Hi friends,
It's Saturday! Every week, I send out an email with one thing I think is great, one thing that made me laugh, and one thing I found interesting. Feel free to spread the word and share these emails with friends. If you're checking this out for the first time, you can sign up to get these emails here.
Live shows
NEW YORK:
Saturday, August 13 at 7:30 p.m and 9:30 p.m. at The Wild Project. You're the Expert tapes two live episodes featuring The Daily Show's Roy Wood Jr, Zhubin Parang, Evan Kaufman, Shalewa Sharpe, and Jo Firestone! It's almost too much talent to handle. Link
Sunday, August 14 at 7:00 p.m. at Under St Marks. It's my variety show and prize giveaway, You Get A Spoon! This month featuring readings, comedy, and music from my super-talented friend Emily Borromeo and America's Sweethearts. Link
BOSTON:
Wednesday, August 17 at 7:00 p.m at Oberon. You're the Expert returns to Oberon for a live taping with Ken Reid, Obehi Janice, and Julia Claire. Link
You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
I truly admire Rashida Jones. She's unbelievably talented and intelligent but also funny and grounded. I loved this interview because she clearly thinks deeply about her work and what she's going to commit herself to. Not every TV comedy star also went to Harvard and makes documentaries on the side. I love what she says about learning from her dad that "you have to always be a student. There's never an end to learning." From Sam Jones' fantastic Off Camera interview series, Rashida Jones: "Make Decisions from Love, not Fear".
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
Every year, lots of comedians put together "character reels" where they show off their writing and performance in the hopes of booking gigs. Most of the time, they only get watched by supportive friends and maybe a casting agent or two. For the most part, they're not much fun to watch if you don't know the comic. But Matt Rogers character reel is hysterical. Matt and I have some mutual friends on Facebook, where I first saw this, and it had me laughing from start to finish. It's so clever and original. I think my favorite character is "New Igor" but they're really all great. I would not be surprised at all if Matt got booked on a TV show off of this reel. It's that funny. Matt Rogers Character Reel 2016
1 Interesting Thing:
For several years, I worked helping to train new teachers for the Sposato Graduate School of Education. They're a pretty remarkable institution that's trying to get new teachers intensive instructional training before sending them out on their own into classrooms. That shouldn't be a revolutionary idea, but it really is. The whole idea is that great teaching is a skill that can be taught and so we should approach new teachers the way we approach training new doctors. I could not have more respect for the people I worked with at Sposato and I'm so glad they're getting recognized. This article from The Economist highlights some of their successes and touches on many of the big issues in education that I think often get overlooked: how to train/support teachers, how to create opportunities/incentives for teachers to stay in the classroom, and how to use data to ensure we're actually making an impact. It's definitely worth a read. Teaching the Teachers
Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/
Have a great weekend,
Chris
