Mike Albo’s Hilarious Media Skewering ‘The Junket’ Goes From Page to Stage

Albo’s story of a Thrillist junket to Jamaica is now a one-man show

Mike Albo was the beloved and snarky Critical Shopper for The New York Times, before one fateful trip to Jamaica both got him fired from the paper of record and made him an object lesson in freelancer freebies. In 2011, he detailed his saga in a slightly fictionalized, but all the more delightful, version in his Kindle Single The Junket: A Journey of Seduction, Celebrity, Swag and Stupidity, but that wasn’t enough for the consummately creative performer, who’s also a founding member of The Dazzle Dancers. He’s now ready to tell his story in all its dramatic swagger onstage in a one-man show with the tagline “One Gift Bag can change your life…forever.” In a workshop of it earlier this year, Albo brought the saga to life in a way that brought out the humor and the dark side of struggling for solvency in New York media, only to have what he’d worked so hard for yanked away. We emailed about adapting his essay for the stage, the aftermath and the takeaway for other writers.

How long after the trip in question did you decide to write The Junket? You say that you fictionalized it for legal reasons, but I'm curious if you ever considered a straightforward, first person account, and if so, if there were reasons beyond legality that you chose this form of storytelling? Is that what comes most naturally to you?

I think while it was happening I was thinking about it. Ha. But seriously, that old adage "you need distance from your subject” is true. I needed to step back from the whole ordeal simply as a human soul because it was making me angry and crazy and I could actually feel my brain folding and becoming brittle and embittered by how I was treated. Only after spending the summer in Provincetown, working at a lesbian bar and hanging out with people outside of the NYC status scene could I get my mind around writing this down.

The “for legal reasons” is of course tongue in cheek. One of my favorite parts of writing this down was coming up with all the fake newspaper headlines. And I would not have been able to do that if it was 100% factual. Unless you are writing as a journalist, I tend to believe that everything is fiction once it comes out of your mouth and you make it a story. It just happens. I had to compress some details, conceal some names, amalgamate some characters, change some dates, just to make the story readable as well as respect some people's privacy. And once you do that: it’s fiction. I have a problem with memoirists who bend the truth to be storytellers and then expect everyone to read it as factual.

You say right at the outset of The Junket, "I am always afraid I am about to become one of those bitter New Yorkers." One of the things I found most refreshing about The Junket is that it's far more funny than bitter, which I think most writers in your position would've been hard pressed to pull off. Was this a challenge?

Phew! Thank goddess I am still not bitter! (well, maybe just a little) I've always been sort of a sad clown style writer and performer. I get up on stage and say something tragic and people just laugh, so you know, work with your assets, I guess. The trip, in reality, actually was pretty hilarious though so it wasn't much of a stretch…

I'm very curious to know if you got a response from your former newspaper editor or others who work there to The Junket?

I'm curious too! I have not been in touch with anyone over there, except for friends who work there and take me aside and roll their eyes about the whole thing. My friend Bradley told me that I should work with it and add "banned from the Times!" as part of my bio.

What about from your fellow trip attendees? I'd imagine there was a sense of "that could have been me."

A few of the fellow attendees have become friends. I actually met some very great people on the trip. And the organizers were all quite kind and wonderful. Like I say in the story, the other guests were all pretty much younger than me. But some of them had already had their own experiences being scorched by snarky Internet bloggers and Web sites like "Jabber.” I learned a lot actually from these savvy younger writers about how to cope with mean commenters as much as they, I hope, may have learned from me about how to survive a career-smackdown and still look halfway sane and moisturized.

The Junket came up in a travel writing class I took recently, in terms of how to deal with freebies. You mentioned on Twitter that you consider it a cautionary tale. What advice do you have for freelance writers or those who want to go into freelance and travel writing?

If you are a freelancer, your time is your own time. I still believe that. Until an entity offers you a salary with benefits, they do not own your every move. I recommend treating yourself as a freelancer, meaning you just keep track and stay mindful of your time, and hope that you don’t accidentally become a gossip item. Many friends and colleagues of mine still go on sponsored trips. They have to. Unless your last name is Vuitton, you have to do what you can do to get out there.

What happened to me maybe is less a cautionary tale than an example of hypocrisy. And to that end, yes I would do it again, because I don't believe I did anything wrong. But also I would have done it again, because I am not as scrubbed clean of promotion as a writer is supposed to be under certain policies. But my point is that no one is.... anyone in my position would have accidentally crossed the line, because we are all complicit in the mess of our commercial culture. Everyone lives inside the swag bag. That gift bag you got at a launch party—is that off limits? That friend who works for J. Crew who paid for lunch? That iPod cover you got when you walked out of the opening of a store? When the president of an entertainment company pays for drinks? The only people who can live "above" complimentary swaggy moments in life are rich people whose entire lives are self-sponsored.

At the heart of The Junket, to me, is the tension between doing what you love and getting paid and earning a living. You write, "Instead of creating a lucrative web venture I decided to write poetry and feel suspicious about capitalism and my place in it." Can you comment on how the various kinds of work you do, from writing to performing, intersect with finances? Is it accurate to say there's work you do for money and work you do because you have a passion for it?

I wish I had a firm answer to this question because it is always changing. Just this month I have been late with my rent so I am literally scraping by. (Hello Coinstar!) But since the Great Decimation of the industry in 2008, when everything went digital and pay rates were cut to a sliver of what they used to be, I’ve had to seek work outside of magazines and newspapers. The last two years of work have included writing copy for a relaunch of a cable provider, working as a writer for a docu-reality show, and writing a guidebook for a new lovely lodge in Colorado.

Meanwhile, I may be crazy, but I refuse to give up on my creative work. It’s not so much that I think everything I do will “sell,” it’s just that I don't know what else to do but be creative the way I am and hope that something sticks. I have never been very good at trying to “figure out” the industry and bang out a Twilight book. I am way too deep in this medium to back away from it now, I guess :)

You're turning The Junket into a solo show. What made you want to bring the story to life on the stage? When you were writing it, did you have a live performance in mind?

The page and stage have always been blurred for me. My first novel, Hornito, had its roots in monologues I performed first. And The Underminer was based on a character that my friend Virginia Heffernan and I created and that I performed on stage. It's no different with The Junket. In 2010 I was invited to be a part of the Movement Research Performance Festival, and I presented The Junket there as a staged reading. Then I turned it into a novella, and now it’s transforming back into a solo show! I owe a lot of credit to my director, David Schweizer, who has encouraged me to transmute this to the stage.

The blurb for the show says it looks at "New York's back-biting media scene." I've actually found my little niche of New York media to be often pretty collegial and friendly. Can you elaborate on the "back-biting" part? How is the media world similar to or different from the theater/performing arts world in terms of collaboration and support?

Yes, I agree, most of the creative people I know and like are all supportive of each other. One of the things that keeps me in this city is the warm, wonderful scene of readings and performance nights and shows happening all the time. I am all about that goofy nice drama crowd feeling. But I think what happened to me wouldn't have happened if certain writers and Web sites didn't take time and energy and pleasure in turning me into a scapegoat. So there is definitely a media scene that bites. And I know plenty of other people who have experienced it.

How much of what you write about in The Junket do you feel is New York-specific?

Good question. I hope to get a chance to perform it in other cities. I think it is somewhat New Yorky, but at the heart of this tale is something kind of universal. The tormented questions are for any person: "How long am I supposed to follow my ‘calling?’ How long do I have faith in myself before it becomes delusional? Am I supposed to pursue my ‘calling’ until I die or go crazy?"

You chose to publish with Kindle Singles. Can you comment on using that publishing model? Do you have plans for a future Kindle Single?

I loved my experience with David Blum and Kindle Singles. I made decent money from it (like a nice paying magazine article amount, not Stephen King levels or anything). I would do it again but I think it has to be the right subject. It has to be something this juicy or compact. I do have an idea for another single, but probably won't get to it for another year or so...right now I am focusing on bigger, longer projects :)

Has the experience with the junket (and The Junket) changed your approach to your work as a freelancer, or your feelings about freelance writing?

I always say to people that this experience “sharpened my knives.” I feel like a survivor so that’s kinda a nice feeling. Like Anne Miller: I still got it! At the same time, every month is a cliffhanger here, and I really don’t know what the future holds. If things don’t pick up in the city for me, I think I will probably need to do some kind of reboot. Like getting in my car and moving to a different town and working as a waitress with two other dames named Vera and Flo. Or buying a rundown mansion in Tuscany and learning to fix a sink while falling in love with an Italian local. Or eating and praying and loving with Javier Bardem.

What's next for you?

Bear with me because as a Gemini, Gemini Rising, I can kind of sound like a freak because I usually have about 8 projects going on at the same time. I am finishing up a first draft of another novel (it’s science fiction but funny), I just finished a proposal for a nonfiction book that I submitted to an agent and I am really excited about it. I wrote a children's book recently and I am polishing that up. But a lot of focus has been on a 30-minute TV comedy pilot I wrote that is based on my second book The Underminer. It’s a good script, I swear! I worked so hard on it. I have been working with Howard Gertler, a producer, getting my ducks in a row to go out and do the pitch thing.

Beyond that, I am of course performing whenever and wherever I can. Essentially I keep throwing my creativity like spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks!

The Junket plays at Dixon Place in Manhattan November 15 and 16 at 10 p.m.