3 Things: Keegan-Michael Key, Drunk Ewoks, and Donovan Livingston

Hi friends,

Thanks for subscribing. Each week, I send out an email with something I think is great, something that made me laugh, and something interesting. If you feel like you haven't gotten these 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 and share these with friends. Anyone can sign up for the mailing list online and/or check out the archive with all past emails here.

 Live shows

BOSTON:
Today on WBUR, we're talking octopuses with Dr. Jean Alupay on You're the Expert.Featuring panelists Josh Sharp, Scott Adsit, and Emily Maya Mills, this is one of my favorite episodes. It airs tonight at 6 p.m. and then again on Monday at 9 p.m. Link

Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at The Davis Square Theatre. Two live tapings of YTE featuring Saturday Night Live's Sasheer Zamata, Obehi Janice, and two incredible experts. Link

NEW YORK:
Wednesday, June 1 at 7:00 p.m at The Annoyance Theatre. This week on The Sensible Show, Josh Gondelman hosts and I'll tell jokes with Julio Torres, Josh Rabinowitz, and Selena Coppock.  Link

You can always find my most up-to-date show schedule online here.

 This week's list

 1 Thing I Think Is Great:

Keegan-Michael Key has already cemented his place as one of the all-time comedic greats. But he's also uncommonly gifted at talking about his process. This clip is the best explanation I've ever heard for why a piece of comedy works. Key's philosophy on jokes is obviously useful for comics, but honestly he's got some pretty great rules for making any art, funny or not. Keegan-Michael Key Has the Perfect Metaphor for Improv (h/t Ben Scurria)
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

Combine Al Roker, tacky Halloween decorations, and a couple of drunk ewoks, and you've got yourself a perfect piece of comedy. I saw this for the first time this week and I cried tears of laughter. It's a slow build but the ewoks start getting wilder and wilder. By the time they are drinking martinis and humping Al's leg, I was dying. God bless the producer who decided not to ever cut away from this trainwreck. Drunk Ewoks on the Today Show 

 

1 Interesting Thing:

I'm a sucker for commencement speeches. I love the format. A speech that combines earnest advice with judicial gowns and a communal hat toss? Sign me up! I know there are graduation skeptics out there, but everyone has to agree that Donovan Livingston's remarks at the Harvard Ed School were spectacular. This is a speech that made me want to give a standing ovation alone to my computer. (I didn't though because I love sitting down even more than I love commencement speeches.) Lift Off by Donovan Livingston

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: Tim Lomas, Connor Ratliff, and Alexandra Schwartz

Hi friends,

Thanks for subscribing. Each week, I send out an email with something I think is great, something that made me laugh, and something interesting. If you feel like you haven't gotten these 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 and share these with friends. Anyone can sign up for the mailing list online and/or check out the archive with all past emails here.

 Live shows

BOSTON:
Tune in to WBUR at 6 p.m. hear another episode of You're the Expert. This week, it's "The Science of Nightmares" with Dr. Gary Fireman and panelists Maeve Higgins, Charlie Hankin, and Matt Porter. Episodes will be airing on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Mondays at 9 p.m. Link

Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at The Davis Square Theatre. Two new live tapings of YTE were just announced, if you want to come see the show in person. Link

NEW YORK:
Wednesday, May 25 at 7:00 p.m at The Annoyance Theatre. This week on The Sensible Show, I'm hosting and we've got jokes from Megan Gailey, Joe Rumrill, and Andy Sandford and more. Link

You can always find my most up-to-date show schedule online here.

 This week's list

 1 Thing I Think Is Great:

Tim Lomas is a positive psychologist at the University of East London. He's currently working on a project where he collects foreign words for joys that can't be translated directly into English. The terms he's found so far are spectacular: mbuki-mvuki (a Bantu word that means "to shed clothes to dance uninhibited") or gumusservi (Turkish, "the glimmering that moonlight makes on water"). There's a profile on Dr. Lomas in The New Yorker, that focuses on the big question of his research, "could understanding other cultures' concepts of joy and well-being help us reshape our own?"

You can also dig directly into the findings and discover gems like tyvsmake (Norwegian, "to taste or eat small pieces of the food when you think nobody is watching, especially when cooking"). Positive Lexicography (h/t Mollie West)

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

Tony Hale, from Arrested Development and Veep, was on The Chris Gethard Show and it made for amazing television. TCGS makes me laugh every single week, but this was something special. Connor Ratliff, who's their warmup comic, is an enormous fan of Tony. The show's producers use that against Connor when they offer him the chance to interview Tony one-on-one, but only if he'll eat vegetables. A grown man, Connor has not eaten a vegetable in ten years. Watching Connor ask questions and painfully try to eat broccoli made me laugh more than just about anything else.

Honestly, like many things about The Chris Gethard Show, this was very hard to explain in words. You just need to see it. Connor Ratliff Can Interview Tony Hale, On One Condition...
 

1 Interesting Thing:

Alexandra Schwartz has a fantastic piece about the history and evolution of dating. I was surprised by just about everything in the story. I had no clue that women in 1916 were often arrested if they were caught going out on dates. Or that T.G.I. Friday's started as a straight knockoff of a drag theater. The big question about modern dating is does it work? Or is it just drudgery? Work It: Is dating worth the effort?

(Side note: Alexandra was my first ever girlfriend in 6th grade. Despite the fact that we only held hands and never even kissed, I can attest that our passionate romance was anything but drudgery) 

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: Aparna Nancherla, Alison Leiby, and Lydia Polgreen

Hi friends,

Thanks for subscribing. Each week, I send out an email with something I think is great, something that made me laugh, and something interesting. If you feel like you haven't gotten these 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 and share these with friends. Anyone can sign up for the mailing list online and/or check out the archive with all past emails here.

 Live shows

BOSTON:
Season Two of You're the Expert on WBUR starts today! Tune in at at 6 p.m. to 90.9 FM to hear our "Nuclear Power" episode featuring MIT's Dr. Leslie Dewan and panelists Eugene Mirman, Maeve Higgins, and Scott Adsit. Episodes will be airing on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Mondays at 9 p.m. Link

BURLINGTON, VT:
Saturday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. at the Vermont Comedy Club. I'm on both standup shows tonight at this great new club. Link

NEW YORK:
Monday, May 16 at 10 p.m at The Stand. This is the final callbacks for Montreal Just For Laugh's New Faces Showcase. Come see me and a bunch of NYC's best standups try their hardest. Link

Wednesday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m at Carolines. The lovely and hilarious Josh Gondelman is headlining Carolines and I'm on the show too! It's my first time performing at the legendary venue and I could not be more excited. Use the code "WHISPER" for discount tickets. Link

WASHINGTON, DC:
Friday, May 20 at 7 p.m on The National Mall. NatGeo is putting on a huge outdoor event called "Bugs, Bats, and Brews" and taking over the National Mall. I'll be hosting a new show I've been working on called "Trending," all about the information and misinformation online. Jokes, videos, and interviews with amazing NG Explorers. Free! Link

You can always find my most up-to-date show schedule online here.

 This week's list

 1 Thing I Think Is Great:

Aparna Nancherla is one of my all-time favorite human beings and a uniquely talented comedian. She's a master of the absurd, but can somehow also make you think about big issues while you're crying from laughter. I am always inspired when I watch her perform. Great news: Comedy Central just announced that Aparna will be taping her first half hour special this summer! In the meantime, you can read Aparna's hilarious jokes on Twitter, listen to her talk about jokes and depression on Buzzfeed's Another Round, or watch her absolutely insane and amazing webseries with Jo Firestone: Womanhood with Jo and Aparna.
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

I discovered Alison Leiby's writing recently and I've been laughing ever since. She's the co-author of Marry Smart OR DIE and many hilarious articles and jokes. Here's one of my favorites: "A cat-caller just said he wants to get 'all up in my business' which is great because my taxes are complicated and I could use the help.'" Everything Alison writes is great, but since I'm in full wedding planning mode at the moment, I particularly love this list of ideas for dress codes: Updated Party Dress Codes by Alison Leiby and Alyssa Wolff or you can see a collection of Alison's best jokes here.

 

1 Interesting Thing:

Lydia Polgreen is the former West Africa Bureau Chief for The New York Times. She recently shared her thoughts about the future of the news business. Lydia's perspective is especially interesting since she grew up in Ghana at a time when she had little to no access to the news at all. 

"All around me, big news was unfolding. Ghana's military dictator, a man named Jerry Rawlings, had decided to shuck off his uniform and become a democrat, running for office in a genuinely free and fair election. West African economies were grappling with the miserable rigors of structural adjustment. Post-colonial rulers were losing their authoritarian grip, and a period of brutal, interlocking civil wars in the region was beginning. Seeing those events happening right before my eyes sparked my passion for the news and for journalism. But there was no chance that I would read a piece of New York Times journalism about West Africa during that period, certainly not in real time. Other than the local press, which was hampered by decades of censorship, all we had was the scratchy shortwave of the BBC." You can read more here: Why People Pay to Read The New York Times

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

Have a great weekend,
Chris