Open MIC Night in Moscow

<p>The raucous and surprisingly poignant story of a young Russia-obsessed American writer and comedian who embarked on a solo tour of the former Soviet Republics never imagining that it would involve kidnappers garbage bags of money and encounters with the weird and wonderful from Mongolia to Tajikistan.</p><p>Kazakhstan Belarus and Siberia are not the typical tourist destinations of a twenty-something nor the places one usually goes to eat pray and/or love. But the mix of imperial Russian opulence and Soviet decay and the allure of emotionally unavailable Russian men proved strangely irresistible to comedian Audrey Murray.</p><p>At age twenty-eight while her friends were settling into corporate jobs and serious relationships Audrey was on a one-way flight to Kazakhstan the first leg of a nine-month solo voyage through the former USSR. A blend of memoir and offbeat travel guide this thoughtful hilarious catalog of a young comedian's adventures is also a diary of her emotional discoveries about home love patriotism loneliness and independence.</p><p>Sometimes surprising often disconcerting and always entertaining <em>Open Mic Night in Moscow</em> will inspire you to take the leap and embark on your own journey into the unknown. And if you want to visit Chernobyl by way of an insane-asylum-themed bar in Kiev Audrey can assure you that there's no other guidebook out there. (She's looked.)</p>