3 Things: Cocoon Central, Drew Lynch, and Jennifer Bowen / by Chris Duffy

duffy3things.png

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:
Ever wonder what a typical day is like for me? Photographer and writer Elyssa Goodman shadowed me last Saturday for this very fun profile and photo essay. Link 

There's a new episode of The Payoff out now about freelancing and side hustles. Antonia Cereijido and I talk through what we've learned about making a living outside the traditional 9-to-5 and get advice on everything from comedy to driving for Uber.  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:
Monday, August 28 at 8:30 p.m. at QED Astoria. I'm telling jokes on "Myq Kaplan & Friends." Myq is great. He's my friend. Other fun people will be there too! Link

Tuesday, August 29 at 7:00 p.m. at The Wild Project. A short interactive piece I wrote is being performed at Cherry Picking, a festival of new plays. Link

Thursday, September 21 at 8 p.m. at Caveat.  My variety show and prize giveaway You Get A Spoon features 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, a spoon. Link

TORONTO: Saturday, September 30 at 4:15 p.m. at Second City.  I'm bringing You're the Expert to the Just For Laughs comedy festival for our first ever live taping in Canada! Our guest scientist is the world's leading expert in raccoon intelligence. I truly could not be more excited. 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:


Watching Cocoon Central dance is the surest way I know to make yourself smile. They are three amazing dancers with impeccable comedic timing who are doing something totally original. It's so much fun to witness. You might recognize Tallie, Eleanore, and Sunita fromBroad City, Netflix's GLOW, or one of the other many appearances they make individually. But when they get together, it's magic. Cocoon Central Dance Team presents Love on Top

(If you want more, go to their website or check out the delightfully strange sitcom they made) 
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

 
Drew Lynch is a standup comedian with a very severe stutter. You might think that, in a profession where talking is the whole thing, a stutter would be a dealbreaker. Drew proves otherwise. In fact, he's used his disability to make his act even more unique and hilarious. Drew made his late night debut on Conan this month with an excellent set about stuttering, dating, and Super Mario. Drew Lynch Standup


1 Interesting Thing:

Jennifer Bowen is a scientist at Northeastern University studying "microbial communities." A lot of her research touches on how human activities and climate change are affecting the makeup of ecosystems. It's important, urgent work. This week, she went viral after sharing an email she received from the Department of Energy asking her to scrub all references to "climate change" or "global warming" from her abstract. So is science being politicized? Or is it always political? Is this terrifying or just business as usual? The conversation Dr. Bowen sparked is fascinating and crucial for us to have. Here's heroriginal post, here's some context, and here's a dissenting view.


Thanks for reading,
Chris