How To Cure A Hangover

By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 15, 2010 11:10PM

Thanks to the recent heat wave, we've actually been making it out to bars lately. Otherwise, we would just sit at home and drink pants-less in front of the TV. Either way, we're hungover the next day. Thankfully, Neo-Futurists' Sean Benjamin and Steve Mosqueda of the Drinking & Writing Brewery Radio Show may have found the perfect remedy. Every Saturday at 4 p.m. until the end of January, they'll be performing Drinking & Writing Volume III: How to Cure A Hangover in Andersonville at Hopleaf Bar.

As in all their shows, Benjamin and Mosqueda are exploring that undivorceable marriage between creativity and alcohol. To make the show as factual and honest as possible, they did their research: the alcohol-soaked words of writers Charles Bukowski, John Cheever, and Kingsley Amis were read. Various hangover cures were tried. A script was written. "How to Cure a Hangover" was born.

Benjamin said the performance attempts to recreate a night out with literary friends. So yes, everyone — performers and audience alike — is encouraged to drink. There are bursts of prose readings littered with jokes and lofty statistics. There is a script, but Benjamin and Mosqueda wrote it. So the voice and personality of the show are theirs.

If you prefer liquor with your literature or are simply fascinated by the unusual cult of people that do, this show might make for the perfect Saturday afternoon. Last week they had to turn people away. So get there early. Due to the nature of the performance, you can always drink while you are waiting for it to start.