3 Things: Min Jin Lee, Stewart Lee, and North Korea

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. 

 Upcoming shows

EVERYWHERE:
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

On The Payoff, Antonia Cereijido and I try to learn about money from a team of financial experts.  Link

TORONTO:
TODAY Saturday, September 30 at 4 p.m. at Second City.  I'm in town for the Just For Laughs comedy festival! Come see a live recording of You're the Expert with Todd Barry, Sasheer Zamata, and the world's leading expert on raccoons. Link

NEW YORK CITY:
Thursday, October 5 at 8 p.m. at Caveat.  You're the Expert has a new monthly home in NYC. Join me, Jo Firestone, Charlie Hankin, and a surprise guest at the beautiful new East Village theater Caveat. Link

My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

I've always loved reading. I can remember being so excited when I walked into elementary school and found out that we were going to make sense of those squiggles on the page. That excitement has never fully gone away. According to some studies, reading literary fiction might not just be fun, it may also improve your brain's capacity for empathy.  With that in mind, my friend Maris Kreizman recommended some contemporary fiction that she predicted would "make you more empathetic." 

I took Maris up on her suggestion for a book that would help me understand Korea and ended up reading Min Jin Lee's beautiful (and sad) Pachinko. It's one of the most moving stories I've ever read. As you see more and more headlines about North Korea, here's a way to emotionally connect to the real humans who live there or had to leave.

(Bonus recommendation: If you're someone who's secretly writing a novel or dealing with creative rejection, here's Min Jin on her long road to critical acclaim. On Selling Your First Novel after 11 Years)
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

 
Stewart Lee (no relation to Min Jin) is a legendary British standup comedian. He's incredibly intelligent, amazingly funny, and able to tackle complex social issues in a way that people actually hear. Here's one of my favorite Stewart Lee bits about an argument he once had with a taxi driver: Stewart Lee on Facts (h/t Mollie)


1 Interesting Thing:

Doug Bock Clark has an amazing story in GQ his week about two women who thought they were being hired to star in a television prank show but ended up assassinating Kim Jong-Un's half-brother. The facts of the case are astonishing. 

"Two women had the most audacious task. Killing the brother of the North Korean leader. Right out in the open, using deadly chemical weapons in an international airport. And the craziest thing? They had no idea what they'd gotten into." The Untold Story of Kim Jong-nam's Assassination


Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter, forward it to a friend or come say hi at a live show.

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Have a great day,
Chris

3 Things: Julia Wertz, Amy Sedaris, and Kevin Roose

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. 

 Upcoming shows

EVERYWHERE:
Listen to Antonia Cereijido and I learn about money on The Payoff. Link

Hear three comedians try to understand a leading scientist's research on You're the Expert. Link

Get a taste of my variety show You Get A Spoon and my Living Room Comedy Club.

NEW YORK CITY:
Wednesday, September 27 at 8 p.m. at Upright Citizens Brigade. I'll be telling a story at the very fun show Nights of Our Lives. Link 

Thursday, October 5 at 8 p.m. at Caveat in Manhattan.  You're the Expert is monthly at Caveat, a gorgeous new theater on the Lower East Side. Featuring Jo Firestone and more. Link

TORONTO:
Saturday, September 30 at 4:15 p.m. at Second City. I'll be performing in Toronto for the first time as part of the Just for Laughs comedy festival. I'm hosting You're the Expert and our guest is incredible. She's the world's leading expert in raccoon intelligence. I can't wait. Link 

My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

Julia Wertz's drawings aren't just beautiful, they're also incredibly clever and funny. She describes herself as "a professional cartoonist and amateur historian." I'm very excited for her new book, Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City. It comes out in two weeks. In the meantime, I'm passing the days by reading this new piece in the New Yorker Julia drew. It's about a year in her thirties when she had to move back in with her mom after being evicted. Conversations with Ma
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

 
Amy Sedaris is delightfully insane. She's the queen of taking a very normal scene and heightening it into chaos and absurdity. When you hear famous comedians like Stephen Colbert get asked who is the most fun person to work with, her name comes up all the time. Amy is the voice of Princess Carolyn on Bojack Horseman, which is my favorite TV show out right now and she also has a new show of her own coming soon called At Home with Amy Sedaris. From what I can tell, the show is what would happen if Martha Stewart accidentally took a lot of LSD. Here's a clip where Amy and Jane Krakowski sing about glue. Glue with Amy Sedaris


1 Interesting Thing:

Kevin Roose is a New York Times columnist and author whose beat is technology and the future. Kevin also used to host a show for Fusion that produced two of the most astonishing episodes of television I've ever seen. (Hackers and Revenge Mogul). I've yet to see something Kevin's worked on and not think about it again days or months later. His latest column is about Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg's efforts to rein Facebook in and whether it's now too large for them to control. Facebook's Frankenstein Moment


Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter, forward it to a friend or come say hi at a live show.

If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here.  

Have a great day,
Chris

3 Things: HAIM, Eugene Mirman, and David Guttenfelder

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. 

 Upcoming shows

EVERYWHERE:
Video producer/editor extraordinaire Tessa Kramer has been helping me capture some of my more eccentric ideas on tape. Thanks to her you can see inside my variety show You Get A Spoon and my Living Room Comedy Club.

On The Payoff, Antonia Cereijido and I learn about finances and what it means to be good with your money.  Link

Three comedians try to guess what a leading scientist does all day and then find out why her research is important and exciting on You're the Expert.  Link

NEW YORK CITY:
TODAY! Saturday, September 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. I'm emceeing SUBMERGE! a festival of marine science in Hudson River Park. Lots of fun activities for families and kids. I'll be playing some audience games and interviewing scientists about venomous snails, underwater robots, and vampire squid. Free! Link

TOMORROW! Sunday, September 17 at 2 p.m. at The Bell House. I'm hosting You're the Expert in Brooklyn and we have the most insane lineup: Michael Showalter (Wet Hot American Summer), Roy Wood Jr (The Daily Show), poet/author Sarah Kay, and an incredible scientist. Come to this show! Link

Tuesday, September 19 at 6 p.m. I'm doing warmup comedy for Jordan Klepper's new Comedy Central show "The Opposition." You can get free tickets to be in the audience and see the show tape. Link

Thursday, September 21 at 8 p.m. at Caveat.  Comedy, readings, artwork, audience prizes, and, of course, a spoon. It's everyone's favorite variety show, You Get A Spoon. Link

My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

I know that I'm about four years behind the times here, but I just discovered the band HAIM and I love them so much. It's not just that their music is great but also that they're total goofballs. It's impossible to watch these three sisters rock out with each other and not smile. Check out their cover of Shania Twain's "That Don't Impress Me Much" for an Australian radio station. One of my biggest goals for this week is to master their dance moves from this video. I'm also working on my own version of "The Bass Face." 
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

 
Eugene Mirman is the patron saint of New York's alternative comedy scene. He's truly, deeply hilarious, he puts a lot of effort into supporting younger comedians, and he's always full of ridiculous ideas. Case in point: The Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. Started to skewer of how self-important comedy festivals can be, Eugene's parody unexpectedly became a hit. Instead of after parties sponsored by brands, Eugene has a bouncy castle full of accountants who can give you tax advice. Another year he had a mime explain climate change. The 10th and final year of the festival is this weekend in NYC. 

But let's not forget that Eugene is first and foremost a standup comedian. Here are some of my favorite jokes of his: Eugene Mirman on Good News


1 Interesting Thing:

David Guttenfelder is a National Geographic photographer who's made more than 50 trips to North Korea. His photos have exposed a side of everyday life inside the country that Americans have never seen before. I obsessively follow his Instagram and I was very excited to see that NatGeo posted this video of a talk Guttenfelder gave about his work. A Rare Look Into the Lives of North Koreans

Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter, forward it to a friend or come say hi at a live show.

If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here.  

Have a great day,
Chris