January debriefing

[shunn]

We're slobberingly grateful to everyone who helped make January's episode of Tuesday Funk such a rousing success—readers and audience alike. Another attentive, engaged, standing-room-only crowd turned out to be entertained and mesmerized by our savory six. If you were among the unfortunate few unable to make it out, here's a recap of the highlights you missed.

Mare Swallow kicked off the festivities in fine fashion with a funny and poignant account of her days as a party-circuit insult comic for hire. Valerie Jupe delighted us with a dozen poems, some of which you'll find in her collection Shattered Fragments of My Soul. Christopher Sweet made us gasp with his touching account of his father's adventures in World War II and the social mores of wartime Britain.

After a break to let everyone visit our talented bartender John, co-host William Shunn read his poem "Under Their Skirts." Suzanne Clores waxed both sacred and scatological, taking us along on a vision quest for her totem animal and extolling the virtues of the high-tech Japanese toilet. Return Funker Cesar Torres whisked us from a mouse's-eye view of a minaret to a near-future Chicago rife with state-sponsored cannibalism. And to cap things off in fine style, Essay Fiesta's Alyson Lyon demonstrated that fame and success aren't all they're cracked up to be with her laugh-till-you-cry account of a night on the town with Gallagher. (Yes, that Gallagher.)

So that's what you missed at the last Tuesday Funk. The good news is that we'll be back at Hopleaf on Tuesday, February 1 with an evening we're calling "New Year, New Voices," including debut readings from Eden Robins, Julie Rosenthal, Jerry Schwartz, Karen Skalitzky and Brooke Wonders, and another patented Poem By Bill. Mark your calendars now!

Crossposted from Tuesday Funk