Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Uber-Hip Humor at Symphony Space

Tonight was my first exposure to the beloved UWS cultural destination Symphony Space, the perfect venue for a diverse array of performance.

Sometimes comedy can really stink. But The World, Explained was a benefit for 826NYC and 826LA, and had the hippest, coolest line up ev-ah. First, the mistress of ceremonies was none other than Sarah Vowell of This American Life. The host was Eugene Mirman, who demanded we write of his improv bits in our blogs (obviously, I follow orders). And the line up?

  • John Aboud of Best Week Ever gave a great account of his high school highlight on Battle of the Brains, which took me back to when my smartypants sis Julie was on It's Academic!
  • David Rakoff, also of This American Life fame, went on a hysterical rant against the musical Rent
  • John Oliver from The Daily Show gave a great rift on how a sports 'accident' led him to comedy, and
  • Rodney Rothman gave the inside scoop on his creation of the faux boy-band Fresh-Step for Letterman
I may have been one of the oldest people there (the audience was filled with geek-chic 20somethings) but I laughed so hard my face hurt. Choice humor for a good cause - doesn't get much better than that.

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