Mike Daisey

Mike Daisey
Daisey speaking in 2013
Born	(1976-01-21) January 21, 1976 (age 41)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Monologist, author, actor

Mike Daisey (born January 21, 1976) is an American monologist, author, and actor. His monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, about the labor conditions under which Apple devices are made, was used as the basis for a widely shared episode of the radio program This American Life, but the episode was later retracted for its factual inaccuracy after it was discovered that Daisey had lied extensively about his experiences.

Daisey's early work includes Wasting Your Breath (1997), a monologue of the Great American Roadtrip, and I Miss the Cold War (1998), about Daisey's visit to post-Communist Warsaw and Cold War themes.

His 2001 monologue 21 Dog Years was Daisey's break. In 2002, Daisey published a book version of the tale under the same title, and in 2004 the BBC aired his radio adaptation of his monologue on Radio 4.

Daisey performed several non-traditional monologues during the 2000s. For All Stories Are Fiction (2004), Daisey made no notes of any kind until one hour before the performance, and then created a show extemporaneously onstage. Similarly, in Mysteries of the Unexplained (2009), he performed a series of one-night-only performances, about Facebook,bacon, and the Boardwalk. Daisey presented his 24-hour monologue All the Hours in the Day (2011) at Portland's TBA Festival in September 2011, emphasizing themes of loss, transformation, and the desire for authenticity.

Invincible Summer (2007) is about the history of the New York City transit system, loss, and democracy in modern-day America.

The April 19, 2007 performance of Invincible Summer at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was disrupted when over 80 audience members from a high school in Norco, California left the production mid-performance, after teachers and chaperones decided that they had heard too many obscenities. One parent approached the stage and poured water over Daisey's outline notes; Daisey said that the destroyed papers were the original copy of the show's outline. He described the effect of the walk-out as "shocking". Daisey later sought out and spoke with representatives of the group, including the member who destroyed his notes.