MaxFunCon

Activity Signups are now available for MaxFunCon.

Each attendee should sign up for *one* activity in Session A and a second activity in Session B. Please sign up for an activity in each session, and please only sign up for one activity in each session.

Advance signups are now closed. If you haven't yet signed up for activities, don't worry, you'll have the opportunity to do so when you check in at the conference center.

Labels: Education, Entertainment

Much of the schedule at MaxFunCon will include all attendees. Everyone will be at our comedy shows and podcast tapings, our keynote talks, parties and of course meals.

On Saturday, however, we'll have two schedule blocks with elective activities. These include outdoor fun, seminars, classes and workshops.

Space is and will be limited for these classes, so we're offering signups, starting Monday the 18th of May. Signups will be on a first come, first served basis, so if you have strong preferences, plan to sign up on the 18th.

Here's what we've got on tap:

Cooking with Julia Crookston
Crafting with Jenny Ryan
Dr. Cocktail on 10 Things You Didn't Know About Cocktails
Lake shore hike with Nick White
Improv with Jordan Morris
Group Creativity with Kasper Hauser
Relax & Enjoy - Unstructured time by the pool or lake
& Ultimate Frisbee game with Casey

All activities will be offered in both time blocks, with the exception of Jordan's improv class. Jordan will be offering a class for novice improvisers in the first block, and folks with improv experience in the second.

Come the 18th, we'll offer a link to signups, and ask that you sign up for one activity in Session A and one activity in Session B.

If you don't sign up in advance, you will of course be able to sign up upon arrival, but due to space restrictions, some activities are likely to be full.

Labels: 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).

Speakers
John Hodgman: Benediction
Andrew WK: On Being Awesome
Jad Abumrad: On Radiolab

Friday Night Comedy
Jonathan Coulton
Kasper Hauser
Clifford & Kidd
Elephant Larry

Saturday Night Comedy
Marc Maron
Maria Bamford
Jimmy Pardo
Al Madrigal

Podcasts
Never Not Funny
Jordan, Jesse, Go!
You Look Nice Today

Education
Kasper Hauser on Group Creativity
Jenny Ryan on Crafts
Dr. Cocktail on Cocktail History
Put This On Presents Will Boehlke of A Suitable Wardrobe on Dressing Gentlemanly
Jordan Morris on Improvisation
Maria Bamford's Comedy Open Mic
Neal Pollack's Yoga for Comedy Nerds

Labels: Education, Entertainment

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

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

Merlin Mann is the founding editor of 43folders.com, a family of websites about personal productivity, “life hacks” and simple ways to make your life a little better. In addition to performing with You Look Nice Today, Merlin will address MaxFunCon on the subject of farting into a jar and keeping it forever.

Merlin was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised on Florida’s humid Suncoast. In his senior year of high school, Merlin dropped his 1st period BASIC class so he could strum Major7 chords in the school’s stage band. Somewhere in this is a story that should tell you much of what you need to know about him.

In 1990 -- despite turning in a wildly mediocre thesis on the ideological hegemony of television -- Merlin was kindly awarded a B.A. from the prestigious New College of Florida.

Past lives have found Merlin toiling as a web developer, project manager, waiter, hardware store remodeler, court room exhibit designer, reluctant telemarketer, and enthusiastic but unprofitable indie rock musician.

Merlin's writing has been carried in fine periodicals like WIRED, Make, Popular Science, and MacWorld, while 43 Folders has been featured favorably in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Time, and The Wall Street Journal, to name a few.

43 Folders is currently enjoyed by over 2,500,000 unique (and very good-looking) visitors each year, with an oddly popular RSS feed that apparently gets loaded over 100,000 times every day. There’s just no accounting for taste, is there?

Aside from writing for 43 Folders, Merlin is also the creator of The Merlin Show, 5ives, and 30 Seconds with Phone Guy. And, in addition to doing an occasional podcast for 43 Folders, Merlin is a host on the popular MacBreak video podcast as well as appearing as a regular guest on the MacBreak Weekly audio roundtable.

More recently, Merlin's become a sought-after speaker and presenter, who's received rave reviews for delivering his energetic productivity talks at Apple, Google, Yahoo!, Adobe, Xerox PARC, as well as many other esteemed companies and organizations.

Merlin currently does most of what he does in front of a Mac in the western third of San Francisco, California, where the climate is foggy, the pork xiu mai is plentiful, and his gorgeous wife and daughter are within arm’s reach.

Labels: Education

Charlie Todd will be giving a talk on his comedy cum performance art group Improv Everywhere.

Charlie Todd is the founder of Improv Everywhere, producing, directing, performing, and documenting the group's work for over seven years. He is also a teacher and performer of improv comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. New York Magazine called him "One of the 10 funniest people you haven't heard of." Now that you've heard of him that doesn't mean much.

Labels: Education

Kasper Hauser, one of the country's most acclaimed sketch comedy groups, will be performing as part of our Friday night sketch show. They'll also be leading two workshops.

Kasper Hauser has headlined many of the best comedy clubs and festivals in the U.S. and won the Herald Angel award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They cowrote and starred in the feature films "Fishing with Gandhi" and "Cow Monkey," and have appeared on Comedy Central. Their podcast was nominated for a Rooftop Comedy award for "Best Comedy Podcast," and was chosen as one of the "Best of iTunes" by the iTunes staff. Their book, "SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy From A Plane," was probably the only book ever to be lauded by both Dave Barry and the late David Foster Wallace.

Time Out New York called the group's work "inspired lunacy," adding "this quartet is one of the few comedy teams which has rightfully earned the description 'Pythonesque.'"

Labels: Education, Entertainment

Jordan Morris is an actor, writer, television and podcast personality based in Los Angeles. He's seen regularly on Fuel TV's The Daily Habit, and heard weekly on the award-winning podcast Jordan, Jesse GO!. He's also an experienced improviser, and an improv instructor, certified by The Upright Citizens' Brigade Theater in Los Angeles.

Morris will be sharing his improv expertise for both experienced improvisers, and those who've never improvised before.

Labels: Education

Mark Frauenfelder and Xeni Jardin are editors of Boing Boing, a directory of wonderful things. The site is one of the world's most renowned blogs.

Frauenfelder founded Boing Boing as a print zine, bOING bOING, in 1988. He's an accomplished writer and illustrator, and has published a number of books on technology and culture.


Jardin is a tech journalist, whose work outside of the BoingBoing Blog includes reporting for National Public Radio, hosting Boing Boing TV, and writing for Wired magazine.

Labels: Education