tony grayson

tony found their artistic voice in the diy scene of Chicago while living at The Shithole, an attic venue that put on hundreds of variety shows over the course of five years. tony would perform characters, short stories, poetry, essays, experimental comedy, all while sweating their ass off and screaming in support of other performers.

when in-person venues closed doors, tony became an original cast member and host of Eschaton (Chicago Reader profile) - a surreal, digital nightclub, where 20+ artists performed live as hundreds of audience members would wander zoom room to zoom room, that the NYTimes described as "a wild night in a singularly outrageous nightclub". 

in Eschaton, tony performed what they called live, interactive film. via zoom, they’d live stream from a setup with multiple hi-8 camcorders, a 90's television news switchboard and a self created soundboard, and they would power-zoom into their painful, manic eyes while desperately greeting guests. the weekly, shifting act would incorporate masks, new solo performances, crowd interaction, and a miniature set that they'd shove their head inside and perform as an aging, recovering insult comedian, who would heckle audience members and perform their stand-up act in between hacking coughs where, at times, a cockroach might fall out.

tony began stand-up comedy at the age of 16 after studying at Second City, and that early entrance to the comedy and improv scene has stuck with them through all of their artistic endeavors. Allen Anders Live at the Comedy Castle (circa 1987), a short tony wrote and performed in (directed by Laura Moss), exists in the Sisyphean hell of a dead-eyed fictional comedian from 1987. the short premiered at SXSW '17 before playing at over 30 festivals including Rotterdam (via Eyeslicer), winning Best Short Film at its international premiere at Lago Film Festival, a Vimeo Staff Pick, one of NoBudge's 2019 Short Films of the Year and featured on their 10th Anniversary playlist of their favorite films ever featured on the site — calling it, “a bravura performance”, and played on BBC’s Channel Four, Random Acts.

tony’s interview was one of the most popular NoFilmSchool interviews of 2018, where they shared how they managed to get their short film into SXSW ‘17 that had a $4.50 budget that they originally made in 45 minutes for a backyard Shithole show. 

tony's performance art bends reality, whether it's sincerely performing as DJ Donut (an underground Berlin DJ who recently got sponsored by Dove Shampoo), or when they infiltrate the traditional spaces -- just recently at the audition for Just for Laughs New Faces at the Laugh Factory, where they got on stage and apologized that they won’t be performing comedy, and instead tried to convince the captive audience to purchase their used twin XL mattress.

training: nyu tisch ‘14 (filmmaking, acting, & playwriting), second city, improv olympic, upright citizens brigade, the performing arts project (attended multiple years as student, intern, fellow, and teacher), eugene o’neill theater center’s national theater institute.