Solo Show Takes Amazon to Task - Industry Trend or Event

Industry Standard, The, Feb 26, 2001 by Cynthia Flash

Seattle actor and playwright Mike Daisey is turning his days at Amazon.com into comic relief with a one-man play that pokes fun at the Internet retailer and demystifies the cult of Jeff Bezos.

Daisey's live show, 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com, debuted Feb. 10, one day after the former customer service rep's nondisclosure agreement expired. The drama begins with Daisey building his desk from a recycled door -- a legendary Amazon ploy to keep down costs -- and continues with a comic commentary on digital dreams shattered by hard economics.

"It all seemed so fake," Daisey says he realized after moving to a business-development position and getting access to Amazon's financials. He worked for Amazon from July 1998 to February 2000 and left with about $25,000 in stock options, far less than the $4 million he had once imagined he'd earn.

In the play, Daisey talks about how he learned to lie to get promoted from customer service to business development. He also raises the curtain on Amazon's proprietary customer-tracking methods and reads four letters he wrote to CEO Bezos but was afraid to send.

Beginning Feb. 20, the play will be Webcast from the site MikeDaisey.com. The site also shows Daisey's short film Rear Entry -- a documentary a la Michael Moore, with Daisey sneaking into Amazon headquarters after quitting.

The company has said nothing about the play, which suits Daisey just fine. "Amazon has exhibited an amazing control over the media. [If] there's one form of media they can't control, that will be me." The show ends March 3 at Seattle's Speakeasy Backroom.