You Can Now Believe Everything You Read

There's a very nice review of Monday's Liar Show in this week's Chelsea Now. Check it out when you've got a minute. And it's got a picture of Andy; what more could you ask for? Less significantly, this print and online paper also covers other NY news, politics and entertainment.

P.I.T. Stop!

Well, last night's Liar was all we hoped it would be and more. About half an hour more, actually. The J-team (Jeff, Joanna, Josh and James) told stories ranging from how to pump new life into your old teddy bears to how to pump formaldehyde into your old cadavers. Of course when you're having that kind of fun, time flies. And it flew right past 9:00 when we were supposed to finish and then past 9:30, when the next show was supposed to begin. So we moved our Q&A and voting segments out to the P.I.T.'s lobby. After a spirited elbow-to-elbow inquisition, ballots were cast and we found out exactly how gullible you people can be. Only four audience members picked out the Liar so I saved a bundle on free t-shirt prizes. Thank you Joanna, for appearing so trustworthy while being so full of it.

As for running long, in the future we will add a mechanism to help enforce the 10-minute story limit. An alarm clock perhaps--or a small explosive device. Thank you all for coming. And if you won a shirt, wear it in good health. The $5,000 check is in the mail.

See you on November 13.

Next P.I.T. Bull Session: Monday, Oct 23rd

Storytellers: Lefkowitz, Parson, Braly, Rudell and host, Hemingway

On Monday, October 23, we'll be back at The P.I.T. with another great lineup. And this time we have the whole hour to ourselves. We've also added a new wrinkle: After all the stories have been heard and before the ballots are cast, audience members are given an opportunity to interrogate the storytellers. My favorite question last time came from an inquisitor who grilled James with, "In your story, how is it that you buy DuraFlame logs in the early 1970s, when they didn't even exist until the late 1970s?" You get the idea. Any lie is shredable if you're vigilant.
Buy tickets online.

Josh Lefkowitz's full-length solo show, HELP WANTED: A Personal Search for Meaningful Employment at the Start of the 21st Century, has been performed in Washington DC, Baltimore, Ann Arbor, Chicago, and New York. Josh has recorded his stories for NPR's All Things Considered.

Joanna Parson, writer, actress and comedian appears in the sitcom Temps which debuted at the New York Television Festival in September. She's included in The Complete Idiots Guide to Jokes, and she'll appear in Transport Group's fall production of All the Way Home.

James Braly's full-length monologue, Life in a Marital Institution, squeezes 20 years of monogamy into one terrifying evening. Excerpts from the show have been heard on NPR, at the Long Wharf Theater and at The Moth, where James is the only two-time winner of the GrandSLAM. Called "A master storyteller" by novelist Jonathan Ames (Wake up, Sir! and The Extra Man), James will be a featured performer on this fall's Moth National Story Tour.

Jeffery Rudell is The Moth's 2003 GrandSLAM Champion and a featured performer on the CD, The Moth: Audience Favorites, Vol. I. He has performed at The Player's Club, The New York Public Library, and The Long Wharf Theater in New Haven. In September his definition of "reality" changed dramatically when he made his television debut on the NBC series The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.

The evening's host, Andy Christie, is co-author and illustrator of I Wasn’t Kidding (Random House), a book that explores the funny side of suicide. Not surprisingly, it died on remainder shelves. But he lives on, onstage, online and in snooty literary journals. He is a four-time Moth SLAM winner and has been a featured Moth Main Stage storyteller. He is currently working on Sicker! The Movie: A Novel. If he were pitching a Hollywood agent, he'd call it, "Cain & Abel meets Entourage," but he won't stoop to that.

PS: At The Moth, There Are No Losers

No, now that I think of it, there were nine losers last night. And one winner. Me. Andy. I'd like to thank the judges, the audience and the Moth staff in its entirety. I'd also like to thank Adam Wade for becoming preoccupied with some sort of potentially fatal respiratory event while telling his very funny story. It gave me the edge I needed.

Why Would I Lie?

Great show last night. The post-story question and answer session was fun, fascinating, animated and rutheless. But as all pointy and sharp implements were hidden away, nobody was hurt. And as it turns out, D-Lounge really IS a great place, just like we assured you it would be before we ever laid eyes on it. (Whew.) Mike, Michaela, James and the two Andys all thank you for coming. And if you weren't able to make it--like maybe you were busy atoning--there's always next time: October 23 at The P.I.T.