3 Things: Elizabeth Craft, John Early, and Christopher Schroeder

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

BOSTON: 
TOMORROW! Sunday, December 11th at 8 p.m. at The Rockwell. You're the Expert tapes live in Somerville. Tickets still available. 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 music from Johanna Samuels, comedy from Zach Sherwin, Max Silvestri, more special guests, and so many prizes. Link

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

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

Elizabeth Craft is a television producer and screenwriter. She's had a long and successful career, so you might think she'd feel fully secure in her job. But that's not how it works. In this fantastic thirty minute interview, she talks about the fear of being fired, what it's really like to work in television, and how insecurity and uncertainty can fuel the creative process. She says so many things perfectly that I've struggled to verbalize for myself. It's obviously relevant for anyone in entertainment, but also for anyone who worries about job security. (So... everyone.) Writer Elizabeth Craft on Fear h/t Mollie
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

I haven't recommended John Early before now. That's astonishing. I went back to the archives three times and checked. I'm not sure how that could have happened because he is one of the most deeply, hilariously funny people on the planet. I'm glad to now fix that obvious oversight. Here's John Early doing his iconic Britney Spears impression for Conan. 

And here's John Early giving pitch-perfect life advice to Esquire readers. Ask a Comedian: John Early


1 Interesting Thing:

The news coverage of politics and international relations has been pretty universally negative for the past couple weeks, so it's easy to forget that there are promising trends too. Christopher Schroeder, a Silicon Valley investor, visited Tehran last year and wrote about the emerging entrepreneurs he met there. It's a different face of Iran that we don't often get to see. Schroeder met a ton of inspiring young people, like Nazanin Daneshvar, a woman who's built a huge Groupon-like business in Iran. She's got more than two million users and 10,000 businesses as customers. The Iran I Saw


Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend,

Chris

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