Jerick Hofer is an up-and-comer on the Seattle theater-scene, having just done a turn in the pared-down cast of Threepenny Opera at the Intiman. On April 19, his solo show, Turning Parlor Tricks, opens at SPF 4 down at Theatre off Jackson. Tickets $12.

1. Where did you grow up, and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up in Portland Oregon. The “hippest” place to live right now apparently… Now that I’ve left. I went to the high school where they shot Mr. Hollands Opus, and once a year we would watch it in choir class, literally sitting in the room where half the scenes take place. I moved to Seattle Washington to attend Cornish College of the Arts to study theater. I graduated with a BFA in theater and emphasis in musical performance. Originally I was planning on moving back to Portland after graduation, but when the day came, I realized I was firmly planted here. I’m doing much more of the theater and cabaret work that I want to be doing, than I think I ever could in Portland.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting, or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

I have always been inspired and artistically motivated by Alice in Wonderland. Something about all those distinct characters living together in one place… I saw a production of Alice in Wonderland directed by Trisha Todd (Star of the lesbian cult film, Claire of the Moon) who was eventually my high school theater teacher. She did a re-imagined version of it. Humpty Dumpty was a Buddhist monk. The white night was a wounded soldier. The Queen of Hearts sang “RESPECT.” I loved that show. It was the first time I saw a play that wasn’t a literal iteration of the text. It opened my mind to what can happen in a play.

3. What skill, talent, or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

I wish i spoke more languages. So far I just speak English and French… And I wish I could play an instrument that I could accompany myself with. Piano, Guitar, Concertina… Something like that. I sing best when with live accompaniment, and it’s not always an option. I think my cabaret and drag career could benefit from both those talents.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

I work at a health food cafe. It’s not an ideal working situation for me, but they allow me to flex my schedule when needed for shows and performances, which is all I really care about in a day job. I also am a freelance apartment cleaner. I was a janitor at my college all four years I went there, so now I use those squired skills in a domestic setting. Between those jobs and the odd assortment of cabaret, burlesque, and torch shows in any given month, I get by. I sing a weekly show at The Rosebud, either solo, or with my music/comedy partner Richard Andriessen when our schedules are in sync. We do an act called “The Vaudevillians.” They are a vaudeville duo who’ve been frozen alive for the last 90 years, and thanks to global warming they have thawed out to return to the stage. However, their original music from the 1920’s has been covered by pop artists throughout the years, so they play their music in it’s original integrity. songs like “Piece of my heart,” “Toxic,” “Paper Planes,” “Turn back time,” all set to a swinging ragtime beat.

5. Why solo performance? What made you decide to pursue this show in this form?

My theater mentor, and favorite teacher from Cornish, Keira McDonald is the curator of the solo festival, and I have bounced ideas off of her for solo pieces since graduation. While at Cornish, I took her class on solo performance and developed some pieces that I was really proud of, and I was interested in the challenge of taking them on in a bigger way. Originally I was going to expand upon a piece I had generated in her class about my experience being a young gay man with narcolepsy. However, I got bored with that topic and started to find an interest in the Victorian tradition of parlor seances. From there I developed an idea and a character that really started to excite me, and soon, Keira and I were co-writing a play that I am very excited to be presenting. It allows me to really play with my audience, and invite them into about an hour of really kooky, spooky fun. I find that people LOVE to talk about ghosts, whether or not they believe in them, and this show is a more comical idea of what the afterlife might be like.