His father, Gil, was a member of the late '50s-early '60s folk-music group the Highwaymen ("Michael, Row the Boat Ashore") and helped run the Gaslight Cafe in New York City's Greenwich Village.
At 12, he worked at the Theatre for the New City, an avant-garde group in Manhattan's East Village, trying jobs such as actor and lighting technician.
After graduating from college, cofounded the Actors' Gang, a collective that produced existential and surrealist works whose motto was "Dare to Be Stupid."
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