A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #128
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For February 27-March 4, 2020, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Our next show is our 6 year anniversary on March 24th! Tickets here.
Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. Happy belated Leap Day! Instead of participating in the parades and bacchanals that are traditional for this day that man has stolen from God to add to the calendar, we used our extra day to get in some work on our short humor and make gigantic batches of soup and huge sandwiches to last us through the fall. That's the way we like it: lots of humor and even more soup and sandwiches.
What We Enjoyed This Week
My Personal Statement Applying to Your Grad Program Because I'm 24 and Not Sure What Else to Do by Sara Lebow (Points In Case) We'll bet that if you're reading this newsletter, you've likely drafted and maybe even sent the very email described in this piece. Beyond the premise, this is a good example of a piece that manages to find jokes in generalities as well as in specifics.
Cool! Pocket Napkin Can Be Tissue, Toilet Paper, Whatever You Want it to Be by Dima Kronfeld (Reductress) Friend of the Show Dima Kronfeld does amazing work on Reductress and this is no exception: a simple, observational premise executed in the great Reductress satirical style.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sleep by Libby Marshall (Little Old Lady Comedy) This is a piece that builds in unexpected ways, letting itself roam and digress. But it never loses focus; with a solid framework and format, and plenty of callbacks and runners, the piece keeps humming along and ultimately ending in a satisfying place.
An Old Favorite
Review: The Mead Spiral 100 College-Ruled Notebook by Zach Miller (McSweeney's)
A simple, classic mapping piece: tech language used to describe the ubiquitous analog notebook. What we admire about this piece is how it evokes such a specific character and setting: you can picture the self-important Apple exec, enunciating and gesticulating to upsell this notebook to you.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Just soup and sandwiches on our end, and planning our upcoming shows!
Other Humorous Writing News
We suspect newsletter readers may be interested in the forthcoming Cinderella and the Glass Ceiling by Laura Lane and Ellen Haun. It's a re-telling of classic fairy tales and it's coming out on March 10th! If that piques your interest, well, friend, you can pre-order your copy now,
If you ever put on (or attended) a show at the old UCB Chelsea, chances are you spent some time at Peter McManus Cafe. And while you were raising a glass at a post-show celebration, you might also have raised an eyebrow at the pub's claim to have "the best burger in town." If you were always curious about the burger but never tried it, or if you ate it many times but were never in a clear enough state of mind to judge it objectively, you can finally stop wondering about how it ~really~ stacks up to the competition: The storied McManus burger has been reviewed. Though it doesn't fall into the traditional category of short humor, we wanted to share this Eater piece by Robert Sietsema: "A Tale of Two Burgers That Claim to Be NYC’s Best." It's a funny piece about two burgers vying for one title, and one that will those of us who spent an inordinate amount of time at McManus will take a particular interest in.
News About The Next Show(s)
We've got a lot going on this month!
On March 24th, we're celebrating our six-year anniversary with a big blow-out! That's right, we've been at this for a heck of a long time. Join us at Caveat on March 24th for a hangout at 6:30 pm and the show at 7:15 pm. And wow, do we have a special line up for you:
- Karen Chee (Late Night With Seth Meyers, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Reductress)
- Taylor Garron (Reductress, College Humor)
- Alex Gonzalez (Flexx Magazine, Michael Moore’s TV Nation, Madness Heart Press)
- Colin Nissan (McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, The Best of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency)
- Charu Sinha (McSweeney’s, The Belladonna, The Rumpus, A Great Week For Women)
- Jen Spyra (The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, The New Yorker, The Onion, McSweeney’s)
- And more!
And that same week, on Saturday, March 28th, we’re part of the Satire and Humor Festival! We’ve got a bunch of very special guests coming in from out of town, along with a few of our excellent regulars:
- Alex Baia (McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, Slackjaw)
- River Clegg (The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, The Onion, The New Yorker, Clickhole, McSweeney’s)
- Bizzy Coy (McSweeney’s, The New Yorker)
- Chas Gillespie (McSweeney’s)
- Mia Mercado (The New Yorker, The New York Times, Reductress)
- Irving Ruan (The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Points in Case, Weekly Humorist)
- Milly Tamarez (Creator of Flexx Mag, Co-creator and producer of the Diverse as Fuck Festival)
- Evan Waite (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The President Show, Clickhole, The Onion, MAD Magazine)
See you next week!
@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta
Did we miss a piece you loved? Did you love a piece we mentioned? Let us know! This is an experiment and we're hoping to continue to make it better and better. If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is.
See you next week!
@lukevburns & @jamesfolta
We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.
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If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is!