Go Postal at the Hideout Tonight

By Melissa Feldsher in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 20, 2009 2:40PM

The Post-It note was developed accidentally by Dr. Spencer Silver. Were Dr. Silver present at the upcoming Post-It Note reading series, we hope he’d surely approve of the appropriation of his creation. Developed as an anecdote to workplace boredom, Arthur Jones created daily drawings on Post-It notes until friend and This American Life contributor Starlee Kine asked Jones to contribute to a literary series. Like chocolate and peanut butter, Kine and Jones quickly discovered illustrating stories in front of a backdrop of Post-It note illustrated PowerPoints (think: Steven Colbert’s “The Word” but with Post-Its) was an idea that was made to stick.

Since that fateful confluence, the Post-It Note shows have featured writes familiar to the This American Life family like David Rakoff, Jonathan Goldstein, and Joshua Bearman and look beyond the NPR beltway to include comedian Dave Hill and guitarist Woody Sullender. Jones claims the success of the shows lies in playing it fast and loose: “It's not them getting up in front of a crowd to do a traditional ‘reading’; it's more like they're reading a comic book out loud."

After we caught Starlee Kine’s Post-It Note illustrated tale of pillow-assisted faux matricide at the Chicago theatre this Sunday as part of TAL Live!, we couldn’t help but ask for more. Write yourself a note to check out Jones, Kine, and company at the Hideout tonight.

The Post-It Note Reading Series, Monday April 20, 8:00 p.m., The Hideout, 1354 W Wabansia, $8