#28 - See One of My Favorite Comedians Live

No pics during the show but
The Den is a cool space!

I've been a fan of Gareth Reynolds for many years now. I don't know when I started listening to the podcast he co-hosts with Dave Anthony or how I even found out about it, but it's definitely the podcast I've listened to the longest and the most often.

The premise is that Dave Anthony tells a story from American history to his friend Gareth Reynolds, who doesn't know what the story is going to be at all. They're both comedians, and the roles they've created for themselves and each other are well done. Dave is a great and funny story teller. Gareth is amazing at reacting and riffing. At the start of the podcast, Dave mostly told really stories about really ridiculous, as in hilarious or strange, stories. Then, he got a bit more political. And then he just leaned all the way into that, so most of the stories are stories that we should have learned in school or only know a limited version of. In general, if you're a topic of a Dollop, you're probably a terrible person or terrible things have happened to you. So, Gareth definitely has his job cut out for him to keep things comedy.

Then, Gareth created a new podcast with Jake Johnson, who played Nick on New Girl. And Jake Johnson is kinda a smart version of Nick from New Girl. (Gareth also had a very important role on New Girl as a security guard, so you may know him from there too.) Their podcast is a call-in advice show, where people bring very ridiculous problems, and Jake and Gareth try to "help." The problems, however, are things like, "15 years ago, when I met her, I told my now best friend that I'm allergic to coconut, and she still thinks I'm allergic to coconut, and I can't take it anymore. How do I tell her?" Or "My husband thinks he's a survivalist. He'd never survive on his own though. And to prove it, for his birthday, I kinda want to dump him in the woods and tell him he's on his own. Please help me plan that." Just silly, fun, hilarious problems with equally hilarious answers.

As I told Gareth after the show, I listen to The Dollop to learn things I should know about our country and I listen to We're Here to Help when I just can't take this country anymore and need a break. Balance.

So, I was super excited when Gareth announced he'd be stopping in Chicago on his tour and, even more exciting, he'd be taping his special in Chicago.

Laura Masters kindly agreed to go with me to The Den, and we made a whole night of it in Wicker Park. It was way fun, and it was super cool that Gareth actually came outside, very quickly, to meet and take pictures with anyone waiting around. He was a delight. Very fun.

With the We're Here to Help van!