Each and Every Thing, a one-man show about the search for an authentic life in the digital age, is that rare comedy that brings both heart and smarts to the stage. In it, author and performer Dan Hoyle portrays a crowded cast of diverse characters, from a Kolkata professor to an Aryan Brotherhood ex-con to the entire class of attendees at a Digital Detox retreat, bending his body, face and voice to render each as a distinct and instantly recognizable individual.
KQED Main Stage caught the show this fall during its world-premiere run at The Marsh, in San Francisco. Our video presents the (somewhat condensed) arc of the first act, which deals with the main character’s career struggles and eventual move to San Francisco.
That’s a move Hoyle, who grew up in San Francisco, never had to make. He calls the Bay Area “a huge part of my artistic upbringing,” citing a debt to The Marsh, in particular, as “the development lab for all my solo shows,” which went on to tour nationally and overseas (The Real Americans, Tings Dey Happen).
Hoyle comes by his physical-comedy chops honestly; he’s the son of neo-vaudevillian Geoff Hoyle, who was a Bay Area fixture for years — in the Pickle Family Circus and elsewhere — before going on to gigs on Broadway, with Cirque du Soleil and in film. “As for my dad,” Hoyle remarks, “he taught me all my best moves — the rest I stole from him.”
Each and Every Thing played at Joe’s Pub at New York’s Public Theater this winter and will be playing Portland, Seattle, Santa Fe and various colleges around the country in the coming year. It will return to The Marsh, San Francisco this summer.
