JUNE 26TH: HOW I LEARNED LITTLE THINGS ARE BIG

Remember in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN when Lily Tomlin's character went on "The Mike Douglas Show" and he sang the song "Little Things Mean A Lot" because she was so little? I do. 

Come out for NYT's bestselling author JACOB TOMSKY, celebrated comedian BROOKE VAN POPPELEN, and KATE GREATHEAD who's been cleaning up at The Moth all year.

(PLUS: How I Learned's side project, BEST IN SHOW, rolls out on June 14th.)

The How I Learned Series Presents

HOW I LEARNED LITTLE THINGS ARE BIG

Featuring:

BROOKE VAN POPPELEN

(Comedy Central; Girl Code)

JACOB TOMSKY

(Heads in Beds; The New York Times)

BRIAN GROSZ

(Voiceover Artist / Musician)

KATE GREATHEAD

(Writer / Storyteller, The Moth GrandSLAM)

ERIC NOAH FELDMAN

(Humor Writer, McSweeney's)

Creator / Producer / Host:
Blaise Allysen Kearsley

Wednesday, June 26th
8:00PM / Doors at 7
Happy Ending Lounge
302 Broome Street
Between Forsyth + Eldridge
B, D to Grand / F, J, M, Z to Delancey
FREE

www.howilearnedseries.com

BROOKE VAN POPPELEN was named one of the "Best New Comedians in 2012" byEsquire Magazine and was a featured performer at SXSW and the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. She is a writer for MTV's Failosophy and is a contributing writer and producer for both Guy Code and Girl Code on MTV2. Brooke recently appeared on Comedy Central in The John Oliver New York Stand-Up Show and she can be seen regularly on The History Channel's I Love the 1880's. (Photo: Seth Olenick)

JACOB TOMSKY is the author of The New York Times bestselling memoir, Head in Beds, and is a dedicated veteran of the hospitality business. His writing has appeared inThe New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, O Magazine, and other venues. Born to a military family in Oakland, California, Tomsky now lives in Brooklyn.(Photo: Michael Lionstar)

KATE GREATHEAD's illustrious life in the spotlight began in first grade, when she was chosen as a subject in Michael Apted's documentary, The Up Series in America, which profiles the lives of 7-year-olds, and revisits them every seven years for the rest of their lives. The series was cancelled due to poor ratings, but Kate shares her life story with the public through a variety of forums, including The Moth. She lives in Park Slope with 5 roommates where she is at work on a novel/memoir titled Progress Reports.

BRIAN GROSZ is a voiceover artist and musician hellbent on a quest for world-domination, an alternative to the Scientific Method, a better mousetrap, his own space-program/lingerie-modeling-agency and something better than sliced bread.

ERIC NOAH FELDMAN is a New York City based writer and storyteller who is squandering his overpriced legal education. You can read Eric's essays online atMcSweeney's and Hypocrite Reader, hear his stories on the Story Collider andSoundtrack Series podcasts, and follow his antics on Twitter @ericnoah. He enjoys improv comedy, rye Manhattans, and Oxford commas.

ON JUNE 14TH IT'S YOUR TURN

BEST IN SHOW

STORYTELLING / READING SLAM

(Formerly "Storytimes")

A How I Learned Series Production

Here's how it works: Drop your name in the hat for a chance to tell or read a FIVE-MINUTE story. No themes. No scores. Just warm, thoughtful, constructive FEEDBACK from a rotating panel of seasoned judges who may or may not be half in the bag. Judges confer at the end of the night to crown the "Best in Show."

FRIDAY, JUNE 14TH

7:30 Sign-Up / 8:00 Stories

HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE

302 Broome Street (Between Forsyth + Eldridge)

B, D to Grand / F, J, M, Z to Delancey

FREE

Hosted By:

BRAD LAWRENCE

This Month's Judges:

KERRI DOHERTY (Geeking Out) / JIM O'GRADY (The Moth GrandSLAM) /  

BLAISE ALLYSEN KEARSLEY (The How I Learned Series)

NEW PODCAST EPISODE: Alex Gallafent - "Furry Logic"

May 23rd, 2013

Photo: Jesse Chan-Norris

Alex Gallafent (BBC Radio, PRI's The World) finds his inherently sensible ways are no match for a strange new obsession. Recorded live at "How I Learned I Might Be Obsessed (Vol. II)."

Listen:

Alex Gallafent - Furry Logic

(Music: "Dog Eat Dog," Adam and The Ants)

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MAY 22: HOW I LEARNED TO LIE, CHEAT OR STEAL

Remember in "The Great Muppet Caper" when the lights go off in the ballroom and they come back on and Lady Holiday puts her hand to her bare throat, gasps and screams, "My jewels!" because her jewels were stolen? And Charles Grodin is there? I really hope something like that happens at this show.

The How I Learned Series Presents

HOW I LEARNED TO LIE, CHEAT, OR STEAL

Featuring:

Mike O'Brien

SNL, 7 Minutes in Heaven

Elna Baker

This American Life, Studio 360

Joe Veix

The New Yorker, McSweeney's

Juliet Hope Wayne

The Moth GrandSLAM, "Best Comedian in Philadelphia 2012"

Tara Clancy

The New York Times, The Rumpus

Creator / Producer / Host:

Blaise Allysen Kearsley

Wednesday, May 22nd

8:00PM / Doors at 7

Happy Ending Lounge

302 Broome Street

Between Forsyth + Eldridge

B, D to Grand

F, J, M, Z to Delancey

FREE

www.howilearnedseries.com

MIKE O'BRIEN has written for SNL since 2009. Before that, he performed at Second City and iO in Chicago, where he was a founding member of the group The Reckoning. He also makes the web series 7 Minutes in Heaven, for which he has interviewed many celebrities inside his closet, including Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig and Patricia Clarkson.

 

ELNA BAKER is a writer, storyteller, monologist and the author of The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance. She is a regular contributor for This American Life and has told stories for The Moth, Studio 360, RISK!, Radiolab and BBC Radio 4. Elna has also written for ELLE, Glamour and The Onion, among others.

 

JOE VEIX is a writer and comedian who contributes to The New Yorker, McSweeney's,The Awl, and Someecards. He was also briefly the official t-shirt cannon shooter for the Chicago Desire Bikini Basketball team.

TARA CLANCY has most recently written for The New York Times and The Rumpus.She has also written and performed several full length monologues, including Channel Rat, which ran at the NY Fringe Festival. A native New Yorker and third-generation bartender, Tara is a licensed tour guide for the City of New York. She lives in Manhattan with her wife and son.

JULIET HOPE WAYNE was named Best Comedian in Philadelphia in 2012 byPhiladelphia Magazine. She was the first female to win the Moth GrandSLAM in New York City and has been featured on the Moth Podcast, Moth Radio Hour on PRX, and toured with The Unchained Tour  in 2010. She received her undergraduate degree in Animation and was recently nominated for the 2013 PEW Arts and Culture Fellowship.

STORYTIMES STORYTIMES STORYTIMES -- MAY 9TH

Oh, look! It's the third biannual super special How I Learned STORYTIMES Slam.

Tell or read a FIVE MINUTE "how I learned ______" story in front of an audience and 3 judges.

No scores. Just wise and friendly feedback based on story, delivery, length of time, and probably something else that Brad Lawrence has in his head that the rest of us don't know about.

One "Best in Show," picked by the judges, will win a prize. Not sure what. Maybe a bag of chocolates from Duane Reade, like last time. MAYBE THIS TIME IT WILL BE FROM RITE-AID.

Also, you don't have to share a story at all. You can just come for the drinks and the entertainment and maybe someone will share with you their hard earned chocolates or whatever. Either way: FUN.

STORYTIMES #3
A How I Learned Series Production
Thursday, May 9th
7:30 Sign-Up
8:00 Stories

JUDGES:
CAMMI CLIMACO 
(Co-host, ASK ME Stories; Host, Six By Six)
MARK SAM ROSENTHAL
(Writer, Comedy Central; Winner, STORYTIMES #2)
BLAISE ALLYSEN KEARSLEY
(Creator/Producer/Host, The How I Learned Series

HOST:
BRAD LAWRENCE
(Performer, And I Am Not Lying; Co-Host, STORYTIMES #2)

HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE
302 Broome Street
Between Forsyth + Eldridge
NYC
B, D to Grand
F, J, M, Z to Delancey

HOW I LEARNED I MIGHT BE OBSESSED (VOLUME II)

Back in 2010, How I Learned brought you "How I Learned I Might Be Obsessed," featuring stories of infiltrating an anti-gay Christian conference, competitive eating,  a rock band employing chickens for percussion, chasing a one-night-stand all the way to Hong Kong, getting locked out of the house half naked with a vibrator and a baby, and also Oprah Winfrey. This month, come out for new stories on the same subject from a wicked hot lineup that may or may not include people with addictive personalities and/or some sort of borderline sociopathic bipolar disorders. (Not judging. Might be projecting.)

* * *

The How I Learned Series Presents:

How I Learned I Might Be Obsessed (Volume II)

Featuring:
OPHIRA EISENBERG

(Storyteller / Comedian / Host of NPR's Ask Me Another / Author, Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy)

JAMES BRALY

(Performer / Author, Life in a Marital Institution)

ALEX GALLAFENT

(Actor / Writer / Correspondent for the BBC)

ROSE SURNOW

(Humorist / Writer, New York Magazine; VICE)

CHRISTINE GENTRY

(Storyteller, Story Collider; The Moth)

Creator / Producer / Host:

Blaise Allysen Kearsley

Wednesday, April 24th

8:00PM / Doors at 7

Happy Ending Lounge

302 Broome Street

Between Forsyth + Eldridge

B, D to Grand

F, J, M, Z to Delancey

FREE

OPHIRA EISENBERG is a comedian, writer, and host of NPR’s new weekly trivia comedy show, Ask Me Another. She has appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Comedy Central, and VH-1. Selected as one of New York Magazine's Top 10 Comics that Funny People Find Funny, and featured in the New York Times as a skilled comedian and storyteller with a “bleakly stylish” sense of humor, Ophira's debut memoir, Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy is in stores now. She is also a regular host and teller with The Moth.

JAMES BRALY is the author and performer of the monologue Life in a Marital Institution, reviewed as "gaspingly funny" by Variety and "never less than excellent" by the New York Times. The monologue has become a memoir by the same name, published by St. Martin's Press, and has also been optioned for film and television. His stories have been broadcast nationally on This American Life, NPR and Marketplace. 

ALEX GALLAFENT is a former producer for the BBC Radio in London and currently a correspondent for the BBC and Public Radio International's The World. He has performed sketch comedy and one-act plays in New York and the UK, and can be seen regularly at  The Pit with his improv troupe, Skycopter, or playing drums and trumpet with the BTK Band, NYC's hardest-drinking, improvised storytelling rock band.

ROSE SURNOW used to be a tiny baby, but then she was like, "F@#$ that." Now she's a performer and humorist whose writing has appeared in New York magazine, VICE, Jezebel, The Hairpin, Thought Catalog and elsewhere. She is 9 feet tall and weighs 6 pounds.

CHRISTINE GENTRY  joins BBQ on the short list of good things to come out of Texas. A high school English teacher at heart, she currently teaches creative writing and oral storytelling to NYC public school students while getting her Ph.D. Christine has performed at The Moth, The Story Collider, and The Adam Wade From New Hampshire Show, and her short stories have been published in Word Riot, Flashquake, and Printer's Devil Review magazines.

We Feel Pretty Good About It

Photos from the March installment of How I Learned: "How I Learned To Let Go" 

Shot by Jesse Chan-Norris.

L to R: TAYLOR NEGRON, ELIOT GLAZER, JACKIE MANCINI, TRACY ROWLAND, BLAISE ALLYSEN KEARSLEY

TAYLOR NEGRON, actor, writer. stand-up comic. (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Aristocrats)

BRADY DALE, writer, storyteller, and creator of the webcomic Eat The Babies, and the storytelling podcast The World Exists.

JESSICA GROSE, author of Sad Desk Salad and columnist for the New York Times blog Motherlode.

ELIOT GLAZER, creator of the web series It Gets Betterish and Eliot's Sketchpad, and best friend JACKIE MANCINI, associate editor at Guyspeed and longtime contributor for xoJane.

Writer, storyteller and producer / host of How I Learned, BLAISE ALLYSEN KEARSLEY

TV editor and storyteller (The Moth GrandSLAM, The Liar Show), TRACY ROWLAND

HOW I LEARNED TO LET GO

Remember when we had so much fun together the last time? Let's have another fun time together again. Plus, wow -- TAYLOR NEGRON.

The How I Learned Series Presents:

How I Learned To Let Go

Featuring:

Taylor Negron

(Writer / Actor, Curb Your Enthusiasm)

Eliot Glazer + Jackie Mancini

(Creator, It Gets Betterish + Associate Editor, Guyspeed)

Jessica Grose

(Columnist / Author, Sad Desk Salad)

Tracy Rowland

(TV Editor / Storyteller, The Moth GrandSlam)

Brady Dale

(Writer / Storyteller, First Person Arts)

Creator / Producer / Host:

Blaise Allysen Kearsley

Wednesday, March 27th

8:00PM / Doors at 7

Happy Ending Lounge

302 Broome Street

Between Forsyth + Eldridge

B, D to Grand

F, J, M, Z to Delancey

FREE

TAYLOR NEGRON is a writer, actor and stand-up comedian. His TV appearances include Curb Your Enthusiasm, Reno 911, Seinfeld and many others. He has also appeared in numerous movies including The Aristocrats, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Last Boy Scout. Taylor wrote and performed the solo show The Unbearable Lightness of Being Taylor Negron, which ran at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, Best of New York Solo Festival at the SoHo Playhouse and at the Barrow Street Theater. His plays include Gangster Planet and Downward Facing Bitch. He is one of the original members of Un-Cabaret, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "the mother show of alternative comedy."

ELIOT GLAZER + JACKIE MANCINI are best friends. Eliot is a writer, comedian and the creator of two popular web series, It Gets Betterish and Eliot's Sketch Pad. Jackie's childhood diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder is possibly related to her current position as Associate Editor and only female employee at Guyspeed.

JESSICA GROSE is the author of the novel Sad Desk Salad (Wlliam Morrow/HarperCollins) and a columnist for the New York Times blog Motherlode. She has also written for Slate, Jezebel, New York Magazine and many other publications. She is the co-author, with Doree Shafrir, of Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages From Home based on the blog Postcards From Yo Momma.

TRACY ROWLAND is a writer, storyteller and TV editor. She is also that rare New Yorker who likes to talk. Except she's from New Jersey, which makes her rarer still. She has appeared onstage with The Moth, The Liar Show and the notorious BTK Band. She makes her living as a promotion and marketing editor and is, among other things, responsible for that Dateline promo involving 50-year-olds who want to hook up with your teenage daughter. She's got a one-eyed cat, a passport and a knack for physical injury. The stories write themselves. Also, she won an Emmy.

BRADY DALE worked as a progressive community organizer for over a decade before quitting his job to pursue writing and performance. He performs stories in and around New York and Philadelphia, including at First Person Arts and Philadelphia Improv Theater. He is the creator of the webcomic Eat The Babies and a roundtable storytelling podcast called The World Exists. Brady is also the author of the ebook Dream Her Back: Two Sci-Fi Breakup Novellas.

FOUR!

March 4th, 2013

Here are photos, taken by Jesse Chan-Norris, to prove we had fun at last month's 4 year anniversary show. We totally did. Evidence!

KAMBRI CREWS, author of Burn Down The Ground, on smuggling gum in to a prison where her deaf father was incarcerated.

Storyteller and writer for the United Nations, ELICIA BERGER waxes off on her awkward excursion to a Buddhist monastery.

Here's me in my anniversary tiara saying something that at least KATHERINE LANPHER thinks is funny. That's How I Learned Assistant Producer LYRA SMITH behind me, also in a tiara.

Some people in the audience (like that guy in the background) wore bright blue party hats for the anniversary because LYRA asked them to and she was kind of a bully about it. Don't mess with Texas. Or wherever she's from. Nashville, I think.

 DAVID CRABB, writer, storyteller, co-creator of Ask Me Stories and sometime host of The Moth, tells a true tale he describes as "kind of gothy, Halloweeny." That's what I like to hear. Plus, he brought me flowers, so yeah.

Writer and performer TED TRAVELSTEAD talks about a (fake) novel called My Donkey, excerpted from his new book, The Petraeus Files: All the Photos, Chats, Poems, and Other Super-Secret Emails They Don't Want You To See. The book My Donkey is a book for children that's highly inappropriate for children.

In honor of How I Learned's 4th anniversary, KATHERINE LANPHER--journalist, broadcaster, author and host extraordinaire--told a story about throwing her parents a party for their 60th wedding anniversary. Committed to the bit, she wore a vintage apron.

That was a great time we had. Let's have another great time, say, on March 27th. Does that work? The theme will be How I Learned To Let Go. Details forthcoming. You'll love them.

Everything Is Going To Be Great

February 22nd, 2013

This is happening on Wednesday and I couldn't be more excited. I'm gonna hug the shit out of everyone at this show. Fuck boundaries. Get ready.

The How I Learned Series

4 Year Anniversary Show

Wednesday, February 27th

8PM (Doors at 7)

Free

Happy Ending Lounge

302 Broome Street NYC
Between Forsythe + Eldridge

B, D to Grand Street

F, J, M, Z to Delancey

MORE DETAILS HERE

***

NEW PODCAST EPISODE: Erin Barker - "Firestarter"

February 18, 2013

When Erin Barker (Co-producer, The Story Collider) was a teenager, she was known in her neighborhood as the girl who tried to burn her house down and kill her whole family as they slept. Psychopathic or just really emotional?

Listen:

Erin Barker - Firestarter 

(Music: "Float On," Modest Mouse)

Subscribe in iTunes

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PODCAST EPISODE #16: David Crabb Comes Out (Or Does He?)

February 7, 2013

Trapped in a winnebago with his father in San Antonio, Texas, a 13-year-old David Crabb (Co-host, ASK ME Stories) unexpectedly comes to terms with his homosexuality. Performed at How I Learned To Tell It Like It Is.

Listen:

David Crabb - Gay Groundhog Day

(Music: "Bring On The Dancing Horses," Echo and The Bunnymen)

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