Be Here Now: The Dollar Store Mega Summer Tour, 7/15

Out in Chicago, the Dollar Store Show has become something of an institution on the Windy City literary scene since in started up five years ago. Or perhaps it’s headed for an institution.

Either way, it’s headed for Valentine’s in Albany at 7pm Wednesday, July 15, and it sounds like a promising evening of off-the-wall storytelling by a self-described gaggle of “Chicago’s top literary talents, monologists, performers, and drunks.”

So, what the heck is the Dollar Store Show? And how does it work? Well, apparently each writer/performer is given an item that’s been purchased at a dollar store – ranging, of course, from the sublime to the ridiculous to the astonishingly ridiculous. They then have a month to cobble together some sort of a story (fiction, non-, whatever) that somehow involves the item. During the performance, the item is then put on display or somehow incorporated.

It sounds like a simultaneously literary and wacky experience, and that’s totally cool in our book. These are the fearless wordsmiths slated to take the stage at Valentine’s – Aaron Burch, Zach Dodson, Amelia Gray, Mary Hamilton, Jac Jemc, Patrick Sommerville, Colie Collen, Shane Jones and Dan Nester.

My guess is that they’re gonna be more than just a little punch-drunk by the time they hit the stage. After all, the “Mega Summer Tour” is packing a dozen performances into two weeks on the road, and the Albany date is the second-to-last one on the itinerary.

And if ya go, don’t keep ’em up too late after the show. Sure, we know that you want to share your own dollar-store stories, but seriously, these guys have another show to do the following night – in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And that’s a loooong drive, so give ’em a break.