Since Matthew and I couldn’t make it to the special showing of “This American Life” in movie theaters in cities all around the country (excluding mine, of course), we turn instead to our friend Shelley Powers for a review.
She was able to attend a showing in Jackson, Miss. and graciously agreed to let us live vicariously through her. So, if you didn’t have a spare 20 dollars or a ride to a bigger or more culturally aware city, this one is for you.
Please be aware that though words are powerful, they’re not nearly as cute as Ira Glass in all of his gawky glory.
Shhh…the lights are dimming, and Shelley is taking over after the jump.
I don’t know exactly what I had been expecting.
I mean, I had read the news clips and heard the announcements. “Don’t miss your chance to see ‘This American Life - Live!’ on the big screen…”
Maybe I had been taken in by the exclamation point in the title…or the one that had screamed at me from the online ad, “One Night Only!”
I had assumed it would have fanfare, bells and whistles. After all, it was being broadcast live from New York via satellite to 300 select movie theatres nationwide. It was to feature special guests, and it was to be presented in HD and Cinema Surround Sound. Honestly, how could anyone, especially someone in Mississippi, not think such a thing would be a fantastical evening of wonder?
At first I was most anxious to see who in the greater Jackson area (besides me and my friends Cookie and Katherine) would be willing to pay $20 to be at the viewing of a movie version of a Public Radio show that has a largely liberal slant. So, I was pleasantly surprised when Cookie estimated that a total of about 50 of us sat in rapt attention for two hours on May 1 inside the Tinseltown Theatre in Pearl.
At first it was a bit strange being in a darkened room with a bunch of people and experiencing a show that I, as a regular listener of the radio version, usually experience alone with my ear buds in and undertaking something menial like exercise or cooking. I couldn’t help but wonder if others felt odd too. Not that listening to “This American Life” (TAL) is a hushed and secret part of our lives, but rather like it’s something personal…something, say, like brushing our teeth. We all do it. It’s a good thing. But it’d feel a little bizarre to brush whilst in a dark room with a group of strangers.
Fortunately, the warmth of show host Ira Glass shining down from the large screen as he sat on stage queuing audio clips on a makeshift console soon made it obvious that this was indeed an intimate affair and that all those perky exclamation points had been a bit overzealous. Though a daring undertaking, “TAL - Live!” wasn’t really an exclamation point kind of event. Instead it was, as most episodes of TAL are…insightful, playful and honest. It just so happened that all of this unassuming goodness was being broadcast nationwide…in 300 theatres…in High Definition…and in Cinema Surround Sound.
The movie, it seemed, was meant to build interest in the television version of the show, which is now in its second season. Several short clips from upcoming episodes were shown and all were fabulous, from the story of a young Iraqi who had ended up in America after fleeing his war-torn country to a look at a group of boys who bolstered their self-esteem by taking the stage as stand-up comics. My favorite segment had to be the charming animated short by Chris Ware from episode five, “Every Marriage Is a Courtroom,” which will debut June 1.
But as wonderful as these segments were, at the heart of the evening was Glass.
Personally, I would have plunked down my 20 bucks just to watch his mesmerizing “Swan Lake” hand movements as he twisted and grazed and nudged and cajoled the intimidating equipment in front of him. As usual, Glass relaxed into his role as host, offering insights about the shows and himself. He wasn’t above a healthy dose of self-deprecation, but he also wasn’t beneath keeping things in control and sharing the stage spotlight with a fidgety and visibly nervous TAL Co-Executive Producer Chris Wilcha, a humorous and delightful TAL regular contributor David Rakoff and a dry-witted and good-natured WBEZ-FM Station Manager Torey Malatia.
Overall, the two-hour event was thoroughly enjoyable, yet it could have easily been shaved down to an hour and a half by eliminating a rather boring and predictable Q&A segment. But so what? So it ran a little long.
And so it didn’t really pop and bang like the promos had so markedly exclaimed.
That’s the beauty of TAL. It doesn’t need exclamation points to excite or even question marks to make one ponder. It does a beautiful job by simply stating…and even, at times, understating. So, no matter the format–radio, television, movie–TAL is all about the stories and the people behind them and for that alone, I was glad to have been a part of what actually did turn out to be a fantastical evening of wonder. Period.
Many thanks to Shelley Powers for taking the time to write this review. Shelley is a writer and editor living in Jackson, Miss. She has written numerous articles, editorials, songs, fictional pieces, and, for a year of her life, ran her blog, Monkbot Talk.
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