Trust Me, I Lie

Well, we built it and they came. On Saturday, despite an unpropitious showtime of 6pm, Cornelia Street Café was packed with people, drinking, schmoozing and looking to nail somebody. No, not like that. I mean looking to spot the Liar.

And spot him they didn't. Only two hyper-perceptive audience members got it right, because I was lying this time and as my girlfriend says, I'm disturbingly good at it. Ophira, James and Mike all were gleefully honest about, 1: Boyfriends with Garfield The Cat obsessions. 2: Fear of flying, dogs and prison. 3: How to trick your schizophrenic roommate into pay both halves of the rent.

If you were there, thanks so much making our Cornelia premiere so much fun. No kidding. And if you enjoyed yourself as much as we did, please come see our first all-woman* Liar at The PIT.

Monday, February 12 @ 8pm
"Who's Your Mommy?"
with
Christen Clifford - "Best of Fringe" -2006 San Francisco Fringe Festival
Michele Carlo - AKA Carmen Mofungo
Ophira Eisenberg - Comedy Central's "Premium Blend"
Darlene White - NPR, The Moth

*Well, all women and me.

A "Very Special Liar" This Saturday

We are pleased to announce the premiere of Liar at Cornelia Street Cafe. If we get a nice crowd this Saturday, Liar will continue running once a month at this beautiful, food & drink filled club. Be sure to catch the first one, because it could all be downhill from there. So which one of these fast-talkers will be pulling your leg?

Saturday, January 27 @ 6:00pm
Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street (bet West 4th & Bleeker)
$12 - includes one house drink

Mike Albo is a writer and performer. His latest novel, The Underminer has been optioned for film by Warner Brothers. His critically acclaimed and sold-out solo shows include Spray, Please Everything Burst and My Price Point. www.mikealbo.com

James Braly has performed his autobiographical stories on NPR, at The Whitney Museum and The Moth. His show, Life in a Marital Institution, is currently in development with Hal Brooks, director of Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. The book version will be published in 2007/8 by Algonquin Books. www.jamesbraly.com

Ophira Eisenberg has appeared on Comedy Central's Premium Blend and as part of their Fresh Faces of Comedy campaign, on Vh1’s Best Week Ever, and Discovery Channel’s Lost Treasures of the Deep. Her own half hour special appeared on Canadian Television's Comedy Now! She co-produces the comedy show, Sweet Paprika, every Friday night at D-Lounge. www.ophiraeisenberg.com

Andy Christie’s I Wasn’t Kidding (Random House), explored the funny side of suicide. Not surprisingly, it died on remainder shelves many years ago (though it is still available at Amazon.com in the original papyrus edition.) But he lives on--onstage (as a featured performer on the Moth's Mainstage), online and on the pages of snooty literary journals. Look for him soon in the Sunday New York Times where his work will grace the Modern Love column. And why not? He's modern. He loves. www.andychristie.com

Babbling Brooke

So, who was lying? Did Greg really have to beg one of NY's Finest to free him from a locked Tompkins Square Park? Did Noah really find a stupefyingly anti-Semitic ghost under someone's bed? Did James really attend a skating party for all of Denver's institutionalized teens? Was Brooke really a "Shooters" waitress/escort code-named Dorothy? Well, I guess that picture up there is kind of a give-away. My t-shirt reserves took a big hit when about one third of last night's audience pegged her as the Liar. Nice going, geniuses. I've got to start ordering cheaper shirts.

Don't miss our "Very Special Liar" this weekend:

Saturday, January 27 @ 6pm
Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia Street (bet West 4th & Bleeker)
$6 + one drink.

Mike Albo (author of The Underminer)

James Braly ("A master storyteller." - Jonathan Ames)

Ophira Eisenberg (Comedy Central's Premium Blend)

Andy Christie ("Who?" - Stephen King)

This will be the first of our monthly Liar shows at Cornelia Street. Please come help us start with a bang.

A Truly Unbelievable Show

Once again, four of NYC's fastest talkers will do what you parents couldn't: make you shut up and listen. And unlike Mom and Dad, only one of them will be lying to you.

James Braly has performed his autobiographical stories on NPR, at The Whitney Museum and The Moth. His show, "Life in a Marital Institution," is currently in development with Hal Brooks, director of "Thom Pain (Based on Nothing)", a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. The book version will be published in 2007/8 by Algonquin Books.

Brooke Delaney is a frequent Moth Slam champion, and has told her stories, both true and false, at the Nyuorican, KGB Bar, Teleplhone Bar, Quinnipack Club, Parkside Lounge and Junno's. Her survival schemes have included working as an assembly-line factory worker, cigarette-girl, television producer, house cleaner, instructor to univerisity students, kindergartners, & illeriate appalacian miners.

Greg Walloch is a writer and performing artist who has appeared in Moscow, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Australia, Ireland, Germany and across the United States. He is a featured artist in The Artists with Disabilities Oral History Project at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library. Greg's work is archived at the Bancroft Library, which houses the personal papers of the Beat Generation poets among a range of other well known artists.

Noah Harlan is a writer, storyteller, filmmaker, teacher and producer. Films he has produced have appeared in Cannes, Berlin and MoMA among other places. He is a frequent storyteller at The Moth and teaches filmmaking to kids. He is co-author of "Mind Your Manners, Dick & Jane", a post-modern exploration of truth and meaning in a society without borders... no, that was a different book, this is a children's manners guide... which came out last fall from Penguin. "He's smarter than he looks" - Princeton High School 10th grade pre-calculus teacher Marcia Djorup.

So please come to the PIT on Monday and figure out which one of these nice people is full of it. Bring sticks or clubs for the post-show "Beating of the Liar."

Renaissance Manchild

Today, there are seven more New Yorkers who feel like winners but are in fact just walking billboards for the Liar show. Enjoy the t-shirts, guys. Last night, Martin Dockery convinced the rest of the audience that at one time he was a renaissance fair apprentice paper maker and, consequently, a very old virgin.

Mike, Lucy and Sara all told the truth about stealing potato salad, sleeping with idols and loving yourself just a little too much—well, way too much.

Thanks you all for coming, especially the brand new faces. Come back in two weeks, January 22, to beat the truth out of James Braly, Greg Walloch, Brooke Delaney and Noah Harlan.