Tom Lynch

Author and performance artist Jonathan Ames has never seen Chicago. Even during his 2000-2001 teaching stint at the University of Indiana, the New Yorker didn't once make his way over to the city. "I'm really excited to get there," Ames says, "just to see one of America's great cities. You read about it all the time, how it's the great city of the Midwest, and you always hear how beautiful it is." Ames, the author of books "I Pass Like Night" and "The Extra Man" is set for a one-night performance gig at Bailiwick, where he will perform monologues and basically "tell stories." "It's kind of an updated version of my `Oedipussy' show. I'm drawing on old material, and just reshaping it a little bit. There will be some talk of sex, I will cover childhood, some emotional moments. I'll probably flirt with the female audience members, too."

A master's student at Indiana, who studied under Ames while he taught there, contacted the author and asked him to do this show, as part of her thesis. Ames agreed. "She's going for a master's in theater management," Ames says, "so I plan to throw a temper tantrum when she meets me at the airport, so she could get used to artistic personalities when she's producing an event."

Ames does not find it particularly difficult to balance his writing and his stage performances, because he feels "they're two totally different things. Performance is athletic, and I find that a real challenge. A writer is at home all the time, sitting in front of a computer. Performing is a way to get out of the house. Although, performance is ephemeral. Books stay around a while. You could read a book you wrote ten years ago and still get a kick out of it."

The author, who has penned and performed a monologue entitled "I Shit My Pants in the South of France," is widely known for his bouts with vulgarity. Some might even call him perverted. "I think we overuse the word `perverted'," says Ames. "Fifty years from now, the word won't even exist because everything will be so perverted it will be like normal."

Jonathan Ames performs April 24 at the Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 West Belmont, (773)883-1090 .

(2004-04-22)

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