Tomatoes
tried to Kill me
But Banjos Saved My Life

An Award Winning, Inspirational True Story
Keith Alessi playing a banjo

Accolades

Awards

SOLD OUT RUN
OFF-BROADWAY
SOLD OUT RUN
2025, 2024, 2023
EDINBURGH
WINNER
MOST INSPIRATIONAL
NEW YORK CITY

Reviews & Press

Kings River Life Magazine - Rogue Festival 2022 Review
Kings River Life Magazine - Rogue Festival 2022 Review
March 11, 2022

Keith Alessi plays the banjo. Keith Alessi also tells jokes. However, Keith Alessi is not Steve Martin.

The Munro Review - Rogue Festival 2022
The Munro Review - Rogue Festival 2022
March 11, 2022

A banjo, the lean and kindly man tells us, draws a line to the past – back to circles of players whiling away pre-electric evenings in the Blue Ridge Mountains, back to the vestigial sound of bagpipes urging Scotsmen across a battlefield, back even to primeval times, with people sitting around campfires and vocalizing with grunts and hums.

Times Square Chronicles - Frigid Festival 2022 Review
Times Square Chronicles - Frigid Festival 2022 Review
February 25, 2022

The Frigid Festival at The Kraine Theater has been in existence for 16 years and what better month than February to put it on!

Audience Feedback

Loved the show... I laughed... I cried... I walked away with good lessons...

An amazing journey presented here - very touchy and powerful story told in a very intimate theater...makes you look, as Keith Alessi suggests, in your closet...and forward through the windshield...This is an authentic and not-to-be missed!!!

Very well done- humorous, poignant, excellent.