Next Big Thing, 2001-11-24
The Next Big Thing is an entire show devoted to some of the best fiction, plays and comedy that we have to offer.
Mad cow?
Sometimes it's hard to remember the kinds of things that occupied our thoughts three months ago. Eating beef was on the minds of comic improvisers Mark O'Donnell and Pam Woodruff Lobely.
The "It" Girl
Zadie Smith remains the next big thing out of England, which is where her short story "Stewart" is set. At a hot dog stand, in London. It's a story about the intensity of people from different cultures living practically on top of one another. Here's an excerpt from it, read by actress Nicola Walker, as part of the New Yorker's Fiction Festival last year at Joe's Pub.
Blue Candy
Late one night, poet Carl Hancock Rux was watching a talk show on TV. A woman was recounting her son's suicide. His poem, "Blue Candy" emerged from that night.
To Be a Bee
Poet Kenneth Koch once published a book called "1000 Avant-Garde Plays." Well, there weren't 1000, but there are more than a hundred of them. And they are short. Really short. Here are a few.
The Human Boom Box
Kenny Muhammed, a.k.a. the Human Orchestra, provides his own musical underscoring. What you are about to hear is just him. With no electronic enhancement save for two microphones. Just him and the mikes. Nothing else. No kidding.
Tear up the floor
Edgar Allen Poe's "Tell-tale Heart" like you've never heard it before.
The Next Big Thing with Dean Olsher airs on WNYC New York Sundays from 11am-12 noon on 93.9FM and at 6pm on AM820. The Next Big Thing is funded in part by the Kaplen Foundation/
WNYC archives id: 11349
