Grope

What happens when a wandering Jew and his long-time friend meet at a strip club on Thanksgiving day?

Award-winning NPR commentator and performer Dayvid Figler's Grope is the story of Finn, a man who has let a lifetime of decadent Las Vegas culture catch up to him. His friend Harvey meets him at the Original Eden Gentlemen's Club, forgoing a holiday with their families for a night of drinking and lap dances. There they meet Beth (dancer name: Cookie), someone that shares Finn's loneliness and hope for renewal. Dayvid Figler's story about one night in Vegas comically dances on that fine line between sexual perversity and spiritual pilgrimage.

"Figler does the near impossible. By taking on his larger-than-life hometown with effortless humor and real soul, he winds up making Las Vegas more mythical than ever." Beth Lisick, author of Everybody into the Pool.

"Part survival manual, part admiration of the form — with Grope, Figler does for strip joints what Hemingway did for bullfighting. A remarkable story." Hal Sirowitz, author of Father Said and former poet laureate of Queens, NY

"Nuerotic and disturbing, darkly funny and surprisingly hopeful." Michelle Tea, author of Rent Girl

Dayvid Figler's humor commentaries have been featured on NPR's All Things Considered. His work has appeared in McSweeney's (online), Uber, Exquisite Corpse, Time Out, and in the Las Vegas anthology, In the Shadow of the Strip (University of Nevada Press). Dayvid is the youngest retired municipal court judge in Las Vegas history. The former capital murder defense attorney has been a featured reader at many national festivals including Bumbershoot, South by Southwest, and Lollapalooza. He once was the opening act for the Beastie Boys — it didn't go well.