3 Things: Email Excuses, Switched on Pop, and Solitary Confinement / by Chris Duffy

Hi friends,

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SHOW UPDATES:  

BURLINGTON, VT:
I'm here with the hilarious guys from Good Cop, Great Cop. We had a great time last night at the new Vermont Comedy Club and we're doing two more performances tonight (1/30 at 7 p.m. and at 9:30 p.m.)  Link


CHARLESTON, SC:
Thursday, February 4th at 7 p.m. Dr. Phil Manning is one of the world's most successful dinosaur hunters. He's discovered all sorts of unbelievable fossils and is the host of NatGeo's Jurassic CSI . I'll be doing a show with him, talking dinosaurs, and playing a bunch of fun audience games at this Darwin Week event. Link

NEW YORK, NY:
Tuesday, February 16 at 8 p.m. Which is better: children or pets? I'll be taking the side of humanity in this epic showdown featuring me, Maeve Higgins, Jo Firestone, Baratunde Thurston, and a few surprise guests. Link

You can also see my full schedule up on the website now.

Ok, on to this week's list. 

 

1 Thing I Think Is Great:


Working from home, I sometimes have days where I wonder if gmail is broken. Maybe no one is responding to my emails because of a technical problem? It's a very convenient daydream. I've used it for a long time now. But I've finally got a much better list of excuses, categorized by date. My personal favorite is "Mar. 28-Apr.3: They thought your e-mail was an April Fools' joke." Why the People You E-mailed Aren't E-mailing You Back, By Week
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:


Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan are the hosts of a fantastic podcast called Switched on Pop, about the "making and meaning of popular music." Nate was busy this week so I got to fill in and Charlie taught me all of the the history of political walk-on music. I never thought I'd have a Martin Van Buren diss-track stuck in my head, but here we are. The whole episode was so fun to tape and hilarious. Charlie named the episode after Richard Nixon's unfortunate theme song: Click With Dick

 

1 Interesting Thing:


This article is ostensibly about how prisoners survive solitary confinement. But it's actually about our ability to create an entire world inside our minds and the power of meditation. The experience of Johnny Perez, a prisoner who spent three full years in solitary confinement is both triumphant and humbling. (Side note: I've been reading a lot more from this magazine, Nautilus, and all of their articles are fascinating and really well-researched.)How to Survive Solitary Confinement
 

Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/

Have a great weekend,
Chris