Message to Laughter Team Two Days Before “Talk to Em” Comedy Show
I recently found this email, and I wanted to post it here so that those who are interested can have some more background on the “Talk to Em” Comedy show. The final part of the Stanford Address Trilogy is called “Come Correct” and it will be delivered on June 13, 2018.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017, 10:34AM PST:
Hello Team,
This email is to say thank you. It is hard to believe that we are only two days away from this comedy show at last. We could not have reached this point without you. Even if all you did was give me your email, you still made it possible, because I referenced the size of this email distribution when we were trying to book CEMEX Auditorium.
Since you’ve been so supportive, I want to give you a little background. This comedy show all started on Monday, October 3, 2016 at around 3pm, by the Highland Hall Coffee machine in a chance encounter with JB Monu. JB Monu told me that he’d seen the law school comedy set, and he said I should make one for the GSB. I essentially freaked out at the time because I knew how hard this would be, and I was very against doing it. However, about a week later, there was a chance lunch encounter with Maria Gavriliouk, Ryan Hollander, and Paulo Macedo, and they thought it was a good idea. The problem was that, at that moment in time, I just didn’t have the material yet, so I still felt like it would have to be a 2018 project. But over that month, as we adjusted to the GSB, and, as I contrasted the GSB with SLS, all these ideas started to pop into my head. I also started speaking with the encyclopedia himself, my roommate, Adam Allcock, during this time to figure out how logistically we could do this. Because I have so much love for both my MBA and JD classmates, we knew there was really only one venue that could hold all the people who might come, from both schools, and still have the same small feel we want: CEMEX Auditorium (which could be its own email lol). I finally made up my mind to go ahead with this project on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 through a chance 3am copy-room encounter with Dana Hou and Dan Wu. They were so confident that we should move this project forward, that I figured, oh what the heck. Could be fun. So I called back the old team from “The Good News” — Mary was literally at the UN in Vienna, and Josh is now like the wise-TA 3L guy — and on Friday, November 4, 2016 I submitted an official proposal to Stanford University for “Talk to Em.” As a testament to Adam’s planning, the date we proposed all the way back then was Thursday, February 16, 2017. We wanted to reach you right after midterms, right after Vegas FOAM (MBAs), right after Valentine’s Day, and right before the President’s Day holiday weekend. Since then we‘ve just been grinding away, and it has been even harder than I thought it was going to be, but it’s also been more fun than I thought too!
It is now time for me to sign-off, as I will be going into incommunicado mode, as I polish the final act. I know some people are almost vicariously nervous for me. I want to say something about that: don’t worry about me. When I was 6 years old, my father used to take me to St. Pius X Catholic Church and I think I became the youngest lector they ever had. I would speak in front of 300 people back then doing the First or Second reading at Mass. At first my Dad would stand next to me and I would just say “The Word of the Lord,” but quickly I started going up there by myself and doing the whole reading. I think something odd happened in the development of my brain at this tender age, because I was so young at the time, and now stages are like my happy place. So don’t be nervous because I will likely be having the time of my life.
One final thing, just for you all: “Talk to Em” is a phrase from the African-American community. You can hear it at church, and you can hear it even in hip hop. Basically, when someone says something that needs to be said, that is so true, that is so unapologetic, then you tell that speaker to “Go ahead. TALK TO EM.”
Thank God for you all. Keep the good vibes coming!
See you on the other side.
Signing off,
George