3 Things: Andy Oxley, Abbey Fenbert, and Loren McIntyre

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

EVERYWHERE:
A new season of You're the Expert starts today! We're back from our hiatus with a new episode featuring Roy Wood, Jr, Jo Firestone, Daily Show head writer Zhubin Parang, and neuroscientist Dr. Anne Churchland. Listen here

CANADA:
Today, I'm featured on CBC Radio's Podcast Playlist. It airs across Canada at 2 p.m. and then again on Tuesday. Here's a link.

BOSTON:
Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at The Museum of Science.  A special You're the Expert taping and afterparty with drinks, dessert, and standup at Boston's best museum. Link

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ:
FREE Wednesday, November 9 at 7:00 p.m. at The George Street Playhouse.  A special Rutgers edition of You're the Expert. This show is free and open to the public, you just have to register online to reserve your spot. Link

NEW YORK:
Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m. at House of Yes. I'm hosting the final Sensory Speed Dating of the year for Guerrilla Science. A series of dates, one for each sense, help you find love (or at least a very memorable night to talk about on Friday).  Link


You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

Andy Oxley takes us on a "tour of the extraordinarily ordinary" in his fantastic short film about the Dull Men's Club. A group of older men who reject modern society's pace and flashy demands, they focus on hobbies like milk bottle collecting or photographing mailboxes. I emailed with one of the founders of the Dull Men's Club and he was as sweet as can be (although he scolded me for using an exclamation point, which "dull men frown on."). This short film screened at SXSW and it's just fantastic. Born to Be Mild
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

One of my favorite humor pieces of all-time is Abbey Fenbert's imagining of how the children's television show Wishbone was pitched to TV execs. No matter how many times I read this, it always makes me cry from laughing. It's so good. Honestly, how did this show get made? The Pitch Meeting for Wishbone


1 Interesting Thing:

Loren McIntyre was an award-winning photojournalist for National Geographic. McIntyre was famously the first person to discover the source of the Amazon river. But that's just a tiny part of his story, because McIntyre, a scientist and a skeptic, got lost in the jungle after making first contact with the Mayoruna tribe. Unable to speak their language and cut off from the modern world, McIntyre "became fascinated by the Mayoruna headman, who seemed to communicate with the American through what McIntyre called 'beaming' or mental telepathy."

The story of McIntyre's hunt for the Amazon's source and his belief that he was telepathically guided there is chronicled in a book, Amazon Beaming, and an amazing play on Broadway right now. "The Encounter" is a high-tech head trip through an Amazon Labyrinth



Ok, thanks for reading! 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: James Casey, PJ Hicks, and Stone Skimming

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:
FREE Sunday, October 23 at 7:00 p.m. at Union Hall. Judah Friedlander (30 Rock) was just added to the lineup for my variety show and audience prize giveaway, You Get A Spoon. Come see Judah, Elna Baker (This American Life), Friends Who Folk (The New Yorker), and more, while I play the role of straight white male Oprah, giving away our favorite things to the audience. Link

BOSTON:
Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at The Museum of Science.  A special You're the Expert taping and party. Link

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ:
FREE Wednesday, November 9 at 7:00 p.m. at The George Street Playhouse.  A special Rutgers edition of You're the Expert. This show is free and open to the public, you just have to register online to reserve your spot. Link

You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

James Casey, the man behind the "anti-foodie food magazine" Swallow, loves breakfast. He made this great short film about all the different foods people in Los Angeles eat to start their day, from a body-builder to a buddhist monk. It's really fun. Also, I think somehow this might be a commercial for Audi. That part is very unclear to me. No matter what, watching this is a great way to start your morning. What Is Breakfast?
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

PJ Hicks is a wildlife photographer based in Tanzania. He's also the mastermind behind the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. The rules are simple: an unedited photo, featuring wild animals, that makes you laugh.

The results are hilarious. I think my favorites from this year's crop are the grizzly bear getting smacked in the face by a salmon or the groundhog sniffing a piece of grass. But they're all excellent. The 2016 Comedy Wildlife Finalists


1 Interesting Thing:

Every fall, on a small island off the coast of Scotland, one of the world's greatest athletic competitions takes place. It's the World Stone Skimming Championships.

Matt McDonald covered this year's competition for Outdoor magazine and it's fascinating. People take the sport very seriously. "Ron Long, the 2012 winner, also produces artificial stones, which he feels level the playing field in competitions by removing variables like rock shape and weight. He sees big—even Olympic-sized—possibilities for the sport." The article includes helpful tips for the best skipping techniques, if you're trying to train for Tokyo 2020. Inside the Lively World of Competitive Stone Skimming



Ok, thanks for reading! 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: John Baldessari, Bill Wurtz, and Bianca Giaever

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:
Monday, October 17 at 8 p.m. at The Creek and the Cave. I'm telling stories and then improvisers will turn them into scenes. It's a free show and the Creek has amazing burritos. Link

Wednesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. at House of Yes. It's another edition of Sensory Speed Dating presented by Guerilla Science. Join me and a neuroscientist as we help explore the science of attraction. Last month, it was hilarious and amazing and I can't wait to do it again.  Link

Sunday, October 23 at 7:00 p.m. at Union Hall. My monthly variety show and audience prize giveaway, You Get A Spoon, is back with stories from Elna Baker (This American Life), songs from Friends Who Folk (The New Yorker), and a chance to win the world's greatest spoon. Link

BOSTON:
Sunday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. at The Rockwell. You're the Expert returns to Boston with a mystery scientist, panelists Maeve Higgins, Ken Reid, and Steve Macone, and lots of fun surprises. Link

Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at The Museum of Science.  A special You're the Expert taping and party. Link

You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

Today is an all short films edition of 3 Things.

"The epic life of a world-class artist, jammed into six minutes." This profile of John Baldessari is amazing. Baldessari is famous for promising to not make any boring art. He definitely delivers on that vow. At one point, he incinerated everything he'd ever made. To this day, he keeps the ashes in a secret metal book. Another time, he decided he was going to focus on designing art that went only on credit cards. His three tips for young artists are hilarious and amazing. Overall, you know you've done something right when Tom Waits narrates the documentary of your life. A Brief History of John Baldessari 
(h/t Nick McKinney and Meghan O'Hara)
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

I know I've recommended this once before, but this is my all-time favorite Internet video. Bill Wurtz is a true genius. How do you take Japan's entire history and turn it into a hilarious, historically accurate, music video that 17 million people have watched? I am in awe. Bill Wurtz's History of Japan


1 Interesting Thing:

Another genius filmmaker is Bianca Giaever. She's endlessly creative, she has a distinct visual style, and all of her films are overflowing with heart. I am a huge fan of everything she does. One of my favorites is a film she made where she "asked a six year old what my film should be about, and this is what he told me": The Scared is Scared

I also can't think of anyone who's captured the feeling of a broken heart better than Bianca in her film Holy Cow Lisa. Check out everything she makes!

Ok, thanks for reading! Feel free to find more details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/

Have a great weekend,
Chris