3 Things: Josh Gondelman, Chris Fleming, and Nick Bilton
Hi friends,
It's Saturday! Every week, I send out an email with my upcoming shows, 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 see the archive and sign up to get these emails here.
Upcoming shows
EVERYWHERE:
On The Payoff, journalist Antonia Cereijido and I learn about finances, money, and how to not screw everything up. Link
Three comedians try to guess what a leading scientist does all day and then find out why their research is important and exciting on You're the Expert. Link
NEW YORK CITY:
Saturday, September 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Hudson River Park. I'm emceeing SUBMERGE, an outdoor festival in Hudson River Park with songs, jokes, and scientist interviews. If you have kids, this is a great free event to bring them to. Link
Sunday, September 17 at 2 p.m. at The Bell House. You're the Expert is back in Brooklyn for the final year of the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. Join me, Roy Wood Jr, and a lot of surprise guests for a live taping of the podcast. Link
Thursday, September 21 at 8 p.m. at Caveat. My variety show and prize giveaway You Get A Spoon features comedy from me and Emmy Blotnick, a reading by best-selling author A.J. Jacobs, a presentation by MoMA-displayed video artist Neil Goldberg, and of course, a spoon. Link
WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Friday, October 27 at 6 p.m. at National Geographic. I'm bringing You're the Expert back to NatGeo headquarters for another live taping as part of Tig Notaro's Bentzen Ball. Link
My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Josh Gondelman is one of the world's best joke writers. He's an award-winning staff writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, a published author, and a Twitter celebrity. But Josh is also an excellent human being. He manages to infuse his humor with his empathy and kindness, while still making biting and original jokes. It's a rare and impressive feat. In this weekend's New York Times, Josh wrote about the pressure of writing your own wedding vows as a comedian. Predictably, it's charming and wonderful. What If I Bombed at My Own Wedding? (Spoiler alert: I was at Josh and Maris' wedding and he did great.)
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
I've recommended Chris Fleming's web series and his digital videos before, but his live show is truly something to behold. It's a mix of standup, characters, and deeply bizarre and hilarious songs. Here's some footage from Chris' new tour, where he performs a song about a time in 1999 when his dad accidentally said "Bye, I love you" to Chris' soccer coach before hanging up the phone. My Dad and My Soccer Coach
1 Interesting Thing:
Nick Bilton's new book American Kingpin is one of the best nonfiction books I've read in years. I couldn't put it down. Bilton traces the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht, aka The Dread Pirate Roberts, the creator and CEO of Silk Road, the dark web's marketplace for illegal goods. I strongly recommend reading the whole book, but to whet your appetite, here's an excerpt from Vanity Fair.
"Ross Ulbricht had imagined that it might all come down to this one day. That at some point during the prodigious rise of his hot tech start-up he would be obliged to make a terrifyingly ruthless decision. Now, in early 2013, the time had arrived. The question was rather simple: Was he ready to kill someone to protect his billion-dollar company.?" Nick Bilton and Silk Road
Have a great long weekend!
Chris
3 Things: Cocoon Central, Drew Lynch, and Jennifer Bowen
Hi friends,
It's Saturday! Every week, I send out an email with my upcoming shows, 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 see the archive and sign up to get these emails here.
Upcoming shows
EVERYWHERE:
Ever wonder what a typical day is like for me? Photographer and writer Elyssa Goodman shadowed me last Saturday for this very fun profile and photo essay. Link
There's a new episode of The Payoff out now about freelancing and side hustles. Antonia Cereijido and I talk through what we've learned about making a living outside the traditional 9-to-5 and get advice on everything from comedy to driving for Uber. Link
Three comedians try to guess what a leading scientist does all day and then find out why their research is important and exciting on You're the Expert. Link
NEW YORK CITY:
Monday, August 28 at 8:30 p.m. at QED Astoria. I'm telling jokes on "Myq Kaplan & Friends." Myq is great. He's my friend. Other fun people will be there too! Link
Tuesday, August 29 at 7:00 p.m. at The Wild Project. A short interactive piece I wrote is being performed at Cherry Picking, a festival of new plays. Link
Thursday, September 21 at 8 p.m. at Caveat. My variety show and prize giveaway You Get A Spoon features comedy from me and Emmy Blotnick, a reading by best-selling author A.J. Jacobs, a presentation by MoMA-displayed video artist Neil Goldberg, and of course, a spoon. Link
TORONTO: Saturday, September 30 at 4:15 p.m. at Second City. I'm bringing You're the Expert to the Just For Laughs comedy festival for our first ever live taping in Canada! Our guest scientist is the world's leading expert in raccoon intelligence. I truly could not be more excited. Link
WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Friday, October 27 at 6 p.m. at National Geographic. I'm bringing You're the Expert back to NatGeo headquarters for another live taping as part of Tig Notaro's Bentzen Ball. Link
My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Watching Cocoon Central dance is the surest way I know to make yourself smile. They are three amazing dancers with impeccable comedic timing who are doing something totally original. It's so much fun to witness. You might recognize Tallie, Eleanore, and Sunita fromBroad City, Netflix's GLOW, or one of the other many appearances they make individually. But when they get together, it's magic. Cocoon Central Dance Team presents Love on Top
(If you want more, go to their website or check out the delightfully strange sitcom they made)
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
Drew Lynch is a standup comedian with a very severe stutter. You might think that, in a profession where talking is the whole thing, a stutter would be a dealbreaker. Drew proves otherwise. In fact, he's used his disability to make his act even more unique and hilarious. Drew made his late night debut on Conan this month with an excellent set about stuttering, dating, and Super Mario. Drew Lynch Standup
1 Interesting Thing:
Jennifer Bowen is a scientist at Northeastern University studying "microbial communities." A lot of her research touches on how human activities and climate change are affecting the makeup of ecosystems. It's important, urgent work. This week, she went viral after sharing an email she received from the Department of Energy asking her to scrub all references to "climate change" or "global warming" from her abstract. So is science being politicized? Or is it always political? Is this terrifying or just business as usual? The conversation Dr. Bowen sparked is fascinating and crucial for us to have. Here's heroriginal post, here's some context, and here's a dissenting view.
Thanks for reading,
Chris
Hanging out with "Miss Manhattan"
Elyssa Goodman is a super talented photographer and writer who picks a different New Yorker to shadow each week. She then emails out a newsletter with the report to all her subscribers for "Miss Manhattan Hangs Out."
In her words: "Come along as I spend a day hanging out with New Yorkers and other humans. In exactly 500 words and 15-20 photographs, I'll give a peek into the life of someone you know or someone you've never met."
Sign up for her emails here: https://tinyletter.com/MissManhattanNY
And check out my edition (which includes doomsday prepping, standup comedy, and podcasting) here: http://tinyletter.com/MissManhattanNY/letters/miss-manhattan-hangs-out-with-chris-duffy
Photo by Elyssa Goodman
