UPDATED BELOW
Heads up, everyone, and keep your eyes on the NPR page for the Symphony Space “Selected Shorts” program. This week’s edition will include Stephen Colbert’s reading of T.C. Boyle’s “The Lie” and David Rakoff’s reading of Lydia Davis’ “Alvin the Typesetter”. From NPR:
Selected Shorts
Sunday, January 04, 2009
. . .The two stories on this program are read by two VERY funny guys, the writer and public radio personality David Rakoff, and the eponymous host of late night television’s political send-up, “The Colbert Report.” The stories were read at a SELECTED SHORTS program devoted to goings-on at the workplace — that hotbed of intrigue and thwarted ambitions. First, Lydia Davis’s “Alvin the Typesetter” chronicles the travails of one office worker.
Our second story of office life is T. Coraghessan Boyle’s devilish tale, “The Lie.” “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” cautions Sir Walter Scott, and in this story the web gets hysterically tangled, even to the point of strangulation. Stephen Colbert gives this moral tongue twister a zestful read.
. . .
The audio does not appear to be up just yet (not surprising, given the date on the NPR post and the usual release schedule), but we’ll update this post when we see any developments; alternately, you can always subscribe to NPR’s podcasts through this page.
UPDATED TO ADD: Joy! The audio has been posted earlier than usual and can be downloaded through this page. (Thanks for letting us all know, Jennie!)
OMG! OMG! THANK YOU. I’ve been dying to hear this again and had despaired that it would ever appear. Hooray! It’s UNMISSABLE Zoners, Stephen’s reading was fabulous, the entire evening was great.
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I’m with you, Vigwig! I can’t wait for Stephen to make me gasp again!! (Fear not, DB and Completists, I’m not being family un-friendly. Just wait ’til you hear him read this story and you’ll know the moment I mean.) I’ve just nabbed my free subscription on i-Tunes and await the next installment with baited breath!
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Will it be downloadable on iTunes?
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yay!!! I get the selected shorts podcast every week, and a coupla months ago I emailed them to see when Stephen’s reading would show up on the podcast. based on their response, I wasn’t expecting it till spring or summer, so this is wonderful news! looking forward to it. I love David Rakoff too!
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In the past they have been posting them at 9pm every Monday. I can not wait!
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oh god
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I get the podcasts every week as well – and am shocked that this week’s podcast is available all ready! It’s only Sunday morning and I’m listening to it right now. Just wonderful.
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oh thank my lucky stars it was edited out. YAY!
I’m going to post this right away at the Nation!!!
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I am in heaven.
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What a wonderful way to start a Sunday. Thank you for the update!
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Is it not fabulous?
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is there someone who can explain how I may access this?
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If you go through the link I put in the update above, it should take you to the podcast page (which has instructions). The iTunes download was very straightforward, if you have iTunes.
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to MsI: thanks! I ought’ve just been patient and waited for the update which was certain to come! :D
I can’t say I enjoyed listening to that–a bit stressful! I kept pressing pause to stop the story from moving forward. ahhh!
of course, it’s certainly quality writing from Mr Boyle. I liked how the small details built the settings. they were well-chosen without being self-conscious.
also, and this is lame, but the standard Colbert reading voice automatically translates to “Russell Hokes” in my mind! (both Hokes and the narrator DO have trouble with sick days!)
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I agree the story was pretty dark and I found it upsetting at times as well, but I just loved listening to Stephen nevertheless. I love how he took on the accent of his boss. He always seems to really take the time to get accents down.
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For those wondering about the audience laughter before Stephen begins the story, he was furiously chewing on a pen for some time at the podium before he took that huge sigh and began to speak. I am struck again, even via only the audio here, how completely he owned this story and the audience in the telling of it. Masterful work.
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That was so good! It’s so nice to just sit back and listen to Stephen read a story. He does it so well! This was a really funny story too.
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I’ve downloaded this and can’t wait until I actually have some spare time to listen to it. Thanks for providing the link!
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Fabulous voice and performance! :)
Here’s a link to the story in The New Yorker, if you all wish to read along. :)
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I listened to it last night before I went to bed. Absolutely wonderful. Brilliant delivery. I wish I could hear a bedtime story by Stephen every night! Thanks for the links!
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I would love to hear a story read by Stephen every night before I go to bed. He has such a great, soothing voice. Excellent delivery.
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This story was so awesome. I liked the description of the mall restaurant that the character is hanging out at, the sort of plasticky nature of it all. I was having kind of a crappy day, and listening to this was so joyful. Thanks Stephen for reading it!
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I finally finished listening to the story. OMG, how great was that? As vigwig said above, Stephen totally owned this story. I do think I gasped aloud at certain parts of the story. He’s a wonderful reader and I loved the story.
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Does anyone have the Steven Colbert reading T.C. Boyle’s “The Lie” that they can e-mail? It doesn’t seem to be available for download anymore. If you can please e-mail to – amy.squires@mac.com – I would be very grateful.
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Try this and see if it works.
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The link sends me to the current spot which is a reading of Paley stories – but thanks so much for taking the time to write – if you come across the T.C. Boyle spot let me know.
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Oops. My bad. This is the link, via iTunes.
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Do you have iTunes? When I was last logged onto the “Selected Shorts” podcast page through iTunes, I believe it showed the last four episodes, and Stephen’s reading of “The Lie” should still be within those last four (try the podcast episode entitled, “Two Funny Guys”, which refers to Stephen and David Rakoff).
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Thanks to you both – not sure where my brain was! Much, much thanks.
Amy
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