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. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English p ...

monologist A monologist (), or interchangeably monologuist (), is a solo artist who recites or gives dramatic readings from a monologue, soliloquy, poetry, or work of literature, for the entertainment of an audience. The term can also refer to a person w ...

based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

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

Personal life

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 or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, he briefly attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

but dropped out, never completing his undergraduate degree. He worked as a

copyedit Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material ( copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual o ...

or in New York before moving to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

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 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 the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to fighting blood cancer in the world. The LLS's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's ...

. In 2014, Kornbluth served as the inaugural

artist in residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

for the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco. 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. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

Memory and Aging Center.

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 Bogosian ( hy, Էրիկ Բոգոսյան; ; 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 a ...

Lily Tomlin Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She started her career as a stand-up comedian as well as performing off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was on the vari ...

, and

Spalding Gray Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) 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 an ...

. 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 A paralegal, also known as a legal assistant, or paralegal specialist is a professional who performs tasks that require knowledge of legal concepts but not the full expertise of a lawyer with a license to practice law. The market for paralegals ...

*'' Red Diaper Baby'' - an affectionate account of growing up

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

in America *'' Strange Culture'' - a documentary on the bizarre case against Steve Kurtz Live

monologues In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

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. The Troupe does not, however, perform silent mime, but each year creates an original ...

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 who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading intel ...

, 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 United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...

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 trial court of record established by Congress under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, section 8 of which provides (in part) that the Congress has the power to "constitute Tr ...

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 Congress as part of the Revenue Act of 1862. Secti ...

calls Kornbluth the Yiddish 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 historic ...

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 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 oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

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, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war come ...

Rita Moreno Rita Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano; December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican actress, dancer, and singer. Noted for her work across different areas of the entertainment industry, she has appeared in numerous film, television, and thea ...

, and

Amy Sedaris Amy Louise Sedaris (; born March 29, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Most recently, she has appeared in both '' The Mandalorian'' (2019–2020) and '' The Book of Boba Fett'' (2022) as Peli Motto. She played Jerri Blank in the ...

. The show often included a "man on the street" segment, "Wandering Josh".Peter Hartlaub
"What did a schlemiel like Kornbluth do to deserve his own TV show?"
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pap ...

'', September 8, 2005

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