Solo Fest 2025 Spotlight: Elijah Jalil Paz Fisher’s THE SKIBIDI M’FIN BIBIDI EXPERIENCE
Join us for PlayGround’s eighth annual Solo Performance Festival, a curation of the best in California solo performance! The festival runs January 24-February 9, 2025 (Fri-Sun), presented live on our stage and also simulcast online. More…
Today we’re spotlighting Elijah Jalil Paz Fisher in The SKiBiDi M’FiN BiBiDi EXPERIENCE (1/25 at 4pm, 1/26 at 4pm, & 1/31 at 7pm). THE SKiBiDi M’FiN BiBiDi EXPERiENCE is a one-person, musical, and athletic performance that wrestles with the comedic and sophisticated absurdity of modern-day existence through the examination of addiction, expectation, and the English language in an ever-evolving quest for understanding, knowledge, and wisdom. Its form spans multiple genres from an epic poem to a rap waltz to a performance art installation to a contemporary hip-hop dance piece. Most notably, THE SKiBiDi M’FiN BiBiDi EXPERiENCE aims to motivate the audience to look up from their phones and discuss what a cultural reset looks like amongst the middle class.
Hear from the playwright:
What was the seed of this play? What inspired you to write it?
On the night of November 22, 2023, I was doom-scrolling on YouTube Shorts at my brother’s apartment when I came across a streamer named Fanum who was talking about his 8 year-old cousin. What had happened was, Fanum’s cousin told Fanum about an earworm that he and his schoolmates were repeatedly singing on the schoolyard. The song goes, “Sticking out your gyat for the rizzler. You’re so skibidi. You’re so Fanum Tax. I just wanna be your sigmaaaaaa.” After hearing this, Fanum asked “What’s a skibidi?” then went on to ask other questions, provide opinions, and tell other stories. I ended up scrolling on my phone for a bit longer until I fell asleep.
Upon waking up, I heard a beat in my head that I knew needed to be captured, so I pulled out the Music Memos app, and recorded a loop of a melody using the words, “skibidi bibidi bibidi hai-yai-yah skibidi bibidi bibidi yai-yah.” For about a month, I let the beat marinate in the app. Once I finally returned to the app and played the loop repeatedly during my 30-minute drive on the way home from my teaching job, I knew there was something rich in the audio. It was unlocking expansive, daring thoughts in my brain on a consistent basis that I now like to call epiphany symphonies. As an example of its potential grandeur, I’ve envisioned what this piece would look like adapted into a symphonic arrangement.
After this feeling, I began writing lyrics. Once I began writing lyrics, playing the loop became both a sort of meditation and an overflowing source of inspiration. Since then, I’ve been riding the wave of where it wants to take me, enjoying my time in traffic, and finding an ounce of purpose in my scrolling that often feels pointless.
Why is a solo show the ideal way to tell this story?
At this point in time, rehearsing and performing this piece feels like an exhausting, physical and mental practice as research of obsession and insanity that I would only ask myself to take on as a performer. Also, it is such a personal form of expression and experimentation that it feels like I’ve been specifically called to present to the world.
What are your artistic influences for this show?
My artistic influences are the Culture and Intersectionality of Contemporary Hip-Hop, Musical Theater, Memes, and Concert Dance. Also, my daily life and sometimes my dreams when I can catch them. I’d also be wrong not to mention the skibidi toilet as an artistic influence.
What surprised you during the creation of this piece?
I was a bit surprised by the raunchiness of some of the words and ideas that this piece evoked. I was surprised that its grown into the size that it is and continues to grow. I was also surprised that it is as exhausting as it is as a movement exercise.
Is there anything audiences should know about you or your piece before they attend? And/or is there anything else you want to share about your piece?
SKiBiDi MUTHAFUCKiN BiBiDi can be more easily referred to as “SMFB,” but I have always found it more humorous to say it in full. I’ve created and will continue creating much more than SMFB, but 2025 will be the “Year of SKiBiDi,” so be prepared to follow SMFB and I on www.elijah-jalil.art to stay up-to-date on related news and inspiration.
Elijah Jalil Paz Fisher (THE SKIBIDI M’FIN BIBIDI EXPERIENCE) identifies as a Niggapino, and he is a multidisciplinary performance and recording artist from Richmond, CA. He received his BA in Theater from University of Portland and MFA in Acting from University of Montana. Throughout his work, Elijah expresses himself through songwriting, playwriting, poetry, and choreography. In the Bay, he has worked as an actor with AASC, and with his alma mater, SJND as a teacher/director. As he continues on his journey, Elijah aims to build a massive body of work that highlights the complexity of human existence, especially from his perspective as a Niggapino.