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.
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.
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.
Sometimes surprising, often disconcerting, and always entertaining,
Open Mic Night in Moscow 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.)