Steve Martin may disagree, but Kurt Vonnegut once called the audience at the 92nd Street Y "the best audience in the world." In an interview with Joseph Heller for Playboy in 1992, Vonnegut said, "Those people know everything and they are wide awake and responsive." To commemorate the great writer's compliments 92Y has posted audio of Vonnegut reading an excerpt of Breakfast of Champions, three years before it was published. "Not even my wife has seen it, I simply passed the rumor that it exists," Vonnegut tells the audience, which interrupts several times to laugh and cheer.
You can listen to more readings at 92Y's Poetry Center archive. Sadly there are no upcoming literary readings scheduled, but we'd be cool with a hologram of Heller reading Good as Gold.
