The image could come from the morning routine of any married couple. As performance artist Tim Miller fields a phone call from an interviewer, his partner of nearly 13 years, writer Alistair McCartney, prepares tofu scramblers for breakfast in their Venice Beach, Calif., home.

But the scene that Miller shares while exchanging pleasantries contains a somber specter that doesn’t haunt the households of couples who can legally marry. McCartney, holder of Australian and British passports, lives in the United States with the aid of a temporary work visa, and Miller cannot sponsor his “spouse” under current U.S. immigration laws. Each time McCartney’s visa nears its end, the couple packs a few more boxes and sweats out another round of the waiting game that will decide whether they can remain in their home or must relocate to London.

Living in a state of exile within his own country has given Miller ample material for his politically charged one-man shows. In 1999, Glory Box focused largely on the injustices facing gays and lesbians on American soil, and with his latest work, “Us” (in San Diego Sept 22-23 at Masonic Hall, adjacent to Clair De Lune Coffee Shop), he once again put the screws to his country’s anti-gay attitudes.

While the topical issue-oriented material has plenty of bite, Miller always tempers his work with ample doses of humor. In this instance, he finds levity in the confessions of a showtune queen.

Yes, it’s true. The performer who gained so much notoriety back in 1990 as one of the so-called “NEA 4,” a quartet of artists who lost their National Endowment for the Arts grants in the conservative political climate, is finally coming out as a big fan of Broadway musicals.

“I think there’s some kind of residual weird showtune queen shame, especially for me as such a wild, political performance artist,” says Miller. “But then as I was making this show … it was sort of about lesbian and gay marriage and feelings about exile and the whole idea of getting ready, because we’re having to pack our bags and what do you take? At that moment I was writing, I do have hundreds and hundreds of Broadway cast albums and they’re a heavy part of my belongings, literally, in terms of pounds. Throughout the piece, I realized they were just coming up again and again.

Whether it’s “Man of La Mancha” or “Fiddler on the Roof,” Miller can produce a tale that links the childhood of a precocious gay activist-to-be with his modern-day material. He says he not only learned from musicals in that “diva gay boy way” of identifying, but also picked up radical political lessons from their scores.

Man of La Mancha at the age of 10 meant that I could personally stop the war in Vietnam. Oliver Twist in the musical Oliver! becomes the kind of primary future gay activist who confronts authority and asks for more. You could imagine Oliver in a little ACT UP T-shirt,” he says. “I always like figuring out how to link – because it’s true of my life – my kind of deepest-held political ideas, agendas with humor.

Miller will perform “Us” across the country this Autumn which falls near the date of his 13th anniversary. And he and McCartney will continue their waiting game. McCartney, who teaches creative writing, has a valid visa until the end of 2008 and that’s all they can count on, says Miller.

Tim Miller will present his award nominated one-man show Us at the Masonic Hall, adjacent to Clair De Lune Coffee Shop 2904 University Ave, North Park, San Diego two performances only, Saturday, September 22nd @ 8pm and Sunday, September 23rd @ 7pm. Tickets $22.

Tickets can be purchased at Claire De Lune Coffee Shop and Obelisk the Bookstore or by calling 760-564-3112 and 619-688-9845.