Highlights from The New Yorker Festival 2019
Just a small-town girl, taking on the city
There’s nothing that makes me feel more cultured than a New Yorker magazine. Except for the two days a year when I attend the New Yorker Festival.
This is my second year dropping hundreds of dollars on this event, which I believe makes it 1) a tradition and 2) makes me an expert.
“No, I’m not into music festivals,” I tell anyone who asks. “I’m into more cultural festivals, like the New Yorker.”
[No one has ever asked this.]
I mean, the event this year had Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, former Presidential candidate John Kasich. Can you sound more put together and with it than someone who attends this? I am with the times!
Naturally, the people I saw at this year’s event were Bill Nye the Science Guy, Paul Rudd, Sarah Silverman, and Rob Delaney.
Last year I saw John Mulaney, Jimmy Fallon, Malcolm Gladwell, and Christine Baranski.
No one has ever claimed I don’t have a type! And that type is funny, Mamma Mia, talk show, superhero. Not politics.
But still! Cultured!
To represent that culturedness, last year I purchased the festival poster so I could prominently display it in my home. The plan was to attend each year after and get the poster, really branding myself. [I do work in personal branding, after all.]
And then, the tragedy of all tragedies, there was NO POSTER this year. What am I to do with myself? My tickets were electronic! How are the people supposed to know that I. WAS. THERE?
The real prize is sharing the trip, memories, and experiences with my best friend and my boyfriend, but this article is not about cheese.
What I think is so cool, and so unlike any other events that I’ve been to, is just the breadth of people that they have and the fact that no one is putting on a show. I said I saw Bill Nye the Science Guy but I didn’t. The Science Guy is a TV persona. I saw Bill Nye, on stage, being himself. All he had to do was talk, he didn’t have to light a globe on fire. [He did tell us how he did that though, and it was great.]
Paul Rudd, as another example, is Ant-Man. He’s Anchorman, he’s Clueless, he’s Friends; he’s Knocked Up [not actually]. He’s an actor. But when I saw him, he didn’t have to act at all.
We weren’t screaming fans, clamoring for a selfie or signature. We were mostly hip 60-year-olds + me, more curious about Paul Rudd’s daily life in NYC and son playing football than about what it’s like to work with the Chris trinity.
Rob Delaney does stand up comedy, and yet I got to sit in the crowd and learn all the behind the scenes to his hilarious, political Twitter account and how they filmed boners in Catastrophe. How many people can say that?
Plus, I got to see people like Emily Nussbaum [whom I have raved about previously] do her thing as an incredible journalist and interviewer. Someone who has so nearly perfected the craft that I devoted college to studying.
In addition to celebrities, politicians, authors, musicians… I get to see the best of the business in journalism, the people keeping this necessary art alive and honorable, on stage too. We were privy to interviews that would normally be behind the scenes, with a headline pulled from it for a magazine piece. We were privy to that LIVE.
It’s such a cool concept for me. I’m grateful to be in a position that allows me to attend and engage with festivals like this. Poster or no poster, I was really happy to be there.
But side note: Chicago is still leagues above New York. My opinion on this will never waiver.
Oh, and since they are so insistent on it: #NewYorkerFest
Make it this far? If you did, answer this question in the comments:
Who would you love to see talk live the most?
