On November 3, cabaret messiah Justin Vivian Bond took the DIY stage by storm, giving a loudly appreciative audience a crash course in writing from the gut. In PEN’s DIY feature, Bond taught the art of improv and creating a character in five steps—a challenge the singer and performance artist of Broadway’s Kiki and Herb knows all too well. Bond, who prefers the genderless pronoun ‘v’ and sometimes goes by Mx Bond, is also the author of the Lambda Award-winning memoir Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels.