THE DAILY COLLEGIAN Kelsey Morns/Collegian The Taylor Eigsti Trio performs a set Tuesday night at the Schwab Auditorium. Becca Stevens also performed as a special guest. Renowned pianist jazzes auditorium By David Strader COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER Contemporary or not, Taylor Eigsti proved jazz is still kicking. The Taylor Eigsti Trio per formed a jazz show with special guest Becca Stevens at Schwab Auditorium Tuesday night as a part of the annual Center for the Performing Arts 2010 Jazz Presentation. George Trudeau, director for the Center for Performing Arts, said he was excited to finally host Eigsti's performance. "He's fabulous," Trudeau said. "Jazz is alive in these younger artists that are paving ground and freshening up the genre not that the genre necessarily needs freshening up. - In addition to Eigsti's three album releases, the 26-year old jazz pianist has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and has appeared on the covers of music magazines "Jazziz - and "Keyboard." The band played mostly origi nal music, but also played songs inspired by artists like Coldplay and Elliott Smith. Eigsti said that he enjoyed branching away from traditional jazz in this manner. "As jazz musicians, you grow up playing and loving jazz stan dards," he said. "But you look for new monumental standards from great artists like Elliott Smith." Eigsti's trio was completed by Harish Raghavan on both stand up bass and bass guitar, and, according to Eigsti, the "incom prehensible" Eric Harland on drums. Harland implemented a wide arrangement of percussion tech Stand-up star Jeri)/ Seinfeld finds himself a Broadway director By Mark Kennedy ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER NEW YORK One word seems to best describe Jerry Seinfeld's role as a Broadway director: reluctant. The TV and stand-up star said he began helping comedian Colin Quinn develop material for what would become Quinn's one-man stage show "Long Story Short" and then got roped into directing a work that traces global events from the caveman to the digital age in just 75 minutes. "There is very little perform ance comedy that works on his intellectual level. He's one of these guys that can do it. It just needed a form," Seinfeld said during a press event Tuesday to publicize the show. "I kind of challenged him to come up with a form and he did. And then once he did, I was kind of stuck getting involved with it." PENNSTATI I4TEI :Mine ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT "The turnout really speaks to the health of the jazz world." George Trudeau Center for the Performing Arts director niques throughout the night, ranging from the ringing bells to banging on music stands. The trio's special guest Becca Stevens joined on vocal accompa niment and also played some of her own original songs during the show Unlike the Taylor Eigsti Trio, Stevens' songs stepped away from jazz, as her first song was only her and her ukelele. When introducing Stevens' solo performance, Eigsti gave her a warm welcome. "This is a stage full of band leaders," he said. "And Becca is a truly exciting composer." Between 300 and 400 tickets were sold, according to Trudeau. "The turnout really speaks to the health of the jazz world," he said. 'And it's very good for a new up-and-coming artist like this." Steven Boyer (junior-meteorol ogy) said he was surprised by the crowd demographic for the event. "I didn't think contemporary jazz had this kind of audience," he said. "I was expecting a much younger crowd." Long-time jazz fan Sylvia Ruggeri said was great to see the genre represented in State College. "I love jazz like this," she said. "I got hooked on it when I was young and I've been buying records ever since." To e-mail reporter: dass46l@psu.edu In the show, Quinn the for mer host of MTV's late-1980s game show "Remote Control" and a "Saturday Night Live" cast member takes audiences through the history of the world, highlighting why empires always seem to fail. "This show is about how human nature just steps in every time and ruins everything," he said. The show debuted off- Broadway this summer to gener ally good reviews and now goes on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre for an 11-week run start ing Oct. 22. Seinfeld and Quinn, who met decades ago while working come dy clubs, said collaborating on this project was easy since they both know stand-up and have comple mentary talents. "I'm very smart about being funny and he's very funny about being smart," said Seinfeld. "He's Focus group to tackle religion Sex, religion and politics: They're topics that could be con sidered taboo in an academic set ting, but they were brought into the spotlight last week as part of the Life-Talk F'ocus Group series. These informal discussions, lasting an hour, comprise a three part series sponsored by the Scholar Assistant team of Simmons and Atherton Halls. The first two talks were held on Sept. 28 and Oct. 6 and dealt with politics, life, relationships and sex. The final discussion will be held tonight in Atherton Hall's Grandfather Clock Lounge and will discuss religion and faith. Meryn Oswald (junior-French and English) and Ben Fteimold (senior-nuclear engineering), will lead the discussions, bringing up topics such as abstinence, pornography and gay relation ships. The pair will act as moder ators, pushing their opinions aside and strictly asking ques tions. The two got the idea to host the talks after a panel discussion on faith last year moderated by Schreyer Honors College (SHC) British writer wins Booker Prize By Sylvia Hui ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER LONDON British writer Howard Jacobson won the presti gious Booker Prize Tuesday with his philosophical comedy "The Finkler Question," beating five other writers, including two-time winner Peter Carey and the book ies' favorite, Tom McCarthy. Jacobson, who had been on the long list twice for the 50,000 pounds ($80,000) prize but had never been shortlisted until this year, jokingly said he had pre pared acceptance speeches for over two decades before eventual ly winning the award. "I'm speechless," he began as he took to the stage at London's Guild Hall. "Fortunately I prepared one earlier. It's dated 1983, that is how long the wait's been." The 58-year-old, who has writ ten 15 novels, is known for his comic touch and his treatment of Jewish themes. His latest, he said, is a comedy about sorrow and loss. "I wanted to make the reader laugh and weep at the same moment," he said. Chief judge Andrew Motion called the book a "completely wor thy winner of this great prize." " 'The Finkler Question' is a really a smart guy that figured out how to be funny, and I'm smart about taking funny and figuring out how to pace it and organize it. So it was a good blend of skills." Quinn has been testing slivers of the show's material for years, but found comedy clubs weren't the best venues for intellectual humor. "They'll stay with you for about 30 minutes. Then they're like, All right, c'mon. Will some body talk about the lower half of the body, please? We get it: You're smart,' " he said. The one-man show is constantly being tweaked to add or remove topical elements. "We don't want it to end. At some point, it'll end. But it's fun to keep playing with it. It's like a car you keep tuning it," Seinfeld said. Asked how he knew what was funny on stage, Seinfeld dead panned: "I had a sitcom in the '9os," he said. Game Day Giveaway will return next week for the Minnesota game. Be sure to check out next Friday's paper for game piece #7! We only have 5 games before the winner is announced! This contest is open tp families are not - 5 P.M. Dr must be I Collagist to claim entrant. A. publication By Kristln Stoller FOR THE COLLEGIAN If you go What: Life-Talk Focus Group Series Discussion When: 9 tonight Where: Grandfather Clock Lounge in Atherton Hall Details: Open to Schreyer stu dents and Atherton and Simmons Halls residents. Dean Christian Brady. The biggest criticism was that the students wanted to be able to discuss their ideas in small groups, Reimold said. "It was coming out of a desire to talk about things that matter," Reimold said. The main reason for the talks was to foster a safe and healthy environment to discuss difficult topics in a respectful way, Reimold said. This year the discussions are only open to SHC members and other residents of Simmons and Atherton Hall in the hope of pro moting community values in those two areas. Joe Tucker (sophomore-elec trical engineering and mathemat- Six books were shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. Howard Jacobson's "The Finkler Question" beat the other contenders. marvelous book: very funny, of course, but also very clever, very sad and very subtle. It is all that it seems to be and much more than it seems to be." he said. Jacobson was competing against such strong contenders as Carey, an Australian who won Bookers in 1988 for "Oscar and Lucinda" and in 2001 for "True History of the Kelly Gang." His historical novel "Parrot and Olivier in America, - inspired by the American travels of French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, Colin Quinn, left, and Jerry Seinfeld discuss "Long Story Short," the one-man theatrical show moving to Broadway and directed by Seinfeld. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 13, 2010 I 5 ics), said he "stumbled into the talk" but ended up pleasantly sur prised. "I didn't have any expectations going in, but I definitely felt that it was a positive experience," Tucker said. "We touched on a variety of topics that affect stu dents daily. It was a great way to have a conversation with stu dents that I don't come into con tact with on a regular basis and collect different points of view on important issues." So far the moderators said attendance has been low, with only seven to nine people partici pating in the first two discussions. If the number of people in attendance increases tonight, Oswald and Reimold said they each plan to lead a smaller group in order to keep the small envi ronment originally desired. "It's unique," Oswald said. "Every year and major comes together to engage in intellectual discussions. If you can't talk about those three issues with your friends, what can you talk about?" The conversations will culmi nate in a larger panel on sex moderated by Brady, scheduled for 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 in the Grandfather Clock Lounge. was on this year's Booker short list. Lesser-known British writer McCarthy, was odds-on favorite for his experimental tale of time and technology, "C." McCarthy's story of a techhology-obssessed 20th-century everyman has drawn comparisons to James Joyce. The other contenders include "Room" by Irish-Canadian writer Emma Donoghue, "In a Strange Room" by South Africa's Damon Galgut; and "Small Island" author Andrea Levy's "The Long Song."
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