Still Rehearsing
Still Rehearsing
'Cause it's called "First Draft Theater," get it?
Hello and welcome to my newsletter––emphasis on new.
I wanted to get this set up before the Cool Stuff Ride Home ended so that any listeners who were curious to keep up with my other work would have a way to do that.
But I’m going to be real with you:
After 740 episodes produced in less than three years, I’m a little tired.
I have a lot of ideas for this newsletter and many other projects that I’m super excited about, but first I’ve got to get some rest.
I’ll be back in your inbox in a couple of weeks. And when I return, things aren’t going to be exactly settled yet. I’m going to try different things out and see what works––what I like doing, what you like reading (or listening, or watching… 👀). Like I have for most of my career, I’ll be learning in public as I go. That’s part of why I decided to call this newsletter First Draft Theater––a private nickname I used in my notes for the Cool Stuff Ride Home.
But more on the backstory of the name and my intentions for the future when I return.
In the meantime, here are some other places you can follow me or dive into my past creations:
I’m @jackisnotabird on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok
If you’re new to my YouTube videos, here are some of my favorites:
The latest installment to my Will It Waffle?* series in which I waffled my book
A two-part feature on trans dudes from history
My most ambitious video to date: compiling thirty years of home video footage to tell my story of figuring out my gender and how it’s not as linear a process as some narratives might have you believe. (And yes, I had to digitize a lot of VHS tapes to make this)
Live in NYC or visiting soon? I’ll be performing with the New York Neo-Futurists in The Infinite Wrench at the Kraine Theater from March 3rd to 25th and again April 28th to May 20th. Fall dates TBD.
Not in NYC? We stream live on Twitch every other Saturday!
Back in 2019, I wrote a memoir called Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place. You can buy it here.
I gave a TED Talk in 2017 about how to talk to trans people––and I appear to have aged approximately twenty years since then.
I sell a small amount of cheeky merch and hope to expand in the future.
I get around the podcast scene quite a bit beyond the Cool Stuff Ride Home. I’m a regular guest on Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and the NY Neo Futurist’s Hit Play, and I co-host Everything’s Bigger with my friend Bo Méndez.
Like what you see? There’s a paid tier here on Substack or you can support me on Patreon.
When First Draft Theater gets going, you can expect musings from me on current events, history, internet culture, the trans agenda and more. I’ll also share weird and interesting recommendations––from random websites I stumble on to curated book lists. And I’ll keep you up to date on my many projects.
I’m thinking of it as a combination of a sort of next chapter to the Cool Stuff Ride Home podcast (with a bit more of my own personality and interests) and a centralized way to keep friends in the loop about what I’m working on, in this age of increasingly fragmented social media.
But for now, it’s time to sleep. And probably watch a lot of Downton Abbey.
Take care,
Jack
