3 Things: Jad Abumrad, Michelle Buteau, and Bill Browder

Happy 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:
The newest episode of You're the Expert features Dr. Brooke Flammang teaching comedians Dillon Stevenson, Maeve Higgins, and Emmy Blotnick about sharks and the fish that suck onto them. Link

LOS ANGELES:
TOMORROW! Sunday, September 23rd at 7:00 p.m. at Dynasty Typewriter. I am in LA for one night only, hosting a live taping of You're the Expert with panelists Aparna Nancherla, Max Silvestri, and our expert Jess Phoenix, who studies VOLCANOES. Tell your friends and don't miss this show! Link

NYC:
Friday, October 5th at 10:00 p.m. at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective. I'm doing improv on Carley Moseley's show MONSTER MASH. Carley is the best and she's assembled some of the funniest improvisers in the country from SNL, Second City, Comedy Central, and more. Link

WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Saturday, October 20th at 7:30 p.m. at National Geographic. I'm doing a live taping of You're the Expert with panelists Jo Firestone, Josh Sharp, and an incredible scientist who is named Dr. Jennifer Lopez (this is real). Link

As always, you can find my schedule with all upcoming dates online here.

This week’s list

GREAT:
It feels appropriate that today is the official last day of summer. On Monday, I head back into work on Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas after a few months spent working on my own projects and catching up with friends. I've been racing around this past week trying to finish all the writing and audio editing that I promised myself I'd get done while we're on hiatus. I even managed to cram in one final (probably ill-advised) trip to the West Coast, so I could go to a friend's wedding and perform in LA tomorrow before taking the redeye home. 

All of which is to say, I'm feeling myself kick into that familiar "back-to-school" mode. I bought a fresh notebook, I'm ready to hear about everyone's vacations, and I've been listening to a kind of Schoolhouse Rock for grown ups. The album is the brainchild of Jad Abumrad, co-creator of Radiolab and host of More Perfect, a great podcast that "explores how the Supreme Court got so supreme." As a special project, Jad and his team commissioned 27 tracks that dive into and explains each of the 27 amendments to the Constitution. It features some incredible talent (including Dolly Parton and Sarah Kay). 27: The Most Perfect Album (h/t Cassandra Horii)


FUNNY:
Michelle Buteau is everything I think a great comedian should be. She's hilarious. She's smart. She can talk about big important issues and make you laugh or talk about complete nonsense and make you laugh. Whether she's hosting a podcast or doing standup or on TV, she brings the show to a higher level. And she's a lovely, kind human being as well. Michelle is a master of the craft and she shared her secrets with Atelier Dore.  Things I Learned from Standup Comedy 

(If you've never seen Michelle, there's no substitute for one of her live shows, but this NSFW clip from 2 Dope Queens is a good preview)


INTERESTING:
To round out our back-to-school Learning Edition of this newsletter, how about we learn more about the person Vladimir Putin hates most? If you want to understand what's going on in Russia, you could do worse than reading Bill Browder's memoir Red Notice. (NYT review here). Browder was, at one point, the largest foreign investor in Russia. But after he uncovered government embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars, he was kicked out of the country, framed, and his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was tortured and killed. Browder has spent his life since then seeking justice for Magnitsky by freezing the international assets of corrupt Russian officials. (This is supposedly what the Russians wanted that infamous Trump Tower "adoption" meeting to lobby against). Browder's story has so many twists and turns and it's obviously ongoing, but it's eye-opening. Or if you prefer ear-opening, there's a great interview with him on Preet Bharara's podcast.

Thanks for reading! If you like these emails, please forward to a friend or come say hi at a live show. If you're reading this for the first time (maybe someone forwarded you this email?), but you want to sign up, you can subscribe here.

Have a great start to Fall!
Chris

3 Things: Daphne Kalmar, Lisa Hanawalt, and Marilyn Geewax

Happy 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:
This week's episode of You're the Expert features Dr. Brooke Flammang talking about sharks, the fish that latch onto them, and super-intelligent underwater laser robots. Link

NYC:
TOMORROW! Sunday, September 16th at 7:00 p.m. at Caveat. You're the Expert is taping live with comedian Gary Richardson (SNL), author Maeve Higgins, and podcast star Dylan Marron (Conversations with People Who Hate Me). Link

LOS ANGELES:
Sunday, September 23rd at 7:00 p.m. at Dynasty Typewriter. I don't make it out to LA all that often, so I'm very excited to be back. We're doing a live taping of You're the Expert with panelists Aparna Nancherla, Max Silvestri, and our expert Jess Phoenix, who studies VOLCANOES. This is likely my only show in LA for the year, so don't miss it! Link

WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Saturday, October 20th at 7:30 p.m. at National Geographic. I'm doing a live taping of You're the Expert with panelists Jo Firestone, Josh Sharp, and an incredible scientist who is named Dr. Jennifer Lopez (not a joke). It's going to be amazing.  Link

As always, you can find my schedule with all upcoming dates for both standup shows and You're the Expert tapings online here.

This week’s list

GREAT:
Before I did comedy full-time, I worked as a fifth grade teacher. I loved the job. There's something magical about spending your days inside an elementary school as tiny humans are discovering how the world works for the first time. That's not to say there weren't also extremely gross or annoying things too (every teacher I know has a shockingly high tolerance for seeing bodily functions go wrong). But the excitement and expectations of a new school year is something I find myself thinking about and missing every September.

This twenty minute profile of teacher and children's book author Daphne Kalmar captures the magical feeling perfectly. She talks about making sure each of her students feels seen and what it's like to "fall in love with a new batch of kids every September and then let them go." One of Those Teachers  (h/t Bianca Giaever)


FUNNY:
BoJack Horseman is my favorite show on television. It manages to make me laugh, cry, and even think about big, existential questions. That's pretty remarkable considering it's a cartoon about a half-man / half-horse who used to be a sitcom star. The fifth season is out on Netflix now and I'm very excited to binge it all. The show's look and feel were created by Lisa Hanawalt, an artist who makes surrealistic paintings of anthropomorphic animals with a slightly dark sense of humor. Her paintings are beautiful and strange (a Westminster competition for hot dogs, a flock of birds robbing an apartment). I loved reading about how she went from self-publishing comics to having a cult-favorite television show. The Origin Story of the Depressingly Good "BoJack Horseman"


INTERESTING:
Marilyn Geewax spent her career covering business news and economics for NPR. Now that she's retired, she had some free time to go back to her hometown and attend her 45th high school reunion. What she found while catching up with old classmates is a portrait of how the enormous shifts in the US economy over the last fifty years affected everyone in her high school's lives. This is a piece of economic reporting that has real heart but also dives into some very interesting big-picture trends. A High School Reunion Reveals: When Steel Mills Fell Silent, Fates Got Flipped 

Thanks for reading! If you like these emails, please forward to a friend or come say hi at a live show. If you can't make it yourself, please tell any friends you think might enjoy it! The biggest way new people hear about my shows is from people on my mailing list.

If you're reading this for the first time (maybe someone forwarded you this email?), but you want to sign up, you can subscribe here.

Have a great day!
Chris

3 Things: Lily Hevesh, Justin Willman, and Oscar Martinez

Happy 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:
The latest episode of You're the Expert features Dr. Helen Fisher from the Kinsey Institute talking about the biology and evolution of human love with comedians Bowen Yang, Michelle Buteau, and Matt Koff.  Link

NYC:
TONIGHT Saturday, September 8th at 7:30 p.m. at the Magnet Theater. I'm telling stories which some of the best improvisers in NYC will turn into scenes on the spot for the always hilarious improv show, The Armando Diaz Experience.  Link

Sunday, September 16th at 7:00 p.m. at Caveat. You're the Expert is back for a new live taping with a mystery scientist and a panel of incredible comedians.  Link

LOS ANGELES:
Sunday, September 23rd at 7:00 p.m. at Dynasty Typewriter. I'm hosting a live taping of You're the Expert with panelists Aparna Nancherla, Max Silvestri, and a special guest. This is my only show in LA for the next couple months, so don't miss it! Tickets on sale this coming week

WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Saturday, October 20th at 7:30 p.m. at National Geographic. I'm doing a live taping of You're the Expert with panelists Jo Firestone, Josh Sharp, and an incredible scientist who is named Dr. Jennifer Lopez (not a joke). It's going to be amazing.  Link

As always, you can find my schedule with all upcoming dates online here.

This week's list

GREAT:
Lily Hevesh is a world record holder, a viral star, and a self-made entrepreneur. She's the world's greatest domino artist. If you need a break from watching our democratic institutions teeter and tumble, might I suggest watching an elaborate domino-based Rube Goldberg machine instead? There's a reason Lily has some of the most popular videos on YouTube. They're simultaneously amazing and soothing. Everything is in its right place and then it falls perfectly and is done, like a Tibetan sand painting (if the monks regularly accepted deals to create sponsored content). How Hevesh5 Builds Amazing Domino Chain Reactions


FUNNY:
The LA Times said that Justin Willman is "a new breed of comic who's making magic cool again for grown-ups." I don't know if magic is ever going to be "cool" but Justin is the rare performer who is genuinely funny as a comedian and genuinely impressive as a magician. His new special "Magic for Humans" just came out on Netflix and it's delightful. Watch as Justin combines both magic and social psychology to create illusions and very entertaining results. Here's a clip of one of my favorites: Justin Willman Makes This Guy Think He's Invisible


INTERESTING:
I finished reading Salvadoran journalist Oscar Martinez's book The Beast this week. It's one of the most moving and beautifully written nonfiction books I've ever read. I'd put it right up there with Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Barbara Demick'sNothing To Envy. Martinez helped found the award-winning investigative journalism site El Faro and in The Beast, he follows Central American migrants and refugees on their dangerous trek through Mexico to the Southern border of the United States. Martinez rides the rails and buses with these people, dodging thieves and cartels and corrupt police. He tells the stories of the people that so often become nameless in the news.Here's a review and here's a link to the book itself. 


Thanks for reading! If you like these emails, please forward to a friend or come say hi at a live show. If someone forwarded you this email and you want to sign up, you cansubscribe here.

Have a great weekend,
Chris