I’m a nerd. I’m not sure if this has come through in my writing to this point, but if it hasn’t, this post will make it clear. As part of being a nerdy hipster, I listen to NPR, and in particular, have an enormous fondness for This American Life. It’s the one radio show and podcast that I listen to religiously every week. I never miss an episode. For those of you wondering why I’m writing a post about a radio show: it has also become a television show on Showtime, so leave me alone!
Thursday night, I was lucky enough to go to a live show as they recorded an episode. I wasn’t actually there, but instead I was at a movie theater, as the taping was being simulcast to hundreds of movie theaters across the country. It was a unique and really fun experience, and there was a lot of cross over to the realm of TV. Don’t believe me? I have a name that will surely change your mind: Joss Whedon!
That’s right, the J man himself was part of the festivities, but we’ll get back to his appearance later. I have to start with the main attraction, Ira Glass. The host of the show really shined during the live performance. Listening to This American Life for years I never realized how funny Ira was. On the radio show he usually comes off as professional and host-like. It was great that during the live show he was able to make asides to the audience and joke around.
The show featured three story tellers, all of whom are TAL regulars: Mike Birbiglia, Starlee Kine, and Dan Savage. The theme of this program was “Return to the Scene of the Crime,” and as usual on the show (as it is it’s MO) each story dealt with the theme. I won’t go into details on each of the stories, but they were all great; it’s going to make for a superior episode of TAL. Dan Savage’s story about the death of his mother, in particular, stood out, even amongst it’s quality brethren. It was touching, funny, and artfully written and performed.
The show finished up with Joss’s musical performance. It was the first time he had performed musically for any audience greater than nine people. He performed a song from the Dr. Horrible commentary track. That’s right, I said commentary track. I wasn’t aware that the commentary track on the DVD was also a musical. Genius.
If you’re a nerdy hipster TAF fan, like me, and missed out on the live show, you can check the This American Life website and buy tickets to the encore viewing on May 7th. If you can’t make that show, I recommend checking for the podcast when it comes out in a couple weeks. This was a standout episode.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Apr 25, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
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God damn it Bob I envy you to no end. Last year I went to Paris by train and listened to 20 hours of TAL straight – while on the train, while walking through Paris – and heard one of the Podcasts where they said they were doing this live reading, then the live show in a couple of cinemas – and when I read that they were doing it again I was sitting here thinking “You could get a plane ticket. You could fly over there just for this, it would be worth it”. So rest assured there are nerds like me over here who are just as nerdy and close to insanity ;-) I mean I once made a one day visit to London just to see Alyson Hannigan in “When Harry met Sally” (with Luke Perry).
Oh and sorry about the Bob/Bob confusion in the other thread. Wasn’t about you at all.