Lost In America
Last night was very cool.
For my birthday, I got tickets to go see “This American Life” on the road as part of their five city tour. What fun.
It is hard to describe the making of a radio program on stage. TAL is not like Prairie Home Companion, its PRI radio cousin. It isn’t a radio show necessarily crafted to be performed before a live audience. But it was a treat nonetheless. Ira Glass sitting at a desk, headphones on, mixing his radio documentary live as you listened. Jon Langford and his five piece band singing his country punk rock including a special bit by a discovered band member playing the theramin and then . . . the good stuff.
Sara Vowells gave a history of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, culminating in a huge concert-hall-sing-along of the famous song as the packed house at the Paramount Theater in Denver joined in to “His Truth Is Marching On.”
Jonathan Goldstein, the Canadian straight version of David Sedaris, gave his testament to losing his virginity to a whore and a hilarious telling of masturbating as a 14-year-old.
And one of the best bits, Found magazine founder and frequent TAL contributor Davy Rothbart shared many of his favorite found pieces that included an impromptu reading of a four-page play with only pages 1,2, and 4 available. The three audience members who participated where great.
Ira Glass and comic book artist Chris Ware featured a multi-media documentary piece on the loss of the Chicago architecture of Louis Sullivan with audio and original comic book art.
The whole show was a fund raiser for TAL and part of the deal is you buy their merchandise and it is funny stuff. A-paint-by-numbers set with art work inspired by pieces presented on the radio show.
What a nice time it was.