We saw Ira Glass and David Rakoff at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley on Saturday and it was SO COOL!! This American Life is one of our favorite NPR programs even though I have the annoying tendency of passing out within the first 5 minutes when we put it on at night (Ira’s voice is just so soothing! It’s like a lullaby for grown-ups. I can’t help myself). Before settling in with the moderator, they did this intro bit with Ira on the turntables mixing music into a hilarious piece on David’s childhood that he read from the other side of the stage. They don’t actually create the show that way anymore, what with modern studio technologies, a staff of a dozen or more and millions of listeners to please, but it was so cool to see the piece performed live, the way you hear it on the radio. David was hysterical, squirmingly uncomfortable in the spotlight and wielding his wit like a whip and Ira might have just bumped Gael Garcia Bernal off my list of 5 Exceptions (Adrian Grenier stays). Oh, and This American Life is the most downloaded podcast in the country. Did you know that? I didn’t either.
the navigatrix 
I was there too. The moderator was annoying, frequently interrupting Ira and David. It would have been much better if she would have shut up and let Ira and David do their thing.
She was pretty aggressive but on balance I still enjoyed the show. A lesson for me on the importance of being able to read your audience.
i found your blog looking for reviews of the show. i had tickets, but couldn’t make it, so i wanted to hear about what i missed.
i was surprised to get an email from calperfs saying that they’ve received a lot of negative feedback from the show.
sounds like it was a decent show with a bad moderator.
Does anyone know who the moderator was? I’m not sure if she even introduced herself, but I think she said she was a writer.
I agree with Carl –she interrupted too much and did this crazy hair-swinging thing when Ira said something especially funny.
I think she said she was a professor of journalism at Berkeley.