Jennifer Dziura: What Philosophy Majors Do After College @ Ars Nova - 2.19.9By: Abbi Crutchfield
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 8:25AM 
Photo: Abbi Crutchfield
The shame of a corndog-class upbringing has fueled more than one career in New York City and comedian Jen Dziura's is no exception. In her one-person show, What Philosophy Majors Do After College, Jen wrestles with finding a professional purpose that measures up to her Ivy degree and Mensa membership card. Getting a desk job was easy. Pretending it was enjoyable was hard.
She began in her apartment, striking a dialogue with a bust of Socrates (who responded in voiceover). Fans of Dziura's popular live quiz shows could enjoy her trademark wit and enthusiasm for epistemology. Through the teachings of over a dozen famous philosophers (whose ponderings were illustrated via slides of pop culture icons), Dziura shared the key stages of her life that define her today. Her disdain for multi-level marketing was reflected in teen angst towards her mother, "If you could make $50,000 a year selling Avon you'd be a millionaire in a real business." She lamented her inclination to wear dress shoes at the beach in her college years, a self-proclaimed "Richard Nixon in a world of JFKs," but stood behind her pragmatic approach to feminism, "People give horrible [professional] advice to women ... The Fortune 500 is entirely free of people who make things out of yarn." Her story on donating herself to science for money was both hilarious and heart wrenching, as was hearing about the troops in Kuwait whose night of watching her perform may have been their last.
Dziura's topic is relatable to most floundering twenty-somethings, especially those of us who decided not to be brokers. Her show has substance, heart, and rapid-fire laughs. It's a gripping college lecture without a windbag professor."
Abbi Crutchfield is a standup comic and co-producer of The Living Room.
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Reader Comments (4)
Oh and hey, Jen and I will be co-hosting the Math Bee this Wednesday at 7pm at Chelsea Market! Please drop by for some math fun!!