This American Life Live 5.10.2012

 Thursday night's This American Life live show at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City exceeded all expectations and that's saying something because the expectations were pretty high but host Ira Glass assembled an amazing show featuring guest such as: the amazing Monica Bill Barnes & Company and Snap Judgment host Glynn Washington as well as two of my favorite writers ever David Sedaris, who showed up in a clown mask, and David Rakoff who turned the tragic loss of his arm into a wonderfully brave moment as he broke into a choreographed dance while performing his new piece.

Comic Tig Notaro also had a wonderful moment after telling a great story about meeting singer Taylor Dayne who then stepped out onstage and sang to her.

The band OK Go performed one of the coolest audience participation songs I've ever witnessed after creating an iPhone and Android app that the audience downloaded we played along with them following cues on the screen.

Also comic Mike Birbiglia presented a terrific short film by featuring NPR icon and Fresh Air host Terri Gross which you can watch below, I love the premise!

Sarah Vowell's Great Speeches and Other Outbursts @ Symphony Space

Last night I attended an event entitled "Great Speeches and Other Outbursts" at the Symphony Space uptown put together by author and NPR favorite Sarah Vowell to benefit 826NYC. The event had a host of well know comedians and actors reading famous and infamous speeches throughout history ranging from Vowell's own version of Chief Seattle's 1854 speech addressing concession of land to Daily Show comic John Oliver's version of John Cleese's eulogy for fellow Monty Python actor Graham Chapman to This American Life host Ira Glass's rendition of a speech from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The event also featured performers such as: Eric Bogosian, Amy Sedaris, Bobby Cannavale (The Mutherf***er with the Hat), and The Daily Show's John Hodgman (The PC guy) & Wyatt Cenac.

The pinnacle of the evening was the re-interpretation of the famous interview Woody Allen did with the Reverend Billy Grahm on his television show in the 60's which I posted below and featured Cannavale as Allen and Bogosian as Grahm as well as the rest of the crew acting as audience members. In all it was a pretty amazing evening which aided a great charity with a number of highlights such as a very emotional performance from Eric Bogosian, an awesome interpretation of Teddy Roosevelt by John Hodgman which featured push up and jumping jack breaks, and as Philip J. Fry said, a whole lot of "smart-making".