. (GA) Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer have announced a brief co-headline tour of the West Coast this Fall, starting with a Halloween engagement at Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.
The newlywed (and anything but conventional) couple are billing the event as "An Evening with Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer" and promise an unusual and intimate few hours of spoken word, songs, stories, chats with the audience, and - given Palmer's penchant for the unplanned - more than a few surprises.
The stage will contain a piano, a ukulele, two microphones, and (Amanda claims) a few comfortable twitter-sourced armchairs.
The couple are also Kickstarter-ing a project in tandem with the tour through which fans can purchase VIP seating and access to soundcheck.
Also, fans who are unable to get to the limited run of dates can still get access to an audio recording from the tour and merchandise. In 48 hours the Kickstarter campaign has more than tripled their funding goal with more than 1,200 backers, raising nearly $70,000 with just over 3 weeks remaining.
Palmer shares: "This show will be very different beast from the loud, crazed rock shows that I'm accustomed to...and also very different from the relatively well-behaved readings to which Neil is accustomed. Neil and I are both very close with our fanbases, and, even though there's quite a bit of crossover, this tour is a like one big, long reception in which our two fan-familes get to meet each other. We wanted to keep the venues cozy and seated, and make the night feel like an after-hours salon more than a formal show. As Neil and I get closer to our fanbases online through blogging and tweeting, it's nice to spend some actual quality offline facetime with everybody. We're both really looking forward to it, I think this tour is going to provide some serious soul-food all around."
Neil said, "I've read things at Amanda's concerts. She's sung things at my readings. This will be whatever happens when we get together on a stage for two hours. I haven't done a reading tour for a decade, and there are things I'm really excited about reading to a live audience. I'm hoping that Amanda's fans will put up with the messy-haired Englishman reading them stories, and that mine will enjoy the beautiful lady signing them songs of angst, post-modernism and woe. Or possibly vice versa. Also, it will be fun."
A Halloween Spectacular w/ Jason Webley & The Petrojvic Blasting Co.