This Week's Events Announced at Caveat

Caveat - located at 21A Clinton Street between East Houston and Stanton in the Lower East Side, about a five minute walk from the Delancey F train - is New York's newest speakeasy stage for playful, intelligent nightlife. Join us for drinks and go home smarter. Our core creative team includes a recovering theoretical physicist, a renegade museum tour guide, and a one-time Moth StorySlam champion. That love for science and unconventional storytelling is at the heart of Caveat's booking philosophy: we regularly host comedy, science talks, storytelling, concerts, trivia competitions, live recorded podcasts, and special events that defy description... you'll have to come experience them for yourself!

Caveat's decor is Harvard Club meets CBGB - the wood paneled walls and library shelves hold images, artifacts and books from all corners of the academic world. Caveat seats about 120, with cabaret style tables, armchairs and bar stools. The venue was created with podcasting and filming in mind with a state-of-the art light and sound system. There's also a reading library/bookstore... when was the last time you went to a bar with a library? Our bar serves ten craft beers on tap, ten wines by the glass and by the bottle, a selection of ciders and digestifs, and some truly tasty specialty sodas. We are finalizing a menu but are currently serving imaginative grilled cheeses, charcuterie plates, spiced nuts, chocolate and popcorn. Beers average $8 a glass, wine around $10, small plates are $3 to $12. Check out our menu for all the details.

Featured Events This Week
Dedicate It with Baratunde Thurston Hosted by Emily Ludolph
Tuesday, December 19 - Doors at 7:00pm, Show at 7:30pm $15

Come hear the story behind author and comic Baratunde Thurston's NY Times bestseller How to Be Black and learn the story behind his dedication to the person who taught him to be "black, American, human and awesome."
Host Emily Ludolph finds the stories about the people and experiences that motivate our favorite writers, musicians, and scientists. Dedicate It examines the greatest dedications in history, holds intimate conversations with the people we admire most about the people they admire most, and hosts an open mic for everyone to make a dedication to someone who got them where they are today.

Baratunde Thurston is a futurist comedian, writer, and cultural critic who helped re-launch The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, co-founded Cultivated Wit and the About Race podcast, and wrote The New York Times bestseller How To Be Black. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy award as host of the Spotify/Mic series, Clarify, has advised the Obama White House and serves on the National Board of BUILD, Civic Hall Labs and the Data & Society Research Institute. He has been part of institutions such as Fast Company, TED, the MIT Media Lab, The Onion, and the gentrification of Brooklyn, New York. The ACLU of Michigan honored Baratunde Thurston "for changing the political and social landscape one laugh at a time."

Chasing Consciousness: The Great Artificial Intelligence Debate With Simon DeDeo and Erik Hoel
Wednesday, December 20 - Doors at 5:30pm, Show at 6:00pm $15
Artificial Intelligence - it seems you either love it, hate it, or don't know what it really means. Will thinking machines save us and enlighten us, or destroy us? Can we control what's happening with developments in machine learning, or are they already controlling us? Simon DeDeo and Erik Hoel will try to get to the bottom of it at Chasing Consciousness: The Great AI Debate! YHouse, Inc. is a nonprofit institute in New York City devoted to innovative and transdisciplinary research, intellectual partnership, and public discourse tackling humanity's greatest questions on awareness, consciousness, and the future of intelligence.

What is Life: What Did the First Life Look Like? Hosted by Carl Zimmer Featuring Kate Adamala and Donato Giovannelli

Wednesday, December 20 - Doors at at 7:30pm, Show at 8:00pm $20

The question "What is life?" takes just three words. But it is one of the hardest questions in science, attracting researchers from a huge range of disciplines, from molecular biology to astronomy to philosophy. This fall, science writer Carl Zimmer delves into this question by talking to eight experts over four nights to understand what the newest research tells us about life. For the December 20 event, Zimmer tackles the question "What did the first life look like?" with protobiologist Kate Adamala and microbial ecologist Donato Giovannelli.
Chris Duffy's You Get a Spoon with Mona Chalabi, Joanna Rothkopf and Anielle and Matthew

Thursday, December 21 - Doors at 7:00pm, Show at 7:30pm $10

At You Get a Spoon, Chris Duffy's hand-picked lineup of talented guests perform, and then each enthusiastically endorse things they love, which we give to the audience Oprah-style. Previous audience members have taken home candy bars, books, magazine subscriptions, kitchen appliances, nose flutes, and gaff tape. Every show, one lucky audience member receives a Tovolo mixing spoon (the greatest spoon in the universe). Guaranteed to be the most positive way to spend a Thursday night in New York City. Hosted by Chris Duffy (You're the Expert) with a presentation of artwork and data visualizations by Mona Chalabi (The Guardian, VICE), a reading by Joanna Rothkopf (managing editor of Jezebel), Americana-Pop by Anielle and Matthew, comedy from Chris Duffy, and prizes!

Additional Upcoming Events
The Longest Night: Write Your Reps Solstice Party
Hosted by Raj Sivaraman with
Chris Duffy, Brit Belsheim, Andrew Coalson, Harris Mayersohn, Kofi Thomas, Jay Welch, Jessy Morner-Ritt, Larry Owens, Matt Starr, Carolyn Busa, Emily Winter and music from Kim Boekbinder

Thursday, December 21 - Doors at 9:00pm, Show at 9:30pm $10

Come to Caveat and spend the evening writing letters to your representatives, hearing short recaps of each month of the year by comedians, and squeezing a few more laugh-cries with friends into this trash fire of a year. Winter Solstice 2017: The longest night of what feels like the longest f**king year of our lives. Let's do something good with it. It's always darkest just before the dawn, right? RIGHT?? *downs one more mulled wine* At The Longest Night, Caveat will have letter-writing materials and stamps on hand, as well as representative info, addresses and letter templates. A cavalcade of Caveat favorite comedians will be recapping 2017.

Kim Boekbinder is a noise witch, casting neon spells over shadowed rooms with her hypnotic synth incantations and pulsating basslines. Following up the success of 2013's electro alt-pop space epic The Sky is Calling, Kim released NOISEWITCH on September 8, 2017. The new album is danceable witch-pop; each song is a spell.
Pregame Your Brain: Saturnalia
Friday, December 22 at 6:00pm $7 - Free Drink with Ticket!
Get some post-work drinks in your face, and some brand new knowledge in your brain at Pregame Your Brain! Several stations of experts on the week's theme will be set up around the bar -- grab a drink, and choose your own adventure. Each expert has a 10 minute speed-lesson, so you can get the basics or go deep. Each week features experts on a different topic, so come back next week for all-new stuff! This week's theme: Saturnalia! You know that December holiday, celebrated for centuries? You know, you give gifts to loved ones, business and government are closed, you get drunk at parties with people you normally don't hang out with socially? Thats right, Saturnalia! The ancient Roman holiday of excess, turning social norms on their head, and sacrificing to the god Saturn. Way more ancient Saturnalia traditions made their way into the Christian Winter holiday than you think -- get ready to have your mind blown and feed your holiday spirit with interactive sacrifices.
PBS presents Bill Nye: Science Guy Documentary Film Screening Win Bill Nye Signed Posters, Books, Mugs at Post-Show Trivia Challenge!
Tuesday, December 26 - Doors at 7:00pm, Show at 7:30pm $10
Bill Nye is a man on a mission: to stop the spread of anti-scientific thinking across the world. The former star of the popular kids show Bill Nye The Science Guy is now the CEO of The Planetary Society, an organization founded by Nye's mentor, Carl Sagan, where he's launching a solar propelled spacecraft into the cosmos and advocating for the importance of science, research, and discovery in public life. With intimate and exclusive access--as well as plenty of wonder and whimsy--this behind-the-scenes portrait of Nye follows him as he takes off his Science Guy lab coat and takes on those who deny climate change, evolution, and a science-based world view. The film features Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ann Druyan, and many others.
"You Are Cordially Invited to a Fine Evening of Laughter" A Wes Anderson-Themed Variety Show
Hosted by Donald St Chang and featuring Magic from Jerry Burgos, Comedy from Fareekha Khan, Performance from Nicole Pasquale, Video Art from Shen Liu and Musical Storytelling from Steven Markow and Christopher Wood
Thursday, December 28 - Doors at 7:00pm, Show at 7:30pm $10
My Momma's Biscuits presents 7 Days of Kwanzaa
Thursday, December 28 - Doors at 9:30pm, Show at 10:00pm $10
Wikipedia calls Kwanzaa a week-long celebration that honors African heritage in African-American culture. My Momma's Biscuits say Kwanzaa is the most LIT holiday this side of Juneteenth! Join New York's fastest up-and-coming POC improv team as they take you through the 7 principles of Kwanzaa with stand-up, characters and improv comedy.
Happier Hour: Philosophy to Make Your Life Suck Less Hosted by Monica McCarthy