I’m trying my best — This is a recipe for oxtail that I’ve come up with over the past few years. It’s home cooking from someone who doesn’t have this dish as a part of his home tradition at all. I just read a recipe online a few years ago and then forgot half of…

Here’s a real recipe by a person with real problems that I both invented and appropriated in my own apartment. — I express my anxiety through cooking, and I really love good food. But I *hate* the term “foodie.” I hate the people that call themselves foodies, and I also resent that there’s a cute little patronizing term for people that actually give a shit about what they put into their…

I express anxiety through cooking. And between job hunting and generalized comedy anxiety, I’ve really been whipping up the chow. This is a recipe for what I’ll call “Procrastinating at Life Chicken”: Get ~ 5–6 pounds chicken legs and thighs, skin on. Combine: 1/2 cup kosher salt 1/2 cup brown…

Making Batman Moonshine From the Go Get My last post focused on the You Need component of a story — establishing who you are, what you wanted and why you wanted it. I wrote that last post a year ago, promised a followup and then went silent for an entire year. I feel like a wizard who…

Anthony Bourdain was maybe one of a very, very few TV personalities that was famous for being able to do something apart from appear on camera. I’m sure that he could cook pretty well, but my God could that guy write. He himself said that the only reason he was…

Every story you’ve ever heard and remembered is about someone who wanted something. If the story wasn’t about an interesting character overcome by desire, you don’t remember it. In my last post, I laid out a five-point story structure for live storytelling: You/Need/Go/Get/Return. I’m going to dive a bit more…

When you tell a great joke, people remember the joke. When you tell a funny story, people remember YOU. I’m a standup comic in New York City, and I tell funny stories. I mean, I tell jokes, too. But I really like to tell stories where the character, plot and action are laid out using jokes — or to use jokes to comment on the action in stories where…

I started telling stories onstage at The Moth’s story slam in New York City ten years ago this month. Shortly thereafter, I started telling those stories to people that had planned to see a comedy show instead. I’ve had some successes along the way but like all successes, they’re buttressed…

A Donald Trump victory will be a threat to democracy as we know it. The Constitution will crumble and we’ll slide into authoritarian rule. However, there is a silver lining: America may finally see meaningful gun control. There are currently two candidates running for president, and only one of them…