20 Questions for Slash Coleman, Multi-genre artist and creator
of The Neon Man and Me
Caine O'Rear
Richmond.com
Monday, April 16, 2007
2. Have you been surprised by the extent of the show's success?
[The success] has come in stages. I really expected to just do the first few shows in Roanoke Mill Mountain Theater back in October 2005.
Maybe the people who read about my friend in the paper would have enjoyed it, I thought. After that first show when people came up to
me afterwards – people that didn't know him or know the story – and really connected with it, that was my biggest surprise. That's when I had
the feeling that it was going to be a little bigger than this small thing I did a couple times.

3. What has been your most memorable show thus far?
For each one, I always tell people an invisible door opens on stage and something magical happens. The opening Richmond show, there
were four people in the audience and that was the thing that connected me to the PBS special. I did a show this summer at The Cherry
Orchard Theater, where the stage was on the side of a cliff in the mountains. If you fall off the stage, you pretty much plummet to your
death. But each one has its own quirkiness.
© Slash Coleman 2006
"I always tell people an
invisible door opens on stage
and something magical
happens."
Slashtipher J. Coleman grew up in the wilds of Chester, Va., where in the
late '60s he learned to draw and paint in his father's art studio. After
graduating from high school, Coleman studied writing and piano at
various colleges, earning a Master's Degree at Columbia College in
Chicago. Coleman has been performing his one-man play The Neon Man
and Me intermittently since October 2005 in theaters across the United
States. The critically-acclaimed production is a "spiritual rock 'n' roll
comedy" about Coleman's efforts to deal with the death of his best friend,
Mark Jamison. His new play, Slash Coleman Has Big Matzo Balls, is set to
debut this summer. In addition to playwriting and performing, Coleman is a
painter, musician and essayist.
1. The Neon Man and Me recently played off-Broadway. How'd that go?
It's pretty cool. When random goals written on a piece of paper come true, it's pretty amazing. I go
back on April 22 for another date and they'll decide then if they want to run it for another week
after that.
4. What were your objectives when you began work on the play?
I simply wanted to give my friend's son a care package. I started writing down my memories of
him and I was just going to put it in a box and ship it off to his son. And maybe one day,
when he was like 12 or 13, the son would read it. I had been doing one-person shows for a
while, and I felt like I wanted to breathe some more life into this. So maybe I'd have it on
film, and he'd get to know his father a little differently than he would otherwise.

5. How has the show evolved since then?
Since then, I've been assigned – it wasn't my doing – this role of helping people grieve their
own losses. In the past year, the Virginia Commission for the Arts gave me a grant to create
this school curriculum called Healing Community, which helps students come to grips with
tragedy and loss. I go into schools now and help them do what I did: I help them write about
tragedy and loss in their life. They memorize it and they perform it on stage.
6. Can you describe your friend Mark's work for the uninitiated?
He was known in Roanoke as the "Neon Man." It was the name of his business. His logo was this muscular neon man, kind of like a
superhero version of himself. It was him with a big 'N' on his chest, which was very different from who he was. Because he was this kind of
small, nerdy geeky guy who didn’t have a way with women and who was kind of awkward and eccentric in the world.

It's weird, because in my show, I talk about how in the last 20 years I lived all over the world and had a different job pretty much every
month. And he was always in Roanoke building this neon business. By the time he died he had become this hugely popular neon artist.
I'd say 75 percent of the signs in Roanoke are the ones he's done. It's cool that he has this living gallery downtown of his work.

7. Has your memory of Mark changed as the show has evolved?
Basically, it's still the same script. But what I noticed after touring all summer, and not touring for the next three months, was that when I
started to memorize lines [for the next series of performances] again I realized that my friend was with me. Over the last three months he
hadn't been with me. When I'm doing the show, I'm almost addicted to the feeling because I feel like he's not gone. His parents have said
that as well.

8. How have you changed, in terms of dealing with Mark's loss?
As far as growth goes, after one show someone said, "Oh, you must be really sad. I'm sorry for your loss." Because they think that it's just
happened and I'm still going through the grieving process. But for me the grieving process was in the writing of it. But in the performing of
it, there's nothing cathartic about it.
9. Talk to me about the PBS special this fall.
Our tentative shoot date is either the last week in September, or the beginning of
October. We'll actually do a show in the studio of "Sesame Street" over at the Community
Ideas station. We'll actually film my hour show in front of a live audience. They said it
would take about three weeks to edit it down. We're going to film it with five cameras,
then they'll begin to ship it out.

10. When will it air?
Locally, in November. Nationally, it probably won't air until more towards the winter.

11. What is your artistic background?
I don't have a theater background, which in the beginning frustrated a lot of theaters. I
think in a sense that gives me an advantage and it helps the audience connect with what
I'm doing. For me, I don't like typical theater. I don't understand it all that well. I feel like
a lot of theater uses that Shakespearean language that is kind of outdated. I write more for
the common person that likes to see something meaningful on stage. My stuff in a sense
has become musical as well – but it's not a typical musical.
"The Virginia Commission for the Arts gave me
a grant to create this school curriculum called
Healing Community, which helps students
come to grips with tragedy and loss."
12. And your dad is an artist?
My dad's a sculptor. He went to VCU and ended up teaching there for awhile. So I grew up in his art studio at the tail end of the '60s. I was
always around the eccentric, artistic crowd. But kids rebel against their parents. For me, I wanted to be an artist and I didn't want to do what he
did. I started playing piano at the age of 8 and writing at the same age. He always kept me stocked with notebooks to work on my writing. I
ended up going to school to study English and jazz piano. I did that through grad school as well.

13. You've said that you considered Richmond a hick, backwater town growing up? How has your perception of the city changed?
I grew up in Chester. I absolutely hated it. I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. When I got out of school, my choice was to work for the
furniture business like the rest of my family, or go to college. After high school I left and didn’t come back until a few years ago. I feel I had to
do it, but if Richmond was the way it is now when I left, I don't think I would have ever left. I love it here. I feel like in a lot of ways, it's the city
that I've always wanted to live in.
14. How so?
I think it's because there are a lot of people like me who are dedicated to not moving to
New York to do their thing, but are staying here and wanting to make this an important
artistic destination. I think a big part for me too is that a lot of people from the North
moved down. Unlike the rest of my family, who are small-town Southern people that frown
upon that, I feel like, for me, it's made it a much more livable place.

15. Your new play Slash Coleman has Big Matzo Balls is an off-color, humorous take
on your family's Jewish heritage. Has there been any backlash to the play from the Jewish
community?
Well, it doesn’t debut until June. I'm hoping to offend as much as Borat did, because it
definitely rides that edge. When I did the first re-writes for The Neon Man, people said,
"Why are you putting all this Jewish stuff into your show? They said I had to do it for
another show. Matzo Balls is definitely Jewish and meant to shake the Jewish community
up. And I think it's meant to shake a lot of people's ideas of their own closet, and how they
may be hiding in it.
"Matzo Balls is definitely Jewish and meant to
shake the Jewish community up."
16. Are you still working in the furniture shop?
I was able to quit my day job about four months ago. When I moved home my uncle presented me with a proposition to come work as an
upholsterer. He said he'd make sure I had a check until I made it in writing or performing. It was pretty ideal for the last couple of years.

17. What is your favorite spot in Richmond?
My favorite spot is the Richmond coffee shops. I go to a different one each time. I kind of make the rounds. I don't have a favorite.

18. Where do you see Richmond ten years from now?
When I was invited to be a part of the forum for the Virginia Performing Arts Center, I said something that made everyone look at me sideways. I
said once Whole Foods [grocery store] comes in, it's going to be all over here. Richmond is going to turn into a Madison, Wis., or a Northampton,
Mass., or an Asheville, N.C., or the feeling of those kind of places. Because I feel like the young creatives in the 20- to 30-something range need
to feed their souls with a certain type of lifestyle. And as much as it sounds weird, Whole Foods supports that.

19. Fill in the blank: Richmond is________
My hometown and I love it.

20. What's next for Slashtipher?
I have one to two more shows I want to tell on stage. I've got a book bouncing around with agents now, The Marketing Dog, which is a marketing
book for writers, performers and artists. I see myself within the next five years writing books exclusively. I really want to be touring half the time with
my books and my shows, and working the other half on television programs. I really want to tell my family story on TV, kind of like a sitcom.

The Neon Man and Me will be performed at The Camel on May 26 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Tickets are $10. After the show, there will be a Q & A
session with Coleman and a gallery viewing of neon artwork by local artists. Proceeds from the show go to The Neon Man Education Fund.