It is a fairly accurate truism that most great storytellers of the page are not as deep, entertaining, or witty in person. This is not true, however, of Ellison. If anything, he is more fun and thought-provoking in person than in all but his very best stories.
Taped live before audiences at Renssalaer, MIT and Case Western in 1981-1983, On the Road was the only sanctioned taste of Ellison on the loose until Deep Shag Records announced a follow-up late in 2004. Chief among its delights are his retelling of the campaign of revenge he took on the comptroller of a book publishing firm that violated his contract (mailing 213 bricks, a visit by Sandor the Lithuanian hit man, sending a dead gopher), later told less animatedly in print in "Driving in the Spikes"; and a reading of Installment 55 of An Edge in My Voice -- his moving memorial to Norman Mayer.
Short takes include putting down a heckler who accuses him of being, er, height-challenged; defending Carl Sagan; singing a couple brief jingles; anecdotes about his encounters with small children; and an all-purpose insult of his MIT audience. Fantasy Island's Tattoo, Sandor ("Shuah, wot I will do is dat"), and Yiddish aliens from a distant galaxy make vocal appearances. Judging by the bursts of laughter and applause, one wishes one could have seen the visuals when Ellison posed as a gopher shot through the forehead, or as an anal-retentive, Presbyterian, Ohio State student.
P.S. So far as I know, Ellison still hasn't revealed how he got his hands on Donny Osmond stationery.
2004 Update: I put the question directly to The Man when he came up to Oregon in June 2001 and he confessed he simply couldn’t remember.
