Christopher Lieberman (he/him) is a transgender writer and performer from South London. His debut one-man show Bunny Man won the award for Best Writing at Bitesize Festival in July 2024. J.O.I. is his second self-produced show that he is bringing to stage - we took the opportunity to speak with Christopher to tell us more.
Q) Hello - before we begin, please could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about what you do?
Hi! My name’s Christopher Lieberman, I’m a writer and performer from South London. I use my love of science-fiction and horror to tell stories about my experiences as a gay transgender man.
Q) Your new show J.O.I recently played at the Pen Theatre. Can you tell us a little bit more about the show and what was your inspiration for writing this piece of theatre?
J.O.I.. is my second solo show, it’s narrative stand-up comedy, but in the sci-fi/horror genre. I like to say that it’s a supernatural comedy about heartbreak, UFOs, and the nature of reality. It starts with me trying to defraud a sperm bank to raise money for gender-affirming surgery, then it slowly spirals into science-fiction insanity.
I guess the core of the story comes from a real heartbreak that I experienced last year, and the rippling effects of that. Of course the title itself was a source of inspiration, because I thought that “Jerk-Off Instructions” would be a hilarious title for a show, but I needed to come up with a story to justify that. Plus, I’ve had these aliens knocking about in my head for two years now, and they came from a painting called “Coming Through” by David Huggins. He paints his experiences of alien abduction and this one is of these aliens looming over him in bed. That really tickled my nerd brain. So all of these threads somehow came together after a lot of trial and error.
I’ve also recently started treatment for OCD, and the thing about OCD is that it really messes with your grasp on reality and leads you to doubt your own memory. And that’s what I was writing about in J.O.I. even before I knew I had OCD.
Q) J.O.I. is your second one-person show after the incredible success of Bunny Man last year. Is there anything you learnt from the journey of Bunny Man that you’ve applied to the process of creating and putting on J.O.I?
I definitely learned how many bad drafts it takes to write a good show (i.e. a lot). I learned to pick my collaborators carefully. Most importantly - start learning your lines early. 9,000 words is a lot to memorise.
Q) LGBTQIA+ stories are still massively under-represented in this industry - why do you think it’s so important for this story to be told?
I think good LGBTQIA+ stories are underrepresented for sure. Authentically queer stories even more so. There’s a great James Joyce quote: “in the particular is contained the universal”. I think there’s a real misconception that queer stories have to be inclusive, and by trying to include everyone or be about everyone, they end up being about nothing. Queer stories have got to get weirder and more specific.
It is also a queer romance, which I suppose is “important”. But I really dislike the kind of paint-by-numbers queer romances we’ve been afforded in the past. There’s no coming out scene in J.O.I., I think those have truly been done to death. I talk a lot about sex and masturbation and kink, but I’m not coy or self-deprecating or any of that nonsense. I talk very candidly about certain aspects of my trans experience, such as the “phantom penis” phenomenon, which, aside from being hilarious, is also pretty fundamental to understanding my trans-ness. You’ll have to come and see it to understand what I mean by “phantom penis”. Aside from all that... Being trans is pretty funny sometimes. At the end of the day this story is important because you’ll have a good laugh and be glad you left the house to go see it.
Q) What are you hoping audiences take away from this show, and why do you think audiences should come along?
I don’t want to be prescriptive. But, I’d be really pleased if it made someone feel differently about a heartbreak they’ve experienced. You should come and see it, because there might not be another tragic queer love story about alien porn in your lifetime.
J.O.I plays at The Glitch on 12th April and Komedia Brighton on 25th May.
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