3 Things: Katherine Cooper, Dan Chamberlain, and Jia Tolentino

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 her 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

NEW YORK CITY:
Thursday, October 19 at 8 p.m. at Caveat. Come see my variety show / Oprah-style prize giveaway You Get A Spoon, featuring a presentation by Nate Sloan (Switched on Pop), music from Kayla Ringelheim, jokes from Josh Gondelman, and a reading by Andrew Marantz (The New Yorker). Link

WASHINGTON, DC:
Friday, October 27 at 7 p.m. at National Geographic. Come see a live recording of You're the Expert at Tig Notaro's Bentzen Ball with Aparna Nancherla, Maeve Higgins, and a mystery scientist. Link

My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.

This week's list

GREAT:

Katherine Cooper is one of the most interesting people I've ever met. She's a writer, an artist, a professional matchmaker, and more. She's done everything from tour Europe as part of a dance group called Tall Women in Clogs to professionally edit Wikipedia pages for minor celebrities. This week, Hyperallergic published a conversation between Katherine and Patti Smith on writing, belief, and "what drives her to make art." It's a great read and Patti Smith is legendary for a reason.

"We always aspire to something higher. As a child, it seemed to me disappointing to be in a world where everything was already figured out and there was nothing more to want to achieve than making a living." Why Patti Smith Writes


FUNNY:

Dan Chamberlain is a comedian and actor in New York who's clearly moments away from fame. I see him all over the city playing so many different characters and stealing the show every time. He can take the strangest idea and make it work. For example, here's Danreading a poem to Chris Gethard on Brett Davis' great public access cable show, The Special Without Brett Davis. 

Or here's Dan in possibly the most relatable sketch of all time: Everyone's Upstairs Neighbors. He's so funny. 


INTERESTING:

A lot has been written about Harvey Weinstein since the story of his abuse finally broke in the New York Times, and I'm sure more will come. But sexual harassment and abuse are clearly not just limited to one powerful guy. It's a huge problem across industries that's going to take work from all of us to tackle. To me, the core of the issue is that we need to see women as full, complete human beings and not just sexual objects. I'm trying to do my best to listen and support women sharing their experiences and thoughts. I always love reading Jia Tolentino's writing and I thought her piece this week was particularly powerful. How Men Like Harvey Weinstein Implicate Their Victims in Their Acts



Thanks for reading! If you like these, forward to a friend or come say hi at a live show. If you're seeing these emails for the first time, you can subscribe here. 

Have a great day,
Chris

3 Things: Bianca Giaever, Josh Sharp & Aaron Jackson, and Amish Tech

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

NYC LIVING ROOMS:
Some standup friends and I are workshopping new material in people's living rooms across the city. The shows are already almost sold out, but there are a few spaces left if you're interested in coming! Details here

NYC MORE GENERALLY:
Monday, October 9 at 8 p.m. at QED Astoria.  Myq Kaplan hosts a standup show and celebration of his birth. He is so funny and wonderful. Come to a very funny standup birthday party featuring Myq, me, Josh Gondelman, Baratunde Thurston, and more. Link

Thursday, October 19 at 8 p.m. at Caveat. It's month 2 of my residency at Caveat, the beautiful new theater in the LES. Come see my variety show / Oprah-style prize giveaway You Get A Spoon, featuring a presentation by Nate Sloan (Switched on Pop), music from Kayla Ringelheim, jokes from Josh Gondelman, and a reading by Andrew Marantz (The New Yorker). Link

WASHINGTON, DC:
Friday, October 27 at 7 p.m. at National Geographic. Come see a live recording of You're the Expert at Tig Notaro's Bentzen Ball with Aparna Nancherla, Maeve Higgins, and a mystery scientist. Link

BARCELONA, SPAIN:
Friday, November 17 and Saturday, November 18. I'm coming back to Spain to headline another weekend of comedy shows for Seagram's New York Hotel. Link

My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

I am a fan of everything Bianca Giaever creates. I actually first met Bianca because I recommended her videos in this newsletter several years ago and it turned out she went to high school with my wife. (In fact, Mollie tutored her in the SATs. Nice work, Mollie.) Since meeting Bianca in person, my admiration has only grown. She makes beautiful andhilarious short films. She's won an Emmy. And she constantly puts together fascinating live events. From an expert-led tour of Duane Reade to a pheromone smell party to her latest project, a relationship booth where you get custom-paired with a couple "who have been through it all before. Meet with strangers to get their real, unprofessional advice." Bianca Giaever presents The Relationship Booth
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

 
Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson are the breakout stars on Comedy Central's new late-night show The Opposition. They're hilarious, naturals on camera, and their satire is perfectly honed. They play heightened parodies of Milo Yiannopoulos and other alt-right provocateurs. For their latest piece, they teamed up with Ali Vingiano for this truly perfect investigation into the world of paid protestors: Paid Protestors Give the Performance of a Lifetime  


1 Interesting Thing:

The Amish are using smartphones. I read this article several weeks ago and it's been stuck in my head ever since. One one level, it's funny to imagine the Amish on the internet (see one of my all-time favorite SNL sketches), but there's also something profound about the loss that their community is experiencing and what that tells the rest of us about the costs of technology. It's a fascinating read. In Amish Communities, the Future Is Calling


Thanks for reading! If you like these, forward to a friend or come say hi at a live show. If you're seeing these emails for the first time, you can subscribe here. 

Have a great day,
Chris

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.

If you're seeing these emails for the first time, you can subscribe here. (If you're using Gmail but these aren't going to your main inbox, try dragging this message into your Primary Tab and then clicking "yes" when it asks if you'd like future messages to go there too.)

Have a great day,
Chris