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Any other fans? For my money, he's one of the most utterly brilliant and inventive voices to ever grace modern radio. I think everyone who got into his show has a story about surfing the dial late at night, and stumbling across that distinctive, weathered voice reciting reciting some darkly comedic monologue over a hypnotic backing track. This American Life wouldnt even be a twinkle in Ira Glass' eye if not for Joe.
Some great quotes which do a good job of summing up the programs utter weirdness and sheer excellence
"I came upon Joe Frank's work by accident a number of years ago while driving to my home in the Napa Valley late at night. I couldn't believe the originality and sheer brilliance of what I was hearing. From that moment on I became a dedicated Joe Frank fan." Francis Ford Coppola
"The very first national public radio show that I worked on was Joe Frank's. I think I was influenced in a huge way ... Before I saw Joe put together a show, I had never thought about radio as a place where you could tell a certain kind of story." Ira Glass, This American Life
"You don't have to close your eyes to appreciate Joe Frank's dense audio universe cascading out of your radio. It helps, though, because there are so many layers - of sound, philosophy, of reality-coursing through his dramas... Come to think of it, after awhile, you won't want to close your eyes because in Frank's short stories for the radio, the tension and pathos are as enveloping as they are intriguing... No one else in radio is doing what Frank does." The Washington Post
"A strange, different, wondrously offbeat, frequently hilarious, altogether brilliant piece of work... There's never been anything quite like it... Joe Frank is an audio Fellini." The Los Angeles Times
"The world of Joe Frank is a wildly entertaining surrealistic universe...hilarious, unsettling, zany, powerful, moving and perhaps the most unique, inventive and effective use of radio since Orson Welles convinced much of America that there was a "War of the Worlds." The L.A. Weekly
"...Joe Frank is an invaluable warrior who stands in defense of our fears, our vanities and our forever-eroding sense of ourselves. He transforms the everyday banality of the human comedy into an inspired weirdness that feeds on pathos and irony, and feels a lot like revelation. Sartre would have called it nausea; Frank makes it art." Spin Magazine
"Joe Frank is by far the most brilliant comic in America... [He] has created a series of dead-pan radio monologues so sharp and intelligent that during the quiet bits you can almost hear God taking notes." The Guardian (UK)
"Frank [is] the apostle of radio noire... His free-form radio dramas...are sometimes moving, often funny, but always manage to confound the listeners' expectations. A maestro of verite, Frank exploits the power of radio..." Rolling Stone Magazine
"[Joe Frank is] the most imaginative, literate monologist in radio today... Mixing bizarre monologues, multi-sequenced dramatic vignettes and mock-solemn critiques, [his] work is both sophisticated and surreal. A sizable cult has been growing around Frank...a rare radio talent." The Village Voice
"Frank wanders deeply into the unconscious, producing Dionysian stories with a fairy-tale intensity whose effect is often funny, disturbing and deeply memorable." Salon Magazine
"Radio's Prince of Darkness Rules the Airways" [Frank is] alternately dark, bizarre and very funny-but always hard to turn off." The Wall Street Journal
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