As a regular listeners to the podcast version of This American Life, I've always been jealous of the people who get to attend their occasional live shows, which bring back some of the most popular contributors and, of course, contain elements that just don't translate to radio. I've listened to the podcast version of these events and been frustrated by all the jokes I clearly wasn't getting, or the bits that were cut out entirely.
You don't have to be a This American Life devotee like I am to want to see what they do when they put together a stage show, and that goes double for the recent "Invisible Made Visible," which deliberately incorporated all kinds of visual-only events-- dance, slideshows, interactive audience musical performances-- to fit the theme. A podcast version of that show is online, but now you and I can see the whole thing for ourselves at last. "Invisible Made Visible" will be available to download for $5 at this website on November 15, and you can check out a trailer below to see what you're in for.
The nice thing about a trailer for an event that's already happened is that I don't have to sit here and speculate about whether or not it's all as good as it looks. Episodes of This American Life are consistently good anyway, but this one has been particularly praised, featuring a stand-up set from Tig Notaro that rocketed her to a new level of fame, a short film from Mike Birbiglia that's been available online and is amazing, and the final stage appearance by David Rakoff, a longtime TAL contributor who died in August. I'll definitely be downloading this, and since it's a DRM-free download, it means I can revisit it may, many times, as I have all the best This American Life podcasts in the past.
