Radio newscasts, essays, memoirs and now cabaret — these are just some of the ways that NPR's Ari Shapiro chooses to connect with people.
Before the All Things Considered co-host became a familiar voice on the radio for millions of Americans, Shapiro used to sing and perform. Some may recognize his velvety vocals on tracks by the Portland-based band Pink Martini or may have seen his cheeky cabaret show with Scottish Tony-award winning actor Alan Cumming.
Now, he's back on the mic for a new cabaret show this Friday called Thank You For Listening in Fort Lauderdale. He returns to familiar turf after a brief stint as an NPR correspondent based in Florida. Unlike past projects, Shapiro takes to the stage as a solo act and adapts his personal stories into musical numbers.
It's not a far departure from his day job, but Shapiro makes it clear that this show won't sound like a newscast. Instead, Shapiro told WLRN, he wanted to step outside his comfort zone and show a different side of himself.
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" I've now spent almost 25 years working as a journalist, having it drummed into my head that when I tell a story, it's not about me, it's about the subject of the story," Shapiro said. "But doing a solo show is very much about you. And so that requires a shift in perspective, a shift in approach that is like using a different muscle set."
Because live performance does not abide to the rigid deadlines of of radio news, Shapiro said this show has given him the creative freedom to take audiences on a journey.
"It's something that I've always valued as an audience member — leaving a performance venue feeling like I've gone through an experience, that I see the world in a slightly different way ... and so being able to be part of that sort of creative act feels like a privilege."
In a conversation with WLRN, Shapiro shares what people can expect from his show, his time as a reporter in South Florida and what inspired him to hit the stage on his own.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
WLRN: Your new cabaret show is called Thank you Listening. What can people expect from the cabaret version of Ari Shapiro?
SHAPIRO: I can tell you one thing they should expect not to hear, which is the news. It's an evening of songs and stories. There are funny moments. There are touching moments. It's a little bit personal. In addition, I should disclose that there is perhaps language in the show. There is one moment that I drop an F bomb, which I like as just an opportunity to shake things up a little bit and let folks know this is not public radio. This is something else.
This show is adapting tales from your debut memoir, The Best Strangers in the World. In what way does cabaret and live performance allow you to tell a story that radio and print cannot necessarily do?
So this show has songs from Taylor Swift and Steven Sondheim and Paul Simon, and they're all in furtherance of the story that I'm trying to tell. There are a lot of callbacks, so I kind of weave in the story of my psychic fortune teller grandma Sylvia, who worked as a carnie at a place — it was an amusement park called Riverview in Chicago way back in the day. And so she pops up in the story at a few different times.
A friend once told me that cabaret is different from a musical review because a musical review is just a bunch of songs and stories, but cabaret should take listeners on a journey and end somewhere different from where it began and have an evolution.
But performing is not new to you. You've been on tour with Alan Cumming, and you've been a member of the Portland based band Pink Martini. What made you decide to go solo with this latest project?
I thought, that seems scary. And so I think I should try to do it and see what happens. Because often the things that are scariest lead to the most growth. And so I set that challenge for myself and it's so gratifying now to be able to do it in front of audiences that I've really been able to connect with and see respond to it and bring it to places like South Florida.
You know, there's something about doing a radio show that is very intimate and can connect with people, but it's kind of a one way street. At any given moment, I don't know whether one person or one million people are listening to what I might be saying on the radio, but when you create something in a space like the Broward Center for the Performing Arts with a group of people who are only going to be together in that one space, for that one moment, I think there's something really special about that experience.
What made you decide to bring your show to South Florida and have you performed here before?
I have performed in In South Florida with Pink Martini, it is a place that I love because I actually lived in Miami in 2004, so I can't believe it's now more than 20 years ago. And 2004 was an amazing year to be a journalist in Miami because it was a presidential election, there were four hurricanes, there were all kinds of big national stories, and I got to travel all over the state, but return to my apartment in South Florida, which I always felt like was the closest you could get to being a foreign correspondent without leaving the continental United States. Because there were so many different worlds, there were so many different communities, and that's still true today, and so I love going back to South Florida and walking down Lincoln Road and visiting all these places that I remember and going for a run on the beach that I used to run on 20 years ago, so it's a fun kind of a homecoming.
IF YOU GO
What: Ari Shapiro: Thank You For Listening
When: Friday, March 7 at 8 p.m.
Where: Amaturo Theater at The Broward Center for the Performing Arts
More Information: https://www.browardcenter.org/events/detail/ari-shapiro-2025
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