The Mystery of the Slippery Australian

Taking a redeye flight leads to a mystery I'll ponder for the rest of my days. Plus recs for Ariel Waldman's films, Mark Silcox's standup, and Maggie Roger's commencement address.

I’ve been traveling a lot for work this month, filming a new video series that’s going to be out in September. I’m very excited for you to see it!

In the meantime, I’m spending a lot of time in airports. There’s a reason comedians have a lot of airplane jokes. You write what you know. As comedians, a lot of what we know is the experience of taking a cheap flight to a random place to tell jokes. And the beautiful part about airports is that they are full of strange people you’d probably never cross paths with otherwise, that you get to observe up close. Very ripe conditions for comedy!

Here’s a memorable encounter I had recently:

10:40 pm at LAX before a midnight flight. I go into the bathroom. Suddenly, a big guy in a tank top, shorts, and flip flops crashes out of one of the stalls into a puddle of water on the floor.

Another man in the bathroom and I instantly run over to him. We’re like, “Sir, are you alright??” The big guy, flopped into a pool of bathroom floor water, seems kinda dazed, so we go over and pull him up. His mesh shorts are wet from the floor water. We are very concerned about his wellbeing. But he responds in a very upbeat Australian voice: “Thanks, mates!” And then, instead of exiting the bathroom, he chipperly walks into a different bathroom stall, fully barefoot.

The other helper guy and I look at each other and then leave the bathroom silently, realizing we will never know the beginning or the end of that story, only the middle. But I wish that large, wet Australian man well.

My projects and upcoming events:

LIVE IN LA: Wrong Answers Only - Dynasty Typewriter on Tuesday, June 17th at 7:30 p.m. Three celebrity comedians join me to interview an ice cream scientist live on stage. That’s right, an ice cream scientist. Come laugh at the show, taste a delicious frozen treat, and learn the single best thing a person can do with a PhD in chemistry. Get your tickets now (also available for livestream if you live outside LA).

This week’s list

GREAT:

Ariel Waldman is an explorer and filmmaker who looks at the natural world from the microscopic to the planetary. She deliberately tries to capture “life at all scales” and challenge our understanding about life on Earth. Whether it’s the invisible life hidden beneath Antarctica’s ice or the clouds above North America’s prairies, Ariel is covering stories and dramatic changes in a way no one else does. Unfortunately, with the cuts to federal funding for the arts and science, several of Ariel’s ongoing projects are now at risk. She’s trying to fill the gap with crowdfunding and you can help out here.

FUNNY:

I laughed in so many unexpected places at this standup set from Mark Silcox. I had never heard about him before Priyanka Mattoo gave his comedy a glowing endorsement in her newsletter and I’m so glad I checked him out. This got me going in a way that few standup jokes ever have. Listening to him talk about the features of Powerpoint, I started laughing and couldn’t stop. It’s a delight. Mark Silcox Knows How To Turn People On

INTERESTING:

I love Maggie Rogers’ music. I’m also very interested in the fact that she went to the Harvard Divinity School to study “spirituality of public gatherings and the ethics of power in pop culture.” That’s obviously not a standard stop on the path for a rock star who can tour the world selling out arenas. Some day, I hope we’ll be able to convince her to be interviewed on our podcast (or that I’ll get to ask her more about it in some other context). But in the meantime, I loved reading some of her thoughts in her commencement speech to NYU Tisch: The Truth About Dreams

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That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! Please share Bright Spots with anyone you think might enjoy it.

Barreling out of a stall straight into a puddle, then getting back up and doing it all over again,

Chris Duffy

This has been Bright Spots, a newsletter.

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…wait, who are you?

I'm Chris Duffy, a comedian, TV writer, podcast host, and both a former fifth grade teacher and a former fifth grade student. I’m currently writing a nonfiction book about humor for Doubleday.