Mr. Brightside
Brick Magazine
November 16, 2006
by Aaron Kremer
Slash Coleman is perpetually
searching. Even the one-man show
he's been performing around town,
called "The Neon Man and Me,"
spurred the 39 year old to produce a
"VH1- behind- the- music-style"
documentary, which he's
calling,"Glow." Coleman said he's
still making final edits, but plans on  
showing it Saturday at Art 6.

Perhaps it all began when the
Chester native was 10 and all he
wanted for the holidays was an Atari.
His parents gave him a typewriter in
an Atari box. He made do and
dreamed of being a famous writer.
After graduating from Radford University, he "beatniked" his way across the country for 20 years
and expressed himself through every medium known to man - painting, massage therapy, jazz
piano, theater, fiction, non-fiction and interviews with nosy journalists.
I met Coleman on a recent cold and rainy afternoon. He showed up in a dapper cap with two
jackets and looked like he walked out of a Kerouac novel (minus the smell of booze). Slash
Coleman had the intonation of a story teller, and sometimes it's hard to tell where fact blends to
fiction.

Brick:  You've been performing your show "The Neon Man and Me," for over a year
and a half and the documentary you made about it," Glow," seems like a natural
conclusion.
Slash: Well I'm working on another solo show,"Slash Coleman had Big Matzo Balls."
It's about my growing up as a Jew in a Jerry Springer, blue-collar family in Chester.
When my family (on his mother's side, his father is Catholic) came over during the
Holocaust, some came to Richmond and intermarried. They were afraid to profess
their Judiasm because (they were afraid) somebody would come for the Jews again.
Brick: Do your siblings feel the same way?
Slash: One sister is Baptist and the other would rather die than have anyone know she's Jewish. One of them has been
in the National Enquirer for chaining up her boy friend. Yeah, like that.
Can you share any specific scenes from your new show?
A hillbilly ends up seeing a commercial about how you can train dogs to find your Jewish identity. But the dogs find him.
He doesn't realize he's Jewish. He's in the Jewish closet. He makes a decision on stage whether to come out of the
closet, but every time an emergency Jewish broadcast siren goes off.

Brick: There seems to be a lot of focus on your sense of Jewish identity. In other interviews you've talked
extensively about what you call the Jewish closet. Why all of this now at this pint in your life?
Slash: I think it coincided with my coming back to Richmond, but I was starting to feel this way before I came back. When
I first wrote "The Neon Man and Me," my friends read it and said," This is a Jewish story, not one about your friend." So, I
retooled it. But now, I'm ready to tell that other story.

Brick: From what you say, it sounds like your recent work draws upon your painful experiences growing up in
Chester - getting beat-up by two girls for being Jewish, and so on, Why come back to the area?
Slash: This is where my family is. And I've been more successful here with my work. But I had one tough time at my high
school reunion (Lloyd C. Bird) The school asked me to do 30 minutes of stand up. I bombed. I wrote material that would
have been good for 12th graders but these people were old, almost 40. When I was on stage, people just started talking
over me, and I kind of shrank inwards, put the mic back and walked off. There was this one outcast from high school. His
dad was the roach exterminator. They were really poor. He had a bad complexion and was overweight. At the reunion he
was still the outcast. I just talked to him because nobody else would talk to me. So I'm, talking to him and he's dressed
up in his best overalls and white t-shirt, and one minute into the conversation he says, "You know, I really just don't want
to talk to you."


Brick: You've been lauded by the arts community for your business acumen. Can you support yourself with your
shows, and what does your business model call for next?
Slash: Not quite. I still work in furniture upholstery for my Unlce's company. I'm trying to book bigger venues, bring it
outside the state and college circuit. But in five years, I think I'll be done with shows. I want to write fiction and support
myself as a writer at home.
© Slash Coleman 2008
Slash showed up in a
dapper cap and two jackets.
Photo: Jay Paul