Showing titles in Storytelling

SF Sketchfest is an annual comedy festival where titans of humor descend upon the quaint township of San Francisco to mercilessly pummel audiences with all forms of live comedic performance. As far live storytelling goes, the King Kong of questions and comments is indisputably Eugene Mirman, and he brought three monsters of comedy onstage to split sides and take names in a special live Hold On at SF Sketchfest 2018.

In the final play of a trilogy that began with Pretty Fire and continued with Neat, In Real Life finds Charlayne Woodard pursuing her dreams in New York City. From early days as a stuggling actor to being nominated for a Tony Award, the harsh realities of Broadway are balanced by the unusual and comforting characters that touched her life.

Bloomsday on Broadway celebrates June 16, 1904, the most famous fictional date in literature, when Leopold Bloom walked around Dublin in the pages of James Joyce's Ulysses. Since 1981, hundreds of acclaimed actors have joined avid Joyceans, writers, critics, and scholars on stage at Symphony Space to read selections from the book that heralded the birth of modern literature.

The Teachers' Lounge is Bill Harley's newest spoken word recording: a collection of hilarious and dead-on observations about life in elementary school. On this latest recording, two richly detailed and plotted stories of his school experiences ("The Teachers' Lounge" and "The Science Fair") are coupled with three poems.

[Contains explicit content] For most teenagers, prom is a big deal with a lot of build-up. Asking someone to the big dance comes with enough hurdles as it is, so Hasan Minhaj (The Daily Show) was convinced that his strict Indian father and his family's cultural quirks would ruin any shot he might have at finding someone to slow dance with on prom night. On this episode of Hold On, host Eugene Mirman takes Hasan back to high school to find out if he managed to score his dream date for the big night.

[Contains explicit content] Cartoon siblings reunite on this episode of Hold On as Kristen Schaal (Bob's Burgers, The Last Man on Earth) joins Eugene Mirman in the studio to tell a story of a Sideways-themed winery tour. It's all vintages and pairing recommendations until things take a hard turn. Hear her story and the questions it raises for our curious host, who refuses to put a cork in it and leave a story unexamined.

[Contains explicit content] Prostitution, phone sex, porn, stripping, pro-domination. Sex work is a diverse range of professions united by sex, money, and stigma. And as a consequence of the stigma, we hear a lot about sex work but we rarely hear from sex workers themselves. But in this episode of Hot Mic hosted by Dan Savage, two sex workers show their work.

Merrill Markoe reads two classic pieces from her book How to Be Hap-Hap-Happy Like Me. First, a piece about dealing with parties (written seven years before the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode that used the same idea). Then, another illuminating visit with her friends the dogs.

[Contains explicit content] Andy Richter is no stranger to sharing a stage with someone, but never before has that stage been at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco. Andy has also never before shared a stage with Eugene Mirman for a special San Francisco Sketchfest live recording of the always-inquisitive audio show Hold On with Eugene Mirman!

[Contains explicit content] The saying, "Beauty is as beauty does" is misleading. It's supposed to mean that one's beauty is defined by their actions, not their appearance. But as anyone who's ever consumed any type of visual media knows, beautiful people are exalted — and most people in the public eye have to DO a lot to be beautiful. On this episode of Hot Mic with Dan Savage we'll hear how two public figures deal with the pressure to be pretty for the camera.

[Contains explicit content] You might think it's in the job description for political comedians like John Fugelsang to take powerful politicians down a peg or two, but during the 2012 election, John learned it's not always the best idea to ask the tough questions. Host Eugene Mirman finds out how the struggling new father made his mark on the Romney-Obama presidential race and what it did to his career, as the two dig into John's story on this politically-charged episode of Hold On with Eugene Mirman.

[Contains explicit content] At the tenth and final Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, a motley crew of daring storytellers boldly ventured onstage to have their stories cross-examined by the festival's very namesake. Michael Showalter reminisces about experiences touring with Eugene, Caroline Rhea remembers not being remembered by a comedy legend, and Ira Glass shares an unaired This American Life story.

When bad sex happens to good people, there is no recourse like full disclosure, is the motto of Worst Laid Plans, a collection of 40 probably-too-intimate, but shockingly funny, true-life tales of lust gone wrong. The stories are divided into themed sections including Foreign Affairs (When bad sex goes abroad), Self-Help (Love thyselfbut do it carefully), On the Rebound (The art of getting back in-and-out-there), Mob Mentality (People will do things in groups they would never do alone), and more.

Over the years, this has proven to be one of Tim’s consistently best-selling audios. This material was recorded on tour in 1992, and Pumping Irony was the first release on Tim’s own record label. The first nine stories were recorded at the University of Maine in Machias; the rest was captured while Tim was touring “out west”, specifically at The Lebanon (N. H.) Opera House. This recording includes the first mention of Tim’s real-life band from the 1970s, The Dubious Brothers.

[Contains explicit content] Alice Wetterlund (People of Earth, Silicon Valley, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates) thinks it's important to do the right thing. Sometimes that means looking out for the disadvantaged — even if they walk on four legs and hiss. Eugene Mirman is a curious cat, so he invited Alice to SF Sketchfest 2017 to spin a yarn about empathy, gratitude, and feral kittens. Now you can hear her story, his questions, and the adulation of the crowd in this special live episode of Hold On!

Recorded at The Portland Performing Arts Center in 1985, this performance became the basis for Tim’s second Maine PBS prime-time TV special, as well as his second LP for the Bert and I company. In the two years since the release of Downeast Standup, Tim had been busy with over 150 shows a year, and the maturation of his stage presence and storytelling style is evident here.

Recorded at The State Theatre of Maine at Lakewood in the spring of 1983, footage from this performance became the basis of Tim’s first prime-time TV special on Maine PBS. Released on vinyl LP in the fall of 1983, Downeast Standup was the first of four Tim Sample solo albums to be produced on the Bert and I label in the 1980s. Now widely considered a classic of 20th century Maine dialectal storytelling, this recording contains Tim’s signature story "Saturday Night at Moody’s Diner".

[Contains explicit content] Coming out is a huge step - so much so that we honor it with National Coming Out Day. But what about all the small steps afterwards? In this episode, two gay people try to navigate their romantic lives after coming out, and learn that finding love isn't quite as easy as just walking into a gay bar. This episode features "Sunset at Noon" from Holly Lorka for the Soundtrack Series, and "How to Be" from R. Eric Thomas for RISK!

Un-Cabaret assembled the entire Emmy-winning writing staff of Sex and the City, each reading their own work for this special sold-out edition of Say the Word at The Knitting Factory in New York. Meet the writers behind the hit show and hear the individual voices that came together to create a cultural landmark.

[Contains explicit content] Neil deGrasse Tyson is the most famous astrophysicist to ever tell a story to Eugene Mirman on a show called Hold On. He's also probably the most famous astrophysicist ever to tell a story to any Eugene for any reason, but it's the story he told THIS Eugene that you'll want to hear. In it, a pre-fame Neil weighs a potential graduate school job. If you were given as many guesses as there are stars in the universe, you probably couldn't guess what that job was!