Show & Tell is a monthly essay reading series that debuted to a sold-out crowd at the Hudson Theater in 2003. The premise of Show & Tell is simple: interesting people telling funny stories about personal stuff. A musician opens every show, and then five or six people read essays off the page, and then we all get a beer. The beer is optional. Topics run the gamut from promiscuous grandmothers to shotgun marriages to men taking Japanese flower arranging class. In the old days, people would bring an object to highlight their story, hence the name Show & Tell. But when one of the readers deemed that part of the show “really lame,” the show became music and essays. And as long as the essay is personal and funny and true, it’s a perfect fit for Show & Tell.

Show & Tell began as a way for Matt and Eric to read their own work as well as a chance to give their funny friends a different outlet for their writing. When the friends’ list quickly ran out, they started taking submissions from even funnier people, and some of the fifty or so readers that Show & Tell has presented in the past two years include: Michael Blieden (Melvin Goes to Dinner), Andrew Daly (MAD TV), Leila Gerstein (The O.C.), Annabelle Gurwitch (Dinner and a Movie), Randy and Jason Sklar (Cheap Seats), and Lauren Weedman (The Daily Show). But the line-up is constantly changing, and no two shows are ever the same.

Produced by: Eric Friedman and Matt Price

Wednesday, March 5

Cecily Knobler
Carl Kozlowski
Jason Nash
Molly Prather
Matt Price
Danny Warren

and music by Jean Villepique and Kit Pongetti as The Artists