Hi friends,
It's Saturday! Every week, I send out an email with my upcoming shows, one thing I think is great, one thing that made me laugh, and one thing I found interesting. Feel free to spread the word and share these emails with friends. If you're checking this out for the first time, you can see the archive and sign up to get these emails here.
Upcoming shows
EVERYWHERE:
On The Payoff, Antonia Cereijido and I try to learn about money from a team of financial experts. Link
Three comedians try to guess what a leading scientist does all day and then find out why their research is important and exciting on You're the Expert. Link
NEW YORK CITY:
TODAY, August 19 at 6 p.m. in Prospect Park. I'm telling jokes at Nadia Pinder's combination picnic party and comedy show. Free! Link
Sunday, September 17 at 2 p.m. at The Bell House. I'm hosting You're the Expert at the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival with Roy Wood Jr, a mystery scientist, and more special guests. Link
Thursday, September 21 at 8 p.m. at Caveat. The monthly NYC residency of You Get A Spoon starts with comedy from me and Emmy Blotnick, a reading by best-selling author A.J. Jacobs, a presentation by MoMA-displayed video artist Neil Goldberg, and of course, the spoon. Link
WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Friday, October 27 at 6 p.m. at National Geographic. I'm bringing You're the Expert back to NatGeo headquarters for another live taping as part of Tig Notaro's Bentzen Ball. Link
My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
CJ Hunt is one of those multi-talented people who do everything. He's a comedian, storyteller, actor, TV producer, and I'm sure many more things too. But for the past few years, when he's not telling jokes, CJ has been working on a documentary about confederate monuments. He drove to Charlottesville to cover the rally last weekend and ended up capturing a small but very disturbing moment. "Nothing troubled me more than when I watched a Nazi disappear." It feels a little strange to call this "great" but I find CJ to be one of the most insightful and talented writers out there, so I highly recommend reading his take. CJ Hunt: Scared White Supremacist Takes Off His Uniform
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
If we're going to talk about Nazis, let's also take a moment to appreciate some of the brilliant comedy that's made fun of the Fuhrer over the years. Nothing deflates a dictator's power like being laughed at. Maybe take a break to watch The Producers or Charlie Chaplin's The Little Dictator. Or here is one of my personal favorite WWII comedy bits, Simon Rich's "Stopping Hitler." It's only a paragraph long but it's truly brilliant. Stopping Hitler
1 Interesting Thing:
The town of Wunsiedel in Germany has had a longstanding problem with neo-Nazis. As the burial place of Rudolf Hess, it attracted marches each year. The town tried counter-demonstrations, they even exhumed Hess' body and moved it elsewhere. Nothing seemed to work. Until they decided to prank the Nazis. It's a fascinating story that highlights a very important point. Extremists attract disaffected young people by seeming powerful. So we need to condemn them, but we also need to make sure that we undercut their message as well. One way to do that is with satire. They're not strong and forceful, they're misguided doofuses. How to Make Fun of Nazis
(related: here's a group of Syrians using the same comedic techniques to undercut ISIS)
Have a great weekend,
Chris