Friday, September 25, 2009
The afternoon of the show, I happened to be on the phone with a friend of mine while she witnessed a dude on the streets of New York City slip on a banana peel. That's when I knew it was going to be a good night. Standing outside of Happy Ending later that night while waiting for the doors to open, a nice young girl told me she loves coming to How I Learned. "It's laugh therapy!" she said. I am telling you this because she told me I could. Then she started banging on the door to be let in because her high heels were killing her. I love my people!
If you missed Wednesday's show, How I Learned to Live in New York, you are sad. Pretty lady in red and Chicago transplant Brooke Van Poppelen talked about waiting on Owen Wilson at an Upper East Side vegan restaurant and how hard it is just to get to the fucking post office. The dashing Brad Lawrence, master storyteller, did the best impression of an NYC crackhead I have ever heard. His Rastaman was not too shabby either. The charming and insanely talented writer Paul Ford read excerpts from a new secret project he's working on, which may or may not have to do with a "shirt of chocolate" and "pastrami pants," but you didn't hear that from me. And Seth Herzog, everyone's favorite veteran downtown NYC comic who also sometimes wears a Wonder Woman costume if he feels like it, rounded out the night with a true bit about trying to score drugs in NYC with perhaps the last person you would ever want to be scoring drugs with.
Photographic documentation of How I Learned to Live in New York coming soon. [UPDATE: Photos here!] Meanwhile, mark your calendars for our amazing October 28th lineup. The topic is How I Learned What Everyone Else Already Knew and the show features both David Carr (The Night of The Gun) and Jeff Simmermon (This American Life, The Moth). That's, like, worth way more than the zero dollars we charge for the whole thing. [UPDATE: Jeff had to postpone unfortunately, but we now have the lovely Elna Baker, so still worth a pricey ticket were we to charge one, obviously!]
We are taking November and December off so be sure to get your HIL fix next month because you won't see us again until 2010, which sounds crazy to me. Remember when it was still the 80s?
Thanks to everyone who came out this month!
xoxo Blaise
Since 2009, How I Learned has featured some of the best live storytelling, comedy, and readings in New York City. It all happens a couple of times a year, and sometimes more than that, which basically means you'll have the best night of you life on those nights, repeatedly.
YOUR HOST:
Blaise Allysen Kearsley is a Brooklyn-based writer and the creator, producer, and host of How I Learned, which has been a thing for a super long time. She has performed at The Moth, RISK!, Mortified, Literary Death Match, and many other shows. Her writing has appeared in Longreads, Midnight Breakfast, VICE, The Weeklings, The Nervous Breakdown, two anthologies, and in several other places a long time ago that don't even exist anymore, and are perhaps not worth mentioning by name. She also teaches creative nonfiction to other so-called grownups. Learn how to pronounce all three of her names at blaiseallysenkearsley.com.