3 Things: David Rees, Old People Facebook, and Nicholas Confessore
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.
Upcoming shows
NEW YORK:
Wednesday, December 7th at 7 p.m. at The Annoyance NY. The Sensible Show brings you the best standup at a very reasonable hour. Link
Thursday, December 8th at 9 p.m. at UCB East. I'm guest hosting Fresh Out at the Upright Citizen's Brigade East. Always a fantastic lineup and a great time. Link
BOSTON:
Sunday, December 11th at 8 p.m. at The Rockwell. You're the Expert tapes live with panelists Ken Reid, Rachel Rosenthal, Corey Rodrigues and a surprise guest. Link
LOS ANGELES:
Tuesday, December 20th at 9 p.m. at The Nerdist Showroom. For one night only, I'm bringing my variety show / prize giveaway You Get A Spoon to LA. Featuring Zach Sherwin, Max Silvestri, and more 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:
David Rees has done a little bit of everything in his career. He's been a census worker, a cartoonist who used only clipart, the host of a cult favorite TV show, a writer, and an "artisanal pencil sharpener." One thing I've always liked about Rees is that he seems to know how crazy and fleeting success can be. He just gave a talk at the XOXO Festival where he broke down all the money he's made over the past 15 years and where it came from. It's fascinating and incredibly useful information for anyone trying to make it as an artist. David Rees - Going Deep
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
Unintentional comedy is often the stuff that makes me laugh the hardest. I love a well-crafted joke, but give me a bizarre real-life misunderstanding and I'll be laughing until I cry. My friend Alex show me this truly spectacular Twitter interaction, which led to me discovering one of the greatest corners of the Internet, Old People Facebook, where users share perfect moments of social media not quite working for parents or grandparents. Here's one that made me laugh the most: Old Country Buffet (h/t Ellis and Alex)
1 Interesting Thing:
"When a wealthy businessman set out to divorce his wife, their fortune vanished. The quest to find it would reveal the depths of an offshore financial system bigger than the U.S. economy." This investigative piece by Nicholas Confessore reads like a thriller but has serious implications for our democracy. If it's this hard for a partner to follow the money, how can the government or the public keep track of corruption? It's an issue I have a feeling is only going to get more important. How to Hide $400 Million
Thanks for reading. Take care of yourselves,
Chris
3 Things: Josie Long, Jake Nodar, and Alexandra Schwartz
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.
Upcoming shows
EVERYWHERE:
There's a new National Geographic Explorer on Monday at 10 p.m. ET. This episode is about race and justice in America and features Michael Moore and Baratunde Thurston. Link
If you missed my bit from last week's episode, here's the video.
NEW YORK:
Saturday, November 26 at The Wild Project. I'm teaming up with so many of the best performers I know for the "One-Day Festival To Improve The World A Little Bit." A day of great performances for great causes.
-4 p.m. Readings for Refugees featuring poetry by Sarah Kay, Phil Kaye, and Mark Doss and readings by author Maeve Higgins, historian Alexis Coe, and more. All proceeds go to the International Refugee Assistance Project.
-7 p.m. Laughing for Liberty featuring jokes from Emmy Blotnick, Myq Kaplan, Matt Porter, and many surprise guests. All proceeds go to the ACLU.
-9 p.m. Concert for Civil Rights featuring the music of Riley Mulherkar and friends. All proceeds go to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
For all the shows, I'm personally matching all ticket sales, so your donations count double.
BOSTON:
Sunday, December 11 at 8 p.m at The Rockwell. You're the Expert is taping live with a special surprise scientist and a panel of great comedians. Tickets just went on sale. Link
LOS ANGELES:
Tuesday, December 20 at 9 p.m at the Nerdist Showroom. I'm back in LA and bringing my variety show You Get A Spoon. Comedians, musicians, and writers give away their favorite things to the audience and then perform a set. One lucky person takes home the world's greatest mixing spoon. Mark your calendars, tickets go on sale soon.
You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Josie Long's comedy is full of infectious joy. She's charming and British and just obviously a delightful human being. Josie's new solo show "Something Better," makes its US debut tonight in New York. She describes it as "a show about optimism and hopefulness and about looking for people and things to look up to. It's about wanting more from life than it might be up for giving out." To me, Josie is the perfect comic for this moment in America. Her take on how she loves liberal politician Jeremy Corbyn and what it's like to be in London after Brexit is so funny and spot on. Josie Long on Comedy Central
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
If you're looking for a break from politics for a moment, wow, do I have something for you. My friend Aparna sent me a mysterious email that just said "you are welcome" with a link to this video. I clicked. You should too. It's 38 seconds of pure hilarity. I have no idea how to describe it. Pony and I dancing to Sia
P.S. After doing some research, I've learned that the bio for Jake Nodar on his website is: "Naturalist, adventurer, actor, activist, environmentalist, and horse-trainer are just some of the words to describe 'Naked and Afraid XL' star Jake Nodar." That insane collection of words just adds more mystery for me.
1 Interesting Thing:
I've recommended Alexandra Schwartz's writing before and she continues to be one of the voices that I trust most to make sense of the world. She's got a beautiful new piece in The New Yorker reflecting on the "false trade-off" of security for freedom and what it means to be courageous in the world today. Paris, One Year Later
Thanks for reading. Take care of yourself this weekend.
Chris
3 Things: Leonard Cohen, Tig Notaro, and Derek Black
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:
For the past several months I've been working with some of the smartest and funniest people around on a new TV show for National Geographic. It premieres this Monday at 10 p.m. ET. The premiere features Larry Wilmore, Chuck Klosterman, Erin Brockovich, and yours truly. Here's an article about the show.
A new episode of You're the Expert is out today featuring Harvard astrophysicist Alyssa Goodman and comedians Maeve Higgins, Ken Reid, and Steve Macone. Link
NEW YORK:
Saturday, November 26 all-day at The Wild Project. In light of this election, I'm producing a day of fundraisers for nonprofits that are going to be critical over the next four years: the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the International Refugee Assistance Project. We'll have a comedy show, a concert, and writers/poets reading their work. I'm still working out the exact details but tickets and lineups will be up soon. In the meantime, please mark your calendars.
You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
The election has hit me hard. I'm feeling scared and confused and sad. But I've been finding solace in friends and poetry and music and community. I've loved Leonard Cohen's "Samson in New Orleans" since I first heard it and I've had it on repeat the past couple days. It felt like the perfect song for this week even before he passed away. Rest in peace, Leonard.
I've also been reading the poems "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith and Adam Zagajewski's "Try to Praise the Mutilated World," which both capture some of how I'm feeling.
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
It's okay to laugh too. We need it this week. So here's a surefire hit: Tig Notaro and Stephen Colbert meet at long last. If these two together can't make you laugh, nothing can. These are two of the greatest comedians alive, with two of the biggest hearts. They're also two gigantic weirdos. It's wonderful. Tig Notaro Has No Fear of Awkward Moments
1 Interesting Thing:
If you haven't heard the story of Derek Black yet, this is what you need to read today. This is the power of simply listening to each other and not shutting people out because of their beliefs. Derek Black's father founded the white nationalist website Stormfront. His godfather is David Duke. For a long time, Derek Black was the crown-prince of racism in America. But then a Jewish classmate started inviting him over for dinner. And Black accepted.
That was the first step that led to a sea change and his eventual renunciation of racism. The story is remarkable. It should be a movie. I'm sure it will be. Black gives me hope that with hard work and patience and a conscientious effort to step outside of our bubbles, it's possible to connect with each other and overcome hate. Please read this. The White Flight of Derek Black. (h/t Jon Grau)
Thanks for reading. Take care of yourself this weekend.
Chris
