3 Things: Bo Burnham, Eliza Cossio, and Madelyn Linsenmeir by Chris Duffy

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Happy 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.

Upcoming Shows

EVERYWHERE:
This week's episode of You're the Expert features Jess Phoenix, an expert on volcanoes. She talks lava, magma, and her run for Congress with Aparna Nancherla, Max Silvestri, and Caitlin Durante. Link

WASHINGTON, D.C.:
TODAY! Saturday, October 20th at 7:30 p.m. at National Geographic. Come see You're the Expert live with panelists Jo Firestone, Josh Sharp, and Bowen Yang. 40% off last minute tickets with code "YTE40" Link

NYC:
Tuesday, October 23rd at 7:30 p.m. at UCB East Village. I'm telling a story on David Martin's long-running Nights of Our Lives show. It's always a fun night.  Link

Friday, November 2nd at 10:00 p.m. at Union Hall. I'm telling a story/jokes as part of the Re:Imagine festival on Die Laughing! It's a comedy show that explores mortality, grief, and loss. Read more about it here and get tickets here:  Link

Sunday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. at Caveat. It's the final You're the Expert live taping of the year! If you've been meaning to come see one, this is your final shot.  Link

As always, you can find my schedule with all upcoming dates online here.

This week’s list

GREAT:
I've been a fan of Bo Burnham for several years now. I find him to be one of the most inventive and insightful comedians working today. Sometimes he'll do something that appears to be a very silly physical gag about dropping a water bottle, but it turns out to be a meditation on the artificiality of performance. Other times, he writes a parody country song that's about hypocrisy. Or sometimes he just writes from the perspective of God. Recently, he's stepped back from performing to direct and write. I finally saw his feature film debut, Eighth Grade, and I loved it. If you haven't seen it yet, it's out on iTunes and lots of other places. It's a beautiful movie. Here's a feature about the film and Bo's process: Bo Burnham's Age of Anxiety


FUNNY:
Eliza Cossio was the senior Latina correspondent on The Daily Show, she hosts the excellent live show Pulitzer Surprises, and we currently write together on Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas. She is one of my favorite people and makes me laugh so hard every day. For a taste, check out her comedy poetry.  This summer, Eliza wrote and directed a hilarious short film called "La Bruja." You can see the first scene here and help support the post-production, if you feel so inclined. La Bruja


INTERESTING:
It can be easy to forget about the people behind the headlines. I feel like that happens to me especially with the opioid crisis, where the sheer scale of the issue masks the fact that each statistic is about a real person. This obituary from Vermont brought the humanity back into focus for me. It's beautiful and it knocked me out. Madelyn Linsenmeir (h/t Emma Carmichael)


Thanks for reading! If you like these emails, please forward to a friend or come say hi at a live show. If you're reading this for the first time (maybe someone forwarded you this email?), you can subscribe here.

Have a great week,
Chris

3 Things: Jason Polan, Karen Chee, and Frances Jalet by Chris Duffy

Happy 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.

Upcoming Shows

EVERYWHERE:
The current episode of You're the Expert features NY Department of Sanitation's anthropologist-in-residence Dr. Robin Nagle. Robin talks trash with panelists Maeve Higgins, Dylan Marron, and Gary Richardson. Link

WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Today, Saturday October 13th. I'm giving a talk about comedy and live interviewing at the National Association for Science Writers. Let me know if you're going to be at the conference!

Saturday, October 20th at 7:30 p.m. at National Geographic. I'm doing a live taping of You're the Expert with panelists Jo Firestone, Josh Sharp, Bowen Yang, and Dr. Jennifer Lopez. Link

NYC:
Tuesday, October 23rd at 7:30 p.m. at UCB East Village. I'm telling a story on David Martin's always excellent Nights of Our Lives comedy show. Link

Sunday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. at Caveat. It's the final You're the Expert taping of 2018. If you've been meaning to come see a live show, don't miss this one because it's your last chance! Featuring Hari Kondabolu and more. Link

As always, you can find my schedule with all upcoming dates online here.


This Week’s List

GREAT:
Jason Polan's Taco Bell Drawing Club is the kind of joyful, unpretentious approach to creativity that I wish we had more of. Polan is an accomplished illustrator and artist, but his club is open to anyone and has charters across the country. All you need to do is get some folks together to sketch and eat tacos. Here's a great write-up about the club in The New Yorker Polan' has an ongoing project where he tries to sketch every single person in New York, one-by-one. Like the TBDC, it's a great example of how the core of being an artist isn't creating perfect work, but rather making sure that you create work regularly and stick with the process. Every Person in New York


FUNNY:
Karen Chee is one of my new favorite comedians. She is infectiously positive and warm, incredibly funny, and an amazing writer. Here are two of her masterpieces: Help! I Just Clicked Gmail's Automated Responses and Now I Am On a Deserted Island in Fiji for Having Accrued Too Much Debt  and then also What I've Learned as the Daughter of a Father


INTERESTING:
"In 1967, a 56-year-old lawyer met a young inmate with a brilliant mind and horrifying stories about life inside. Their complicated alliance—and even more complicated romance—would shed light on a nationwide scandal, disrupt a system of abuse and virtual slavery across the state, and change incarceration in Texas forever." The story of Frances Jalet and Fred Cruz in Texas Monthly is one of the most astonishing and well-written pieces I've read in years. The Love Story that Upended the Texas Prison System


Thanks for reading! If you like these emails, please forward to a friend or come say hi at a live show. If you're reading this for the first time (maybe someone forwarded you this email?), you can subscribe here.

Enjoy the weekend!
Chris

3 Things: Glynnis MacNicol, the Found Footage Festival, and Carolyn Johnson by Chris Duffy

Happy 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.

Upcoming Shows

EVERYWHERE:
The current episode of You're the Expert features NY Department of Sanitation's anthropologist-in-residence Dr. Robin Nagle. Robin talks trash with panelists Maeve Higgins, Dylan Marron, and Gary Richardson. Link

WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Saturday, October 20th at 7:30 p.m. at National Geographic. I'm doing a live taping of You're the Expert with panelists Jo Firestone, Josh Sharp, Bowen Yang, and Dr. Jennifer Lopez. Link

NYC:
Tuesday, October 23rd at 7:30 p.m. at UCB East Village. I'm telling a story on David Martin's always excellent Nights of Our Lives comedy show. Link

Sunday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. at Caveat. It's the final You're the Expert taping of 2018. If you've been meaning to come see a live show, don't miss this one because it's your last chance! Featuring Hari Kondabolu and more. Link

As always, you can find my schedule with all upcoming dates online here.

This week’s list

Before I get into this week's 3 Things, please do me and yourself an enormous favor and register to vote. If you are already registered, please make sure that your friends and family are too! Deadlines are coming up in the next couple days for a bunch of states. 

Don't give up! Find small moments of joy and hope and remember that changing big structural issues in society is going to be hard work. If it was easy, someone would have already done it. With that in mind, here are some pockets of beauty and laughter that I have been hanging on to. 

GREAT:
Glynnis MacNicol's book No One Tells You  opens with Glynnis about to turn forty years old, without a husband or a baby. The world tells her that she's supposed to feel bad about her situation, but she doesn't. This leads to her memoir trying to create "a blueprint for how to be a woman alone in the world." It's about carving out a life for yourself, that you choose, rather than that's chosen for you. The book is fantastic. I found myself literally cheering out loud for Glynnis at the end of some chapters. Here's an excerpt from chapter one. 


FUNNY:
The Found Footage Festival is a repository of the weirdest, most hilarious DVDs and VHS tapes that have been found in thrift stores or donation bins. Enjoy some of my favorites like Facercise or Rock Vocals. Or dig through the archives yourself! (h/t Andrea Amiel for this gem)


INTERESTING:
Carolyn Johnson has the story of a possible cure for paralysis in The Washington Post. She's one of my favorite science reporters and if you've been feeling like all news is bad news, this is the antidote. "Kelly Thomas woke up in a Florida hospital four years ago with no recollection of the car accident that had robbed her of the ability to walk." Today, an experimental therapy means she can walk on her own. Paralyzed People Are Beginning to Walk With a New Kind of Therapy

Thanks for reading! If you like these emails, please forward to a friend or come say hi at a live show. If you're reading this for the first time (maybe someone forwarded you this email?), you can subscribe here.

Have a great day,
Chris