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What’s new –

Elgin Fringe Festival 2025 – I am excited to once again perform at the Elgin Fringe Festival, with a short show titled Streaming Useless Thought Machine .

Streaming Useless Thought Machine wanders online landscapes where everything’s for sale and engagement is currency. It tackles the commercialization of patriotism, deranged YouTube conspiracy, and searches for sanity in a Taqueria at the edge of the apocalypse. Delivered through spoken word and smart-assery. Adult language/themes. PG-13.

My show is part of “Short Showcase B“, Short Showcases are 3 separate 20 minute shows that run to make up a one hour show. This year I am sharing my showcase with 2NBs (2 Non-Binary Bees), who are doing “a big-hearted, queer musical circus adventure”, and Geoff Thevenot, a very talented local singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who will be doing a different show with different instruments each night. Geoff is a regular at the Side Street Open Mics and I always enjoy his performances.

Performances are at https://elginpublichouse.com . Tickets are $12 and are available at elginfringefestival.com, and must be picked up at Side Street Studio Arts, which is about a block and a half away from the venue. In order to enter the festival you must also purchase a $3 Festival button, so if this is the only Fringe show you are seeing it is $15 total to see all three shows in the showcase.

Fear No Art 2025 – I am grateful to be in this year’s Fear No Art. I decided to step out of my comfort zone a little and instead of performing live, I produced a video for my poem “Where Do You Feel it in Your Body” as well as several visual art pieces inspired by some of my micro-fiction (Two Sentence Horror Stories). Fear No Art runs on 4/25/2025 at 7:30pm and 4/26/25 at both 2:00 pm and again at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available at the James Lumbar Center Box Office. Here is one of the several pieces of Microfiction that is featured in the show.

If you are new to this page, my name is Mike Chernoff. Like many of you, I was stuck at home in 2020, clinging to the things that help keep me sane. For me, that was my wife, Christine, and my love of writing. Chris is a dancer and a writer herself, and while the arts are important in our household, they took on an extra level of importance in 2020.

I majored in creative writing in the mid 90s, and it has remained a passion for me. In 2019, Chris noticed that a local poetry group, Atrocious Poets, was holding poetry workshops, discussing established works of poetry, sponsoring collaborative events, seminars, pub crawls, all sort of interesting activities. I was excited for all of these opportunities so close to home.

Then the pandemic hit and everything went to literal hell, and to virtual space. So I figured that was as good as any to really focus on my writing and put myself out there. I currently have a lot of ideas, and time on my hands so if you like anything on here, check back frequently. There should be a lot more material in the coming days, and I may talk Christine into guest posting as well.