Why Gaithersburg will be ‘Comedy Central’ on May 19th
For me, one of the great joys about planning the GBF is to sort of sit back and watch the distinctive character each year’s Festival takes. We always have something for every taste, so the distinction may be subtle. But, every go round, we do seem to end up a little stronger in some categories than others.
In 2010, it was literary fiction – with Alice McDermott, Sarah Blake, and Helen Simonson.
In 2011, mystery was our standout genre – Stephen Hunter, Alex Berenson, Rita Mae Brown, Brad Parks (who’s back this year) and others.
And that brings us to this year. On May 19th, Gaithersburg will be ‘comedy central!’
The written word enriches our lives in every imaginable way – and this year we give you six authors who show us its power to bring joy, to make us smile, laugh, and see ourselves and our world for all its beautiful silliness.
We’ll start with Judah Friedlander, who will be joining us straight from the set of 30 Rock. Onstage Friedlander is The World Champion, who, among other things, is an extra-dark blackbelt in karate. He’ll be talking about his hilarious instructional karate book “How To Beat Up Anybody.”
Here’s a clip from his standup act in which he talks about running for President. ( Warning: language)
Then there’s Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, whose motto on her extremely popular blog is “Like Mother Teresa, only better.” To get a sense of Jenny, you really have to spend some time on her blog. (If you do that, fine… but don’t forget to come back! And, again, expect some strong language) Here’s her book trailer clip;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHq2XxLzFLY
Baratunde Thurston is a triple-threat: a rising talent on the comedy circuit, in technology circles, and in politics. In this clip, he talks about his work for the parody news outlet, The Onion;
Jen Lancaster is the New York Times bestselling author of several hilarious memoirs, including “Bitter is the New Black,” “Such A Pretty Fat,” and “My Fair Lazy.” She also writes a very popular blog, Jennsylavnia. In this clip, Jen talks about her new book, Jeneration X: (warning: language)
http://youtu.be/uHzXBQUUqaE
Henry Alford (Vanity Fair) and Larry Doyle (The New Yorker) both share the distinction of having won the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
Alford will be at the Festival talking about his hilarious new book, “Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That? A Modern Guide to Manners.” Here, he talks about it:
Doyle, who spent years as a writer for The Simpsons and had his novel “I Love You, Beth Cooper” adapted into a major motion picture, will be at the Festival talking about his essay collection “Deliriously Happy.” Here’s a clip of Doyle in an interview a couple years ago:
I’m stopping the list with these 6 GBF authors because they are actually known, first and foremost for their humor. However, one can easily argue for adding folks like Matthew Norman, Sarah Pekkanen, Tom Angleberger, and Eleanor Brown (who’s back this year as part of a panel). They are all fantastically funny writers and speakers.
Yes, 2012 is the year Gaithersburg becomes ‘Comedy Central’. I dare you to bring your crabbiest, scrooge-iest, crotchety relatives and just watch as our super-comedy lineup turns those frowns upside-down! (And if it doesn’t work, we have authors in the fields of neuro-psychology and self-help as well.)