KILL THE BUDDHA

WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY ELI WALKER -- In this darkly comic solo performance, Eli Walker dismantles the modern obsession with expertise, belonging, and the seductive promise of spiritual authority. Part confessional memoir, part satire of wellness culture, Kill the Buddha traces her path from eager yoga student to viral yoga entrepreneur to self-proclaimed “belonging expert”—and the unraveling that exposes the gap between performing wisdom and living authentically. 

​Framed around a disastrously honest podcast interview, the show ricochets between past and present as Eli confronts the manipulative yoga teacher who exploited her search for meaning, the media machine that commodified her irreverence, and her own complicity in turning pain into performance.

Through a rotating cast of characters—from vapid hosts to desperate seekers—Walker skewers the ways we surrender our agency to anyone claiming to have “the way.” With raw honesty and biting humor, Kill the Buddha asks what it really takes to stop performing enlightenment and start living the truth beneath it all.

Eli’s Bio: Eli Walker is a speaker, author, performance artist, and social wellness expert whose career bridges intimate storytelling and global impact. With a BFA in Theater from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she is the founder of the internationally acclaimed brand Drunk Yoga®—featured in GLAMOUR, WomensHealth, Forbes, and The LA Times—and a recognized voice on belonging and human connection.

A storyteller since childhood, Eli wrote her first one-woman show—a feminist twist on Little Red Riding Hood—at age 8, and by 16 was performing Lily Tomlin’s The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe from memory. While earning her BFA in Acting from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, she performed off-Broadway at Lincoln Center, LaMaMa, and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, working with Tony Award-winning directors such as Liz Swados and Blake Bradford, and has appeared in TV, film, and commercials for DiscoveryID, Microsoft, Honda, and Xfinity.

Previous NYC one-woman shows include STEPS, COUNTING, and The Quarter-Life Crisis Monologues also explored belonging, vulnerability, and identity. 

Through all her work, Eli invites audiences to explore the space between self and other—the place where social wellness is sparked. Learn more at www.eliwalkerstories.com or follow @eliwalkerstories.