The Allusionist: Tenth Anniversary
2:00pm - Sunday, Jan 12, 2025
It's The Allusionist podcast's tenth birthday! Celebrate with host Helen Zaltzman and house band Martin Austwick at a special performance of the new live show, Souvenirs, about friendship breakups, fonts, and the history of ass. Because it's a birthday party, BYO party hat.
The Allusionist is a podcast about language: how and why we humans use it the ways we do, the funny and frustrating ways it shapes our words, thoughts, and lives - and how, just when we think we can tame it and ride it around, like a rodeo beast, it throws us defiantly into the sawdust.
Called “one of the funniest and most educational podcasts around” by The Guardian and “linguistically zesty“ by The New Yorker, The Allusionist has previously made hit stage shows about speed-typing champions, protest cakes and the history of the word ‘Ms’. Now celebrating its tenth year, the Allusionist presents a brand live show, Souvenirs, telling the story of a friendship torn apart by… a font. A font? Look, font-related emotions can get VERY heated.
“The Allusionist, a podcast about the English language, is an absolute delight. Host Helen Zaltzman is prone to going down fascinating etymological wormholes, uncovering the history behind certain turns of phrase.” - Refinery29
“Helen Zaltzman is a podcast pioneer... It’s a podcast about words, but don’t expect a dry lecture on etymology: instead, our host uses all the irreverence and creativity at her disposal to make her linguistic forays into subjects such as planet-naming, food branding and the name Tiffany as fascinating as possible.” - The Guardian
Sunday, January 12
Doors 1:00 PM | Event 2:00 PM *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.
Tickets $25 + s/c
Students (with ID) & Kids (15 under) $18 + s/c
Group of 4 (online only) $20 each + s/c
Early bird tickets just $20 + s/c - Available until Dec 15!
*Kids aged 10+ are welcome, but the show does contain some Strong Language (in an educational context!) so parental discretion is advised.
Helen Zaltzman is a multiple award-winning podcast host and producer. Her linguistics podcast The Allusionist has won multiple awards and the live theatrical spin-off has appeared on stages around the world. Answer Me This, the comedy show she co-founded with Olly Mann in 2007, was one of Britain's most beloved and successful independent podcasts, running for 400 episodes and nearly 15 years. In her podcast Veronica Mars Investigations with Jenny Owen Youngs, she recapped the entirety of the TV show Veronica Mars, plus two versions of Pride and Prejudice. She has appeared regularly on Radios 2, 4 and 5 Live, as well as on podcasts including The Bugle, Bullseye, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness, 99% Invisible, The Sporkful, Ologies, The Infinite Monkey Cage, No Such Thing as a Fish, Buffering the Vampire Slayer, and many more. She has co-written two toilet books which have almost certainly been pulped by now.
Martin Austwick is a podcaster, musician and singer-songwriter, and has released albums as Pale Bird. He has performed music live for Answer Me This!, The Allusionist, 99% Invisible, The Bugle, and Radiotopia Live, and has created music for literally tons of podcasts. He also co-created the podcasts Neutrinowatch and Song by Song.
Allusionist Socials:
Website: theallusionist.org
Facebook: facebook.com/AllusionistShow/
Twitter: twitter.com/AllusionistShow
Instagram: instagram.com/Allusionistshow
YouTube: youtube.com/allusionistshow
*Minors permitted. Must be 19+ w/ID for bar service.
*Please arrive early to ensure time to locate seats, and to purchase snacks at concession. (We have a small lobby and coming early helps us to avoid long lines, and bottle-necking.)
*Unless noted otherwise, tickets will be available for purchase at the Rio Theatre’s box office on the day of the show, at showtime. Seating for this event is assigned on the main floor and general admission in the balcony.
*Sorry, Rio Theatre Groupons and passes are n/a for this event.
*All Rio Theatre tickets are final sale.
Online Sales
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Seating Arrangement
Seating charts reflect the general layout for the venue at this time. For some events, the layout and specific seat locations may vary without notice.