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, journalist Antonia Cereijido and I learn about finances, money, and how to not screw everything up. 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:
Saturday, September 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Hudson River Park. I'm emceeing SUBMERGE, an outdoor festival in Hudson River Park with songs, jokes, and scientist interviews. If you have kids, this is a great free event to bring them to. Link
Sunday, September 17 at 2 p.m. at The Bell House. You're the Expert is back in Brooklyn for the final year of the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. Join me, Roy Wood Jr, and a lot of surprise guests for a live taping of the podcast. 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
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:
Josh Gondelman is one of the world's best joke writers. He's an award-winning staff writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, a published author, and a Twitter celebrity. But Josh is also an excellent human being. He manages to infuse his humor with his empathy and kindness, while still making biting and original jokes. It's a rare and impressive feat. In this weekend's New York Times, Josh wrote about the pressure of writing your own wedding vows as a comedian. Predictably, it's charming and wonderful. What If I Bombed at My Own Wedding? (Spoiler alert: I was at Josh and Maris' wedding and he did great.)
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
I've recommended Chris Fleming's web series and his digital videos before, but his live show is truly something to behold. It's a mix of standup, characters, and deeply bizarre and hilarious songs. Here's some footage from Chris' new tour, where he performs a song about a time in 1999 when his dad accidentally said "Bye, I love you" to Chris' soccer coach before hanging up the phone. My Dad and My Soccer Coach
1 Interesting Thing:
Nick Bilton's new book American Kingpin is one of the best nonfiction books I've read in years. I couldn't put it down. Bilton traces the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht, aka The Dread Pirate Roberts, the creator and CEO of Silk Road, the dark web's marketplace for illegal goods. I strongly recommend reading the whole book, but to whet your appetite, here's an excerpt from Vanity Fair.
"Ross Ulbricht had imagined that it might all come down to this one day. That at some point during the prodigious rise of his hot tech start-up he would be obliged to make a terrifyingly ruthless decision. Now, in early 2013, the time had arrived. The question was rather simple: Was he ready to kill someone to protect his billion-dollar company.?" Nick Bilton and Silk Road
Have a great long weekend!
Chris