One of the best responsibilities we have in the Literary Initiatives Office is to review the entire year of upcoming and just-published books and look for similarities among them. Romantasy novels, nonfiction books about misinformation, intergenerational novels about complicated families: all of these genres and topics came to life at the National Book Festival on August 24th. They didn’t get that way via magic—the ideas were hiding in plain sight in publishers’ catalogs, the documents they send to booksellers and critics to let us know what they’re going to be publishing in the coming seasons. We just had to find them.
We also do that kind of work for our Live! at the Library series events, on Thursday nights in our Thomas Jefferson building. It’s one of the joys of my career to put legendary comedians Maria Bamford and Gary Gulman onstage together at the Library’s next big themed night, Comedy Night, on Oct. 17.
Both writers have published books recently about their mental health and how their struggles have influenced their comedic work. The connections aren’t as obvious as you might think: these are not books that lament how hard it is to be funny when you’re depressed. They’re much smarter than that. Bamford and Gulman are going to be in conversation with each other from 6-7pm on Oct. 17th with Andrew Limbong, a reporter for NPR’s Arts Desk and the host of NPR’s Book of the Day podcast.
Because we want you to laugh along with others at the Library that night, we’ve created “The Comedy Challenge: The Worst Ordeal of Your Life” with a local nonprofit, Game Genius. The challenge takes place from 5-8pm that evening throughout the Jefferson Building, and it’s been a lot of fun cooking up ways to highlight how comedy works. You can participate by yourself or with friends, and the challenges will make you stretch your comedic muscles—you’ll be making people laugh and, in one case, trying very hard not to laugh yourself.
Finally, I’m thrilled that DC Improv is going to join us at Comedy Night from 7:30-8:15pm for what we’re calling the Pun-test, in which eight brave souls are writing short monologues that are very punny. The audience will vote on which writer is the punniest.
How can you attend Comedy Night? Look for free tickets here, and we’ll see you there!