Make 'Em Laugh: A Celebration of James Thurber

Roz Chast has been a regular contributor of cartoons to The New Yorker since 1978. She is the author and illustrator of the graphic memoirs Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York, which won the New York City Book Award, and Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, a New York Times bestseller and 2014 National Book Award Finalist. In 2012, she was awarded the NYC Literary Honor in Humor by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and in 2015, she was honored with 20th Annual Heinz Award for the Arts and Humanities and the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year. Chast also served as guest editor of The Best American Comics 2016. Most recently, Chast partnered with writer Patria Marx on two books, Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?: A Mother's Suggestions and You Can Only Yell at Me for One Thing at a Time: Rules for Couples. Chast and Marx also make up the ukulele power duo Ukulear Meltdown.

Jane Kaczmarek is best known for her role as Lois on Malcolm in the Middle, for which she received 7 consecutive Emmy nominations as well as nominations for the Golden Globe and SAG Awards. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Yale School of Drama, Kaczmarek made her television debut on The Paper Chase and Hill Street Blues and most recently can be seen on The Big Bang Theory, This Is Us, Carol's Second Act, and Mixed-ish. In New York, Kaczmarek has appeared on Broadway and off at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, the Public Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, and 6 seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her recent theater credits include in Long Day's Journey Into Night, Our Town with Deaf West Theatre, and The Year to Come at La Jolla Playhouse. Kaczmarek’s favorite job is raising her three kids and reading/hosting Selected Shorts across America.

Michael McKean has been at it, whatever it is, for a long time. He is recognized for film and television roles including Laverne & Shirley, Young Doctors in Love, This Is Spinal Tap, Clue, Coneheads, Saturday Night Live, The Brady Bunch Movie, Best in Show, The X-Files, A Mighty Wind, Food: Fact or Fiction?, and recent turns on Better Call Saul, for which he won a Satellite Award, the adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel Good Omens, Grace and Frankie, The Good Place, At Home with Amy Sedaris, and Breeders. McKean has appeared on stage in productions of The Pajama Game, Our Town, Superior Donuts, King Lear, All the Way, The Little Foxes, and The True. He is also a Grammy winner for the title song in the film A Mighty Wind, shared with regular collaborators Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy. For the same film, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow,” which he co-wrote with his wife, Annette O’Toole. McKean will appear in the forthcoming film Playing God and the series Rugrats, as Grandpa Lou Pickles.

Kristine Nielsen’s Broadway credits include Taylor Mac's, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, which earned her a Tony nomination, The Iceman Cometh, The Greenbird, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dangerous Liaisons, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, for which she won an Outer Critics Circle Award, You Can’t Take It With You, and Present Laughter. On screen, Nielsen has appeared in Political Animals, NBC’s The Sound of Music Live!, Happyish, Elementary, Blue Bloods, Little Voice, Z: The Beginning of Everything, Prodigal Son, The Bug Diaries, and FBI: Most Wanted. She can be seen in the forthcoming Julian Fellowes series, The Gilded Age.

Keith Olbermann is a sportscaster for ESPN and retired news anchor and political commentator, currently in his fifth separate tenure with the network, hosting ESPN's flagship program SportsCenter. He also provided the voice for the newscaster character on the critically acclaimed Netflix series BoJack Horseman, and performed The James Thurber Audio Collection for HarperCollins in 2011. He has previously anchored telecasts of events ranging from the presidential inauguration, to the Super Bowl, to a presidential debate, to the World Series, and he has hosted sports and news programs for NBC, CNN, Fox Sports, ABC Radio, GQ magazine, United Press International, and several local television stations. The 1995 Cable Ace Award winner for Best Sportscaster, Olbermann has written five books.

Susannah Rogers' recent credits include the world premiere of Amy Freed’s Shrew! at South Coast Repertory, All the Way, starring Bryan Cranston, on Broadway and the American Repertory Theatre in Boston, The Monster Builder at South Coast Repertory, and the American premiere of You Will Remember Me at Hudson Stage Company. Television and film credits include Gotham, The Path, Mr. Robot, Younger,The Diary of a Teenage Girl, adapted and directed by Marielle Heller, Trouble, written and directed by Theresa Rebeck, and the short film Aperture.

One of the 20th century's foremost humorists, James Thurber (1894 - 1961) joined The New Yorker in 1927. Much of his distinctive prose and illustrations were created for its pages and collected in some some thirty books. These include Men, Women and Dogs; The Years with Ross; his autobiography, My Life and Hard Times; the play The Male Animal; The Thurber Carnival, a theatrical revue that won a Special Tony Award in 1960; and the renowned story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” twice adapted to film. In honor of Thurber’s legacy, the Thurber Prize for American Humor has recognized outstanding comedic writing since 1997. This year ushers in two new Thurber collections: Collected Fables and A Mile and a Half of Lines: The Art of James Thurber, both edited by Michael J. Rosen.