“THE BRUSH” / 2025 - WORK IN PROGRESS

Written and performed by Joe Maggio, "The Brush" is a comedic monologue in the vein of Spalding Gray’s “Swimming to Cambodia” and “Gray’s Anatomy.”

Unfolding like the storytelling version of Russian nesting dolls, “The Brush” leaps about in time, tracing the events leading up to the pulmonary embolism that nearly killed Maggio on May 30th, 2019.

The story begins with a chance encounter: Maggio filling in for a sick location sound mixer on a 2016 TV show starring British comedian Russell Howard. From this two-day shoot, a great professional and personal friendship blossoms, culminating in Maggio’s presence at Howard’s Las Vegas bachelor party in 2019, where he suffers the injury which will lead to his brush with death.

But what at first seems like a straightforward path of cause and effect is revealed to be anything but, as Maggio bores down into the quantum nature of the seemingly random events and motivations behind the decisions which have shaped and determined his life.

A bittersweet, darkly humorous reflection on middle-aged ennui, regret and failure, “The Brush” is at once apology, confession, love letter, and ultimately a celebration of the everyday mysteries of the universe. 

A co-production of Glass Eye Pix and Incidental Films, “The Brush” was performed live on August 5th, 2024 at the PWC Virtual Production stage in NYC. Larry Fessenden directed. David Vlasits was the Director of Photography. Additional cinematography by Sam Shinn and Jack Fessenden. Avi Zev Weider was the Director of Audio. VFX by Eugene Lehnert.