| Thursday, August 20, 2009 |
| MaxFunCon 2009 |
MaxFunCon is a convocation of awesome people who seek to become more awesome.
MaxFunCon is a destination vacation -- a chance to luxuriate in the mountains of Southern California and be entertained by world class funny people.
MaxFunCon is a place to learn -- how to make something, how to do something, how to be more awesome.
MaxFunCon is, above all, a coming together. We hope you will make your new best friends here.
Bullshit aside, MaxFunCon is an intimate, weekend-long gathering created by MaximumFun.org, the web community and online home of the public radio program The Sound of Young America, its blog, and its affiliated podcasts. Join us June 12th through 14th, 2009, and be entertained, informed and befriended.Labels: Introduction |
posted by Jesse Thorn @ 1:42 PM  |
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| Wednesday, February 4, 2009 |
| Venue & Accomodations |
 MaxFunCon is hosted by the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, a lodge-style resort that's been in operation since the early 1920s. The center is set just off beautiful Lake Arrowhead, a secluded mountain lake two hours east of Los Angeles. Extensive facilities include sports fields and courts, swimming pool and indoor jacuzzi, a network of beautiful craftsman lodges and even a treehouse and "frontier village."
 Guests stay in "condolets," double-occupancy mountain lodges with individual bedrooms and bathrooms and a fireplace in every living room. Gourmet food is cooked on site, and all accomodations, meals and refreshments are included in your conference registration.Labels: Accomodations, MaxFunCon, Venue |
| posted by Jesse Thorn @ 11:54 AM |
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| Tuesday, February 3, 2009 |
| Registration and Payment |
Priority registration is no longer available for MaxFunCon 2009 (see below).
MaxFunCon is currently sold out. HOWEVER: if you're interested in attending, please email waitlist@maxfuncon.com. We are going to work hard to open up some more slots, and it's possible some people who are already registered will withdraw. If you want to come, I want to help you come, so drop a line to get on the waiting list.
The etc:
$200 of your registration is a non-refundable deposit. Registered guests may cancel their reservation for a partial refund ($390) by May 1st, 2009. If the event should be canceled by the organizers for any reason, you will receive a full $590 refund.
If you cannot afford to pay the full ticket price now, we understand. We can arrange for you to pay your deposit now, and the balance by December 1st. Contact Jesse (jesse at maximumfun.org) to make arrangements.
Children are welcome to come to the Con, but please understand that the content, including the comedy shows, hasn't been programmed with children in mind. There will be swearing, innapropriate topics, and stuff that kids will find boring. However, if for example you and a spouse wish to bring children and alternate childcare, you are more than welcome to do so, and discount rates are available for children who will be staying with their parents. The facility has sports fields and equipment, hiking areas and of course Lake Arrowhead is quite nearby. If you wish to bring children, please email Jesse - jesse@maximumfun.org.
Labels: Registration |
| posted by Jesse Thorn @ 12:16 PM |
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| Monday, February 2, 2009 |
| Entertainment & Education |
MaxFunCon is about being more awesome, and we've put together a comprehensive program of delightful entertainments and fascinating education. We'll add more to the list as they are confirmed (and of course the lineup is subject to change).
Keynote Address:
Thrill as John Hodgman (above), author of "The Areas of My Expertise" and "More Information Than You Require," resident expert on The Daily Show, and pseudo-actor in film and television offers his wit and wisdom to the gathered masses.
Podcasts:
Saturday afternoon, enjoy live tapings of some of the world's best comedy podcasts:
Never Not Funny
You Look Nice Today: A Journal of Emotional Hygiene
Jordan, Jesse GO!
Standup:
Saturday night, enjoy a blowout standup comedy spectacular, with some of the best standup comics in the country:
Maria Bamford
Tig Notaro
Jasper Redd
Chris Hardwick
Kasper Hauser
& More
Funny Music:
Who knew that funny music doesn't have to be awful? Join us Friday night at the mountain amphitheater for an evening of music that makes you laugh, with
Jonathan Coulton
& Hard & Phirm
and your host: Jimmy Pardo
Socializing:
Join your fellow MaxFunsters for a welcome reception Friday afternoon, with beer, wine, soft drinks and special punch prepared by Dr. Cocktail. Saturday night, frolic, dance and enjoy beer, wine, soft drinks and five historical cocktails hand-selected by the good doctor.
Educational:
You could spend all your time swimming or playing volleyball, but why not learn to be more awesome instead? Authors, thinkers and doers will help you learn stuff to impress your friends and win smartness contests. Also, how to make marshmallows.
Doing Creative Work with Merlin Mann
Wonderful Things with Mark Frauenfelder & Xeni Jardin
Improv Everywhere with Charlie Todd
Working Creatively in a Group with Kasper Hauser
Improvising with Jordan Morris
Cooking with Julia Crookston
10 Things You Didn't Know About Cocktails with Dr. Cocktail
& MoreLabels: Education, Entertainment |
| posted by Jesse Thorn @ 2:00 PM |
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| Sunday, September 21, 2008 |
| Preliminary Schedule |
Scroll to June 12-14th, 2009 to check out the preliminary schedule for MaxFunCon!
Please note that this is entirely preliminary and subject to change.Labels: Education, Entertainment |
| posted by Jesse Thorn @ 4:12 PM |
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| Friday, September 12, 2008 |
| Now on Upcoming.org and Facebook! |
| We've added MaxFunCon to Upcoming.org and Facebook. RSVP! Invite a friend!! |
| posted by Jesse Thorn @ 12:31 PM |
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| Tuesday, July 29, 2008 |
| Your Host: Jesse Thorn of MaximumFun.org |
 Thorn (right) interviews Stephen Colbert in 2007
Jesse Thorn is the host and curator of MaxFunCon, and the proprietor of maximumfun.org, a website about things that are awesome. The site is the home of Thorn's nationally syndicated public radio program, The Sound of Young America, as well as the podcasts Jordan, Jesse Go!, The Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast, Coyle & Sharpe: The Imposters and more.
Thorn, 27, is the youngest nationally syndicated public radio host in history, and can be heard on the airwaves of major public radio stations like WNYC in New York and WHYY in Philadelphia. The Sound of Young America was the first public radio show west of the Mississippi to podcast, and is widely seen as a trailblazer in the convergence of public and new media.
Thorn and The Sound of Young America have been featured in Time Magazine, Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and even the Santa Cruz Good Times.Labels: Education, Entertainment |
| posted by Jesse Thorn @ 1:24 PM |
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| Monday, July 28, 2008 |
| Entertainment: John Hodgman: Keynote Address |
John Hodgman will be offering the Keynote Address of MaxFunCon 2009.
John Hodgman is a contributing writer for publications including The New York Times Magazine. He wrote an advice column for McSweeney's for over a year entitled "Ask a Former Professional Literary Agent," and currently curates and hosts the Little Gray Book Lectures—a monthly series that has been broadcast on This American Life. He now appears regularly on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. He lives in New York City with his wife and children on the Upper West Side.Labels: Entertainment |
| posted by Jesse Thorn @ 7:30 PM |
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| Sunday, July 27, 2008 |
| Entertainment: Jonathan Coulton |
 Comic singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton headlines our Friday night music show at MaxFunCon.
Jonathan Coulton is the Contributing Troubadour for Popular Science magazine and the musical director for John Hodgman’s Little Gray Book Lectures. He recently accompanied Hodgman on his book tour, singing songs about hobos and furry lobsters, all while wearing a funny hat. His songs about vengeful nerds, ennui-afflicted clowns, self-loathing giant squids, and devotees of a certain Swedish prefab furniture store are insanely clever without ever being too clever for their own good. They repeatedly lure you into laughing before suddenly breaking your heart. And the sick part is, you keep coming back. Coulton's is the voice of every spooky elementary school kid who could never quite keep his shirt tucked in or shoes tied; every lovelorn mason and mad scientist; every one of us who has ever sat despairingly on the floor, surrounded by parts of an Ikea endtable, weeping over our allen wrenches.
In 2005-2006 he recorded and published a new song every week as a free podcast called Thing a Week. This rate of output wouldn't be so astonishing if the songs weren't so constently well-written and produced. A few of these songs have become full-fledged internet smashes: his folky cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back," a visual ode to Creative Commons called "Flickr," and of course "Code Monkey," the anthem of software designers everywhere. The office zombie song "Re: Your Brains" made the Dr. Demento Funny 25 countdown for 2006. But it's the less obvious ones that sneak up on you and punch you right in the chest - the song about George Plimpton that makes you want to get out there and do something that really matters, or the song about an office crush that you're certain was written about you and that girl you keep meaning to ask out on a date.
A fully independent musician with the heart of a geek, Coulton has a pioneering (and so far, surprisingly successful) plan to make a living as a niche artist. He's passionate about Creative Commons, and releases all his music under a CC license that allows for file sharing and copying, as well as non-commercial derivative works. And his community of fans has rallied around him to generate airplay on hundreds of podcasts, create a library of music videos, and even set up gigs through Eventful.com.
All songs from the Thing a Week project are now available on CD, either individually or in a charmingly packaged box set - an entire year's worth of songs from a bold experiment in independent musicianship and internet superstardom.Labels: Entertainment |
| posted by Jesse Thorn @ 2:43 PM |
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| Friday, July 25, 2008 |
| Entertainment: Maria Bamford |
 Maria Bamford & Blossom the Pug
Maria Bamford will be performing at our Saturday night standup comedy showcase.
What 37-year old comedian stars in her own web sitcom on SuperDeluxe.com, starred in the Comedy Central series, "The Comedians of Comedy Tour" (as well as in the independent film of the same title out on NETFLIX), is in Variety's TOP TEN COMICS TO WATCH, has been the talk of Montreal, Edinburgh, Aspen, Kilkenny and Melbourne Comedy Festivals and was voted by Comedy Central viewers as one of their Top Ten Favorite Comics? ME! MARIA BAMFORD! That's who, sweetpeas! Maria started her performing arts career in Duluth, Minnesota at the age of 11 where she starred in the Chester Park Elementary production of "How the West Was REALLY Won!" (Conservative message that didn't include the perspective of indigenous nations). A short 24 years of self-discovery and secretarial work later, look at her now! She is certainly on some kind of predestined journey! - NETFLIX "The Comedians of Comedy Tour"
- Comedy Central's "The Comedians of Comedy Tour"
- Los Angeles Magazine's COMIC TO WATCH (2005)
- LA WEEKLY Pick of the Week
- Variety's Top Ten Comics to Watch
- Late Night with Conan O'Brien
- The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
- Comedy Central Presents...Maria Bamford
- Comedy Central: Premium Blend, USO Tour,
World Comedy, Tough Crowd - International TV: ROVE LIVE, THE GLASS HOUSE, THE GALA
- Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor on PRI
- Best in the Festival Melbourne Comedy Festival Winner
Labels: Entertainment |
| posted by Jesse Thorn @ 12:49 PM |
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