Most performance art doesn’t come with a built-in clackety-clack soundtrack, but this one does—live, every night through May 1, on Washington University’s KWUR 90.3 FM.
That’s because Los Angeles-based performance artist Tim Youd is retyping Stanley Elkin’s 1971 novel “The Dick Gibson Show”—word for word—on a vintage Royal typewriter, just like the one Elkin used. He’s doing it from midnight to 5 AM—on-air and in real time—bringing a Jewish literary legend’s voice (and keystrokes) back to life.
The project, “Up All Night on KWUR with Tim Youd,” is Youd’s 84th retyped novel in his ongoing “100 Novels Project,” which blends literature, visual art, performance and deep obsession. But this one is personal.
“I read ‘The Franchiser’ and I loved it,” Youd told The Source at WashU. “It resonated so deeply for me… I carried around this idea that it would be great to do ‘The Dick Gibson Show’ on a Midwestern radio station.”
