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Comic, NPR Personality Eisenberg Coming to Williamstown Theatre Festival
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
06:58PM / Sunday, August 07, 2016
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Ophira Eisenberg, host of National Public Radio's 'Ask Me Another' and the author of the comic memoir 'Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy,' will be at the '62 Center on Monday night.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williamstown Theatre Festival in August welcomes a red-hot stand-up comic, an accomplished storyteller and a game show host — all rolled into one.
 
Ophira Eisenberg is a Canadian-born, New York-based comedian, the host of National Public Radio’s "Ask Me Another," and the author of the comic memoir "Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy."
 
During a recent visit to Boston for a stand-up date, Eisenberg talked with iBerkshires.com about her Aug. 8 performance on the Main Stage at the '62 Center for Theater and Dance and the intersection of her different professional personae.
 
"I feel like they all work together," she said. "But they feel like three very distinct career paths and I’d probably be much less tired if I just said, 'No, I'm a radio host.’
 
"I feel like my creative desires are fulfilled in different ways. Primarily, I see myself as a stand-up because that’s where I started. I sort of go standup comic, storyteller mostly known for 'The Moth’ [another NPR program] and then 'Ask Me Another. … That’s mostly chronologically.
 
"People know me from different things, which I think is cool."
 
Question: Thanks for fitting this telephone interview in. I know it’s a busy week for you and a busy summer of tour dates. Is this as hectic as it gets in terms of travel?
 
Answer: It’s usually way more hectic. I have 7-month-old baby now, so I had to scale back a little.
 
Boy or girl?
 
A: He’s a boy. He is with me right now and will definitely be traveling to Williamstown.
 
Is it a lot harder to work on the road as a mom?
 
A: It definitely makes it a little more complicated. It’s just the moving around of the stuff. He’s on a schedule, but he’s pretty fun baby.
 
We took the Amtrak [to Boston] today, and felt he was very low key on the Amtrak. I never feel like you want to count on that, though. It's like stand-up — you’re only as good as your last gig.
 
When do you find time to write and work on new material?
 
A: You do it constantly. I feel like at this point in my career, it’s just a constant thing. You’re thinking and going through life, and you’re also half aware that something is material to be explored
 
When I’m not traveling, doing gigs in New York, where I can try out stuff. 'The Moth' and story slams are a great time to test stuff.
 
The only way you can work on it is on stage. You can't say it 15 times in front of a mirror, and what kills at the dinner table has no bearing on what will work in front of an audience.
 
For someone, like me, who knows you from 'Ask Me Another,' is the standup act you’re performing on Aug. 8 very different in tone or sensibility? I’m guessing it's less 'NPR-ish.'
 
A: There will be some stories … a much more poignant heartfelt story that will weave in between the standup.
 
I'm one of the few people wandering around stupid enough to do all these things at the same time. It's quite challenging to marry standup with story-telling, especially when marrying it with something a little deeper.
 
I've done it a couple of times. I've done it in an hour show format three times. When it's successful, the audience appreciates it in a way that’s really gratifying. It's a skill that I have honed that’s a little more unique that I can present.
 
With the radio show, even though a lot of comedic elements, a lot of that is improv, working off what contestants say. It has a comedy vibe, but I often meet people who see me at 'The Moth’ or at a stand-up gig, and they tell me they didn’t know I did ['Ask Me Another'] 
 
There’s a long tradition of being a comic and doing game shows.
 
And of being a Canadian and doing quiz shows. Have you had ['Jeopardy’ host Alex] Trebek on as a guest?
 
A: We haven’t, and I don't know if we’ve ever discussed that. I don't know how much of a trivia person he is.
 
I know for myself, as someone who has the answers, I wouldn’t want to play half these games. I wouldn’t mind doing it, but I’d fail seriously. I'm in awe of these people who do play well. 
 
How has 'Ask Me Another’ changed since it debuted [in 2012]?
 
A: Not only has it evolved just in terms of figuring out the format and how to pick great contestants and what variety of games we need and the difficulty of games … but because it’s a live show [usually taped at a Brooklyn comedy venue], we had to translate that to something people want to just listen to.
 
That’s a challenge.
 
One thing we’ve been working on steadily that you can hear is the number of voices on stage. We have one 'puzzle guru’ now. We used to have two. We used to have so many more voices
 
As a little tease, we are going to play with format once again and try something where we have fewer contestants. The audience will have a chance to know a fewer number of contestants, and [contestants] will have to play more than one game to show off their cleverness 
 
When I decided to pursue this interview, I had to check to see when my readers can hear 'Ask Me Another' on the radio, and they can't. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard you on the radio. I only listen to podcasts ... How much is that changing the industry and allowing for a new generation of shows — 'The Moth,' 'Ask Me Another,' 'Invisibilia,' etc...
 
A: It's amazing because, for example, we're not on [the radio] yet in San Francisco, and we traveled there three years in a row and did a live show. We got an audience just because of our podcast numbers.
 
It's scary in a way, because you want terrestrial radio to be relevant, but we’re thankful it’s available on podcast because it allows us to have an audience.
 
We get people from all over the world who come to New York for vacation and come to a taping, and they’re fans — people from Australia, China, Russia.
 
Podcasting, I would argue, really revitalized standup comedy. People wanted to see live standup all of a sudden because of being exposed to different comedy from around the country through a podcast
 
I still don't want it to replace terrestrial radio.
 
Another thing I did getting ready for this interview was I read your book ['Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy'] ... And I've been trying to decide for myself, so I'll ask you: Cautionary tale or how-to book?
 
A: Laughs … Neither. It’s definitely not a how-to. But I've had a lot of women say to me they like thinking of it as a how-to. I don't know how to take that.
 
It’s a cautionary tale. I don’t mind that
 
My story is meant to make you laugh about the dumb, ridiculous, potentially at times slightly dangerous things I did ... and still ended up OK. I never tell anyone here's how you should do it. I never wrote it with the intention of a message. But if there was a message, it's just allowing your personality to develop. I like the idea of trying things until you find the right one.
 
That's something, especially as women, of breaking with the tradition of every woman should fall in love when she's 18 and every woman is dreaming about her wedding every day.
 
Do you have another book in you?
 
A: Maybe .. it's possible. Right after I wrote that, people would say, 'Are you going to write a book about your life now?' I was like, here's the thing ... if I say want to tell you this story about dating this guy, that's funny. If I want to tell you about me and my husband having sex, people say that's disgusting. That's not under 'Humor' [in the book store]. that's under 'Wellness' or something like that.
 
Now that I've become a mother late in life … it ended up being something that was require a lot of thought and action. I’ve been writing a lot about that
 
I just had a story up on Cancer Moonshot, my story of becoming a mother. That makes me think there’s a desire for this kind of story out there. 
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