“That’s the lovely thing about a souvenir: It’s a touchstone that reminds you of what you can do, and what you have done, and what you can be proud of. And what can make you laugh.” –Jeanmarie Theobalds

To celebrate the debut of his new book Souvenir, Rolf invited various writers, performers, and world-wanderers onstage at New York’s underground Cornelia Street Cafe to tell travel stories. Storytellers included:

Ari Shaffir tells a story about a t-shirt, a Czech model, and a bunch of gibbons in Thailand. Ari is a comedian, actor, podcaster, writer, and producer. He is the host of the Skeptic Tank podcast, the stand up series This Is Not Happening on Comedy Central, and the Netflix comedy special Double Negative. He also co-hosts the podcast Punch Drunk Sports with Jayson Thibault and Sam Tripoli, and is a regular guest on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Alex Dawson tells a story about Alabama, and his mother’s boots. Alex is the founder of Raconteur Ventures, a company dedicated to reviving communities through cultural programming, and the host of Raconteurs & Roustabouts, a vaudevillian variety show that puts authors on stage alongside musicians and sideshow performers. He teaches creative writing and audio narrative at Rutgers University. He is the curator/host of Rutgers University’s “Inside the Writers House,” a weekly series of candid conversations with acclaimed authors.

Jeanmarie Theobalds tells a story about a “magic ring” she bought in Brazil. Jeanmarie is a freelance oral historian and oral history project consultant. For many years she was an editorial portrait photographer in New York. She was awarded the William J. Fulbright to photograph and interview women potters in Bahia Brazil. Upon her return from Brazil, she pursued her interest in the art of interviewing through oral history and earned a M.A. in oral history from Columbia University.

Tommy Pico reads an excerpt from his forthcoming book Junk, which Tin House Books will debut this May. Tommy is also the author IRL (Birds LLC, 2016) and Nature Poem (Tin House Books, 2017). He was a Queer/Art/Mentors inaugural Fellow, Lambda Literary Fellow in poetry, and NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and he’s the winner of a Whiting Award and the Brooklyn Public Library’s Literature Prize. Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now lives in Brooklyn.

Ayun Halliday tells a story about a household souvenir she has come to call “Mike.” Ayun is best known as the author and illustrator of the long-running zine The East Village Inky. She is the author of a number of books, including the travel book No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late, the food-themed Dirty Sugar Cookies: Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste, and the graphic novel Peanut.

Pegi Vail tells a story about being offered the chance to name a newborn baby in Kenya. Pegi is an anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, and professor at New York University. A former Fulbright Scholar, Vail began as a visual artist and museum educator. Receiving her Ph.D. at NYU in Sociocultural Anthropology in 2004, Vail’s dissertation focused on the “backpacker subculture,” travel narratives and the ‘gentrification’ of the Bolivian tourism industry, a topic she would return to in her award-winning feature-length 2013 documentary film, Gringo Trails.

Ernest White II tells a story about a souvenir vendor he met on a journey to Namibia. Ernst is a storyteller, explorer, and the producer/host of global reality-travel television series Fly Brother. Ernest’s writing includes fiction, literary essay, and travel narrative, and has been featured in Time Out London, USA Today, Getaway, Ebony, The Manifest-Station, Sinking City, Lakeview Journal, Matador Network, National Geographic Traveler’s Brazil and Bradt’s Tajikistan guidebooks, and at TravelChannel.com.

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at [email protected].