Politics and Social Media
I interned for Bill Clinton one summer and a crazy woman would send letters every day with a drawing of his head on a different animal's body captioned "William Parrot Clinton" or "William Dolphin Clinton" or "William Giraffe Clinton." And honestly, I think former president Clinton saw at least some of those drawings.
I bring that up because I don't post a lot about politics. I don't think I've ever seen anyone change their mind on social media (also I'm pretty sure Facebook filters it so you only see posts from people who have the same political views as you). But I've interned and volunteered for elected officials and I know that they make decisions based on what constituents seem to care about. Sending a letter/email/calling actually matters. Even if they don't read your specific letter, the offices I worked in would give the bosses a summary of the correspondence coming in and everyone realized they needed to address that if they wanted to keep their jobs. And if you send enough letters, even if they are insane scribbles over drawings of animorphs, you will get heard by the people in power.
It's sad to think that we need to remind our representatives that we don't want people dying in mass shootings or that we don't want innocent civilians to be abandoned in a war or that we want justice when police officers shoot black men and then cover up the evidence. But legitimately, we need to remind them of that.
It takes two seconds to look up contact info for your elected officials on this nonprofit, nonpartisan website: https://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup
3 Things: Master of None, Shoe Roast, and Hannah Gersen
Hi friends,
If you're new to these emails, welcome! Every Saturday, I send out a short email with three great things. If you feel like you haven't gotten these emails in a while, try checking to make sure this email is a trusted address so they aren't getting filtered to spam. For live shows, I've got a bunch featured below and a complete list on my website. Feel free to spread the word about these emails! Anyone can sign up for the mailing list online and/or check out the archive with all past emails here.
SHOW UPDATES:
BOSTON:
Sunday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m. It's a special Chanukah edition of Taste Test Comedy at ImprovBoston. Come enjoy delicious samples from Boston restaurants and jokes/stories exclusively about food from me. All with a very distinct Chanukah twist. Details and tickets here
NEW YORK:
Monday, December 7 at 8:30 p.m. It's a special Chanukah edition of An Hour Abroad. Evan Barden and I will teach you the entire Yiddish language in 60 minutes. You'll learn several ways of making adult children feel guilty, how to decipher signs in Yiddish, and have a chance to shout words of encouragement at comedian Myq Kaplan. Details/tickets here
You can also see my full schedule up on the website now.
Ok, on to this week's list!
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Aziz Ansari's Master of None on Netflix is fantastic. I just finished watching the show and I thought it was great and different from any other series I'd seen. There's a lot to love about the show, from the way it's shot, to the realistic storylines for a diverse cast, but the best part is how Aziz used his real parents in the show. Every episode that features an older person is great. You should watch the whole series. But if you haven't seen this clip from Aziz's interview with Conan, you should definitely watch this first. He talks about how his dad compares being a gastroenterologist to being an actor. It's amazing. Aziz Ansari's Dad Has Gone Hollywood
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
Jon Hendren is a very, very funny person who mostly puts his comedy out online. He has one of the funniest (and most bizarre) Twitter accounts. He's also pulled off a number of very impressive stunts, like the time he was interviewed on HLN about Edward Snowden joining Twitter and spent the whole segment defending Edward Scissorhands without the host even realizing what he was doing. But the thing that has made me laugh the most is when he posted a picture of some very ugly shoes that he bought and two of his friends roasted his shoes for nearly six months straight. The jokes are brutal and hilarious and occasionally NSFW. But wow, they really hate Jon's shoes. Please Stop Roasting My Goddamned Shoes
(h/t to Sandra Allen. She has a newsletter of her own that's great called Sunday Content)
1 Interesting Thing:
Anytime you're trying to create something new, whether it's a company or a novel, a painting or a joke, there's a painful period where it's not yet working. I often think that the hardest part of trying to be an artist is knowing when to stick with something versus when you are just deluding yourself. I'm not sure there is a great answer. In comedy, I often hear people say that it takes ten years for someone to start "making it." Hannah Gersen, an author, heard that in writing "the first twelve years are the worst." This essay she wrote about that idea is such a thoughtful and inspiring take on the process of creativity. It can be slow and challenging and tough. In fact, not only can it be, it is. But that doesn't mean it's not worthwhile. Hannah Gersen: The First 12 Years Are The Worst (h/t Mollie)
Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online atwww.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/
Have a great weekend,
Chris
3 Things: James Chapman, Switched on Pop, and Joy
Hi friends,
If you're new to these emails, welcome! Every Saturday, I send out a short email with three great things. If you feel like you haven't gotten these emails in a while, try checking to make sure this email is a trusted address so they aren't getting filtered to spam. For live shows, I've got a bunch featured below and a complete list on my website. Feel free to spread the word about these emails! Anyone can sign up for the mailing list online and/or check out the archive with all past emails here.
SHOW UPDATES:
BOSTON:
Sunday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m. It's a special Chanukah edition of Taste Test Comedy at ImprovBoston. Come enjoy delicious samples from Boston restaurants and jokes/stories exclusively about food from me. All with a very distinct Chanukah twist. Details and tickets here
NEW YORK:
Monday, December 7 at 8:30 p.m. It's a special Chanukah edition of An Hour Abroad. Evan Barden and I will teach you the entire Yiddish language in 60 minutes. You'll learn several ways of making adult children feel guilty, how to decipher signs in Yiddish, and have a chance to shout words of encouragement at comedian Myq Kaplan. Details/tickets here
You can also see my full schedule up on the website now.
Ok, on to this week's list!
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
James Chapman is a 25 year old PhD physics student at the University of Manchester, working with graphene, the thinnest material in the universe. He's also an artist who's been working on illustrations of "onomatopoeia and sounds in other languages." This is exactly the kind of thing that I nerd out about. I've been telling a joke in my standup about the noises dogs and bees make in other countries. An audience member after one show turned me on to Chapman's illustrations of dogs barking in other languages and I find them so funny and wonderful. He's got a lot of other great pieces too, like "How To Be Hungover in Different Languages," which you might find very appropriate this morning depending on how last night went. Check his work out here: Pictures by James Chapman
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
Switched on Pop is a podcast on "the making and meaning of popular music" hosted by Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan. They're a musicologist and a musician, working together to break down the biggest pop hits and explaining how and why they work. Charlie and Nate are both charming and hilarious, and the podcast is legitimately fascinating. They ask questions like "does the falsetto in One Direction's 'What Makes You Beautiful' essentially make them our modern day Castrati?" I had the honor of being a guest on their latest episode, where Charlie explained how there is a Swedish genius named Max Martin behind basically every huge hit song right now. He also definitively proved that I am an 80-year-old man when it comes to knowing what music is popular right now. Switched On Pop: Searching for Max Martin
1 Interesting Thing:
I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a comedian when terrible things are happening in the world. With what's going on in Mali, France, Syria, and so many other places, it's hard to see anything funny in the world. I wrote this piece as a way for me to personally process what was happening, but decided to share it publicly as well. If there's one thing I've learned from living through three terrorist attacks, it's that the best response isn't to put more fear and violence into the world, but instead more joy. Chris Duffy: Joy as a Political Act
Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online atwww.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/
Have a great weekend,
Chris
