Jeff Stark: A Little Nonsense Never Hurt Anybody

By Jeff Klingman

No. 20

Jeff Stark

A Little Nonsense Never Hurt Anybody

Jeff Stark can describe a decade of passing trends in New York with the casual authority of a hip Sociology professor. He saw the burlesque scene come and go, storytelling boom and bust. He pinpoints the end of a once-dominant open mic night culture, then explains how the dwindling availability of warehouse space drew a curtain on the freewheeling parties of the “post-rave era.”

Lately, he’s noticed the rise of bars used as de facto event spaces. “There’s a game show thing going on right now,” he says. “It’s kind of odd.”