Corber graduated from
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 1971 and shortly thereafter moved to New York City's
Lower East Side, became influenced by the slide show performances and films of
Jack Smith, and became an early member of
Colab. Corber contributed to
All Color News,
Just Another Asshole and
X Magazine. During this period he became known as a
performance artist with his
Corber/Jolson Goes to Harlem performance. Riding the subway in
blackface, Corber sang
My Mammy crouched on one knee in true
Al Jolson style. Lines include, "I'd walk a million miles For one of your smiles, My Mammy!" He also appeared in
James Nares's 1978 well-known
no wave 82-minute color Super-8 film entitled
Rome 78. The narrative is about the Roman emperor
Caligula now set in a shabby 1978 downtown Manhattan apartment. As such, it proposes an
analogy between ancient Rome and modern America as cultural empires. Despite its large cast in period costumes, the work is never made out to be a serious undertaking, with actors who interject scenes with self-conscious laughter, and deliver seemingly improvised lines with over the top bravado. In 1988 Corber conducted a taped interview with
Leonard Cohen that was purchased by the
New York Public Library for its collection. He also produced a documentary on the New York
Microtonal music group that was founded by
Johnny Reinhard. Corber is an awardee of a
New York Foundation for the Arts grant as producer of
Poetry Thin Air Cable Show and for founding the
Thin Air Video Poetry DVD Archives: which includes material on
Allen Ginsberg,
Gregory Corso,
John Ashbery,
Diane di Prima, and
John Cage. He has created a DVD called
John Cage: Man and Myth (1990) with appearances by
David Antin,
Glenn Branca,
Jackson Mac Low and others. On August 24, 2006, Corber presented
Cage Live Mix: Four Hours and 33 Minutes at
A Gathering of the Tribes, impresario Steve Cannon's legendary venue. It was a multi-screen, multi-speaker, multi-room,
ambient music mix of
John Cage: Man and Myth material, that included video, audio, interview, poetry and various inserts, some chance-oriented with some
audience participation. The title
Four Hours and 33 Minutes refers to Cage's notorious silent piano sonata
4′33″. Spread through different areas of Tribes Gallery, it was, said the artist, "an opportunity for chance events and audience participation." The program included interview sequences with Cage and the many
avant-garde artists who contributed homage interviews, including
David Antin,
Philip Glass,
Richard Kostelanetz,
Jackson Mac Low,
Alison Knowles,
Allen Kaprow, pianist
Grete Sultan,
Marjorie Perloff, and microtonalist
Johnny Reinhard. In 2015, Corber created a short documentary video called
Ludlow Street with Clayton that features
Clayton Patterson walking down the street, discussing its cultural demise due to
gentrification. ==Poetry history==