WNYC presents RADIOLAB LIVE: In the Dark, featuring Demetri Martin and Thao Nguyen, at BAM

Radiolab Live: IN THE DARK

Public Radio’s Cult Sensation Remakes the Classic Variety Show

Comedian DEMETRI MARTIN to Emcee
Singer/Songwriter THAO NGUYEN to Perform Live Musical Score

“An evening that is illuminating in all the best possible ways.” – Salt Lake Tribune

Tuesday, June 26 and Wednesday, June 27 at 8pm
At BAM Howard Gilman Opera House – Tickets On Sale Now

(NEW YORK, NY – May 23, 2012) – Following sold-out shows and enthusiastic audiences in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Miami and Salt Lake City, RADIOLAB, WNYC’s genre-busting, Peabody Award-winning public radio show and podcast is finally bringing its latest experiment in cerebral calisthenics home to New York City.

On Tuesday, June 26 and Wednesday, June 27 at 8pm, WNYC presents RADIOLAB LIVE: IN THE DARK at BAM. Tickets are on sale now at www.radiolab.org.

Hosts JAD ABUMRAD – who was named a MacArthur “Genius” in 2011 – and ROBERT KRULWICH, veteran science reporter, are joined onstage by comedian DEMETRI MARTIN (The Daily Show, Comedy Central), who serves as the evening’s mischievous emcee, and Bay Area singer/songwriter THAO NGUYEN, whose radiant live scoring offers a soundtrack of irresistibly danceable compositions.

The stage show blends performance, dance, music and comedy with Radiolab’s distinct storytelling approach – weaving tales that are by turns humorous, heart-rending and nail-biting – to illustrate what it is like to be “in the dark,” figuratively and literally.

The evening leads audiences through fascinating stories about:

The dawn of sight and evolution of the eye;
The contrasting approaches to blindness by two sightless men;
And a NASA astronaut’s harrowing experience of being locked out of his space shuttle.

Before the show’s end, the audience will have an opportunity to participate in a spectacular, memorable finale.

“At Radiolab, we ponder life’s big questions – ‘Why?’ this, ‘How’ that – and find personal, affecting stories to illustrate the answers, because that’s what makes them real,” said ABUMRAD. “In The Dark takes the show to another level. Instead of exploring these ideas with me and Robert in their ears, our audience is right there to discover with us and our friends – from learning about our eyeballs, to navigating blindness, and even embarking on a life-or-death space adventure.”

“I love listening to Radiolab because it's like eavesdropping on a conversation between two curious, fascinating dorks,” said MARTIN. “Going on the road with ‘In The Dark’ is fun because I get to play ‘ringmaster’ of the nerd circus.”

“When I'm on tour with my band, the Radiolab podcast keeps our brains from atrophy,” said NGUYEN. “When I met Jad I thanked him for his public service to musicians everywhere. A few days later I was invited to join the live show and since then, my dinner party popularity has skyrocketed.”

RADIOLAB can be heard on more than 375 public radio stations across the country, and airs in New York on WNYC 93.9 FM and NJPR every Friday at 8pm, with encore plays on Sundays at 4pm. The show also has an avid national and international podcast audience. Downloads, web exclusives, a blog, and more is available at www.radiolab.org. Radiolab is produced by WNYC, the most listened-to public radio station in the country. Radiolab Live: In The Dark will continue to tour the US with performances in Philadelphia, Seattle, Chicago, and Milwaukee, among others, throughout the summer and fall.

Demetri Martin rose to relative obscurity when he started doing stand-up comedy in New York City at the end of the 20^th Century. Later, he became a writer at Late Night with Conan O’Brien and then a regular performer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In 2003, Demetri won the Perrier Award at the International Fringe Festival for his first one-man show, If I. He released a comedy album called These Are Jokes and then created and starred in his own television series called Important Things with Demetri Martin. His first stand-up comedy special, Demetri Martin. Person is considered by many to be his longest and only hour-long stand-up comedy special. Martin has appeared in movies as an actor, most recently in Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion and most lengthily in Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock. His first book, This Is a Book by Demetri Martin is a New York Times Bestseller. Demetri has brown hair, and he is allergic to peanuts. You can find him at www.demetrimartin.com, at www.facebook.com/demetrimartin, on Twitter @demetrimartin, and in various places in the actual physical world.

Thao Nguyen is a songwriter and musician who graduated from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in 2002. She believes these three components and the universe have combined to bring her live score to the Radiolab stage. When Nguyen is not touring or making records, she is supporting public radio and other underfunded causes. Nguyen scored the 2011 documentary “American Teacher” as practice for these Radiolab appearances.

New York Public Radio is New York’s premier public radio franchise, comprising WNYC, WQXR, The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, and New Jersey Public Radio, as well as www.wnyc.org, www.wqxr.org, www.thegreenespace.org and www.njpublicradio.org. As America's most listened-to AM/FM news and talk public radio stations, reaching 1.1 million listeners every week, WNYC extends New York City's cultural riches to the entire country on-air and online, and presents the best national offerings from networks National Public Radio, Public Radio International, American Public Media, and the British Broadcasting Company. WQXR is New York City's sole 24-hour classical music station, presenting new and landmark classical recordings as well as live concerts from the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, among other New York City venues, immersing listeners in the city's rich musical life. In addition to its audio content, WNYC and WQXR produce content for live, radio and web audiences from The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, the station's street-level multipurpose, multiplatform broadcast studio and performance space. New Jersey Public Radio extends WNYC reach and service more deeply into New Jersey. For more information about New York Public Radio, visit www.nypublicradio.org.

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