Less than two years into his prison sentence, the character of Sam Bankman‑Fried has appeared as a fictional inmate in “Luigi: The Musical,” a satirical play that sold out its San Francisco run.
Alongside Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, who faces federal sex trafficking charges, Bankman-Fried’s character humorously jabs at Silicon Valley culture from a prison cell.
The production opened last Friday at the 49-seat Taylor Street Theatre, imagining the three men as cellmates at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where they were all housed —a reference to what actually happened in December of last year.
It quickly sold out its entire San Francisco run within 24 hours of tickets going on sale.
“I think we are all pretty curious about the systems at large,” Jonny Stein, who plays the lead character, said in an interview with CNN. “Health care is part of what we’re looking at, but tech and entertainment too.”
The 60-minute production positions the three inmates as symbolic failures in healthcare, tech, and Hollywood, with Bankman-Fried portrayed by André Margatini delivering a prison cell monologue stylized as a TED Talk that satirizes Silicon Valley’s self-importance, according to a review from The San Francisco Chronicle.
Are you not entertained?
Bankman-Fried’s character represents the tech world’s fallen crypto king, complete with references to FTX’s collapse and the billions lost by investors, which it began repaying earlier this year.
Margatini’s portrayal of Sam Bankman-Fried leans heavily into Silicon Valley stereotypes, featuring the FTX founder performing a song titled “Bay Area Baby” where he characterizes himself as a privileged tech scion from Palo Alto who dismisses legal boundaries, per a review from The Independent.
The production mines comedy from Bankman-Fried’s awkward persona, with one scene depicting him attempting to bribe a prison guard by proposing to “take the concept of incarceration and tokenize it,” a jab at some in the crypto industry’s tendency to turn just about everything into something blockchain-based.
Despite controversy over the timing, given that Mangione and Combs’ cases are ongoing while Bankman-Fried’s is in the process of appeal, audiences reportedly responded with standing ovations.
The original run is ongoing at Taylor Street Theatre, with a sixth performance scheduled for July 13 at The Independent, a venue located on Divisadero Street in San Francisco that can accommodate up to 500 people.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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