on October 10, 2021
@ Bread & Salt
We came together
For a celebration At
The matt hoyt retrospective
with Art Installations, food,
Drink, songs, & speeches
Watch the full presentation here:
There’s no way to adequately capture who Matt was and what he made. He was a writer, a director, a musician, and a performer. Across all mediums he was a master improviser who had a magical ability to communicate an idea as it was forming. From ad-libbing 80s TV shows in his wallpapered childhood bedroom to hosting a live improvised talk show while painted green, Matt’s ability to tell an unrehearsed story was unmatched. Much of the work he created with his friends and brothers was also developed on the fly – a seed of an idea nurtured by his enthusiasm, creativity and talent.
Matt found inspiration everywhere and held on to the unabashed wonder that most of us lose by adulthood. A toy monster, an old security jacket, a weird condo in Park City – anything could become a reason to make a movie. Or an album. Or a show about a trash dump in Antarctica.
These are just some of the ideas he actualized. Explore the video installations displayed at The Matt Hoyt Retrospective here and read the full program here.
Unless otherwise noted, the pieces in this exhibition were all written and directed by Matt and made in collaboration with the creative community he fostered throughout his extraordinary life.
Watch all the videos in the library here and read the full program here:
The mayor of San Diego
declared October 13, 2021
to be
The Matt Hoyt Day
And the Casbah threw a wild Hoyt Fest
Watch the Casbah lineup here:
Matt Hoyt
October 13, 1975 - August 14, 2021
Matt Hoyt, beloved husband, brother, son, uncle, brother-in-law, son-in-law, nephew, cousin to dozens, friend to too many to name, restaurateur, filmmaker, voice-over actor, artist, musician, comedian, raconteur, and all-around merry-maker, died Saturday, August 14, 2021, after a brief battle with a rare and aggressive cancer.
Born to Sue and Ken Hoyt on October 13, 1975, Matt will be mourned, adored, and remembered by his best friend and wife, Allison Bell Hoyt, his brothers Mark and Tim, their wives Sophy and Carlyn, his nephew and nieces Ethan Hoyt, Sadie Hoyt, Kinsley Hoyt, and Nola Winterbell, his parents Ken and Sue, his in-laws Bob, Nancy, Andrew, and Melissa Bell, his large, loving extended family, and his many cherished friends.
Dubbed “Hurricane Hoyt” by friends, Matt managed to live multiple lifetimes in the short time he had. Matt founded and ran one of San Diego’s most beloved bars and bistros, Starlite; helped friends and partners acquire and build out businesses and homes around San Diego; constantly improved and constructed his own properties in South Park; popped up in television shows, video games, and on radio ads with his booming, joyful voice; created performance art, improv acts, short films and music videos; worked to develop a new payment app for the restaurant industry; and played an informal, and deeply vital role of connecting the artistic and creative community in San Diego.
A friend at his bachelor party created a newspaper edition about Matt with the headline: “Local man endures 416th consecutive ‘crazy week.’”
His friends, which he made easily and held onto tightly, loved to tease Matt for his never-ending escapades, and, in return, they would be regaled with Matt’s hilarious tales – he spun stories from his life and ideas about his work into comedic gems passed around from person to person. You have to hear the one about the shrimp drawer. And his idea for a screenplay about a washed-up magician playing at the casino off I-8. And the time Dan Akroyd possibly kidnapped him while Matt pretended to be a man named Mr. Weber. The list does go on.
Matt burst with energy, and used every piece of his being to blow excitement and vibrancy toward the people and projects he loved. His boundless fervor for others’ creativity was infectious and he spread his enthusiasm eagerly – be it a new band playing at the Casbah, a recipe you had to try, or a panel at ComicCon worth standing in line for.
He loved being a big brother to Tim and Mark and through his life, he took that big brother energy and mentored other restaurateurs, pushed musicians and comedians and artists to trust in their talent, cared deeply for and supported his employees, and convinced everyone around him to believe in the great possibility of it all.
Matt was long a prominent figure in Southern California’s music scene, fronting the band Turkey Mallet while still at Valhalla High School, working as a promoter and booker for El Cajon’s The Soul Kitchen, creating music videos for bands such as Pinback, The Blackheart Procession, Goblin Cock, and Paradise Boys, and eventually befriending most of the bands that came out of Southern California in the past two decades.
A consummate people connector, he likewise befriended artists, filmmakers, music producers, gallery owners, and comedians, staying up late into the night for long talks, encouraging and egging on their work, connecting them to other creative people in their industries, and otherwise evoking that rare skill of being the hub to the many, many wheels of San Diego’s art scenes.
He also pursued his own wild artistic endeavors, such as developing Talk Talk Show, an all green green-screen absurdist television show taped in front of a live studio audience or the episodic comedy Antarctic...huh? filmed in his backyard in front of... a green screen.
He loved nothing more than big, boisterous parties full of the people he loved, and he loved many, many people – but none so well as his wife, Allison. It was at one of those San Diego parties that he met Allison in 2005. They had their first date on December 11, and Matt wasted no time in asking Allison to come as his date to his aunt’s wedding two weeks later. They were rarely apart after that. The couple married in Palm Springs in 2010, a place they returned to many, many times.
The two fed off each other’s energy – making each other laugh, pushing each other, and, most of all, supporting each other. Their partnership and their humor memorably would be on display in their annual Halloween costumes: one year the two made their rounds as Hall (Matt) and Oates (Allison), the next as Joe Exotic (Allison) leading a beleaguered tiger (Matt) by a belt. They loved to travel, especially to creative gatherings like South by Southwest or the Sundance Film Festival where Matt would manage to make it to more panels than humanly possible, still have energy for the after party, and often throw the after-after-party. But more than anything, they loved to be home together or with a few friends telling stories and dreaming up antics late into the night in the backyard of their South Park homes.
In 2007, Matt chose to pursue a new passion: to join up with two partners and create a special space in San Diego for current and future friends to gather. He called it Starlite. Despite the 2008 recession, Starlite quickly became a San Diego favorite and paved a path for the emergence of San Diego’s craft cocktail/pub scene. Fourteen years later, it still regularly tops the lists of best restaurants. When Covid wreaked havoc on the restaurant industry, Matt threw his whole weight against the challenge of keeping Starlite open for its dedicated customers, and still managed to find time to help other San Diego restaurants and businesses navigate the ever-complicated documentation system for loans and relief.
Matt will be remembered through all the many memories made and yet to be made at Starlite. He will be remembered in the thousands of small and big ways he supported so many through his life. He will be remembered with love and tears and laughter in equal portions.
In lieu of flowers, go buy a round at Starlite, support a local store owner, celebrate an artist you love, hug your people, laugh hard and long, and never forget how sweet and precious and short this life is – just as Matt would have wanted.
