily life. His live performances occasionally include a question-and-answer session with academic lawyers or other experts and scholars. Despite the serious messages and somewhat dry themes his works are all lighthearted and highly humorous.

Works

Major filmed work includes: *''

Haiku Tunnel ''Haiku Tunnel'' is a 2001 office comedy film about the struggle between temporary and permanent employment. Plot Josh is the consummate temp employee, avoiding all long-term connections and responsibilities, both at work and in his personal ...

'' - his experience as an inept legal assistant *'' Red Diaper Baby'' - an affectionate account of growing up

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

in America *''

Strange Culture ''Strange Culture'' is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and starring Tilda Swinton and Thomas Jay Ryan. It premiered on January 22 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. An excerpt appeared in the fourth issue of ' ...

'' - a documentary on the bizarre case against

Steve Kurtz Steve Kurtz is an American artist and co-founder of the art collective Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). His work with CAE is considered pioneering in the areas of politically engaged art, interventionist practices, and cultural research and action in th ...

Live

monologues In theatre, a monologue (also known as monolog in North American English) (in , from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character (arts), character, most often to expres ...

and other staged works include: * ''The Mathematics of Change'' - describes how despite a love for mathematics he "hit the wall" in his freshman classes at Princeton; draws parallels between calculus and life * ''Mr. Smith Goes to Obscuristan'' - a

San Francisco Mime Troupe The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a theatre of political satire which performs free shows in various parks in the San Francisco Bay Area and around California, founded in 1959. Despite its name, the group does not perform silent mime, but each ye ...

show (co-author) * ''Ben Franklin Unplugged'' - describes how in the course of researching the personal and public life of

Ben Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the most influential intellectuals of h ...

, he realizes that his affinity with Franklin goes far beyond their obvious physical resemblance * ''Love and Taxes'' - revisits the events of ''Haiku Tunnel'', the royalties from which he did not report to the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

for years despite working for a well-known tax lawyer; explores the meaning of the tax system and necessity to pay income tax, as well as events surrounding his marriage. In 2004 a judge at the

United States Tax Court The United States Tax Court (in case citations, T.C.) is a Federal judiciary of the United States, federal trial court court of record, of record established by US Congress, Congress under Article One of the United States Constitution, Article ...

called Kornbluth to say he had cited a pivotal scene from the monologue in which a former

Commissioner of Internal Revenue The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is the head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), an agency within the United States Department of the Treasury. The office of Commissioner was created by United States Congress, Congress as part of the Reven ...

calls Kornbluth the

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

invective " pisher" for not paying his taxes, in a

judicial opinion A judicial opinion is a form of legal opinion written by a judge or a judicial panel in the course of resolving a legal dispute, providing the decision reached to resolve the dispute, and usually indicating the facts which led to the dispute and ...

he had just completed, the first known instance of the word in American jurisprudence. Kornbluth and his brother released a film version of the monologue in 2015. * ''Citizen Josh'' - in which he completes his final requirement for an undergraduate degree by writing a monologue about the role of civility in public debate * ''Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?'' - a monologue commissioned by the

Contemporary Jewish Museum The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) is a non-collecting museum at 736 Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The museum, which was founded in 1984, is located in the histori ...

of San Francisco, about the exhibit ''Warhol’s Jews: A Retrospective''. * ''Sea of Reeds'' - a play with musical accompaniment about Kornbluth's preparations for having a

bar mitzvah A ''bar mitzvah'' () or ''bat mitzvah'' () is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to Halakha, Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. Once Jewish children reach that age ...

at the age of 52, and his learning to play the

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

The Josh Kornbluth Show

Kornbluth hosted a television talk show,''The Josh Kornbluth Show'', for two seasons (2005–2007) on KQED 9, San Francisco. Guests included

Alan Alda Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner and a three-time Tony Award nominee, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pier ...

Rita Moreno Rita Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano; December 11, 1931) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. With a career spanning eight decades she is known for her roles on stage and screen, and is one of the last remaining stars from t ...

, and

Amy Sedaris Amy Louise Sedaris (; born March 29, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She played Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central comedy series '' Strangers with Candy'' (1999–2000) and the prequel film '' Strangers with Candy'' (2005), wh ...

. The show often included a "man on the street" segment, "Wandering Josh".

Citizen Brain

In 2017, Kornbluth served as an Atlantic Fellow with the Global Brain Health Institute at the

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life ...

Memory and Aging Center. For this fellowship, he created and hosted a video series, "Citizen Brain", in which he and

neuroscientists A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, neural circuits, and glia, and their behavioral, biological, and psychological roles in health and disease. ...

discuss

brain science Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

in connection with topics including

empathy Empathy is generally described as the ability to take on another person's perspective, to understand, feel, and possibly share and respond to their experience. There are more (sometimes conflicting) definitions of empathy that include but are ...

ageism Ageism, also called agism in American English, is a type of discrimination based on one's age, generally used to refer to age-based discrimination against Old age, elderly people. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe this ...

, and

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

. In 2020, Kornbluth created a new solo show, also titled "Citizen Brain", based on these topics.

Personal life

Kornbluth worked as a

copyedit Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (" copy") to improve quality and readability, as well as ensuring that a text is free of errors in grammar, style, and accuracy. ''The Ch ...

or in New York before moving to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1987. He is married to wife Sara Sato, with whom he has a son, Guthrie. Since 2012, Kornbluth has participated in the annual

Team in Training Team In Training (TNT) is the flagship fundraising program for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. TNT is the only endu ...

endurance bike ride, a fundraiser for the

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1949, is a voluntary health organization dedicated to fighting blood cancer world-wide. LLS funds blood cancer research on cures for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin ...

. In 2014, Kornbluth served as the inaugural

artist in residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

for the

Zen Hospice Project San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), is a network of affiliated Sōtō Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. T ...

in San Francisco.

References

External links

*
Josh Kornbluth Show blog
on KQED *
An interview with Josh Kornbluth
on ''Notebook on Cities and Culture'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kornbluth, Josh American male comedians Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Living people 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male film actors American male television actors 1959 births Male actors from the San Francisco Bay Area People from Roslyn, New York Comedians from California 20th-century American comedians Monologists