Rebecca Mead on Middlemarch

On a recent Friday evening, we headed all the way west on 37th Street to hear New Yorker writers recount stories about being that most exciting of things—a New Yorker writer. The event was the opening night of the blitz of panels, conversations and chances to see what writers look like that is the annual New Yorker Festival.

The hangar-like space was converted into a lounge with the addition of cafe tables and chairs. A cash bar offered wine, beer and snacks in serving bowls fashioned  to look like martini glasses. Snippets of conversation—overheard while we looked for a seat—sounded like, dare we say it, the premise of many a New Yorker cartoon.

“Did you buy a place?” we heard a woman sipping red wine ask.

“In the process,” her tablemate responded.

“How was Monterey?” someone squealed.

A woman seated alone waited for the show to start, clutching, appropriately enough, this week’s issue.

Andy Borowitz, the magazine’s humor writer, hosted. “When David Remnick asked me if I wanted to write for The New Yorker, I was so excited I said I would do that for free,” he said.

The editor, Mr. Borowitz said, apparently had the same idea.

Thus, the tone was set. Lauren Collins, in black ankle boots and a patterned dress, reminisced about throwing up on Donatella Versace while on assignment in Lake Como. When she confessed to Mr. Remnick, he made her include it in the story “as penance.” Nicholas Schmidle told a story about interviewing Russian arms dealer Victor Bout, who demanded a subscription in exchange for talking to the magazine. Mr. Schmidle no longer speaks to the inmate, but he does renew his gift subscription.

“The New Yorker makes a lovely gift and the holidays are just around the corner,” Mr. Borowitz said after Mr. Schmidle’s 10 minutes were up. “David Remnick will be selling subscriptions at intermission.” Mr. Remnick, who sat in the audience, stage right, looked amused.

“Did you know, David Remnick hasn’t read the magazine in the 14 years he has been the editor?” joked Mr. Borowitz. “He has them all in a pile on his bedside table, but he can’t seem to get to them.”

Rebecca Mead told a heartwarming story about finding herself while writing about Middlemarch. Film critic Anthony Lane held the mic and paced like a seasoned stand-up.

“When it happens, it’s like a dog that can dance,” Mr. Remnick told The Observer later. “Anthony Lane is a natural comedian.”

Will Mr. Remnick ever tell his story onstage?

“No one has asked me, and if drafted I will not run,” he said. “I swear to God. It’s mortifying enough to hear your name in someone’s story.”

Larry Wright, who closed the show, had the folksy charm of a storyteller at a campfire (he lives in Austin, Texas) as he talked about his 25,000-word story about Scientology. He described the fact-checking process with the notoriously touchy (and litigious) church. “I’ve come to think of the fact-checkers as very erudite and polite agents with the KGB,” he said.

Like everything else about the magazine on this evening, even the fact-checkers became the stuff of legend

7:30 p.m. Storyteller Andy Borowitz joins reading advocate John Corcoran, veteran firefighter Tom Ziegler and founder of a Rwanda charitable organization for orphans Marie-Claudine Mukamabano at The Moth for tonight's "The Moth: Put to the Test." Held at The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park South, admission is $25.  

8 p.m. "Piano on a Wire," is the first Women's Work 2009 concert, hosted by Beth Anderson at the Renee Weiler Concert Hall,  Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow Street.

8 p.m. Naughty By Nature will host a fundraiser and dance party to benefit the Women's Prison Association, DJ Cassidy, D-Nice and DJ Selly to spin. In South Paw, 125 5th Avenue, Brooklyn.

8 p.m.  CBS/NYC host "Holy Headshot Live!" a live version of Borelli and Douglas Gorenstein's book, Holy Headshot. Which features more than 50,000 headshots and resumés for a "humorous collection about actors and their big entertainment-industry dreams." At the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, 307 West 26th Street, between Eight and Ninth Avenues, tickets are $5.

6 p.m. The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School will host a discussion with Professor Robert Shiller to discuss his upcoming book, Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism.  In Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street.

6:30 p.m. Savoy Restaurant kicks off "celebration of cassoulet," 70 Prince Street.

6:30 p.m. Jimmy Breslin shares passages from his work during dinner at BAMcafe. Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn.

7:15 p.m. MoMa celebrates "Documentary Fortnight" with The Moth: Stories from Behind the Scenes of Nonfiction Film. The Moth presents five story tellers who are either documentary subjects or filmmakers themselves. At 11 West 53rd Street.

7:30 p.m. Theater Resources Unlimited and Back Stage host the panel, "Pitch Perfect: How to Present Your Projects and What a Producer Should Be Looking For." At The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street.

7:30 p.m. Opening night for Gotham Chamber Opera's presentation of Joseph Haydn's "L'isola Disabitata." At 899 Tenth Avenue. 

8 p.m. 3rd Ward hosts Drink N' Draw, an art party. B.Y.O.  drawing implements for evening featuring "alcohol and beautiful models." At 195 Morgan Avenue, between Meadow and Stagg Streets, in Brooklyn.   

10 p.m. The second-annual installment of Dr. Dre Day--his 44th Birthday: Featuring Nick Hook, Egg Foo Young, Cosmo Baker, Project Matt, and Dances With White Girls. Also promises of a live re-enactment of "The $20 Sack Pyramid." At Santos Party House, 100 Lafayette Street.

Ms. Sedaris was hosting “West Village Stories” last night on behalf of the Moth—the New York-based non-profit that hosts live storytelling events—at the Manhattan Penthouse above Union Square. The evening was sponsored by One Jackson Square, a yet-to-be-built luxury condominium in Greenwich Village. In a nod to Halloween, Ms. Sedaris, 46, was wearing a blue felt replica dress from the “Date Night” Barbie doll, which was created by her designer friend.

Urban conveniences like the one Ms. Sedaris recalls might soon come in handy for her yet again. Tonight’s Village Halloween Parade “goes outside my window, so I’m literally trapped in my apartment all night long. You can’t answer the phone because it’s so loud and it’s terrible, so I’m really…I have to stay or go out of the neighborhood and spend the night somewhere else,” she admitted in a theatrical frown.

With such prime spectator seating, Ms. Sedaris has seen more than a few memorable getups in recent years. Her favorite? “It was a skinny gay guy walking around, and he was emaciated-looking, and he was walking around like this”—she lurched around in a semi-circle with her arms raised—“You know, shoulders up like this. And he had a Super Man costume on, and it just looked really funny on him; like, ‘That’s Super Man?! Shriveled and old and bored?”’ she giggled.

Last night was apparently a rare departure in aesthetics for Ms. Sedaris, who admitted that she never dresses up for the holiday anymore. “I liked dressing up as a hobo; I did that a lot [as a child].”

Aside from hosting the odd Moth event, Ms. Sedaris spends her days “traveling and trying to push my book [I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence], like a stewardess. You know, you go somewhere for one week and then you come back, so I’ve just been living out of a little suitcase,” she said.