3 Things: Sir Mix-A-Lot, John Mulaney, and Davey Alba

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. 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:  

LOS ANGELES:
Monday, January 18 at 9 p.m. It's the LA debut of You're the Expert. Our guest is a marine biologist who studies octopus defense strategies. On the panel we've got Scott Adsit from 30 Rock, Emily Maya Mills from Parks and Rec, and a surprise guest. Spread the word! Link

SAN FRANCISCO:
Thursday, January 21 at 8 p.m. You Get A Spoon returns to the Bay. A variety show full of prizes and enthusiastic endorsements. Featuring standup from me, music from Dan Manian, poetry by Austen Rosenfeld, stories by Dhaya Lakshiminarayanan, and a reading by author Caille Millner.  Link

Saturday, January 23 at 1 p.m. You're the Expert returns for year 3 at SF Sketchfest. Panelists James Adomian, Eugene Mirman, and Kristin Schaal will be interviewing SFO Airport's resident wildlife biologist about how she stops geese from getting sucked into planes. (And other things too). Link

BOSTON:
Thursday, January 28 at 7:30 p.m. You're the Expert is at The Modern Theater at Suffolk University with Maeve Higgins and the guys from Comedy Central's Good Cop, Great Cop (Charlie Hankin and Matt Porter).. Link

BURLINGTON, VT:
Friday, January 29 - Saturday, January 30 (2 shows each night). I'll be performing at the new and wonderful Vermont Comedy Club. Link

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:

It's only January, but the Seattle Times already broke the story of the year. Law student Jonathan Nichols went to a Verizon store to get a local phone number for his job interviews. Somehow, he ended up with Sir Mix-A-Lot's old phone number and all the texts and calls that go with it. Nichols seems like a very genuinely nice person, which makes his attempts to deal with the insane incoming messages all the more hilarious. For his part, Sir Mix-A-Lot gave only the most cryptic advice when a reporter got in touch with him about the mixup: "Don't answer any texts by saying 'Yes,' because people take 'Yes' differently with me." Read the whole story here: This Guy Got Sir Mix-A-Lot's Old Phone Number

 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

John Mulaney's new Netflix standup special, "The Comeback Kid," is fantastic. Mulaney is one of the absolute best standups performing today. If you get a chance to see him perform live, don't miss it. In the meantime, take a moment to enjoy his story about buying a house with his wife and how much he loved their real estate agent. I've watched it more than a dozen times and I still can't stop laughing. John Mulaney - Real Estate
 

1 Interesting Thing:

Davey Alba wrote this surprising piece for Wired about a company that I'd never heard of before, Shorewood Liquidators, but is apparently a huge business. I'd always assumed that if you get something online, don't like it, and send it back, the company just resells it. Apparently, that's not the case. "You don't know where the product went after it left your store, so you can't put it back on your shelf." Businesses like this one make their livelihood by figuring out what to do with those returned items. Inside the Hidden World That Handles Your Holiday Returns

Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/

Have a great weekend,
Chris

3 Things: Austin Kleon, Dana Schwartz, and Bill Buford

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. 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:  

NYC: 
This Sunday, January 10 at 7:00 p.m., You Get A Spoon is back! Come see comedy from Evan Kaufman & Rebecca Vigil (Your Love, Our Musical), a reading from journalist Kiera Feldman, and music from Emily Borromeo & Tim Kubart (hosts of Sprout's Sunny Side Up Show). Plus, of course, a chance to win the world's greatest mixing spoon. Link

LOS ANGELES:
Monday, January 18 at 9 p.m. It's the LA debut of You're the Expert. We'll have an amazing scientist and a panel of celebrity guests. So far, we've announced Scott Adsit from 30 Rock, but the others are just as exciting. Come learn and laugh with us!  Link

SAN FRANCISCO:
Thursday, January 21 at 8 p.m. You Get A Spoon returns to the Bay.  I'll be doing an extended standup set and inviting some friends to share the stage with me including poet Austen Rosenfeld. More special guests TBA. Link

Saturday, January 23 at 1 p.m. You're the Expert returns for year 3 at SF Sketchfest. Panelists James Adomian, Eugene Mirman, and Kristin Schaal will be interviewing SFO Airport's resident wildlife biologist about how she stops geese from getting sucked into planes. (And other things too). Link

BOSTON:
Thursday, January 28 at 7:30 p.m. It's been a while since You're the Expert has been back in our hometown. Join us at The Modern Theater at Suffolk University. We're going to be discussing NIGHTMARES with one of the world's leading psychologists.Link

BURLINGTON, VT:
Friday, January 29 - Saturday, January 30 (2 shows each night). I'll be performing at the new and wonderful Vermont Comedy Club opening for the sketch comedy group Good Cop, Great Cop. Link

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:

Austin Kleon is one of those artists who I keep coming back to. I like his artwork, but I'm an even bigger fan of the way he writes and thinks about building a creative life. Austin advocates not quitting your day job and instead using financial security to empower your creativity. Obviously that differentiates him from the ever-present "just find what you love and only do that" crowd. Despite his success, Austin only just took a leave from his day job (and even then, only so he could go on a book tour). Whether you're working a day job and trying to figure out how to spend more time on creative projects or a full-time artist, I think you'd be hard-pressed to not find something on Austin's blog to inspire you. Austin Kleon: Day Job

 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

Dana Schwartz is almost unfairly funny for her age. She just graduated college, but she's already written a number of fantastic humor pieces for The New Yorker, created wildlypopular Twitter accounts, and interned for Stephen Colbert. It seems extremely likely that she is going to be a famous person. So here! Get in on the ground floor and secure your comedy scout bragging rights now. Dana Schwartz: Possible Titles for My Memoir About Being A Hapless Twenty Something
 

1 Interesting Thing:

Bill Buford's Heat is a memoir about how one time he invited Mario Batali to a dinner party, Batali said yes, and the next thing Bill knew he had quit his job, was working for free in Batali's resturant, and decided to dedicate his life to mastering Italian cuisine. I'm not sure this book is such a great book, but I definitely had a great time reading it. Also, it made me very, very hungry. The thing that stuck with me the most was how strongly everyone Buford works with felt that great food is art. That's why they endured the heat and cuts and burns of working in a kitchen. Another thing that stuck with me is that Mario Batali has got to be the hardest partying man on Earth who always wears clogs. Heat by Bill Buford

Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/

Have a great weekend,
Chris

3 Things: Adam Grant, Wayne Federman, and Sound Architecture

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:  

NEW YORK:
Next Sunday, You Get A Spoon is back in NYC for the most positive night of entertainment around. Performances, prizes, and, of course, the greatest spoon of all time.  Sunday, January 10 at 7 p.m. at Under St Marks Details/tickets here

SAN FRANCISCO:
SF Sketchfest presents You're the Expert with me, Kristin Schaal, James Adomian, and Eugene Mirman. Saturday, January 23 at 1 p.m. Details/tickets here

I'll also be doing an extended standup set and inviting some special guests to perform with me at The Red Poppy Art House on Thursday, January 21 at 8 p.m.This is a small show in a beautiful venue and it should be a great time. Details/tickets here

LOS ANGELES:
We're going to be doing a You're the Expert taping at the Nerdist Showroom onMonday, January 18 at 9 p.m. Scott Adsit (30 Rock) is one of the panelists and we'll have more fantastic surprise guests. 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:

Adam Grant is the youngest-tenured and highest-rated professor at Wharton. Grant is a sought-after consultant and a prolific academic. But most of all, he's almost pathologically generous. And he believes that's the key to his success. I just finished his book, Give And Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success, and while it's a little businessy, I thought it was the best book I've read all year. (Sorry! I couldn't resist.) Even if you're only interested in yourself, Grant argues, "focusing on the contribution of our work to other people's lives has the potential to make us more productive than thinking about helping ourselves." And his book isn't just written for consultants, Grant describes examples from teachers to CEOs to the funniest writer on The Simpsons. If you're interested in the idea but don't have time for the whole book, check out this profile of Grant from the NYT Magazine, where in addition to discussing his theories, Grant reveals that he only enjoys going to parties "if they like psychology or magic tricks, then I come alive." Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead? 

 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

Wayne Federman squeezes an astonishing number of clever setups and brilliant punchlines into this five minute standup set on The Tonight Show. He also manages to play the piano, banter with the audience, and do some impressions. It's all seamless and hilarious. Wayne's been a comedian for more than 30 years and he is a master of the craft. My personal favorite joke here is when he describes the memoir he's writing about his time in Hollywood. Wayne Federman Standup
 

1 Interesting Thing:

Architects shape our lives with the way they define the spaces we live and work in. But I rarely, if ever, stop to think about those decisions. Michael Kimmelman wrote a fascinating critique of the way buildings affect sound and noise. It's accompanied by a cool multimedia 3-D audio piece where you can hear the ambient sound of different spaces (from Grand Central terminal, a cathedral, a bistro, the Paris Metro, and more). Kimmelman writes that "during the Middle Ages, smell was the unspoken plague of cities. Today it is sound. Streets, public spaces, bars, offices, even apartments and private houses can be painfully noisy, grim and enervating." This is one of those fantastic pieces of writing where after reading it (and listening to the sounds), it's changed the way I walk around the city and perceive the world. Dear Architects: Sound Matters (h/t Jackie)

Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/

Have a great weekend,
Chris