"Misshapen Jack, the Nebraskan Hunchback"
written and performed by Trav S.D.

"...hysterical...poetic...deranged" - Laurie Stone, Village Voice

In Misshapen Jack, the Nebraskan Hunchback, a carnival hawker in top hat, cutaway, patriotic tie, and square black mustache presents his case against all hunchbacks in Nebraska names Jack. His premise is simple, He's been done wrong three times by three such people, others like them can be no better, and he means to eradicate them all. The monologue begins as a stump speech, moves into a commitment, and swells into a fiery moment of intolerance. Trav S.D. delivers a dexterous rant that plays with words in both clever and obvious ways, but his character focuses on building his case for intolerance. He begins with a "hunch that things aren't quite right," moves on to a couple of songs, fills in with a limp lecture on the spine, and comes full circle when he discovers that to kill all of the hunchbacks in Nebraska named Jack he might also have to murder the one person who more than once saved his life.

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (Travis Stewart) has published over 200 articles in such publications as The Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason and many others. Two dozen of his plays have been produced at nearly every venue south of 14th Street in NYC and in half a dozen American cities, most notably House of Trash, which has been published by the New York Theater Experience in Plays and Playwrights 2001 and by Smith & Kraus in The Best Men's [and the Best Women's] Monologues for 2001. With his long running project, the American Vaudeville Theatre, he has presented hundreds of variety acts since 1996. In November '05 his new book No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous will be published by the Faber & Faber imprint of Farrar Straus & Gixious and is due to hit the shelves November 16. Publisher's Weekly has given the book a rave! It received a star, which "indicates a book of outstanding quality."