A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #6
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For October 26-November 1, 2017, a roundup of the week's
finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Hello and welcome to a Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. Our painstaking selection process—committees, interviews, swimsuit contests—has led to some fantastic selections this week. Please, friends, enjoy!
What We Enjoyed This Week
How to Write 100,000 Words Per Day, Every Day by Matthew Plunkett (McSweeney's)
The Echo Chamber of Social Media Has Divided Us. Also, I Had Sex with A Car and Was Hoping to Quietly Bury My Apology in This Think Piece by David Mack (McSweeney's)
The Boyfriend Who Noodled on Guitar: A Horror Story by Rekha Shankar (The New Yorker) Rekha is a superstar, and this spooky delight is proof why.
An Old Favorite
Welcome to Infinity World by John Harris (Pendulous Breasts Quarterly)
We first heard this piece at an Evening of Humorous Readings show. We didn't stop laughing the whole way through. It's vintage John Harris—which is to say, somewhere on the borderline between wildly creative and just basically insane. But, it works. It works so well.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Luke’s Maude team has their best-of show next Monday at the UCB Theater. Go check out some great sketch comedy—or as we call it, humor writing with actors.
Frequent co-conspirator of your humble newsletter authors, Lucas Adams, wrote and illustrated this gem for The New Yorker. Halloween may be over, but humor is a year-round business.
AND TONIGHT! It's the launch party for Paul Ryan magazine—a satirical look at America's favorite current Speaker of the House. Paul Ryan is brought to you by James and his pal Andrew Lipstein, the team behind The Neu Jorker. Tonight's party features readings and performances from magazine contributors, including Luke and Brian. Click on the event link above to get on that sweet, sweet list, and enjoy some jokes, some jabs, and some free drinks.
Other Humorous Writing News
The Atlantic posted a great interview with friend of the show, Colin Nissan—writer of perhaps the most famous humor piece of a generation, "It's Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers." If you've ever wanted a behind the scenes look at the making of a masterpiece, give the interview a read!
News About The Next Show
We're still looking for a new home, but in the meantime, we said goodbye to HiFi, the greatest bar the East Village has ever known. Pour some out for HiFi, and gentleman-owner Mike Stuto. And after you're done pouring one out, lets us know where you got that stuff to pour out, because we would love a new bar/home for An Evening of Humorous Readings.
Did we miss a piece you loved? Did you love a piece we mentioned? Let us know!
This is an experiment for us 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 respond to this email or reach out to us and tell us what the score is.
See you next week!
@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta
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!