3 Things: Rachel Klein, Norm Macdonald, and Arthur Miller
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:
It's a week full of comedy festivals here in NYC! You can catch me at two of them:
Tomorrow, Sunday, August 21 at 8 p.m at Brooklyn's Shea Stadium. I'll be telling jokes at the Macaulay Culkin Summer Comedy Festival along with a lineup of the very best and most insane in NYC comedy right now. Only $5 for the whole thing and includes an ice cream sandwich. Link
Wednesday, August 24 at 7:00 p.m. at The Annoyance Theater. The Sensible Show is part of this year's Brooklyn Comedy Festival. My co-hosts have taken the reins for the last few weeks, so I'm really excited to be back performing and also to watch Josh Gondelman, Brooke van Poppelen, Myq Kaplan, Adam Mamawala, Hadiyah Robinson, and special guests. Link
You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Rachel Klein wrote this jaw-droppingly beautiful piece about raising her teenage child who is navigating gender identity. It's the kind of nuanced and powerful piece I wish we had more of these days. Also, Rachel is just an incredible writer and comedian. She brings that openness and vulnerability to writing about her own struggles as a parent. Everyone should read this. Rachel Klein: Their Body, Themselves
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
Norm Macdonald is one of the greatest standup comedians of all time. He also appears to be a very strange human being. That makes sense. This profile for the Washington Post by Geoff Edgers is a little too fawning for my taste (we get it, Geoff, you think Norm's the best), but the bonus features are hysterical. The Post printed Norm's text messages in full and also included two hilarious never-before-seen sketches from an unaired pilot calledNorm Macdonald is Trending. I couldn't stop laughing at the sketch about Norm putting on an invisibility cloak. It's so dumb but also perfect. Will Somebody Please Give Norm Macdonald Another TV Show?
1 Interesting Thing:
If there's one conversation topic that's come up every day this summer, it's the heat. But this incredible New Yorker piece by Arthur Miller puts all my sweating in perspective. It's a reminiscence of the days before air conditioning. "People on West 110th Street, where I lived, were a little too bourgeois to sit out on their fire escapes, but around the corner on 111th and farther uptown, mattresses were put out as night fell, and whole families lay on those iron balconies in their underwear." Arthur Miller: Before Air Conditioning (h/t Hannah Fenlon)
Ok, thanks for reading this! Feel free to find more details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/
Have a great weekend,
Chris
3 Things: Emily Gordon, 2 Dope Queens, and Maeve Higgins
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. TONIGHT! 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. There are still a few tickets left! 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 comedian Anna Drezen reading from her new book, music from America's Sweethearts, and so many prizes. Link
BOSTON:
Wednesday, August 17 at 7:00 p.m at Oberon. You're the Expert returns to Cambridge, MA 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:
For this week's email, I'm switching it up a little bit and giving you an all-podcast edition. But if you're not into podcasts (or don't have the time for the episodes), I'll also give you some non-podcast links to the same people.
First up is Emily Gordon. Emily is a writer, therapist, and comedy producer. She's married to Kumail Nanjiani and she produces The Meltdown in LA, which I think is the best live standup show in the country. It's clear that Emily works very hard to make people feel safe and accepted. Her conversation with Pete Holmes, one of her best friends, is fantastic from start to finish. It's funny and touching and thoughtful. I'm not sure how someone could listen to this and not want Emily to be their best friend too. Whether she's talking about recovering from a coma, navigating differing levels of professional success in a relationship, or just her favorite jokes, she's the best. You Made It Weird: Emily Gordon
(Note: It appears you can only listen to this episode by streaming through a web browser unless you subscribe.)
If you want to check out more about Emily or just don't want to do the whole podcast thing, she's got a blog where she gives advice to strangers, a book, and all sorts of other stuff you can find online.
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson host a live standup comedy show and podcast called 2 Dope Queens. They're both hilarious and raunchy and perfectly themselves. They book great comics to perform on every show and also banter and discuss their lives with the crowd. Because Jessica Williams got her start at The Daily Show, at a recent show that was also her birthday party, Jon Stewart dropped by and performed. The episode won't be out until next season, but in the meantime, they put up this video. The quality isn't great but you can see how much Jon loves and respects Jessica. As a bonus, the way he responds to Phoebe when she starts shamelessly hitting on him is truly spectacular. Jon Stewart on 2 Dope Queens
(And here's a link to the podcast if you want to listen to past episodes)
1 Interesting Thing:
You think it's boring, but it's actually amazing! That's the conceit behind every episode of Surprisingly Awesome. Over the course of an hour they've convinced me that concrete and mattresses are actually fascinating and they're just getting started. One of their most recent episodes featured guest co-host Maeve Higgins learning about why flossing is incredible. It also features a cameo from Josh Gondelman (another amazing comedian and human) bragging about the superpowers he has now that he flosses. I'd say that the episodes lives somewhere between hilarious, informative, and disgusting, which is exactly where you always find the best stories. Surprisingly Awesome: Flossing
(Here's Maeve Higgins outside the podcast world. Her book is particularly great and I strongly recommend it.)
Ok, thanks for reading this special podcast edition! I'll be back with the standard email next week. In the meantime, feel free to find more details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/
Have a great weekend,
Chris
3 Things: Rashida Jones, Matt Rogers, and The Sposato School
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
