Dan Kennedy Blog Thing: ReallySmallTalk.com

SIX DATES: READING, SPEAKING, LAUGHING, THEN SHUTTING UP

Hope to see you at one of the following NYC dates. I'm doing six -- a couple of Moth things first and then I'll join for the first few readings promoting a new anthology called "Love is a Four Letter Word" on Plume, then lastly Union Hall with Dean Wareham of Galaxy 500 and Dean and Britta. Then that's it from me for a while and I'll get back to writing.

Thanks; ain't lost on me-

Dan

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The Moth StorySLAM

Hosted by Dan Kennedy

The Nuyorican

236 East 3rd Street

7:00pm Doors 

7:30pm Show

$7 at the door

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Monday, July 20, 2009

The Moth GrandSLAM

Hosted by Dan Kennedy

Highline Ballroom

431 West 16th Street

(at 10th Avenue)

6:00pm Doors 

7:30pm Show

TICKETS HERE

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PROMOTING THE RELEASE OF "Love is a Four Letter Word (Plume). 

“Rewarding and worth dipping into . . . Standouts include Junot Diaz’s ‘Homecoming, with Turtle,’ Gary Shteyngart’s ‘Texas’ and Maud Newton’s ‘Conversations You Have at Twenty.’ Humorist Dan Kennedy, author of the acerbic 2008 memoir Rock On, crafts a hilarious piece about dating a divorced aerobics instructor a decade older than he.”—KIRKUS REVIEWS

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

7:00–8:30 pm

Launch party at Housing Works Bookstore (126 Crosby street) New York City

Emceed by Dan Kennedy 

Readings by Brock Clarke, Wendy McClure, 

Maud Newton, Amanda Stern, and Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

Thursday, July 30, 2009
7:00 pm

Barnes & Noble (Upper West Side, 82nd & Broadway), New York City

Readings by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Dan Kennedy,

and Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Monday, August 3, 2009

7:00–8:00 pm

Half King,  (505 West 23rd street) New York City

Readings by Jami Attenberg, Emily Flake, Michelle Green, 

Dan Kennedy, and D. E. Rasso

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

8:00 pm Doors

Union Hall Presents...
STORIES IN HIGH FIDELITY

 Featuring Dean Wareham, Dan Kennedy, Jason Gordon, Rob Harvilla

Union Hall
702 Union StreetBrooklyn, NY

TICKETS HERE

postcard from Rock On reading Galway

THERE'S NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT STAND-UP COMEDY: PART 11

by Harris Bloom

"Comics - A Different (and Sometimes Annoying) Breed"

I hate to stereotype, but most comics I’ve come across are neurotic. They see slights by others when none were intended, they agonize over a poor reception to one joke and they all seem to have had the kind of childhoods that has lead to life-long anxiety. For instance, I did a bringer show a few weeks ago. Like the vast majority of bringer shows, it wasn’t very good. In fact, the other comics were so bad that I wrote a blog entry about it, but without mentioning the club or show by name. The thing is, the show booker is a good guy and he likes my act, so I got a lot of time onstage and only had to bring a couple of people. The day after the show, I wrote him a comment on his MySpace page, thanking him for the show and making a joke about his poker playing. I also wrote him a private message telling him that I’d like to do the show again, bringing a few people. A few day later, I noticed he hadn’t written back to me. I checked his MySpace page – he erased my comment!

At first, I wondered what the heck was going on…then I remembered: the blog entry! He must’ve read it (I sent him my blog address as part of my message to him) and decided I was a jerk.
I wrote emails to two mutual friends, asking if they’d heard anything from him about me. Nothing.

I wrote to him, asking what was up…why hadn’t he responded to my e-mail, and why had he taken down my comment?

He didn’t write back for two days. In the interim, I assumed that I had burned a bridge.

When he did write back, he told me that he’d been too busy to log onto his computer. He took down the comment because he didn’t want industry people to think he had a gambling problem, and that he’d love for me to do his show again. And oh yeah, he thought my blog entry about his show was hilarious.
See? Comics are neurotic.

--Harris Bloom