Awards:
11 Central Ave won the 2007 Gold World Medal, The New York Festivals awards for Best Comedy.

The show was recently featured on ITUNES as a new and notable podcast.



Reviews:
James Reiss, Pulitzer Prize nominated (Ten Thousand Good Mornings) and National Book Award nominated (The Breathers) poet. On the Public Radio Exchange.

Other reviews from Public Radio Exchange

Illinois Entertainer.

Torey Malatia, President of Chicago Public Radio

Mik Davis PD, at WUSM in Hattiesburg



Letters from the Listeners:


As a station that plays 11 Central Ave, I have the unique privilege of listening to the program before its broadcast.
However, this year, I decided not to listen to the program until it airs so that I could better understand the impact of just hearing it on the air as a listener would.
In recent months, the house has been abuzz with events and ideas that are torn from the pages of our current lives as they plumb the zeitgeist for both comedy and social commentary.
However, today, I was left speechless after this broadcast. We air this program after our largest newscast of the day at Noon Friday. After reading about the realities of a student who was so alienated by his classmates he built an arsenal and planned a horrible attack against them, I was struck by how hard it is to report these events day after day because we often see only a face or hear a name that will elicit reactions and repercussions for a long time.
"The Birthday Present" is a brilliant story that brings out all of the levels of the reaction to any teenage tragedy. And, it packs a serious wallop. Even as I type now, I am having to hold back tears as the concise and powerful story's repercussions continue to dominate my thoughts...and I still have to read that same story again.
If you have not given this program a chance because you think it is some silly character-driven comedy that no one will appreciate-you are robbing your audience of an opportunity to actually feel something for characters on public radio. I use that word 'feel' because, the program's cast of characters, multiple story threads are designed to elicit a variety of reactions from a broad swath of your audience. I also use that word, because it is not often that public radio leaves you touched, shaken and struggling with actually knowing what to "feel."
Barin


I loved today's show. I am actually an MBA student at Kellogg and had the opportunity to travel to India with a group of 35 classmates. The comic struck a chord because we all returned and have been obsessed with Indian culture ever since-- I am looking for any opportunity towear my sari again. I really love 11 central ave-- the concept and the comics themselves.
Mik Davis


Hi,
Just wanted to say that I love 11 Central Ave. Topical, clever and well done. I get it via podcast and look forward to it each week. I do listen to and support public radio, but can't depend on always finding it there. Very glad you're available on podcast. Thanks.
Terri


it's not clever, it's not funny, it's not entertaining - it's stilted, uninventive, pathetic, self-absorbed bullshit. STOP polluting our airways please.


I tuned in today during the middle of a poem—sounded like a WWI setting--what was it?
Jean
PS--I love your stories


Heard your show a couple of times on NPR. I would rather listen to a crying child on an overdue airline flight.


Hi,
thanks! you make me laugh; "Subtle, insightful, thoughtful... and very funny. Don't miss it!" My review.
Phil


Hi,
My mom raves to me about how funny your show on WBUR is. Have you made any recordings that I could purchase and give to her?
Thanks, Ann


Hello 11 Central Ave:



Great show!
Just Great! I love it!
-Darrell


10 for 11! Great little show !!
Thanks –chris





I like all the shows but the one that prompted my email was:
Episode #30. It jelled with me, well....because I too am on a Indian kick. I am a software engineer who works with a lot of Indians. We have many talks about cultural differences. I also listen to my share of Indian music and greet my software teammates with namaste. Plus, I was planning a "Passage to India" until my daughter got accepted to college and I looked at the cost.
I too have made calls to supports lines only to find out I am talking to somebody in India.
The opening conversation between Christine and the Indian support guy is so funny. God, where do I begin...
--looking up the name in Hindi.
--The reference about the mother's recipe.
--What's the weather like there?
--The music in the background. Very witty.

Mono-cultural!
The fact that the other's don't like the music. I have friends like that too.
Who ever said "Urdu" in the background (I guess it was Nat) funny!
And how do you say blackberry in Hindi...."Blackberry" I was on the floor.
I thought to myself, Like God, who writes this stuff.
I was listening to the episode at work...again and one of indian team mates walked into my cube. I said, "Dude, you have to listen to this." He loved it.
You guys are very witty. I like your style of humor. Cultural satire.
My demographic:
African American (Black)
Age: 48
Divorced w/two college age kids
job: Software Engineer
So, I guess I relate to the parental themes, tech themes, You had a episode that dealt with race a few weeks back with Dante. Nice.
Yep. I guess I am a fan of the show.
Well, man... I guess I wrote too much.
anyway that's my rant.


This is part of a long dialogue I had with a woman who wrote in to protest the new character Dante, who is a young African American college student.
Dear Susan,
I have learned a great deal from this dialogue as well. While at a book club, dinner party, I rose this question about "accents" and "Ebonics" to a black professor. He proclaimed that he did believe that "Ebonics" was a legitimate dialect. I was surprised, because I had always thought of this concept as somewhat of an offensive inside-joke that a Caucasian professor created to excuse their students from not being able to speak proper English. I had written off the black acceptance of Ebonics as a defeatist attitude that basically said. "Well, we can't teach these black people to talk right, so lets give them their own language."
But at the dinner party, the black professor helped me understand that regardless of the somewhat ridiculous name, Ebonics (as a dialect) rose from a culture of people who migrated to this country and were not allowed an education or allowed to learn to read or write for several-hundred years. He furthermore pointed out that several foreign languages have different sentence structures and it is very common for foreigners who are plunged into a new language to take the old rules of sentence formation in their native tongue and apply those rules to the new language. He pointed out that several native tongues in Africa do not have the "TH" sound in their language. Hence, the replacement of the "TH" sound with "D" (Them / Dem)
And so, for generations people passed down this speech pattern, leading us to the current dialect that is formed. He helped me to see the innocence in the origin of this dialect where I have so aggressively blamed it for ignorance.
Still, there is the question as to whether or not the continuance of this dialect will be acceptable in the business world. Especially if even black people (and I'm the guilty one here) consistently stereotype the dialect with ignorance. And I'm not saying that it's inaccurate that some black people speak this way. I just get frustrated when it media portrays that ALL black people speak this way. It's as if to say all white people have Southern or New York accents. We spoke about "Business English" at the dinner party as well and the concept of assimilation; adjusting to the dominant culture.
The question arose as to whether or not I internalize self-loathing with the stereotypical negatives that I associate with the "black accent." It just seems that every time I interact with someone who speaks ONLY this way, theexperience is negative or embarrassing (I feel embarrassed for my race). I do have some soul searching to do. I am not proud of being so assimilated into the "American culture." I have several mixed (and quite possibly incorrect) views that have seeped into me from media, from society and from my own social experiences day to day as a minority.
I look forward to your next show on Friday. I will be listening and I will keep searching for my truth.