3 Things: Chiitan the Otter, Natalie Walker, and Michael J. Fox

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:
You can listen to You're the Expert, my podcast where three comedians interview a scientist about her work and why it matters.  Link

No Hard Feelings is in book stores on February 5th in the U.S., but for any readers abroad, it's out this week in the U.K. You can read more about it and pre-order here: Link

NEW YORK CITY:
TONIGHT Saturday, January 26 at the Brick Theater. I'm improvising with some of NYC's best on the very fun Monster Mash show. Link

Tuesday, February 5 at Powerhouse Arena. Come join me in the audience for Mollie and Liz's official book release! They're going to have prizes, a photo station, and of course, they'll be reading from their newly published book. Link

I know I've said this in like 4 separate emails at this point, but I'm going to put up my new tour dates ASAP. I'm just waiting on a few venue details to be finalized and then I'll put them online here.

This week’s list

GREAT:
I was not aware that cities having mascots in Japan was a thing, but apparently it is and I love it. The only way it could get better is if there were unauthorized mascots that went rogue. Oh wait? That's a thing too. Let me introduce you to Chiitan, perhaps the greatest anthropomorphic otter in the history of Earth. In the words of The New York Times, "A Rogue Mascot Causes Headaches for a Japanese City." Or if you're the type that doesn't want any context and just wants to see what it means for an otter to stage "dark" "dangerous and non-child-friendly" stunts, watch this.

 
FUNNY:
One of my favorite parts of comedy is when a performer identifies something incredibly specific that we all recognize but have never bothered to think about before. Natalie Walker is the master of finding those in the movies. She makes hilarious videos auditioning for parts like "lady with British accent who so fiercely supports the difficult man she loves" or "Boston lady who represents rough past." My personal favorite is "lady who is married to a history-making man."

(Another excellent example of these is Chris Calogero's audition to play "Chief of Police.")

INTERESTING:
I've always been a fan of Michael J. Fox's movies and I had a sort of generic admiration for how he's battled Parkinson's disease, but I never realized how dramatically he's changed medical research. His foundation has created a new model for fighting diseases through its innovative fundraising/spending and by hiring scientists full-time and prioritizing collaboration. I read the story in Bloomberg in this fascinating op-ed by Joe Nocera. The Michael J. Fox Foundation Gets Results


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?), you can subscribe here.

Have a great day,
Chris

3 Things: Haywood Turnipseed, Mekki Leeper, and Rachel Cusk

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:
You can listen to You're the Expert, my podcast where three comedians interview a scientist about her work and why it matters.  Link

I was in a few online things this week.
- An article in Vulture about the weird art of coming up with a show title
- A tribute to one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver.
-On Jesse Williams instagram, as the meme that just will not die. 

My wife Mollie's upcoming book got a great review in the Financial Times! They called it a "lively book" and said it would be "a wise purchase... for anyone who simply wants non-preachy guidance on how to be a more effective (and kinder) colleague at work." No Hard Feelings comes out on February 5th but you can see more and pre-order here: Link

NEW YORK CITY:
Saturday, January 26 at the Brick Theater. I'm improvising with some of NYC's best at Carley Moseley's very fun show Monster Mash, where a chef makes a dish for the audience and then we all do a show inspired by it. Funny and delicious! Link

Tuesday, February 5 at Powerhouse Arena. Come join me in the audience for Mollie and Liz's official book release! They're going to have prizes, a station where you can make your own stress ball, and of course, they'll be reading from their newly published book. It's going to be great and it costs zero dollars. Link

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

This week’s list

GREAT:
Haywood Turnipseed Jr. is a great comic with a great name. What's not great is that, as a federal employee, he's already missed one paycheck and is on track to miss a second. While the longest U.S. government shutdown continues without an end in sight, there doesn't seem to be a lot of empathy for the people it's hurting. Comedy is sometimes able to cut through the noise. I hope Haywood's article opens a few eyes. At the very least, it's going to make you laugh. Trump Furloughed Me. Should I Take Up Pole Dancing?

 
FUNNY:
Mekki Leeper had a fantastic standup set on The Late Late Show last week. He's got lots of great punchlines, a really interesting personal story, and a ton of charm. It's the rare late night set that I watched more than once and truly enjoyed a second time as well. He talks about discovering he's a "weak little nerd," growing up in a Christian-Muslim interfaith house, and why you should never trust an older man using Crest white strips. Mekki Leeper 


INTERESTING:
I'm in the middle of Rachel Cusk's novel Outline right now. Her writing is so densely layered that I sometimes have to reread her paragraphs multiple times to make sure I understand what she's saying. But she uses that density to capture a particular sensation or memory so perfectly that I can feel it as though it was my own. The reward is worth the work. And so when I stumbled across her article in the NYT Magazine this weekend, I sat down and made sure I had enough time to really get into it. Her essay is ostensibly about driving, but it's really a combination of personal vignettes, philosophical musings on the subjectivity of experience, sketches of life in rural Britain, and more. It's beautiful. What Driving Can Teach Us About Living


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?), you can subscribe here.

Have a great MLK weekend,
Chris

3 Things: Noah Sheldon, BriTANicK, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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:
You can listen to every episode of You're the Expert, my podcast where three comedians interview a scientist about their work and why it matters, on our website or wherever you get podcasts. Link

My wife Mollie's book comes out on February 5th. It's called "No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work." You can see more about it and pre-order here: Link

A few years ago, I visited a friend who writes for The Onion and while I was in the office, they had me pose for a stock image. So now, every couple years, an article gets reposted with my photo in it. This week, I've been getting a lot of texts congratulating me on my responsible life choices because of this headline: "Responsible Man Sets Aside Small Portion of Each Paycheck for Bank to Gamble With"

NEW YORK CITY:
Saturday, January 26 at the Brick Theater. I'm improvising with some of NYC's best at Carley Moseley's very fun show Monster Mash, where a chef makes a dish for the audience and then we all do a show inspired by it. Funny and delicious! Link

Tuesday, February 5 at Powerhouse Arena. Come join me in the audience for Mollie and Liz's official book release! They're going to have prizes, a station where you can make your own stress ball, and of course, they'll be reading from their newly published book. It's going to be great and it costs zero dollars. Link

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

This week’s list

GREAT:
Noah Sheldon is a photographer who's won accolades and had exhibitions all over the world. I'm most interested in his ongoing project "Work Is..." It's like if Studs Turkel had an eye for amazing short films (and lived in China). "The popular story of working life in China did not correspond very well with Noah's own encounters with Chinese workers and their workplace. 'Work is' sets out to catalogue the labor force of China in a more intimate and granular way, using voices and personal histories to color the notion of what it means to be working in modern China." A good place to start is his lovely short film about Wu Guo Jie, a woman who makes a living reselling styrofoam boxes. Styrofoam (h/t Jason Kottke)

 
FUNNY:
Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher are two of the best sketch comedians in the country. They're currently writing for Saturday Night Live, but they've also written for How I Met Your Mother, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and so many other great shows and movies. Their sketch group is called BriTANicK and it's so funny. I first saw them at SF Sketchfest about five years ago and I was blown away. Since then, I've watched every video they put out. It's been awhile, since they've been busy with SNL, but they released a new video this week and it was worth the wait. The Mystery


INTERESTING:
She's been in Congress for less than a month, but she's already generated more media attention than most representatives get in their entire careers. Personally, I find Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to be inspiring and an exciting new voice in politics. But even if you disagree with her positions, I think it's important (and also interesting) to see the facts behind them. This op-ed about the economics of higher taxes from a Nobel Prize winning economist was very eye-opening for me. It's interesting that in debates over issues like this, no one ever stops and says "Um, actually both conservative and liberal experts agree this works. No one really disagrees on this except for pundits." The Economics of Soaking the Rich 


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?), you can subscribe here.

Have a great week,
Chris