Hipsters Love Words, Kids, Dave Eggers
Towards the very end of last night's People Talking and Singing, as the clock ticked past 10:00 and John Roderick announced he'd play another song and take a few requests from the audience, our butts chimed in: "Hey, this is starting to go on a little long."
Our brains, and most of the rest of us, were enjoying themselves thoroughly. But Town Hall started life as a Christian Science church, and the pew we sat in didn't have rump support for a 2.5-hour-plus show.
What was on the menu? Dave Eggers read three short stories after pitching his heart out for 826 Seattle. Two of them involved bears, though only one of those mentioned Emma and early Dickens.
Eugene Mirman capped a funny set ("Somebody moved the fucking kids! I can swear!") with a hilarious riff on the "tell us about yourself" survey on Classmates.com.
Amber (pictured), a student from the Center School, followed that and pulled off a 180-degree mood shift with her superb piece about drugs and families and abuse, captivating a just-in-hysterics audience.
Two younger students read pieces and were subsequently interviewed by Sasha Frere-Jones, the New Yorker music critic, who asked them about skipping, why Paris Hilton makes a good villain for Food Dude, and spider-walking.
Todd Barry being fucking hilarious ("It's a writing lab for kids. I get that, but how much does a pencil cost?") while reminding us only 300 or so times that he'd just played Carnegie Hall. He'll be at the Moore on Saturday. Go if you can -- he paid his own way out here, For The Kids.
The most impressive feat: People Talking and Singing respected the kids 826 Seattle supports, celebrated and incorporated their work, while avoiding condescension or schmaltz. Cynical non-hipster parents like ourselves were duly impressed, what with condescension and schmaltz being coins of the realm in the dealing-with-kids industry.
Still, 15 minutes shorter and we'd have wafted out of there on clouds. We settled for big grins on our faces.
Photo: Lance Mercer
