Steve Jobs Show Shares 'Shocking' Details From Factory Floor

Jan. 24, 2011— -- Even when he's not on stage, Mike Daisey knows how to use the power of performance.

When the 37-year-old monologist decided to go to China last year to explore the factories behind Apple's popular products, he said, journalists in the U.S. and Hong Kong warned him against the "fruitless, probably dangerous, exercise."

Security at the factories is notoriously so tight that, last year, a Reuters reporter revealed he was roughed up by guards while just standing outside a gate taking pictures.

But ever the storyteller, Daisey used his art to find his own way in. He printed up fake business cards and, posing as an American industrialist, finagled his way to exclusive, invitation-only tours of the Foxconn factories where, on behalf of Apple, the proverbial sausage is usually made in secret.

This week, in a one-man show opening at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, Calif., Daisey not only tells the story of his journey, but what it means for the rest of us soaked in a tech-obsessed society.

"The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" celebrates the genius of Apple's visionary founder and CEO, but also shines a bright light on the human cost of bringing his revolutionary concepts to life.

Daisey said the idea behind the sixteenth monologue of his career grew from his own infatuation with technology.

A tech geek and Apple fanboy himself, he often takes apart and cleans his MacBook Pro laptop to relax after shows. He takes his calls on an iPhone. But a few years ago, he said, he reached a moment when needed to know exactly where his favorite gadgets came from.

"I had his experience where I saw pictures from the factory floor in Shenzhen [China]," he said. "I just realized that I did not know in a deep way where these things came from and that's what started me on my journey."

So he flew from his home in New York City to China and, for about a month, tried to absorb all he could about life in the plants that churn out Apple products.

In addition to passing himself off as a businessman, Daisey said he used other investigative tactics. For example, he stood outside Foxconn factory gates with a translator and, under the watch of gun-toting guards, interviewed anyone willing to talk to him.