Six Questions For ... Chris Hampton

Chris Hampton was a girl with a dream. To get bloggers to read their insane, self-absorbed ramblings out loud and charge the public $7 a pop to listen to it. Done and done.

And I mean done! Chris's baby (co-fathered by Andy Horwitz & Dan Rhatigan and some dude who works at Duane Reade) — The WYSIWYG Talent Show — begins it's third season on Tuesday, September 27, at P.S. 122 in Manhattan. This blogger-fueled yakfest is something like a phenomenon since it began, oh so innocently enough, in February 2004. Many of the brightest stars in the Web firmament have been a part of it, but next week's show promises to set all kinds of records for best ever-ness.

So awesome is the lineup that they actually had to remove seats from the theater to avoid crushing the audience with the sheer volume of raw talent on display. (Seriously, it will sell out, so buy your tickets now.) Over the last couple of weeks, I've been introducing you to these P.Y.T.s, but I've saved the biggest and the baddest for the last-est. So give it up for the lady behind it all, the Fairy Godmother of Bloggers (the cool kind, not the one with the broke-ass pumpkins) ... The Uffish One.

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1) What in the world made you think that anyone, under any circumstances, would actually pay to watch a blogger read out loud?

I must have been drunk at the time. I really didn't think that many people would show up, but our first show sold out and convinced us to make it a monthly thing. Who knew?!

For this month's show, there's the value-added bonus of the very real possibility of Carolyn squirtin' out her offspring onstage. You can't put a price on that kind of entertainment, people.

2) Since you've been doing this for about a year and a half, you have obviously met and come to know a lot of bloggers. So what is our deal, anyway?

We're NOT pathetic. No, for serious!

Actually, if I might really be serious for just a moment, I think that there are a lot of undiscovered great writers out there in the blog world, and a lot of bloggers have fascinating stories to tell. Bloggers are very social creatures, but it's not often that their readers get a chance to see or hear them in any setting other than their blogs. We’re really into celebrating the personal voice, which may be sort of a foreign concept for anyone who’s only learned about blogging recently, since it became this big trendy gonna-get-me-a-book-deal kind of thing.

Although we wouldn’t mind a book deal for a WYSIWYG anthology, quite frankly. Call me a hypocrite.

3) As someone who is highly involved in the LGBT community, perhaps you could answer an important question that I've been pondering. Do gay people think "Will and Grace" is funny?

I can't really speak for all queer folks, but what the hell. I think a lot of us liked it the first couple of seasons but then got pretty sick of Will never getting laid. Hits a little too close to home for me personally. Hmmph.

4) Angelina Jolie: Sexy beast or scourge of nice girls everywhere?

Mmmm. Sexy CRAZY beast! I ADORE crazy. If you'd ever met any of my exes you'd know that's true. I love me some crazy, and I love me some big lips.

I'm saddened, though, that she's acting all Mia Farrow lately. Is she trying to collect a kid from every continent?

5) What the most obscure "celebrity" sighting you've experienced? Preferably the kind of person few people other than yourself would be impressed by.

I'd only been in New York for a week when I saw Robin Givens tottering along on 4" heels in skin tight jeans, pushing a baby stroller near Central Park. I almost peed myself.

And a couple of times I've spotted Justin from the Hawaii season of The Real World. LOVE him. But it turns out he's an old friend of one of my co-workers, which sort of spoiled the mystery.

6) Last question: What the hell have I gotten myself into?

Aw, baby. It's a big old lovefest, honest! What, you want Mama to bring some Southern Comfort for you to get you properly lubricated before we put you onstage?

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P.S. Big thanks to all my fellow WYSIWYGers — Jon, Frank, David, Carolyn, Rachel and Chris — for putting up with me and my ridiculous questions, and for giving up such great answers. You're the best. Around. Nothing's gonna ever keep down.

P.P.S. If you give me Southern Comfort, I will vomit. That's a promise. I do, however, accept deposits in the form of gin.