MY TALK:

Planetary Punch Lines: Art As a Magical Joke

Working with planets and telling jokes have a lot in common, timing and rhythm is everything.

Saturn walks into your 5th house…

Venus crosses Aries to get to your Moon…

Every planetary happening has a setup and a punchline. Like a stellar knock knock joke—we are invited to respond, or as Lauren Berlant says, “a joke is like an i-love-you awaiting reciprocation.”

This presentation considers how the artist/magus can deepen their planetary courtship through the comedic form. It sounds fun, yet as we know some alignments are a tough crowd, some planets use dark humor and sometimes, we are the butt of the joke. Comedy isn’t what we think it is—it depends on tension, failure, often working with what’s wrong in order to lead to a moment of mutual delight.

What kind of astral art is possible when we have the courage to stay open to this awkwardness, to keep everything in play? How might our planetary devotions benefit from the in-and-out of controlness that the grammar of comedy depends on? We will discuss what worlds can be built when we let laughter refine our materials, charge our talismans, when amusement is our co-creative tool.