While the Girls Are Away

A A A Comments (0) By Susan Froyd Thursday, Jan 28 2010

Poor Matthew Taylor. When Linda Klein and Barbara Gehring, his mates from the improv comedy group A.C.E., hit the big time with their long-running show Girls Only, Taylor was left twiddling his thumbs, right? Wrong. At Klein’s suggestion, he began to compile a cascade of wonderfully expressed personal stories and put them down on paper. And just to make sure those stories really did induce a universal, everyman tone in the mold of public radio’s This American Life, Taylor began to host informal readings at Forest Room 5 to test them on the public.

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That was two years ago, and the result of his workshopping series will be a book, Goatlips, which is set for publication later this year. The title narrative, by the way, sets the tone: It tells the story of Taylor’s audition to be the lips of a goat for a commercial. And in that capsule alone, you can taste the humor and the nakedness of being human. Delivered in the same vein as A.C.E.’s comedy, the anecdote is indicative of what Taylor calls “inclusive” performance — or, more to the point, “David Sedaris lite.”

While you’re waiting for Goatlips to come out (when it does, Taylor says, his goal is “to have a copy in every single bathroom in America and a CD of it in every car”), you can stop by for an installment of Matthew Taylor’s Happy Hour Story Time, which moves tonight to the Tattered Cover LoDo, 1628 16th Street. The fun, along with wine, beer and snacks, begins at 6:30 p.m.; admission is free, but reservations are required. Call 303-322-6750 or e-mail linda@ACEcomedy.com.
Mon., Feb. 1, 6:30 p.m., 2010