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The Chairs Are Where the People Go: How to Live, Work, and Play in the City
Should neighborhoods change? Is wearing a suit a good way to quit smoking? Why do people think that if you do one thing, you're against something else? Is monogamy a trick? Why isn't making the city more fun for you and your friends a super-noble political goal? Why does a computer last only three years? How often should you see your parents? How should we behave at parties? Is marriage getting easier? What can spam tell us about the world?
Misha Glouberman's friend and collaborator, Sheila Heti, wanted her next book to be a compilation of everything Misha knew. Together, they made a list of subjects. As Misha talked, Sheila typed. He talked about games, relationships, cities, negotiation, improvisation, Casablanca , conferences, and making friends. His subjects ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. But sometimes what had seemed trivial began to seem important―and what had seemed important began to seem less so.
The Chairs Are Where the People Go is refreshing, appealing, and kind of profound. It's a self-help book for people who don't feel they need help, and a how-to book that urges you to do things you don't really need to do.
Misha Glouberman's friend and collaborator, Sheila Heti, wanted her next book to be a compilation of everything Misha knew. Together, they made a list of subjects. As Misha talked, Sheila typed. He talked about games, relationships, cities, negotiation, improvisation, Casablanca , conferences, and making friends. His subjects ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. But sometimes what had seemed trivial began to seem important―and what had seemed important began to seem less so.
The Chairs Are Where the People Go is refreshing, appealing, and kind of profound. It's a self-help book for people who don't feel they need help, and a how-to book that urges you to do things you don't really need to do.
175 pages, Paperback
First published July 5, 2011
51 people are currently reading
1925 people want to read
About the author
Misha Glouberman
1 book30 followersMISHA GLOUBERMAN is a performer, facilitator, and artist who lives in Toronto.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 178 reviews
December 14, 2011
Annoyingly twee mini-essays from Canadian hipster and soi-disant social theorist Glouberman, as transcribed by n+1 writer Sheila Heti. It takes a while with this odd little book to penetrate its wide-eyed, slapdash nonstyle and to understand just how vacuous and self-absorbed its riffs on contemporary urban culture really are. Kind of like what you'd get if you cross-bred a stoner Malcolm Gladwell with Zooey Deschanel or Miranda July and raised them in Williamsburg. The horror.
July 14, 2011
This book has about three good pieces. They are about Harvard, the author's battle with a noisy bar in his neighborhood, and quitting smoking. The piece on Harvard was appropriately published in the Paris Review. The smoking piece made me laugh for minutes. The other pieces (~160 pgs) in the book are not much better than blog posts.
I enjoyed aspects of the book. It is funny, gentle, minorly psychologically insightful, and has a good mix of thought and story-telling.
On the other hand, it is unorganized, has no rhythm, is boring at parts, and mostly feels like scraps of ideas for magazine articles that wouldn't be selected for publication were they completed.
From reading the book, I suspect Misha Glouberman is a great person to know—calm, funny, and insightful. But the book itself is weak, and not worth most peoples' time (3 hrs). I hope his next is more polished, and I will keep a look out for that.
I enjoyed aspects of the book. It is funny, gentle, minorly psychologically insightful, and has a good mix of thought and story-telling.
On the other hand, it is unorganized, has no rhythm, is boring at parts, and mostly feels like scraps of ideas for magazine articles that wouldn't be selected for publication were they completed.
From reading the book, I suspect Misha Glouberman is a great person to know—calm, funny, and insightful. But the book itself is weak, and not worth most peoples' time (3 hrs). I hope his next is more polished, and I will keep a look out for that.
July 31, 2021
"What I tell people is: If you're in a group of five people, the natural amount of time for you to be talking is about a fifth of the time."
July 9, 2011
I found this book at work in the philosophy section and I thought, what good advice chairs are where the people go!
it's not really a philosophy book at all, strand shelves it as self help, but it's not at all a self help book either, really it's a book book, it's like a book of essays but done as an oral history. It's a guy (I assume misha is a guy...) who just does a lot of things talking about the way he sees the world. I like that, I like it a lot.
the book is mostly about people. how we interact, how we think, how we feel, what we need.
This week was my first week at my new job I was stressed I had no time to read ever, I even cried for hours one night, but I think reading this book helped a lot, it has a you are not alone aspect and it has a you can do it aspect, so it might have took me too long to read it but that's okay.
I also reread a chapter aloud to my friend and participant in my class at my new job, I think he liked it.
it's not really a philosophy book at all, strand shelves it as self help, but it's not at all a self help book either, really it's a book book, it's like a book of essays but done as an oral history. It's a guy (I assume misha is a guy...) who just does a lot of things talking about the way he sees the world. I like that, I like it a lot.
the book is mostly about people. how we interact, how we think, how we feel, what we need.
This week was my first week at my new job I was stressed I had no time to read ever, I even cried for hours one night, but I think reading this book helped a lot, it has a you are not alone aspect and it has a you can do it aspect, so it might have took me too long to read it but that's okay.
I also reread a chapter aloud to my friend and participant in my class at my new job, I think he liked it.
September 13, 2016
This book was a great chance to get into the head of somebody who has a drastically different life than I have. I like Toronto. There is some repeat or filler here, but I don't see people recommending titles that do the same thing this does any better. Definitely still a Sheila fan, and think Misha was/is worth my time.
April 1, 2019
I love this book!
It is just this collection of things Misha knows about the world.
And it is so beautiful!
I read it over a long period of time, it is a great book to have with you on your phone.
He talks a lot about teaching classes in improv and sound making and charades. He is involved in shaping his neighbourhood.
You can simply read about various things that Misha has learned through living his life. About relationships and communicating and initiating things and all kinds of stuff. It is such an honest, precious gift that Misha and Sheila put into the world.
I'm very glad about it.
I highly recommend it!
It is just this collection of things Misha knows about the world.
And it is so beautiful!
I read it over a long period of time, it is a great book to have with you on your phone.
He talks a lot about teaching classes in improv and sound making and charades. He is involved in shaping his neighbourhood.
You can simply read about various things that Misha has learned through living his life. About relationships and communicating and initiating things and all kinds of stuff. It is such an honest, precious gift that Misha and Sheila put into the world.
I'm very glad about it.
I highly recommend it!
January 14, 2021
i liked this book. yeah, it was a little twee and went on too much about the game of charades, but i thought there were some genuinely poignant philosophical questions posed. i loved the essay about college and college campuses because it reminded me so much of my own experiences in the disorienting bubble of school.
June 11, 2024
Picked this book up because I wanted to learn something about improv. And I got it in small amounts perhaps? A mix of performance insights, his life in a neighbourhood resident's association, and disparate thoughts about existing, with a chapter allocated per idea. The resident association parts were a bit draggy to me but I guess it was to explain how urban living has its politics and quirks and activism. The rest was alright.
December 13, 2025
This made me lol a few times… also empathize with Emily’s bf ben
August 19, 2022
2.5 stars // Some interesting thoughts. Remarkable how a philosophy graduate mainly talks about music and improvisation and noise.
January 3, 2023
I kind of wanted to hate this book, and I think if I was a more mature, well adjusted person I would have. Alas.
I was trying to find the words to describe my feelings about the author, but he summed it up himself in the last chapter when he talked about wearing a suit and carrying an expensive yo yo to the farmers market.
I did, however, find a lot of thoughtful and helpful insights on love, friendships, purpose, and hobbies.
Minus one star because half the chapters are about how great it is to get a bunch of people together in a room and make them scream. 4 stars.
I was trying to find the words to describe my feelings about the author, but he summed it up himself in the last chapter when he talked about wearing a suit and carrying an expensive yo yo to the farmers market.
I did, however, find a lot of thoughtful and helpful insights on love, friendships, purpose, and hobbies.
Minus one star because half the chapters are about how great it is to get a bunch of people together in a room and make them scream. 4 stars.
May 27, 2023
God this was bad
January 27, 2014
I got this from a good friend...he's intelligent, well-read and extremely insightful, so I was excited about this book. I'll be honest--took me a few essays to get into it. That said, once I was, I thoroughly enjoyed it. As I continued to read, I became fully engaged in each essay, intrigued by not only what Misha had to say, but how he decided to say it.
Misha talks in and around and through things in a way most people don't. I love how his brain works, and find his musings on random experiences in life much like my own ways of thinking--he's the guy who gets all the chaos going on in your head and isn't afraid to address it. I'd love to take a class with him. Or, just sit and have a chat. I'd love to pick his brain a bit. Hear more of what he has to say. He takes the time, makes the effort...he observes what's happening in the world around him, and immerses himself in each and every moment. And he's honest about it, the whole way through.
I mention "random" musings; what's great about this book is that, at the same time, I believe there's quite a purpose to his words, and his work. Though they may appear to be arbitrary, there's a beautiful fluidity to his approach, and the thread that binds his thoughts together runs deep and wide. I love that he touches on the comfortable and the uncomfortable, that he challenges his audience to think a little bit differently about many issues that we often take for granted, or, really, just don't take the time to notice at all. From the way a city works to who sits in what chair, these ideas are important. They mean something. They hold value.
Though there is much gold to mine in this collection of essays, my favorite statement rests toward the end of Chapter 6: "It's true in a lot of things that if you don't say the difficult thing early, it really fucks you up later on." Indeed. And whether it's the difficult thing, or the easy one, no matter who's saying it, what matters is that it's heard. What a concept.
Misha talks in and around and through things in a way most people don't. I love how his brain works, and find his musings on random experiences in life much like my own ways of thinking--he's the guy who gets all the chaos going on in your head and isn't afraid to address it. I'd love to take a class with him. Or, just sit and have a chat. I'd love to pick his brain a bit. Hear more of what he has to say. He takes the time, makes the effort...he observes what's happening in the world around him, and immerses himself in each and every moment. And he's honest about it, the whole way through.
I mention "random" musings; what's great about this book is that, at the same time, I believe there's quite a purpose to his words, and his work. Though they may appear to be arbitrary, there's a beautiful fluidity to his approach, and the thread that binds his thoughts together runs deep and wide. I love that he touches on the comfortable and the uncomfortable, that he challenges his audience to think a little bit differently about many issues that we often take for granted, or, really, just don't take the time to notice at all. From the way a city works to who sits in what chair, these ideas are important. They mean something. They hold value.
Though there is much gold to mine in this collection of essays, my favorite statement rests toward the end of Chapter 6: "It's true in a lot of things that if you don't say the difficult thing early, it really fucks you up later on." Indeed. And whether it's the difficult thing, or the easy one, no matter who's saying it, what matters is that it's heard. What a concept.
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October 9, 2011I like conversations so much that I sometimes wish they could continue even when there isn't really anything to talk about or any information to exchange. Some of the games Misha talks about in here, like the one about conducting or the one about rock placement, seem to solve that. It seems like it would be fun to play some of these.
February 6, 2012
Misha Glouberman teaches charades. To grown-ups. Because, it turns out, charades is hard: it requires you to be empathetic, creative, and an effective communicator. Which, curiously enough, is also what's required to get along in the world. So this book, essentially, is a handy, pocket-sized guide to being a person who doesn't suck. Not bad for a Canadian charades instructor, eh?
September 12, 2011
Wait..it's just this dude from Toronto who teaches Improv chatting about stuff? Yeah, but it's really good! Thoughtful and comforting in a "your not the only one who worries about this stuff" way.
January 17, 2014
The beginning caught my attention, but by the middle of the book I felt like he was just bragging about the classes that he teaches. He lost me on the the 8th chapter about another one of his class exercises!
August 28, 2019
This book was not quite what I expected it to be. Once upon a time I wrote a play called "A Play About Chairs" that made fun of the way that contemporary playwrights (and other creative people in general) were so concerned about symbolism and allegory and the desire to speak about the concerns of oppressed subaltern groups that they forgot often to write something that would be enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing. I thought that this book would have something to do with chairs, but it doesn't really have much to do with chairs and instead is more like blog-post sized musings from someone I don't know about nor particularly care about, nor agree with a lot, but it was still interesting because the person was a thoughtful enough person that even if I do not think we would ever vote for the same candidates or have the same worldviews that I think I could have an amusing time talking with him as we discussed matters of common interest like games and theater. This book is certainly one of those surprising ones if you come from a perspective of not knowing who this person is, as is likely to be the case.
This book is a short one at under 200 pages and consists of 72 short essays that average less than 3 pages apiece on various subjects of interest to the writer and his co-author. A lot of the book is spent talking about games, including the Uniqlo game (3), charades (5,7,21), the gibberish game (10), games the author won't play with his friends (12), what makes a game (18), the rocks game (23), conducting game (28), games as a solution to problems (32), the converge/diverge game (36), and the relationship between games and failure (62). Other than that, the author talks about his classes, about how his thoughts on monagamy changed once he was in a long relationship, about the politics of neighborhood councils, and numerous other subjects that are mainly of interest to him. There are some areas even where the author talks about himself and his own life and his own thinking that are areas where I would disagree with him, such as when he says that he would never play mafia with his friends because he was concerned about the lying involved, when I learned how to play mafia from fellow religious people myself. And so it goes.
In the end, this book's title doesn't make a whole lot of sense, since only one essay refers to it, even if the author is particularly fond of that one essay. That said, the author is at least somewhat likeable and this book is certainly not a bad one. It is by no means an essential book, and the author's opinions aren't worth all that much, but I have read much, much worse, and when it comes to reading a book like this I am inclined to be a somewhat generous judge. After all, there are so many worse places to look when it comes to books by people whose thoughts don't really matter. And if we can encourage the creation of books like this then there is hope that a lot more people, including those whose thoughts are more interesting, would feel confident enough to write books that would be genuinely interesting to read. This is a book that is worthwhile not because I would agree with what it says, for most of the time I do not, but because its mere existence demonstrates that plenty of other people can and should start writing books to an appreciative audience about what they think and believe.
This book is a short one at under 200 pages and consists of 72 short essays that average less than 3 pages apiece on various subjects of interest to the writer and his co-author. A lot of the book is spent talking about games, including the Uniqlo game (3), charades (5,7,21), the gibberish game (10), games the author won't play with his friends (12), what makes a game (18), the rocks game (23), conducting game (28), games as a solution to problems (32), the converge/diverge game (36), and the relationship between games and failure (62). Other than that, the author talks about his classes, about how his thoughts on monagamy changed once he was in a long relationship, about the politics of neighborhood councils, and numerous other subjects that are mainly of interest to him. There are some areas even where the author talks about himself and his own life and his own thinking that are areas where I would disagree with him, such as when he says that he would never play mafia with his friends because he was concerned about the lying involved, when I learned how to play mafia from fellow religious people myself. And so it goes.
In the end, this book's title doesn't make a whole lot of sense, since only one essay refers to it, even if the author is particularly fond of that one essay. That said, the author is at least somewhat likeable and this book is certainly not a bad one. It is by no means an essential book, and the author's opinions aren't worth all that much, but I have read much, much worse, and when it comes to reading a book like this I am inclined to be a somewhat generous judge. After all, there are so many worse places to look when it comes to books by people whose thoughts don't really matter. And if we can encourage the creation of books like this then there is hope that a lot more people, including those whose thoughts are more interesting, would feel confident enough to write books that would be genuinely interesting to read. This is a book that is worthwhile not because I would agree with what it says, for most of the time I do not, but because its mere existence demonstrates that plenty of other people can and should start writing books to an appreciative audience about what they think and believe.
December 20, 2024
A self-help book that pretends not to be one, and mostly wins. It's a half-instruction manual half-urban field guide that tries to trick you into admitting that your city life is less well-considered than you think right now, which is probably true. Discusses micro-negotiations, weird party etiquette, all the invisible emotional infrastructure of public space. Misha has narrated most of the text (he speaks in paragraphs) to Heti, and it reads in the wry, off-kilter observations that feel like self-evident truths right after he says them. Heti's transcription is very unintrusive. It's never systematic, which might annoy some people, but I like that it can read as page length tweets I can skip around and scroll through. Some fun quotes:
None of the content is truly profound, but it's a consistently fun companion of small truths that aren't condescending, delivered with humane skepticism. It let me consider whether I should be a nicer host or a weirder neighbor. A bit ephemeral but worth reading once. The city’s still broken but at least now I know where my chairs should go.
Art is communication made in the hope that interesting miscommunications will arise.
It seems to me that the most pleasing thing you can find yourself saying in a conversation is something you haven't said before.
[Title: Social Capital] A lot of people I know who work in the arts think they're poor. And it's true that some of them might not have much money, but the idea that they are somehow "the poor" is, I think, an idea too ridiculous to even merit serious consideration.
None of the content is truly profound, but it's a consistently fun companion of small truths that aren't condescending, delivered with humane skepticism. It let me consider whether I should be a nicer host or a weirder neighbor. A bit ephemeral but worth reading once. The city’s still broken but at least now I know where my chairs should go.
October 23, 2018
We need more Misha Gloubermans and Sheila Hetis. I appreciated the refreshing playfulness of this book, the way it approaches seemingly non-serious subjects with seriousness and vice versa.
"The process of creating anything involves quite a lot of fear and difficulty, and it also includes covering up quite a lot of that fear and difficulty. So, for example, you get an email from me announcing that I'm teaching a class in how to play charades, and you think, what a crazy idea, and what a delightful happy-go-lucky person who's doing something as impractical as teaching a class in charades. But in fact I'm waking up in the middle of the night having panic attacks. About a fucking charades class. I don't know. I just think it's important for people to know these things."
"It seems to me that the most pleasing thing you can find yourself saying in a conversation is something you haven't said before."
"It's really important to distinguish the things you might not like in a neighborhood from the things over which you oughtn't to have control. It's important to make these distinctions, because limits on our control are kind of fundamental to democracy. (...) As much as I may hate the cute gift store or annoyingly trendy dinner restaurant on my block, I recognize that it's important that I not have the right to oppose them."
"The process of creating anything involves quite a lot of fear and difficulty, and it also includes covering up quite a lot of that fear and difficulty. So, for example, you get an email from me announcing that I'm teaching a class in how to play charades, and you think, what a crazy idea, and what a delightful happy-go-lucky person who's doing something as impractical as teaching a class in charades. But in fact I'm waking up in the middle of the night having panic attacks. About a fucking charades class. I don't know. I just think it's important for people to know these things."
"It seems to me that the most pleasing thing you can find yourself saying in a conversation is something you haven't said before."
"It's really important to distinguish the things you might not like in a neighborhood from the things over which you oughtn't to have control. It's important to make these distinctions, because limits on our control are kind of fundamental to democracy. (...) As much as I may hate the cute gift store or annoyingly trendy dinner restaurant on my block, I recognize that it's important that I not have the right to oppose them."
November 24, 2023
this was.......meh. 🫠 trying so hard not to say really negative things about it but i also dont want yall to waste your time to even read this book HAHAHAHAAHA
actually wanted to give ⭐️ but i shall round it up to ⭐️⭐️/5 just to make it look nicer LMAOOO but also bc eventually i did finished reading it!! another reader was also mentioning how this is one of those books that leads one to think "hey, i could write a book like this!" anD I TOTALLY AGREE OMG. i did have the same thoughts - like i can totally compile all my strong opinions on random things and just make a book out of it. 😂 with that being said, i really dont know whats the point of this book ((didnt do any justice to its title too 🥲)) bc it also feels like he was bragging about all of the things he does. 🤧
what actually made me pick up this book in the first place was the book cover 😍 ((DUH!)) and times like these is when i wish beautiful book covers would scream "ITS A TRAP!!!" before picking up the book HAHAHAHA
but maybe yall can pick this up if you can tolerate reading about the author's complaints about a noisy bar in his neighbourhood, how he came about to quit smoking ((...but not really quitting)) and claiming that "friends are the people you play with" is a good definition of friendship. 🙃🔥
actually wanted to give ⭐️ but i shall round it up to ⭐️⭐️/5 just to make it look nicer LMAOOO but also bc eventually i did finished reading it!! another reader was also mentioning how this is one of those books that leads one to think "hey, i could write a book like this!" anD I TOTALLY AGREE OMG. i did have the same thoughts - like i can totally compile all my strong opinions on random things and just make a book out of it. 😂 with that being said, i really dont know whats the point of this book ((didnt do any justice to its title too 🥲)) bc it also feels like he was bragging about all of the things he does. 🤧
what actually made me pick up this book in the first place was the book cover 😍 ((DUH!)) and times like these is when i wish beautiful book covers would scream "ITS A TRAP!!!" before picking up the book HAHAHAHA
but maybe yall can pick this up if you can tolerate reading about the author's complaints about a noisy bar in his neighbourhood, how he came about to quit smoking ((...but not really quitting)) and claiming that "friends are the people you play with" is a good definition of friendship. 🙃🔥
June 13, 2024
MY fascination with Sheila Heti led me to HER fascination with Misha Glouberman which led me to THIS.
I mean, who doesn’t want to be described as: “Misha may come off as this very opinionated person – but in life he's quite the opposite. He's not the sort of person who goes around giving his take on things. (…), and he is really good at revealing the essence of what each person is trying to communicate. He's usually very reserved and cautious in his opinions, always seeing the other person's side.”
Although the book oscillates between amusing anecdotes and intelligent observations, it often glorifies the theorization of nonsense or the (not that interesting) obvious.
What also lingers: a slight feeling of discomfort. A book from the aspirational class (havermelkelite anno 2011) that will – almost certainly and in spite of its self-critical premise (e.g., “Making the City More Fun for You and Your Privileged Friends Isn't a Super-Noble Political Goal”) – only be read by that same demographic group.
A real conversation (as opposed to this monologue) between both creators would have been far more exciting, in my view.
I mean, who doesn’t want to be described as: “Misha may come off as this very opinionated person – but in life he's quite the opposite. He's not the sort of person who goes around giving his take on things. (…), and he is really good at revealing the essence of what each person is trying to communicate. He's usually very reserved and cautious in his opinions, always seeing the other person's side.”
Although the book oscillates between amusing anecdotes and intelligent observations, it often glorifies the theorization of nonsense or the (not that interesting) obvious.
What also lingers: a slight feeling of discomfort. A book from the aspirational class (havermelkelite anno 2011) that will – almost certainly and in spite of its self-critical premise (e.g., “Making the City More Fun for You and Your Privileged Friends Isn't a Super-Noble Political Goal”) – only be read by that same demographic group.
A real conversation (as opposed to this monologue) between both creators would have been far more exciting, in my view.
August 17, 2024
A very unexpected gem. Part memoir, part advice, part observation, this is a kind of unclassifiable campfire chat with a real mensch. Misha is a down-to-earth guy who doesn't have the ego to think that the world is thirsting for his lifetime accumulation of thoughts. Sheila Heti is a friend who thinks otherwise, drawing him out on topics like making friends, playing games, teaching games, living in the city, living with uncertainty, making a living, being creative, and quitting smoking. One chapter is called, "A Decision Is Something You Make." Unpredictable, disarmingly sensible, and full of heart and good cheer, this is a book I will revisit many times in the future. Talking about it casually over the past weekend triggered two friends to read it for themselves. Very highly recommended.
August 1, 2020
I can imagine Glouberman being an infectious personality in person. I can imagine him thinking deeply with you about EVERY POSSIBLE THING. The balance between weird ‘what hell is he thinking’ and ‘what an interesting insight’ sometimes swings all over the place, but underlying this book are some fairly straightforward ways of solving challenges which anyone can use if they just want to approach them a little differently
January 7, 2025
I really enjoyed this book! I wasn’t very sure going into it because it’s several short chapters of a man called Misha just talking about random anecdotes and stories from his life. But Misha’s stories end up being really insightful and sometimes humorous, shedding some light onto interesting topics. Oh and how could I forget about the charades! If you want to get better at charades, read this book.
Natalie B and I found this book in one of those free little libraries in Ottawa and so she read half of the book and added annotations before it was my turn to read it so it was extra fun acting like I was actually having conversations through our annotations.
This book also has some cool thoughts on teaching so anyone who is in teaching may be able to take something from this book!
Natalie B and I found this book in one of those free little libraries in Ottawa and so she read half of the book and added annotations before it was my turn to read it so it was extra fun acting like I was actually having conversations through our annotations.
This book also has some cool thoughts on teaching so anyone who is in teaching may be able to take something from this book!
December 1, 2025
Was a very different style to my usually book, basically a Brian dump of this guys thoughts. Loved it at the start but then it got a bit repetitive, but honestly lots of interesting thoughts and reflections
May 25, 2018
The Chairs are Where the People Go is a hard book to classify—my favorite kind—but once I was 30-odd pages in, I realized I wasn’t sure how I was approaching the work. I was sort of just going along and expecting to gain a clue. Albeit an easy read, The Chairs doesn’t instruct in the common sense of the word. It’s a self-help book that doesn’t advertise itself as one. It’s funny without the comedic lead-up. It’s like a biography, but doesn’t claim to be that, either. The Chairs is broken into 72 very short chapters that theorize, explain, and ponder Misha Glouberman’s experiences as an instructor, student, facilitator of creativity, and neighbor living in Toronto. I was worried that if I didn’t like the book that it meant I didn’t like Misha. However, I couldn’t resist even the title: I imagined the many times I’ve sat on things that weren’t actual chairs, angry that I had to improvise or stand.
As an artist/facilitator of improvisation and music, Glouberman’s attitude toward art influenced me the most. He takes out the exclusion of high art and adds people back into the mix, claiming, “The idea that the point of art is to be impressed is—to me—incredibly distressing….At a certain level, virtuosity has only one things to say, and that is: Look at how good I am.”
Most of the book is focuses on games and strategy, and Glouberman applies these ideas to life to survive impatience and annoyance: “What I often do when I get frustrated is I think of something as a game. With neighborhood activism, I might think to myself, It’s a video game. There are patterns on my screen—in this case emails—and I’m trying to get certain patterns to come about and certain patterns to not come about.” The games—mostly improv—also reveal the humor of Glouberman. He describes a class he teaches where students play a game where they must improvise accepting “gifts” happily: “The Doctors Book of Home Remedies is a pretty good source for ailments, by the way, partly because there’s roughly one per page, but also because there tends not to be home remedies for really serious sicknesses, so people aren’t constantly giving each other leukemia, which might be less funny. They’re more likely to be giving each other dandruff or stuttering.”
Glouberman is a man who worries, seemingly, about everything, including his relationship to social class. He also admits when the answer isn’t clear: “So while going to Harvard constitutes a sort of invitation to join the American upper class, this invitation is pretty useless if you’re living in Canada. I often think about how I was given this invitation—this tremendously valuable thing—and I just kind of threw it away. I’m not sure how I feel about this.” As a result, the book doesn’t pretend to know everything, pushing pretentious theories that claim to fix your life, but communicates, almost like a friend.
Ultimately, I’m still not sure how to categorize The Chairs are Where the People Go, but I do know that as a catalyst for self-reflection, this book has affected me greatly. Glouberman, with the help of fiction author Shelia Heti, encourages people to be innovative, communicative, and individuals.
As an artist/facilitator of improvisation and music, Glouberman’s attitude toward art influenced me the most. He takes out the exclusion of high art and adds people back into the mix, claiming, “The idea that the point of art is to be impressed is—to me—incredibly distressing….At a certain level, virtuosity has only one things to say, and that is: Look at how good I am.”
Most of the book is focuses on games and strategy, and Glouberman applies these ideas to life to survive impatience and annoyance: “What I often do when I get frustrated is I think of something as a game. With neighborhood activism, I might think to myself, It’s a video game. There are patterns on my screen—in this case emails—and I’m trying to get certain patterns to come about and certain patterns to not come about.” The games—mostly improv—also reveal the humor of Glouberman. He describes a class he teaches where students play a game where they must improvise accepting “gifts” happily: “The Doctors Book of Home Remedies is a pretty good source for ailments, by the way, partly because there’s roughly one per page, but also because there tends not to be home remedies for really serious sicknesses, so people aren’t constantly giving each other leukemia, which might be less funny. They’re more likely to be giving each other dandruff or stuttering.”
Glouberman is a man who worries, seemingly, about everything, including his relationship to social class. He also admits when the answer isn’t clear: “So while going to Harvard constitutes a sort of invitation to join the American upper class, this invitation is pretty useless if you’re living in Canada. I often think about how I was given this invitation—this tremendously valuable thing—and I just kind of threw it away. I’m not sure how I feel about this.” As a result, the book doesn’t pretend to know everything, pushing pretentious theories that claim to fix your life, but communicates, almost like a friend.
Ultimately, I’m still not sure how to categorize The Chairs are Where the People Go, but I do know that as a catalyst for self-reflection, this book has affected me greatly. Glouberman, with the help of fiction author Shelia Heti, encourages people to be innovative, communicative, and individuals.
November 12, 2013
Meh. I picked up this book (and I use the term book loosely as I'll explain later) because I heard it was about teaching improvisation. As improv has become the highlight of my week I was curious to read what Misha Glouberman had to say. Glouberman is a Canadian who, as far as I can tell, has a variety of odd side occupations. Apparently, his friend, Sheila Heti, deemed his views worthy of sharing with the literary world. The "book" is a transcription of Misha expounding on a variety of topics from making friends to charades to quitting smoking. There were chapters I found mildly interesting, particularly those about the performing arts. Other subjects did not fare so well. Had the essays (or whatever the heck they are) addressing the performing arts been published in a magazine they would have held up much better. The problem is, the hodge-podge of Glouberman's opinions, sans editing or any sort of logical order, does not a book make.
I had in mind to award this compilation three stars, merely because it dealt with theatre, a passion of mine, until I happened upon Chapter 67: Atheism and Ritual (the fact that there are more than 67 chapters in a 174 page book should give you some idea of the length of the chapters.) He lambastes religion, saying it is akin to believing in magic. I have grown so weary of secularists condemning religion. You don't want to believe? Fine. But do not mock those of us who do have a faith.
In summary, I am drawn to opinionated people; I truly enjoy learning different points of view. That being said, I cannot say Misha Glouberman is any sort of shaman (of course not, he doesn't find merit in spiritual practices!) worthy of an entire 174 page "book" based solely on his opinions. But then again, a seemingly large portion of the population posts minutiae on their Twitter and Facebook accounts and someone is reading them, so what do I, an non-Kardasian follower know?
I had in mind to award this compilation three stars, merely because it dealt with theatre, a passion of mine, until I happened upon Chapter 67: Atheism and Ritual (the fact that there are more than 67 chapters in a 174 page book should give you some idea of the length of the chapters.) He lambastes religion, saying it is akin to believing in magic. I have grown so weary of secularists condemning religion. You don't want to believe? Fine. But do not mock those of us who do have a faith.
In summary, I am drawn to opinionated people; I truly enjoy learning different points of view. That being said, I cannot say Misha Glouberman is any sort of shaman (of course not, he doesn't find merit in spiritual practices!) worthy of an entire 174 page "book" based solely on his opinions. But then again, a seemingly large portion of the population posts minutiae on their Twitter and Facebook accounts and someone is reading them, so what do I, an non-Kardasian follower know?
September 20, 2012
Note: Having seen more than a handful of Misha-hosted events in the last ten years, I was familiar with his stage style, his endearingly awkward improv while addressing crowds of people. It was that kind of quiet surprise I kept reading into his voice as I went through this collection of tiny, conversational essays on seemingly random ideas.
This is why the book didn't bother me as much as most of the other reviewers - I had an idea of what might be waiting. Misha is interested in social behavior and styles of communication and improv and play - facilitating workshops on negotiation, teaching classes in charades and experimental noise (don't call it music) have given him some lovely observations to draw on. Here on the page, transcribed from friendly conversation, he is funny and insightful and more than a little self-indulgent with his storytelling. With good friends, who isn't?
I read it in several sittings over the course if a single day, on some very long subway rides between meetings. With a bit on manners on the streetcar and another on how to be alone in public and lots on interacting with strangers, reading it in that context felt like inclusion in the conversation, too.
May 4, 2018
A lot of fun -- a breezy read that's well-suited for the beach or short subway rides. The book is a series of brief monologues from Misha Glouberman -- an improv and charades teacher, among other things -- as told to Sheila Heti. They're all mixed up, not organized by theme, giving the book the feel of a meandering conversation. It's like listening to somebody intriguing at a cocktail party.
The best monologues are about a compromise between a noisy local bar and its neighbors (including Glouberman) who organize in protest of its looming outdoor patio addition, how to get good at charades and observations about American colleges.
There are a lot of monologues about teaching improv, of varying quality.
The best monologues are about a compromise between a noisy local bar and its neighbors (including Glouberman) who organize in protest of its looming outdoor patio addition, how to get good at charades and observations about American colleges.
There are a lot of monologues about teaching improv, of varying quality.
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