Author, columnist, and comedian Steve Hofstetter is often called the hardest working man in show-business. With all due respect to the late James Brown.
Hofstetter's national TV debut came on ESPN's Quite Frankly, where Stephen A. Smith yelled at him for three minutes. Hofstetter has also appeared on CBS' "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson", Showtime's "White Boyz in the Hood", VH1's "Countdown", Sundance's "On the Road in America", and ABC's "Barbara Walter's Special", where he thankfully did not cry. He is the host and executive producer of "Laughs" on Fox networks, where he only cries occasionally.
One of the top booked acts on the college circuit, the original writer for collegehumor.com has also released six albums. Hofstetter has written humor columns for the New York Times, SportsIllustrated.com, and NHL.com, where he publicly admitted to being a Ranger fan.
After hosting Four Quotas on Sirius Satellite Radio for two seasons, Hofstetter moved to broadcast radio, and his Sports Minute (Or So) was syndicated on over 170 stations and in over 30 newspapers. Hofstetter's second live comedy album ("Cure For the Cable Guy") reached #20 on Billboard's comedy charts. His third album ("Dark Side of the Room") was the first ever pay-what-you-want" comedy album, since people were going to steal it anyway. His fourth album consisted of an hour of 100% ad-libbed material, which is, frankly, nuts. And his fifth album hit #1 on iTunes' comedy charts, which is also a bit nuts.
Hofstetter's brutal tour schedule consists of over 100 colleges and dozens of clubs every year, and is fueled by an immense online popularity, tons of press, and a Prius with great gas mileage. He reached 200,000 friends on Facebook (still the world record), 400,000 more on MySpace, and high shelves in grocery stores.
While Hofstetter's live shows are routinely sold out, he is best known for his writing, first published at age 15, mainly to impress girls. At 18, he co-founded "Sports Jerk of the Week", an irreverent website featured by press like USA Today's Baseball Weekly, Sports Illustrated and CNN. And at 20, Hofstetter took a year off of school to head up web content for the New York Yankees. The Yankees won the World Series that year, which would have been wonderful if they hadn't beaten Hofstetter's Mets. Yes, he's also a Mets fan. Poor kid.
While an undergraduate at Columbia University, Hofstetter was a well-read columnist for the Columbia Daily Spectator and a voice of the Lions. After a summer writing for Maxim, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated for Kids, Hofstetter syndicated his column in several newspapers.
Without his glasses, Hofstetter also looks a great deal like Michael Rappaport.
Carrie Newcomer is a songwriter, recording artist, performer, and educator. She has been described as a “prairie mystic” by the Boston Globe and, “asks all the right questions,” by Rolling Stone, “a voice as rich as Godiva chocolate.” by The Austin Statesman, and, "She's the kind of artist whose music makes you stop, think and then say, 'that is so true.’” by The Dallas Morning News. Recent appearances on PBS’s Religion and Ethics and the National Award Winning Krista Tippett’s On Being, have focused on her use of creative art-form as a spiritual/mindfulness practice, her work in social/ environmental justice, interfaith dialogue, progressive spirituality and as a champion for a new political conversation.
She has toured with Alison Krauss in Europe and the United States. Nickel Creek recorded Newcomer’s song, “I Should’ve Known Better,” on their Grammy-winning album, This Side. In the fall of 2009 and 2011 Newcomer was a cultural ambassador to India, invited by the American Embassy of India. In October 2011 she released her interfaith collaborative benefit album, Everything is Everywhere, with world master of the Indian Sarod, Amjad Ali Khan. In June 2012 Carrie Newcomer traveled to Kenya, Africa, performing in schools, hospitals, spiritual communities and AIDS hospitals. In 2013 Carrie visited organizations dedicated to nonviolent conflict resolution through the arts and the empowerment of women in the Middle East. Huffington Post Religion Community listed her song, “Holy as the Day is Spent,” as one of the best spiritual songs of 2012. She was listed as one of “the 50 most influential folk musicians of the past 50 years” by Chicago’s WFMT. Boston’s WBEZ listed her as one of the most influential folk artists of the last 25 years.
$1 from every ticket sold will be donated to Madison Courage to Teach.