Can you love something and make fun of it at the same time? OF COURSE YOU CAN, silly! That’s exactly what will be happening TOMORROW night at the LITERATI show at Caveat in New York City. If you are unfamiliar with the show, we’ll get you quickly up to speed with the help of the creators of this comedy show about books, authors, (and, oh my, how way too SERIOUSLY we take them). Colin O’Brien and Michael Wolf, who you might recognize from Nancy Comedy, the Triplets of Kings County series, the O.S.F.U.G sketch show and How To Write A Book: The Play, are the men behind Literati. In this interview you will find out from them what the show is all about, how they conceived of the show, the wonderful things happening at the Caveat venue, and how they booked the one and only Goosebumps author R.L. Stine on TOMORROW’s show. Did I mentioned Annie Donley (Annoyance, Holy Fuck Comedy Hour), Desi Domo (UCB Maude, Joined at the Nip), Eric Feurer (UCB Characters Welcome), and Larry Owens (Time Out NY’s “Comedians We’re Obsessed With”) will also be guests? Watch this informative video, then GET TO READING!
COMEDY CAKE: How would you sum up the LITERATI experience to newcomers?
LITERATI: Literati is a comedy show about books that celebrates literature, while lovingly making fun of it’s pretentiousness. It’s part author reading (comedians in character as authors performing hilarious readings from their fake novels) and part writing seminar (hosts, Colin and Michael, dolling out comedically bad writing advice). It’s like going to Barnes n’ Nobles to hear Tom Clancy read from his new book about tanks or whatever. For all those times you’ve left a comedy show and thought, “Hmmm that was pretty funny… but not enough reading!”. Literati is way funnier than a show about books has any right to be.
CAKE: How was the idea for the show conceived?
LITERATI: The idea was conceived when Colin went to a friend’s play reading at Molasses Books in Brooklyn, NY. The bookstore pulled out a bunch of folding chairs for the audience and served beer, wine, and snacks. It was a really cool, relaxed vibe that was conducive to a small intimate show. But there was all an air of reverence that just begged to be broken – like when you want to laugh at a funeral. This, combined with the realization that Colin had seen several comedians doing author characters at shows in the past, gave him the idea to hold a comedic reading at Molasses Books. He brought the seed of the idea to Michael and the two developed it together, doing the show at Molasses before moving it to Union Hall in Brooklyn and eventually to Caveat in the Lower East Side.
CAKE: What’s your favorite part of performing at Caveat?
LITERATI: Caveat just seems like the perfect venue for this show. It was great doing the show at an actual bookstore, but we soon outgrew it. We loved performing at Union Hall, but it was hard to pull in the book lovers to that space. Caveat is the best of both worlds because it can fit big crowds and has the vibe of “intellectual nightlife”. They sell books and have a reading area, it feels like you’re in this amazing underground space with a bunch of hip nerds who want to laugh. And it’s also just one of the best-curated spaces we’ve been to in New York with really amazing facilities. If you haven’t been yet, you gotta check it out!
CAKE: Are my eyes deceiving me or is the *actual R.L. Stine of “Goosebumps” fame participating on the February 2nd show? How’d that booking come to fruition? Were you fans of his works as kids?
LITERATI: It is the real R.L. Stine! We are so excited to have him. He’s been on our list of dream guests for a long time. We knew he was in the area but didn’t have any contact info so we ended up reaching out on social media and got a response! He’s been so nice and funny in our correspondences and we are thrilled to see what he’s like on stage. We DIED laughing when he told us what he’s going to read – our audience is in for a BIG TREAT! And who isn’t a fan! I feel like his books wallpapered our childhood!
CAKE: What other performances and literary works can we look forward to on the upcoming show?
LITERATI: We’re hoping to get more published authors in the future. George Saunders or Zadie Smith are names we’ve talked about – just looking to get the scheduling right. We’d also like to bring on other guests who are in the literary world but who may not be published authors or comedians. One of our amazing producers Carly Hoogendyk has a past in publishing and has been helping us reach into that world. We’ve tossed around the idea of bringing a creative writing professor from NYU or a librarian on as a guest to be interviewed. But first and foremost, it’s a comedy show so we’re always booking the best New York comedy talent! Over the past three years, we’ve had incredible performances by some of our favorite comedians and we don’t want to give away our roster but we have some really exciting guests coming up.
CAKE: What are your favorite shows to watch at Caveat?
LITERATI: Caveat has a lot of great shows right now! You can go any night of the week and you’ll be blown away. Internet Explorers with Mark Vigeant is great (we collaborate with him in the sketch show OSFUG at UCB). The SUP Show just premiered there and was fantastic. Chris Duffy’s You’re the Expert. And we haven’t seen it yet but we really want to check out The Planet Earth Drinking Game.
CAKE: We absolutely adored the second season of your “Triplets Of Kings County” web series in ’17. What other kinds of comedy can we expect from the LITERATI men for the 11 months left in 2018?
LITERATI: THANK YOU! You can listen to our Literati Podcast on the ForeverDog Network. We’ll hopefully be making more episodes soon. We also have a couple of running shows at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hell’s Kitchen. Our show How To Write A Book: The Play is a half hour comedy show that is part writing seminar and part Broadway play that will give you all the tools you need to finally finish writing your shitty novel. It’s basically a writing seminar that devolves into a play that still teaches you how to write. The show stemmed from doing Literati and how much we enjoyed giving bad writing advice. Our final performances are this Thursday, February 1st and February 23rd at UCB Hell’s Kitchen.
Mentions: Show 9pm. Buy tix HERE. Caveat is located at 21 A Clinton st., New York, NY 10002 (between East Houston and Stanton in the Lower East Side, about a five minute walk from the Delancey F train). Listen to th eLiterati comedy podcast on the ForeverDog Podcast Network and can be found on iTunes, Spotify and SoundCloudAlso, check out How To Write A Book: The Play TONIGHT at the UCB Theatre Hell’s Kitchen.