Davy Rothbart/Found Magazine make their first proper stop in Toledo 11/16

Listen Up Toledo  |  11/01/2011 7:00 am

On Wednesday, November 16, Found Magazine will make it's first proper debut in Toledo. You should be very excited about this.

Found Magazine was born in 2001 when friends Davy Rothbart and Jason Bitner discovered they had a shared love for those random items you discover on the street: notes, birthday cards, Polaroids, to-do lists, etc. They soon realized that they had acquired a wealth enough to put together a zine. That zine quickly became a magazine, and now, ten years on, that magazine has issued seven total in the series, seen a collective Found Book published, and spawned a sister publication, Dirty Found - featuring the more risque and smuttier finds that leak in. Dirty Found has seen three issues in its series.

Rothbart grew up and lives just a clip from us in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has been a guest at the Arts Commission's biennial Artomatic 419! event (a featured reader in both 2009 and 2011), but the full Found show is so much more than what's been shown in Toledo. For one, it's longer, wilder, drunker, and it features Davy's brother Peter, a musician, who creates songs based on the found items that come in.

Davy is an interesting guy. First, in appearance, he's confusing. With a kind of golfer-meets-gangster mish-mash fashion sense, you might first expect him to be abrupt, but he's almost soft spoken and incredibly honest and sincere. He's personable, but that's to be expected. Davy takes off about once a year to travel to various parts of the country on Found tours, and works the rest of his time in various public capacities, including as a frequent contributor to NPR's This American Life (where he has the amazing pleasure of having Ira Glass for a boss). Davy's home is where the Found mail gets sent, and there is a ton of it. He has a basement literally filled with buckets, boxes, and tubs of items from all over the country that people send in. Davy loves every piece of it. For a glimpse into this aspect of Davy's life, you should check out My Heart is an Idiot, a documentary released this year in which Davy's friend David Meiklejohn intended to document an upcoming Found tour, but instead discovered that the absurd nightmare of Davy's love life was far more interesting. The film is a funny, emotionally brave and honest, endearing tale that's as captivating as Davy himself.

Davy is thrilled to come to the Glass City and read from his astounding collection of materials. You can expect to be entertained, delighted, stupefied, and definitely doubled-over in laughter. This will be a special night in Toledo. I promise, you won't forget or regret it.

Davy Rothbart and the Found Tour stop in Toledo at the Ottawa Tavern (1815 Adams St.) on Wednesday, November 16. Doors at 9 p.m. $5 suggested donation. www.otavern.com

www.foundmagazine.com