Monday, November 10, 2008

Sewell Chan and Jennifer 8. Lee Go On A Date!

"You’d think that hundreds of people would have better things to do on a Friday night than go to a panel discussion at a museum. But the auditorium at the Paley Center for Media was packed elbow-to-elbow for the panel discussion “Writers Speak: A Potentially Regrettable Evening with the Writers of ‘The Daily Show,’” part of the fifth annual New York Comedy Festival last week."
-- from today's "City Room" blog, 12:06 p.m., by Sewell Chan & Jennifer 8. Lee.

Elbow to elbow? Poetic image. Anyway, kids, don't apologize for being at a panel discussion at a museum on a Friday night. It sounds like you had a really good time! Thanks for filling us in with your City Room post, "Deep Secrets of the Daily Show," a 2,399-word notebook dump that even the most bored office temp won't have time to finish.

Another highlight:

"This was no dry forum, though. The panelists were grown-up versions of those guys who sat in the back of class making wisecracks, and the discussion was a Ping-Pong exchange of zingers, quips, one-upping and wry understatement."

Zingers and quips! Wry understatement! Was there no knee-slapping? Guffawing? Or did you cut for space to make room for the minute-by-minute account of a typical day at the Daily Show? (The most memorable moment of that sequence: "10 to 11:30 a.m.: The writers write, using the themes and ideas discussed." )

And this meta-moment:

At one point during the discussion, ["Daily Show" writer Sal] Albanese looked at City Room’s reporters and asked if we were transcribing everything they were saying (almost) and whether we were live-blogging (no, not on a Friday night).


One can only hope that Chan and Lee continue their comprehensive coverage of the comedy festival, and don't find themselves distracted by any actual news events.

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