Happy Saturday!
I've been in New York this week working on my off-Broadway show and feeling very grateful for all the friends and former coworkers who have come out to support. It's the first time I've performed a piece that's not primarily about making people laugh and it's scary to try something new. But it's also exciting. it's also nice to be back in New York and admire just how quickly a crowd of people is able to walk directly through another crowd of people. It's a thing of beauty. Also, I've eaten a bagel every single morning I've been back.
Upcoming Events
NEW YORK
Friday, February 7th and Saturday, February 8th. SOLD OUT. These public workshops of my new stage show are sold out but if you sign up for the wait list for tonight we'll do our best to get you in. It's presented by All For One Theater. Link with more info
LOS ANGELES
Wednesday, March 25th at 7 pm at the Lyric-Hyperion Theatre. Matt Porter and I are hosting another edition of Powerful Points, where comedians give presentations. Link
This week’s list
GREAT:
Leila Janah was an entrepreneur who created jobs that paid living wages to thousands of workers. Her goal was to create work that would lift people out of poverty and she was remarkably successful at it. I'm sad that I only learned about her after she passed away. It sounds like she was an incredible person and leader. I wonder how different things might be if we focused the same fame and admiration on business leaders like Janah instead of ones that amass the most wealth possible by any means necessary. Leila Janah
FUNNY:
Iowa's Democratic Primary was not a shining moment in America's democracy. It was confusing, overly complicated, and a complete slog. But it did lead to some great jokes. I think my favorite was this McSweeney's piece by Tracy Manaster, which gives helpful criticism, creative writing style, to the messy debacle of delegate delegation. The Iowa Writers' Workshop Takes On the Iowa Caucus
INTERESTING:
Over the past decade, so many digital media companies have become hugely popular and then suddenly shut down. It's a joke among the comedians I know that anytime someone gets a great job writing or performing for a digital outlet, the important question to ask is "So, when is this company going bankrupt?" But as this excellent article in WIRED by Kate Knibbs investigates, there's no reason that popular, exciting media companies should be going belly-up. Something is fishy. She looks at the most recent casualty, CollegeHumor, and tries to find an answer. CollegeHumor Helped Shape Online Comedy. What Went Wrong?
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Have a great weekend,
Chris