A Child Of Atom

Tonight was my public speaking debut at Adult Ed, showcasing my subway sketches, and I feel pretty successful with it. First off, it was a great night, the hosts were awesome and made me feel at home right away, and made the whole process perfectly painless and smooth. I'll admit I was nervous, I don't really ever have a reason to speak in public, and I was feeling a bit of pressure because most of the guests on the line-up seemed funny in some way, and I sometimes feel incapable of being spontaneously funny. I was given 10 to 12 minutes. In my practice runs I usually clocked in around 7, though I'll admit I never really got all the way through it in those practices, and was often guessing about my timing. On stage it seemed like it actually took about 3 minutes... no idea what it actually was. Of course I also missed a couple stories that on the train ride home, or talking to people in the audience afterward I realized should have been included, but it was too late for that at that point. But the audience responded well, and it felt good to talk about it. I don't really ever discuss these sketches except here, or on flickr, or rarely when someone looks at it. Hopefully I picked the right sketches... choosing just a handful for a 10 minute presentation was difficult.

Anyway... thanks to those who attended, it meant a lot, and I appreciate it tremendously, and if you happen to be visiting here for the first time because you saw me there... then welcome!

I have been asked to speak at "Adult Education," an event that describes itself as "a useless lecture series." From their website: A Brooklyn-based monthly event series where various speakers present brief, multimedia lectures on a shared theme. The theme for the next event is "Urban Travel" and they have asked me to speak about my subway sketches.

The event is Tuesday June 2, 2009 at 8pm, doors open at 7:30 at Union Hall in Park Slope (702 Union St. @ 5th Ave.). There will be a $5 cover.

Other speakers will include a man who designed his own subway map, a woman speaking about the unique tourist attractions along the A Train route, and the owner of a website devoted to photos taken of people sitting in the disabled seats on the train, while he, a disabled man, stands directly in front of them. You can see all the information you would ever need at their website: Adult Education.

If you are in or around New York City I hope to see you all there!