Writer/performer Kirk Read presents this midnight movie-style evening of stories and performances about sex work, hallucinations and the apocalypse. Read learned to perform in a touring Virginia evangelical youth group, with some in his hometown expecting him to become a preacher. Instead, Read became an escort and an avowed fan of magic mushrooms. Read is a different sort of preacher. Read’s stories weave in and out of multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Alphonsus Mooney’s live soundscape, creating an atmosphere of magical trance. Read’s humor and acute observation, together with Mooney’s trippy, layered music will take you to church. Liz Singer’s gorgeous videos will make your ass tremble.

About the show’s initial run, Hiya Swanhuyser of SF Weekly said “the word ‘pray’ bubbles up from somewhere deep within Kirk Read, and it’s genius.” The Bay Area Reporter called it “hilarious and moving.”

During the development process of this show, Kirk was obsessed with memories of a 400 pound sex work client, the Brady Bunch, learning to use a serger machine to make the costumes, pennies and touring through rural Alabama with strippers and praying in public.

This show is a co-production by Army of Lovers and SAFEhouse, in association with Footloose Presents at Shotwell Studios.

Kirk Read is the author of “How I Learned to Snap,” a comedic memoir about growing up in Virginia which was named an Honor Book by the American Library Association. Upcoming books include “This is the Thing” and “Fannie Floyd and the Book of Life.” He is a regular performer at Porchlight and Litquake, as well as a cohost of the open mics Smack Dab and K’vetsh. He has toured nationally as a performer a number of times, most recently to 35 cities with the Sex Workers Art Show. He worked as an HIV counselor at St. James Infirmary, a free clinic for sex workers. He’s the director of Army of Lovers, a project of Queer Cultural Center which Read founded in order to instigate new performance work by queer men. He can be reached at www.kirkread.com