3 Things: Henry Orenstein, Ouija, and Silent Film Effects
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
MADRID, SPAIN:
Friday, January 26th to Sunday, January 28th at Only You Hotel Atocha. I'm headlining a weekend of standup shows at a new NYC-themed hotel sponsored by Seagram's. If you're in Spain or just looking for a way to theme a vacation around my comedy, gin, and eating tapas, this is your chance. Link
NEW YORK:
Sunday, February 5th at 7:00 p.m. at The Wild Project. You Get A Spoon is back in NYC with another night of incredible performances, audience prizes, and one spectacular spoon. Come see the show that The Comedy Bureau called "one of the 100 best things in comedy." Link
CRAWFORDSVILLE, INDIANA:
Friday, February 10th at 7:00 p.m. at Wabash College. You're the Expert is taping live in the Hoosier State and we've got a genius scientist (and former hippie), Shalewa Sharpe, and Matt and Charlie from Comedy Central's New Timers. The show is free, you just have to get to Crawfordsville. Link
My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Henry Orenstein is a legendary toymaker. He's the man responsible for making dolls affordable, figuring out how to make them blink using magnets, and bringing the Transformers to America. He's directly responsible for millions of children's favorite toys and for billions in sales. But he's also the guy who pitched poker to ESPN and brought it from smoky casino backrooms to an American obsession. Before his success and wealth, he escaped the Nazis and arrived in the U.S. penniless and orphaned. Meet Henry Orenstein, The Man Who Changed How The World Plays
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
The Internet brings out the best and worst of humanity. There are the trolls and racists and Twitter monsters. But there are also the people who write nice reviews on Yelp and take time to answer strangers' questions. Somewhere in the middle in the comedic mastermind who takes terribly written Yahoo Answers posts and reads them out loud for the rest of us. I knew that "ouija board" was pretty tough to spell and the concept behind it was confusing, but I had no idea how horribly and gloriously wrong it could go. I love this video so much.Curse of the Weggy Board (h/t Aparna Nancherla)
1 Interesting Thing:
Before movie studios spent millions of dollars on computer-generated graphics and special effects, filmmakers had to invent ways to do it themselves. Their creativity and engineering led to some of the most iconic movie moments. And what's incredible is that even with all the technological advances, some of the tricks they used then look as good or better than what's in movies today. Watching gifs of silent film effects is a rabbit hole that you could easily go down for hours, but here are some of the best. How Some Cool Silent Film Effects Were Done (h/t Sam Gilroy)
Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!
Chris
3 Things: Robots, Bess Kalb, and Stephon Marbury
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:
Tuesday, January 10th at 7:30 p.m. at QED Astoria. I'm a guest on Evan Barden's live music and talk show, Repeater. We'll discuss Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" and then a band, Dear Georgiana, will play it live. Link
Wednesday, January 11h at 7 p.m. at The Annoyance. I'm hosting The Sensible Show again. Great standup comedy at a very reasonable hour. Link
Friday, January 13th at 8 p.m. at The Brooklyn Arts Exchange. I'm a guest judge for Dancify That, a game show where dancers create performances inspired by viral videos on the Internet. Pretty standard Friday. Link
MADRID, SPAIN:
Friday, January 26th to Sunday, January 28th at Only You Hotel Atocha. I'm headlining a weekend of standup shows at a new NYC-themed hotel sponsored by Seagram's. If you're in Spain or just looking for a way to theme a vacation around my comedy, gin, and eating tapas, this is your chance. Link
BANGOR, MAINE:
Saturday, March 18th at 7:30 p.m. at Hampden Academy Performing Arts Center. You're the Expert is coming to the Maine Science Festival and we've got an incredible lineup of guests. It looks like this show is going to sell out pretty far in advance, so if you want to come, get your tickets now. Link
My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
A 24/7 livestream of two robots talking to each other on a social network designed to let you watch strangers play video games. Welcome to 2017. Some mad genius programmed these two Google Homes with a chatbot script and then set them loose. It's occasionally hilarious (at one point while I was watching, one of the robots said her favorite thing to read was "digestible nonfiction.") and sometimes even soothing (when they get into a loop of complimenting each other). Anyway, join the 19,000 other people watching these robots talk this morning. Robot Talk
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
Bess Kalb is truly hilarious. She's a writer for Jimmy Kimmel and the woman behind so many of the great bits on his show. Her newest role is curating The New Yorker's 30 Most Disappointing Under 30 list. My personal favorite is "Victor Chen, twenty-eight. Chen used an app to hire a person to pick up and deliver a Chipotle burrito to him every night for twenty-two consecutive nights." Read the whole list here.
1 Interesting Thing:
"There is a statue of him holding up the 2012 Chinese Basketball Association trophy above his head outside the home arena. He is in another statue celebrating the first title along with two of his teammates outside of the practice arena. There is a Marbury museum about five kilometers from Tiananmen Square showcasing his entire basketball career, filled with old trophies, jerseys and other hoop artifacts as well as a gift shop. There was a Broadway-type musical centering on his life that he actually acted and danced in for 11 nights. He is acting as the lead in My Other Home, a Chinese film based on his life that's expected to debut in 2017 with cameos from Allen Iverson and Baron Davis. He also has a Chinese postage stamp." I pretty much know nothing about basketball and I'm normally not a fan of sports profiles, but the way Stephon Marbury flamed out of the NBA and then rebuilt himself as a huge star in China is an incredible story. Stephon Marbury: Remade in China
Thanks for reading. Happy New Year!
Chris
3 Things: Scott C. Reynolds, Thesis Defense, and Lisa 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.
Upcoming shows
NEW YORK:
Wednesday, January 4th at 7 p.m. at The Annoyance. Evan Kaufman and I are hosting The Sensible Show with a whole bunch of great stand ups telling jokes. Link
Tuesday, January 10th at 7:30 p.m. at QED Astoria. I'm a guest on Evan Barden's live music and talk show, Repeater. There's a distinct possibility we'll discuss Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." Link
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Scott C. Reynolds is the author of Dream Jobs and a guy people go to when they're trying to figure out how to write a pilot or a screenplay. I've worked with him and he's just a gem of a human being. Scott has a newsletter, Writers Be Writing, with tips and advice for aspiring writers, but for the past couple weeks he's been sharing his process for setting goals and actually achieving them. Since there are a lot of resolutions getting set right now, take a second and let Scott help you. The biggest tip that I've had personal success with is setting goals that are 100% in my control. "Get my own TV show" is a dream I can't control, "Write a pilot that I'm proud of" is a goal that I can do. Lies, Damn Lies, and Goal Setting
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
This isn't new, but it's a classic and I love it. "Question: Do I have to kill the snake? Answer: University guidelines state that you have to 'defeat' the snake. There are many ways to accomplish this. Lots of students choose to wrestle the snake. Some construct decoys and elaborate traps to confuse and then ensnare the snake. One student brought a flute and played a song to lull the snake to sleep. Then he threw the snake out a window." FAQ: The "Snake Fight" Portion of Your Thesis Defense by Luke Burns
1 Interesting Thing:
Here's a potentially hopeful note to end 2016 on. New York Magazine's Lisa Miller documented what she called "an experiment in radical empathy." They brought together more than a dozen people on both sides of the gun debate including "a hunter; two Baltimore cops; a criminal-court judge from New Orleans; a couple of high-schoolers who grew up in the ganglands of Chicago's South Side-- who had agreed to meet face-to-face, tell each other their stories, and try to understand one another's points of view." They listened and then shared a partner's story in their own voice. The participants were skeptical, but the results were pretty stunning. An Experiment in Empathy
Thanks for reading. Happy New Year!
Chris
