Fred Siegel
Fred Siegel is an actor, director, comic improviser, and magician. He earned his Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on “The Vaudeville Magic Act, 1890-1930.” During his years at NYU, he learned to lie for money on summer weekends at Bradshaw’s Circus of World Curiosities, a Coney Island side show: “She’s in there, ladies and gentlemen. Bent. Twisted. Contorted. Distorted. Mangled and tangled around and among the solid steel blades in the cramped confines of that coffin-like cabinet. How does she stay in that hideous hellhole, where you wouldn’t expect a dog to survive? For fifty cents, you can find out….” He is also active in the Philadelphia chapter of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, where he was named 2002 stage magic champion and 2004 close-up magic champion. And he is the artistic director of “Fred’s Magic World,” a comedy/magic ensemble based in Philadelphia.
Fred is a nine-year veteran of Comedysportz and has performed in other improv shows, most notably “Choosical,” the series of improvised musical comedies produced by Freefall. He played an adulterous hippy in Karen Getz’s comic ballet Suburban Love Songs at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival in 2006, and appeared in the successful revival by 1812 Productions in 2008. He reprised the role in the sequel, “Disco Descending,” which opened the Live Arts Festival in August 2008. He started logging his dreams in the early 1990s, partly out of curiosity, but mostly to gather material for his autobiographical vaudeville performances, and now writes “Fred’s Dreams” for When Falls the Coliseum. He teaches at Drexel University, and your card is the Jack of Clubs.
Photo credit: Nicole Kline
