This weeks chosen-at-random interview is Ric Royer, who's hitting the stage at AS220 this Friday, October 14th at 10pm-ish as part of a bill that includes Blevin Blectum, Victoire, and Lord FM. Royer, a recent Providence transplant, is the founder and director of Performance Thanatology, a performance group that has entertained, frightened and confused audiences with their interdisciplinary hysterics since 1999. He is also a founding editor of Ferrum Wheel, founder and former artistic director of The Loft Theatre in Baltimore and an organizing member of the Baltimore's largest performance event, the Transmodern Festival from 2004-2009. You can find out more about Ric by visiting his website (ricroyer.com), reading this short interview and/or by coming to the show tomorrow, Friday the 15th.
CK: You describe yourself as "a monologist, a writer, a song and dance man"; which of these suits will you be wearing at AS220 this Friday?
RR: I think I will go with Monologist-Song Man for Friday. I will leave Writer-Dance Man for another occasion.

CK: Can you describe a few of your more successful collaborations and what made them work?
RR: My most successful collaborations have been MY SOLO ONES! To hell with my collaborators and their uncooperative schedules! My long-time collaborator G Lucas Crane (Nonhorse) and I used to make BEAUTIFUL MUSIC together, then he got his hands on Pro Tools or whatever and now he never leaves the house unless it is to tour Europe. He is making solo projects that are better than Ric/Lucas projects, so now i have to respond with projects that are better than the projects Lucas made when he made projects that are better than Ric/Lucas projects.

CK: Some of your work sounds pretty 'avant-garde' if you don't mind bearing that somewhat pretentious but complimentary label. Are there any particular philosophical and/or artistic movements that resonate very strongly with you? 
RR: First of all, just on avant principle, I am mortally offended by this comment, and I thank you.
Now, personally I have tried to push the label Avant-Vaude for my work, combining the accessibility and showmanship of vaudeville with my "European sensibilities". But I have come to understand that it matters little what one calls oneself, others will do that for you whether you like it or not. My work has been called everything from "Performance Art" to "Spoken Word" to "Stupid". "Stupid" is probably the least offensive of that list.

CK: You laid out a distinctly philosophical stance around the performance group you founded "Performance Thanatology" If its not too tall an order, can you give readers a brief yet coherent suggestion of what "Performance Thanatology" is and any distinct influences that fuel it.
RR: Absolutely not.

CK: Your new book comes with the following description: "'She Saw Ghosts, He Saw Bodies' consists of two short stories revolving around sleep, death and desire. Two nameless characters find sleep, lose sleep, and sleep through sleep in strangely conjoined worlds where they sift through the hard and soft clues in their surroundings to determine whether they are alive, dead or different than dead." Do we have to read the book or can you just fill us in on one or two such clues that would be useful in determining whether we are in fact alive?
RR: Yes, I will fill you in on some clues, but since I will be lying, you will still need to read the book: it is not until we are dead that we will truly know what it is like to be alive.

CK: You strike me as the rather well-read sort. What are a couple of your favorite tomes?
RR: I have provided images of two of my favorite reads from my library. First, a book of immeasurable importance to me, The "Official" Asthma Trigger Activity Book brought to you by the good folks over at Asthma Explorers. I've wasted a lot of my activity time with other "UNofficial" Asthma Trigger Activity books, but this one is the real thing. It offers a great selection of activities and useful reminders of all those tricky triggers that Asthmatics (of which I am proudly NOT one of them) need to avoid.
Another favorite, an irreplaceable treasure, is "Secrets to Beautifu", which is a book that I found with the title partially whited-out. This book was defaced as an act of love, I believe. It includes images of beautiful men and women with white-out in their hair, on their faces and on their clothes.
Heidegger's Identity and Difference is pretty good too.