Dcstandup Reading Room

Though most of the comedians at dcstandup.com are functionally illiterate, a select few do, from time to time, put pen to paper (or back of a pizza box) and write some mildy amusing material. We post these pieces on the main page when they're new, but once they start to gather dust we store them in the Reading Room for your browsing pleasure.

Chris White
is the editor of Dcstandup.com, and from the looks of the list below he hasn't rejected himself yet. These listings are chronological, with the newer colums toward the front of the list.

Giovanni Diviacchi
has a background in theater, stand-up and improv comedy.

Adam Ruben
is a very smart dude. How smart? Smart enough to have his columns posted on National Lampoon instead of Dcstandup.com. These links will take you over to nationallampoon.com.

Feature Act Interviews

Dcstandup is interviewing feature acts as they pass through town. See what these up-and-comers have to say about Washington, Baltimore, the comedy business and anything else on their minds.

• Roger Mursick (6/22/05)
• Larry Poon (6/18/05)
• Justin Schlegel (6/14/05)
• Keith Alberstadt (5/30/05)
• Larry XL (5/25/05)
• Erik Myers (5/22/05)
• Rob Maher (5/14/05)
• Chris White (5/14/05)

Ask a Stand-Up Comedian

All the greatest questions in life have awful, awful answers, if you look hard enough. In Ask a Stand-Up Comedian, our loyal staff steals questions from respectable advice columns and then offer their own answers. From time to time we bring this feature back. If you click through on the link below, you can see a full listing of the Ask Archives.

• Ask a Stand-Up Comedian page

Election 2004

A few of our writers tackled the tough political issues that faced our country in 2004. Well, they really just tried to arm-tackle them, but they didn't wrap up, so the issues broke downfield for a touchdown. No one knows how to tackle these days ...

• Dcstandup News Team: Swing Voter Guide 2004
• 527 Groups Explained (Chris White)
• Stump Speech '04 (Chris White)
• Iowa Caucus Spectacular (Chris White)

Shawn Westfall

Shawn is a quadruple threat -- he teaches improv classes as part of the DC Improv's comedy school, and he's an accomplished stand-up and sketch comedian, and he chips in written pieces from time to time.

5 Worst Dating Cities / Bad Guitar Names / Every News Story Retracted (5/16/05) / / Two Quizzes (11/20/06)

Jared Stern

If you've met and talked to Jared Stern, you probably figured he would never debase himself by writing comedy pieces for college newswpapers or Web sites. Well, you'd be WRONG, buster!

Computer Illiterate and Damn Proud / Summer Reading 2005

Bey Wesley

So far, Bey Wesley has chipped in the only short story on Dcstandup.com. And he tackles the serious issues, such as: What happens when you bring a dinosaur home to meet your parents for Christmas dinner?

Utah Raptor

Ben Isaac

Check out Ben Isaac's first contribution to the Reading Room, a recap of 2005 Thanksgiving/tense mystery caper. You won't be disappointed.

Thanksgiving Review

Mike Shader

What's it like to be in a comedy competition? Mike Shader shares his thoughts in this essay from June 2004, when he entered the Funniest Person in Baltimore contest.

A Night at the Factory